CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE #2
Sera smiled, resting a hand against her knee and squeezing lightly. The gesture was so familiar, so Sera, that Cadi felt her shoulders dip, putting the smallest bit of distance between them and her ears.
“To you, I will always be Sera, but my true name is Hecate.”
Cadi nodded. She wanted to understand, wanted to accept it, and maybe in some way she did. But it all still felt like her mind was treading through mud. Hecate. The goddess of witchcraft. Guardian of the Crossroads.
Best friend.
Her eyes drifted around the room, snagging on Kai as he strode from the kitchen to perch on the armrest beside Seth.
“I never thought I would be hanging out with my mom’s old boss,” she said to him.
The god’s brows drew tight, and he tilted his head in a look of question.
“My mom was Annabelle Kismet. She oversaw temple operations for the region when I was young.”
Kai tipped his head back in understanding. “Ah yes, I do remember her. She was very faithful. I was sorry to hear about her passing.”
Cadi forced a smile and rubbed her palms against her legs as she searched for something else to talk about. She should have known better than to bring up her mom, especially when she could already feel herself beginning to fracture.
The longer she studied the three gods sitting in front of her, the more aware she became of the otherworldly auras that surrounded them.
It was something she had never noticed before, likely because she hadn’t thought to look for it, but now that she knew who they were, it was unmistakable.
Like an energy emanating from their very being.
Even when they were nearly drained, they still held enough power to command any space they walked through.
“How are you all so … I don’t know, normal?” she asked, taking in Sera’s ripped jeans, Seth’s relaxed posture.
Seth shrugged. “When it comes to survival, one learns to adapt rather quickly. There are those who would seek to do us harm in our weakened states. Hurt us, kill us, control what little power we still have. It’s safer for everyone right now if we move through the world unnoticed.”
Cadi nodded, studying his near-perfect features. Features that in no way resembled the jackal she’d seen depicted in nearly every book available on the subject.
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” she said, “but you don’t really … look like how I pictured.”
Seth let out a soft laugh, dipping his head to the side. “I imagine not. The ability to take on different forms is innate among deities. One that has proven quite advantageous as of late.”
Sera nudged her knee. “How else do you think I’d be able to go to Somnium without my brother recognizing me?”
Cadi blinked. Considering she’d just found out that Sera was a goddess about thirty seconds ago, she really hadn’t given it any thought.
“But if you’re nearly drained—”
Sera waved her hand, as if the whole idea was no more than a minor detail. “It doesn’t take much. And even if we’re drained, we always have a small spark of power. Just enough to keep things interesting.”
She gave Cadi a small wink, the gesture no doubt intended to provide comfort, but all it did was make her headache worse.
“And the others?” Cadi asked, trying desperately to sort through her growing list of questions. “Shouldn’t there be more of you?”
“There are,” Seth answered, leaning forward to retrieve his glass, “but they won’t risk surfacing so long as our brother is in power. There were only a few of us who agreed to help Sera set things right. The rest think it best to wait it out.”
“Leaving the dirty work to us,” Kai grumbled, emptying his glass. “I suppose someone has to clean up after their miscalculations.”
Cadi sensed there was a story there, but she could tell that was one rabbit hole that she wasn’t quite ready to go down. Not tonight.
“I’m still not fully understanding why they’re all at your house,” she said, turning back to Elias.
He let out a soft laugh and slipped his hand to the back of her neck to give her a comforting squeeze.
“I’m public enemy number one, remember? Sera tracked me down a few years back, asked for my help.”
“And it was a good thing she did,” Seth added, standing to pour himself another drink from the bottle of bourbon resting on the bar. “His knowledge of the Order’s inner workings has been invaluable in getting us as far as we have, but we’ve hit a wall. Even with two sources inside the temple—”
“Two?” Cadi sat up, her mind latching onto the word as her eyes once again found Sera. “You have someone else in the Order? But who would …”
Her question faded, a slow sinking beginning in her gut as she took in the uneasy glances exchanged between the others.
“What?” she asked, looking between them. “Who is it?”
A beat of silence settled over the room.
“The high priest,” Seth finally answered, stepping from behind the bar. “He has as much of an axe to grind with Oneirios as the rest of us. Some might say more, considering what our brother continues to put him through.”
Cadi let out a sharp breath and pinched the bridge of her nose as the throbbing behind her eyes intensified. This was … a lot.
“But his access is limited,” Kai added. “It turns out the higher up someone is in the ranks, the fewer places they can wander into without setting off alarm bells, and he has to be careful to avoid suspicion. The last thing we need is for him of all people to wind up on Oneirios’s radar.
Our only hope now is to find where our power is being stored.
Only then would we have any chance of breaking his bindings or disrupting his power. But we can’t do that without—”
“That’s enough, Kai,” Elias interjected, eyeing Cadi with growing concern. “We can talk about that later.”
Cadi blinked rapidly, her mind going fuzzy with the massive amount of information she was trying to process. She leaned forward to massage her temples. Her brain hadn’t felt this numb since she studied for her boards. And why was the air so stuffy in the apartment?
Elias’s palm rested against her back, and she turned her head to look at him from the corner of her eye. He watched her carefully, assessing every micro expression and breath, waiting for her final reaction to everything she had just learned. Everything that he had always known.
And never told her.
It was damn near impossible for her to think with everyone staring at her. What she needed was space. She needed air.
“I need to step outside for a second,” she said, standing from the love seat and heading for the door. Her shoulders stiffened when she heard Elias begin to follow her.
“Do you want me to—”
“No,” she said, faster and harsher than she had intended. “No, I just need to process all of … this.”
She waved her open palm in a circle in the general direction of the living room and the three deities still sitting on the sofa enjoying their refreshments. That was going to take a while to get used to.
Elias hesitated for a moment, and Cadi worried that he would try to stop her, but instead, he just nodded and took a step back to let her go. She gave him a tight smile before turning around and stepping out into the silence of the hallway.