CHAPTER TWO #4
With a final strong beat, the drums stopped, leaving their culminating echo to ring against the stone as a dizzying surge of energy coursed through her, stealing the breath from her lungs. Then, just as suddenly, it was gone.
The soft brush of fabric against stone pulled her attention back to the dais, where the priests descended the steps. The crowd parted without a word, watching their path as they slipped silently into the hallway, their forms once again swallowed by the darkness.
Damon shifted forward, his low chuckle drifting from over her shoulder. “Told you it leaves a mark.”
Zoe turned slowly to grin up at her with a sleepy smile, as if she had just woken up from the best nap of her life.
All Cadi could do was grin back, certain her expression reflected a similar level of bliss.
Her mouth refused to form words; her mind was still working to clear a path through the pleasant fog.
“Right?” Zoe said.
“What was that?” Cadi asked, finally regaining the use of her tongue as they began to move with the rest of the crowd filing out of the hall.
“That,” Damon said, draping an arm around her, “was Somnium: the power of dreams.”
Cadi’s brow pinched. “It was what now?”
“Basically collected dream energy,” Zoe explained. “Honestly, I’m not super sure how it works, but the rite sort of induces a trance and just pulls it out of us. It’s how Oneirios sustains himself.”
Something inside Cadi bristled at the idea of being put into a trance so a god could harvest her dreams, or even dream energy, but she had to admit the experience wasn’t exactly unpleasant.
As far as she could tell, there didn’t appear to be any lingering side effects either, so she could see how it was a small price to pay for what the Order offered in return.
“What was in that smoke?” she asked, but Zoe just shrugged as she gracefully side-stepped a slow-moving gnome.
“I’m not sure,” the nymph replied. “But it’s nothing that will show up on a ten panel, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
She shot Cadi a coy smirk as they stepped out of the temple, and Cadi’s jaw dropped when she saw that the sun had already begun to dip below the city skyline. She dug into her pocket, pulling her phone free to check the time. 6:30 p.m.
They had been inside for a full hour, but Cadi could have sworn it had been no more than fifteen minutes.
“Gotta love that dream trance,” Damon teased. “It kind of fucks with your internal clock the first few times, but you get used to it.”
Cadi scoffed, her mind still reeling as the four of them gathered at the top of the stone steps.
“Where should we go tonight?” Zoe asked.
“Can we please go somewhere new? I’m so over Eclipse,” Celine replied.
“What about the Bistro?” Zoe offered.
“Ugh,” Celine groaned. “That place smells like soup.”
“Fine,” Zoe said, tossing both hands in the air, “then you think of something.”
“Easy, ladies. I’ll handle this,” Damon interjected as he dug into his pocket for his phone, like his ability to effectively use a search engine made him the savior they’d all hoped for. “Aha! There is a place down by the waterfront. Good reviews, low price point. Called The Crow’s Nest.”
Celine groaned, rolling her eyes at him. “Sounds like a dive …”
Damon looked up from his phone, a mischievous glint dancing in his eye as he wagged his eyebrows in her direction. “I know, it’s perfect.”
Celine shook her head, but Cadi didn’t miss the hint of a smile on her face at his attention.
“Great!” Zoe cheered. “Shall we go?”
Damon and Celine both nodded their agreement before all three of them turned to look at Cadi.
Damon shifted closer, his arm brushing against hers as he leaned in. “You in, Newbie?” he asked. His voice dipped low, and Cadi thought for one panicked moment that the weight of his stare might actually crush her.
Cadi could feel herself start to lean back, but quickly stopped before the shift in her posture could become too obvious.
She gave him a small smile and began to chew the inside of her cheek as she weighed her options.
Part of her was tempted to make up some excuse, quietly slip away, and go home to her sweatpants and library book now that she had honored her promise to Zoe, but she was surprised to find that she wasn’t ready for the night to end.
She had come this far, and she was already out.
It would be silly to retreat into her shell now.
She nodded. “I’m in.”
Damon’s smile widened, giving her a perfect view of his flawless, white teeth. “Excellent.”
They descended the steps, tracing a path back toward the tunnel that led to the station.
The effects of Somnium still hummed through Cadi’s limbs, or maybe it was the quiet elation at the way Zoe’s unexpected invitation seemed to be leading her toward the promise of something she had long since thought was out of reach.
Until that moment, she hadn’t realized just how much she had been craving this—the connection, the friendship, the sense that she might actually belong somewhere—stubbornly trying to convince herself that she was fine with the way things were.
And now that she was facing the very real chance that she had found it, she just had to convince herself not to run away.