CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CADI
Two days later, Cadi eased her car against the curb in front of The Crow’s Nest, tucking her keys into her bag as she stepped out onto the sun-scorched asphalt.
She walked around the front of her car and peered up at the eerily quiet exterior.
It was always strange to see bars in the daylight.
Everything about it felt out of context, displaced, like the building itself was resting in a state of stasis with no evidence of the excitement that would come with nightfall.
Stepping inside, Cadi blinked in the dim light as her eyes slowly adjusted to find Gunner staring at her from around the wall to her right, his bulbous face scrunched in question.
“Can I help you, Cadi?”
She startled at the casual use of her name before she remembered what Elias had told her about troll memories. Of course Gunner remembered her. He remembered everything—a fact that she still found deeply unsettling.
“I’m just here to grab something from Sera.”
He hesitated, his black eyes assessing her, almost as if deciding whether or not he believed her reason for being at the bar so early. Cadi shifted, anxiety simmering in her gut as she tugged on a loose string that hung from the frayed hem of her shorts.
The idea of being turned away and forced to send a rescue text to Sera from her car made her skin feel one size too small, but she supposed it wouldn’t be the complete end of the world. She would simply never come back to The Crow out of shame. No biggie.
Finally, the troll’s shoulders lowered, and Cadi felt her own body respond in kind as he tossed his head in the direction of the main bar.
“She’s in the office. Just head through the kitchen, can’t miss it. It’s the only room without kegs or holiday decorations.”
“Thanks,” Cadi replied, thankful to have been spared an embarrassing retreat as she made her way toward the black door that stood between the front of the house and the kitchen.
Nearly every one of her senses were immediately assaulted when she stepped through the door.
In place of the soft, sultry lights of the front, in the kitchen she found harsh fluorescent bulbs that flickered so violently she was sure she was about to develop a twitch.
The clang of pots and pans bounced off cold tile to blend discordantly with raucous conversation and the crackling music that poured from an ancient speaker stashed on top of a cabinet.
Fixing her gaze on the hallway located on the far side of the brightly lit room, Cadi scurried forward, doing her best to avoid making eye contact with any of the workers as they prepared the evening’s menu.
The clamor of the prep line died down as soon as she stepped into the hall and most of the noise was absorbed by the stiff carpet.
She passed stacks of boxes filled with napkins, condiments, and various other bar supplies, peeking into each open room until she found herself in front of a closed door with a simple placard designating it as “Private.”
She raised a fist to knock, but stopped when the sound of muffled voices drifted through the thin wood.
Even from her place in the hall, it was clear by the tones that whoever was in there was not happy.
Careful not to make a sound, she pressed her ear as close as she dared, and promised herself that this was the last time she eavesdropped.
Unless it was important. Or interesting.
“We have to do something,” a man hissed, “the situation is escalating, we can’t just sit around hoping we end up in the right spot.”
“Things have aligned in a way we did not anticipate,” said another male voice, his accent hinting at somewhere in the east. “Though it isn’t ideal, we do have everything we would need for the ritual if you could just—”
“No,” Elias interrupted, “I already told Sera that isn’t an option.”
“I’ll keep tinkering,” Sera said, “I have a few things I want to try, but I’ll be honest, I don’t feel very confident about any of them.” Cadi’s throat went dry at the defeat that laced her friend’s voice when she spoke. Whatever was going on, it sounded serious.
Elias sighed. “Alright, we’ll all just have to keep digging where we can for the time being. Kai, don’t look at me like that. It’s our only option for now.”
The scrape of chairs followed by the sound of footsteps sent a bolt of panic through Cadi’s body, and she dashed away back toward the kitchen.
When she heard the door open, she quickly spun around and adopted the most casual stride she could muster as she reapproached the office.
She definitely needed to stop eavesdropping.
Sera stepped into the hall, followed by two men Cadi didn’t recognize, only catching a glimpse before they disappeared out the back.
Sera turned as Cadi approached, a wide smile quickly taking the place of her troubled expression.
“Hey! Just in time. I just have to run to my car if you want to join me.”
“Yeah, no pro—oof!”
