CHAPTER SIX #2
Cadi shifted the strap of her canvas tote higher onto her shoulder, clutching the bag tightly as she wedged herself between the other passengers, begrudgingly wrapping her hand around the smudged metal pole at the center of the car.
Crowded trains were something she expected during peak rush hour, not at 8:00 p.m. She wrestled her phone from her back pocket, checking her news feed for anything that would explain why she was currently being forced to play the role of unwilling sardine: a convention, a sporting event, anything.
Except for an end-of-summer mattress sale, which she highly doubted was the cause, nothing around the city seemed enticing enough to warrant this type of turnout.
There was a report of the results from yet another rushed governmental appointment following Ra’s disappearance from one of the eastern provinces, but she didn’t see how that should impact her commute hundreds of miles away.
It appeared tonight was just not her night.
She let out an exasperated groan as she tucked her phone back into her bag, gritting her teeth as the train lurched away from Temple Station to send her toppling into the person behind her.
After the day she had just had, this was not ideal.
Her fingers tightened around the metal pole, tendons straining as the train raced through the tunnels beneath the city.
A sharp turn shifted the crowd, and Cadi found herself sandwiched unpleasantly between her neighbors, fighting to breathe past the stench of body odor, breath, and whatever questionable residue lingered on the surfaces of the train.
Gravity shifted again as they exited the curve, pulling Cadi back to her feet.
Her hand immediately patted her pockets to check that her keys and sigil necklace were still securely in place, and she winced at the protective reflex.
Coming from the small town of Harbor View, she never had to worry about pickpockets or muggings, but she’d quickly learned that Fiddler’s Green had an unforgiving learning curve, especially these days.
Reaching back into her pockets, she pulled out her keys and the necklace, then dropped them into the inner pocket of her tote bag and shifted it to rest against her stomach. Just in case.
A barely intelligible voice crackled from the overhead speakers, announcing the name of the next station and its connecting lines.
Cadi shuffled sideways toward the doors, fighting a rising wave of panic when she spotted her next train already waiting at the adjacent platform.
As soon as the doors were open, she forced her way through the crowd, letting out a ragged sound of frustration when her bag got wedged between a set of shoulders.
At the same moment, a loud hiss emanated from the waiting carriage, signaling its imminent departure.
Cadi yanked her bag hard and sprinted across the grimy platform, dodging oblivious passengers milling about as if they had nowhere to be and all day to get there.
Just as the doors began to close, she reached her arm forward, triggering the safety catch to force them back open.
With heaving breaths, she slumped down onto the plastic seat and leaned her head back against the window, choosing not to think about what her hair was touching.
Casting a glance around, she noted with an overwhelming surge of relief that this train was practically empty, which meant she could finally relax and enjoy the journey to her next connection in relative peace.
An hour later, Cadi climbed the steps leading out of her neighborhood station, pausing at the top to pull in a deep breath of fresh air.
Her head fell back, and she savored the gentle breeze that still carried a subtle hint of orange blossoms, kissing her skin and lifting the weight of what she could only describe as one of her longest days in recent memory.
The neighborhood was peaceful, with only a few late evening stragglers sharing her commute and the soft chirp of crickets echoing through the comforting silence as she began the short walk to her apartment.
She had never been so thankful to live within two blocks of the station.
The constant foot traffic passing below her window suddenly felt like a fair price to pay in exchange for quicker access to her bed.
Slipping a hand into her canvas bag, she dug into the small side pocket for her apartment keys. And froze.
With a light jingle, she pulled her keys from the bag and held open the sides to get a better view of the pocket.
The pocket where she had also stashed her sigil necklace.
The pocket that was now completely empty.
Panic gripped her chest as she dug through the rest of her bag, then crouched down to dump the contents onto the sidewalk.
The chirp of crickets disappeared, replaced by the terrified pounding of her heart as she frantically sifted through receipts, lip gloss, sunglasses …
everything except her necklace. The breath froze in her lungs as images flashed across her mind: her bag stuck, a sharp tug to get it free, her mad dash across the platform to catch her next train.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” she cried, her voice breaking as her tailbone hit the pavement.
The heels of her hands dug into her eyes, pressing hard against the burn of tears that threatened to cut loose.
She was so close to home, to putting this whole trainwreck of an evening behind her, and she had somehow managed to lose the one thing she couldn’t afford to.
Her phone could be replaced, credit cards could be canceled, but that necklace gave its bearer access to almost every part of the temple.
If she didn’t get it back … well, that just wasn’t an option.
Shifting to her hands and knees, she gathered up the discarded contents of her bag and stood, turning on numb legs to begin her trek back the way she had come.
She searched every inch of the stations that made up her route, cringing as she lowered herself to the ground to sift through trash, dragging her palms across grimy surfaces to look under benches, tables, and vending machines.
Her stomach twisted into an acidic knot that grew tighter with every stop that turned up nothing.
She darted off the train at the station where she made her first connection, the station where her bag had been caught, and prayed to any gods that were still listening that her necklace would be there.
Dropping to her knees again, she ignored the pain that exploded in her kneecaps as they collided with the unforgiving tile.
As she ducked under the first bench to begin her fevered search, her hair stuck to the side of her face, soaked with sweat and caked with grime from each fruitless attempt to swipe it away, her hands leaving a black residue in their wake.
It had to be here. It just had to be. There was no other reality that she would accept. Crawling to the next bench, she didn’t even bother to stand, barely registering the feet and hooves brushing by her as a train emptied its late-night riders onto the platform.
“What are you doing?”
Cadi jumped, letting out a string of colorful curses when the back of her head slammed into the underside of a bench.
Sitting back on her heels, she tenderly massaged the spot, noting that a decent-sized goose egg was already beginning to form.
Just what she needed to round out the night—a minor brain bleed.
Her eyes flicked to the space behind the bench, where she found Elias Masterson watching her, his face twisted in confusion.
Cadi let out a tight sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.
This was just what she needed, for him to bear witness to her slow descent into madness and report back to Sera that she couldn’t even be trusted with something as simple as not losing a stupid necklace.
Pressing her hands into the cold stone of the bench, she pushed herself up and forced a casual smile to her face. “Nothing, I’m fine.”
Elias raised a single eyebrow as he scanned her, no doubt taking note of the black smudges marring her face and clothing, the way her hair stuck to her cheek, and the frantic look in her eyes that betrayed her panic.
But she kept smiling, knowing full well that it likely only served to make her look as though she were teetering on the edge of a mental breakdown.
Which, if she was being honest, may not have been that far off.
“You sure?” he asked, the tone of his voice soft and gentle, as if he was concerned she might be spooked by any sudden sounds or movements.
Cadi chewed her lower lip as her shoulders slumped forward in resignation. “No. I mean, yes, I just—I lost something, but I’m handling it, and no offense, but I don’t really have time to chat right now.”
Turning away from him, she began scanning the ground again, cutting a path to the next bench and ducking down to peer beneath it, annoyance beginning to creep over her skin when Elias’s voice followed her.