CHAPTER FORTY
CADI
“Help yourself to anything in the fridge,” Sera said, shrugging into a leather jacket as she trotted down the metal staircase from the upper level of her loft. Elias’s hand slid from where it had been resting against Cadi’s lower back to grip her hip, pulling her the tiniest bit closer to his side.
The past four days had sped by in a blur with the two of them settling into a comfortable pattern of normal. It had felt like a brief glimpse of what life could have been had it not been for the whole “rogue god stealing his siblings’ powers and binding mortals to his will” thing.
Cadi hadn’t set foot in her own apartment since Thursday night, which was unfortunate for her plants, but she would be lying to herself if she tried to claim that she didn’t love waking up next to Elias every morning.
Even if he was leaning into his elevated sense of protectiveness a little hard.
Him practically moving her into his apartment had been one thing, but his insistence on driving her to and from work every day was a bit much.
She’d tried to gently tell him that the escort was unnecessary, but Elias hadn’t budged an inch, just mumbled something about needing to know where she was before he’d quickly changed the subject.
“Any questions?” Sera asked, grabbing Cadi’s attention again. Cadi pursed her lips in thought, then shook her head.
“The dog food isn’t in the bathtub again, is it?” she asked, needing some sort of levity to help dissolve the strain that had slowly started to fill every inch of the apartment.
Sera snorted and squatted down to affectionately muss up Cuba’s ears. “Nah, not this time. Anyway, she’s already had dinner, so don’t let her convince you that she’s starving. I took her out before you guys got here too, so no need to worry about that.”
“Sounds good,” Cadi replied, a tightness beginning to crawl across her skin making her fidget. “How long do you think this whole thing will take?”
Sera pressed her palms against her thighs and pushed to stand as she exchanged a wary glance with Elias. “Well, the Rite of Dedication will be over by six thirty. So it had better not take any longer than that.”
Cadi nodded and curled against Elias’s chest when he wrapped his arms around her shoulders to pull her close.
“This will all be over soon, love,” he whispered against the top of her head. She just nodded again. There were at least a million things she wanted to say, but they all refused to settle long enough for her to voice them.
“Be careful,” was all she could manage.
The side of Elias’s finger pressed against her chin to lift her face.
He stared at her for a long moment, and she felt him memorizing her before he dipped low to press his mouth to hers.
His hand shifted to cup below her ear, and he leaned deeper into the kiss, making the flutter in her chest burn brighter with the magnitude of his intensity.
By the time he pulled away, the room had started to spin.
“I love you,” he breathed, the words soft and reverent. Meant only for her.
“I love you, too,” she replied, winding her hands around his waist to hold him just a little tighter. A small cough from somewhere near the door pulled them both from their shared peace to where Sera and Cuba stood watching them.
A giddy grin lit Sera’s face, and beside her, Cuba just tilted her head and let out a soft whine.
Cadi breathed a laugh, her eyes drifting closed when Elias placed a parting kiss to her forehead before he stepped away to join Sera by the door.
“You know what to do,” Sera said to Cuba, then shot Cadi one last smile before she slipped out into the hall and pulled the door shut behind her.
Cadi let out a long sigh and looked around the quiet apartment before she checked the time on her phone.
4:45.
She sucked her teeth. Only one hour and forty-five minutes, during which she would have to somehow keep herself from losing her mind with worry or boredom. No problem.
Her eyes flicked to where Cuba sat in front of the door, still watching her intently.
“Got any genius ideas on how we should pass the time?” she asked.
Without missing a beat, Cuba trotted away to her bed, then returned a few seconds later with her toy fox clutched in her jaws.
The dog shoved the slightly damp and very mangled critter into Cadi’s hand before she shuffled back and bowed low, sticking her furry butt straight up in the air.
Cadi laughed. Cuba’s playful stance and eager face managed to lift a small piece of the weight that had settled against her shoulders.
She chucked the fox toy across the room, giggling at the way Cuba peeled out to chase after it.
The dog’s claws slipped and slid over the laminate flooring, sending her careening into the brick wall, but she recovered quickly, loped back to Cadi, and dropped the toy at her feet in a clear demand for another go.