Her momentum was abruptly halted when she ran straight into Elias as he stepped out into the hallway.
The impact sent her stumbling backward, at which point she gracefully caught the toe of one shoe on the heel of the other and found herself scrambling to grab on to the closest thing that would save her from ending up on her ass.
It just so happened, the closest thing was Elias.
“Woah! Careful,” he said, looping his arm around her waist to keep her steady. “Didn’t mean to take you out like that. You good?”
Cadi stared up at him for a moment before she nodded.
She knew she should say something, anything really, but all the useful parts of her attention were focused on the place where his hand still rested against her back.
Elias let out a soft laugh as he released her, but he was still close enough that Cadi felt the warmth of it against her face.
It was probably best for her to stay quiet.
With the proximity of his body to hers combined with the enticing firmness of his biceps beneath her fingers, she didn’t trust herself not to say something completely unhinged
“Okay,” he said after a moment. “Well before you two head out, why don’t you stop by the front? I have some new cocktails I’d like your opinions on.”
“You got it, boss,” Sera replied, as she grabbed Cadi’s arm to steer her toward the back door and out into the employee parking area.
Cadi followed her to a bright yellow four by four and watched as she tugged open the door and lifted herself up onto the running board to dig through her center console.
Sera seemed completely unfazed by the gravity of the conversation that Cadi had just overheard, yet at the time, whatever she and Elias had been discussing with those two men had seemed nothing short of dire.
“Who were those guys?” Cadi asked. It wasn’t like she could come right out and ask what they had been talking about, but Sera couldn’t blame her for being curious about two strangers she had seen talking to her friends. At least that was what she told herself.
“Hmm?” Sera replied, as she jumped down from the rig to hand Cadi a set of silver keys.
“Those guys in the hall just now,” Cadi said, tossing her thumb over her shoulder toward the bar.
“Oh,” Sera said with a casual wave, “Elias is working on a project with them. Boring stuff.”
Cadi’s brows drew together. That discussion had seemed anything but boring, and despite Sera’s dismissal, something seemed …
off. One of the men had mentioned a ritual, but from the brief glimpse she’d gotten, neither of them had looked like mythics, and humans were only able to manipulate magic in very rare, and relatively boring, circumstances.
The spells they did have the ability to cast were pretty difficult to fully control, and were usually more about invoking and evoking energies or setting intentions unless they were able to obtain blessings from Freyja or Hecate to power rites, but neither of those goddesses had been seen in almost a decade.
“The square one is for the apartment,” Sera explained, pointing to the set that dangled from Cadi’s finger and completely redirecting the conversation. “The round one is for the building. I’ll leave you a note detailing everything for my girl.”
Cadi nodded as she secured Sera’s keys among her own, her thoughts still held captive by the earlier conversation. Maybe they had just been talking business, but even if they hadn’t, it was clear she wasn’t getting anything more from Sera. “Do you want me to stop by to meet the dog?”
Sera shook her head. “Nah, Cuba’s fine. I’ll let her know you’re coming so she doesn’t sound the alarm.”
Cadi lifted an eyebrow. In her experience, simply telling a dog that a stranger was coming into their home wasn’t the way to introduce someone, but Sera knew her dog best … she hoped.
Taking a step back toward the bar, Cadi paused when Sera moved in the opposite direction toward the driver’s side of her car.
“Aren’t you coming?”
Sera looked up, her gaze flicking between Cadi and the back door before she wrinkled her nose. “I’ve tried his experiments before. I like to live on the edge, but that’s pushing it. You have fun, though!”
Cadi choked out a laugh. With such a ringing endorsement, how could she refuse? She eyed the back door, her stomach sinking at the idea of walking back through the kitchen without someone who worked there as an escort. Once was bad enough.
“I don’t know,” she said, “I feel kind of weird walking through the back of a bar I don’t work at.”
Sera tilted her head and fixed Cadi with a look of fond incredulity before stepping around her car to stand in front of her.
“Sweetie, you’re making this a lot bigger than it needs to be,” Sera said, giving Cadi’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
“Just go in there like you belong. No one will question it.”