It didn’t take long for playtime to lose its appeal, more for Cadi than for Cuba. She flopped down onto the couch, a pang of guilt burning through her at the way Cuba rested her head against her thigh and stared up at her in a heartbreaking plea.
“Sorry, girl,” she said, reaching down to run her hand over Cuba’s soft fur. “There’s only so many times I can throw that thing before I go insane.”
Cuba grumbled, then climbed up onto the couch, and slumped down next to her with a deep sigh.
Cadi rested her arm against the dog’s warm body and began to scroll through movie options in search of something to distract herself from the fact that Sera and Elias were out there putting themselves in danger while she lounged on the couch with a dog.
She dug her phone out of her pocket, and her head fell back with a groan when she saw that it was only 5:25.
This night was going to last forever if time kept crawling like that.
Staring at the ceiling, she worked through what she remembered of the plan.
The Rite of Dedication would be starting soon, which meant Sera should be somewhere in the crowd at the temple, and the others would likely be making their approach at the hangar.
Her brows pinched together, and she wondered if Kai had already started trying to flood the place. A small pit began to take shape in her stomach at the thought of Elias in the middle of all that chaos.
“He’s gonna be fine, right?” she muttered, turning to look down at Cuba. The dog lifted her head and let out a small whine.
“That’s not helping,” Cadi said, but Cuba just scooted closer, stretching forward to lick Cadi’s hand.
A faint buzz drew her attention to where her phone lay next to her on the couch cushion, and every muscle in her body pulled taut as she stared at the illuminated screen.
No one should be texting her right now.
Her stomach dipped when she saw Elias’s name appear. She sat forward, earning an irritated grumble from Cuba, but she didn’t care. Tapping the message alert with shaking hands, her vision began to tunnel as she read.
“Something is wrong. Sera needs you at the temple. Now.”
What? No, he—this didn’t make any sense.
Her pulse thundered in her ears as she scrambled to type out a reply.
“Gah!” she cried when she mistyped the same word for the fifth time, then tapped the phone icon next to his name to call him instead. The line didn’t even ring before his voicemail kicked on.
“Fuck,” she swore as she pushed up from the couch and began to pace in front of the TV, a steady buzz growing beneath her skin. She tried Sera.
The sickening feeling in her gut grew with each ring that went unanswered, until—
“Hey, you’ve reached Sera—”
Cadi let out a ragged growl of frustration as she jammed her finger against the red button on her screen, then tried again. What the fuck was going on? This time, the line only rang twice before three beeps in her ear told her the call had been silenced.
“What the—no!” she yelled, threading her fingers into her hair.
None of this felt right. She was completely cut off. Why hadn’t she gotten Seth’s number? Or Kai’s? And now Sera might be in trouble.
Before she even realized she’d made up her mind, Cadi was moving. She stepped around the couch and reached for the spare set of keys next to the door, but her feet slammed to a stop when Cuba darted in front of her, blocking her path.
“Cuba, no I—this isn’t playtime,” she said as she reached for the knob. Cuba’s lips curled back, a low growl rumbling free. Cadi froze, her eyebrows shooting up. This dog seriously had her on fucking lockdown.
“Really?” she said, panic rising with every second she spent trapped in the apartment instead of on her way to the train station.
Elias’s insistence on driving her everywhere had just gone from minor annoyance to massive fucking inconvenience.
She pressed forward, took Cuba by the shoulders, and strained against her weight. But the dog didn’t fucking budge.
“Cuba, move! Mom is in trouble!”
Cuba just huffed at her.
Cadi took a step back, her throat constricting from all the emotions assaulting her all at once. She had to get out, had to get to Sera. If something had happened to her, if Oneirios—
Cadi squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to think about that. She had to get to the temple, but first she had to get around this damn dog.
Pulling in a deep breath, she blew it out slowly, then let her shoulders relax as much as possible into what she hoped was a convincing posture of resignation.
“Okay, fine. You win,” she said as she slipped back around the couch to where Cuba had dropped her fox.
It was a cruel trick, but she hadn’t given her much choice.
Cadi pressed the squeaker embedded in the fox’s head, and hope surged at the way Cuba’s ears perked up, the little nub above her butt beginning to wiggle back and forth.