CHAPTER FORTY #2
“Do you want this?” Cadi teased, swinging the toy back and forth.
Cuba stood, her head following the smooth motion with a predatory focus that told Cadi she had the dog hooked.
Pulling her arm back, she hurled the toy as hard and high as she could, sending it soaring over the metal railing of the upper level.
“Go get it!”
Cuba tore after the flying fox, and Cadi made her move, yanking open the door and dashing out into the hall before the dog had even made it to the top of the stairs.
Cuba’s panicked barks chased after her as she sprinted to the stairwell that would take her outside. The sound clawed at her heart, but she couldn’t sit back while her friend was in danger. She wouldn’t.
She wasn’t hiding anymore.
Cadi’s lungs burned as she sprinted up the deserted stone steps of the temple, taking them two at a time and ignoring the way her muscles screamed in protest. In the last few months her commitment to regular spin classes had fallen by the wayside, and she was definitely paying for it now.
The train ride from Sera’s had been absolute torture. Each stop on the way had felt like it took twice as long as normal before they’d gotten moving again, and Cadi was pretty sure she was at risk of developing an ulcer from the amount of acid roiling in her gut.
She bent forward when she reached the top and pressed her palms against her knees, her back heaving with the effort to catch her breath, then pulled her phone out of her back pocket to check the time.
6:15.
The rite was almost over.
Surging forward, she gripped the thick metal handle and tugged open the outer door.
The heavy wood moved slowly, its weight resisting what little strength she had left after her sprint, but she managed to create a big enough gap to squeeze through.
When the door slid shut behind her, she blinked in the eerie stillness of the dimly lit narthex.
Cadi pulled the handle of the inner door, but the damn thing didn’t budge.
She muttered a curse under her breath when she remembered that the doors could only be opened from the inside once the Rite of Dedication had started.
Visions of Sera strapped to the altar being sacrificed in Oneirios’s name flashed through her mind. She needed to get inside.
Her eyes snagged on the hall to the left of the doors, the one that she knew would lead her to the sacristy. If she couldn’t get in through the main doors, she’d just have to slip in the back way.
Taking off down the hall, she wove through the corridors, trying to stifle her ragged breaths and the echoes of her footsteps as she raced toward the main sanctuary.
Her steps slowed as she rounded the last corner and the raised dais came into view, bracketed by rows of bodies all standing, watching the spectacle.
The sound of the priest’s chants grew louder, and the familiar smell of lavender nearly overwhelmed her with every step that took her closer to the entrance.
For a moment, she hovered at the mouth of the corridor and scanned the crowd, trying to understand what could have possibly made Elias so concerned that he’d sent her that message. But everything seemed …
Normal.
Still, Cadi had to be sure.
As quietly and carefully as she could, she slipped into the crowd, searching for Sera as she wove her way deeper. Just as she angled her shoulder to wedge herself between two minotaurs, someone’s hand shot out and grabbed her wrist hard.
Cadi clamped her palm over her mouth to stifle the surprised squeak that she had almost sent bouncing off the stone walls, then whipped around to find Sera staring back at her. Cadi let out a breath. Sera was okay, she was safe. But then why had Elias—
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Sera hissed.
The panic twisting her features and the sharp edge to her voice sent a chill through Cadi’s body. Sera was fine. But something still wasn’t right.
“Elias texted me saying you needed help. Then no one was answering my calls, and I was freaking out and … Sera what’s going on?”
Her friend’s brows pinched together. “Elias? But he …”
Sera froze. Her eyes snapped to the dais, then back to Cadi as a jagged breath caught in her throat, and her hands began to shake where they held her.
“Cadi, you need to leave. Now.”
“But I—”
“Don’t argue with me. Move!”
Sera’s grip on her wrist tightened, and Cadi hissed through her teeth at the twinge of pain as her friend tugged her through the crowd. Cadi startled when a powerful boom echoed through the hall, the steady rhythm of drums signaling that the end of the rite was drawing near.
Sera tried to pick up her pace, dragging Cadi behind her, but the crowd seemed to close in, bodies pressing tighter and making them fight for every inch they gained toward the doors.
Just a few more feet.
Pain flared in Cadi’s shoulder, and the room tipped as she pitched to the side, nearly knocked to the ground by the impact of someone slamming into her. Sera pulled her upright, her head whipping around on high alert.
“Are you okay?” she asked, already resuming their path.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Cadi replied, though she barely got the words out before someone else collided with her.
The impact sent her stumbling sideways and tore her wrist from Sera’s grip.
Once could have been an accident, but twice felt intentional.
Cadi tried to turn, but the movement was interrupted when she was knocked again, forcing her even further into the crowd.
The bodies around her seemed to surge and shift as one, carrying her like a wave.
Hands grabbed her, though she couldn’t tell how many.
Maybe four, maybe forty. They pushed and shoved, and she tried to escape the raging pull, but they were relentless, sending her tumbling in every direction at once.
“Hey!” a voice hissed when Cadi toppled over, clinging to the person’s robe to steady herself. She braced for another shove, but it never came. Apparently, the fun was over.
“Sorry,” Cadi muttered, barely even glancing at the person she’d nearly taken down with her.
She spun around, trying to figure out where she was, but everywhere she looked, her view was blocked.
Pushing up onto her toes, she finally managed to see over the masses, and her mouth went dry when she realized just how far the havoc had taken her.
While Sera was still at the back of the hall, trying desperately to shove her way through the press, Cadi now stood nearly in the center of the sanctuary.
She leaned to the side, trying to find a path back to Sera, apologizing again when her shoulder bumped against the person next to her.
The woman just glared back and didn’t even bother to acknowledge her as she straightened the hood of her cream-colored robe.
Cadi froze, turning to take in the gathering of people that surrounded her.
Horror started to claw through her when she saw that the woman beside her wasn’t the only one wearing that specific designation.
They were all adorned in the color reserved for dedicants.
And she had been deposited right into the center of them.
The drums stopped. Ice settled at the base of Cadi’s spine when a melodic voice filled the silence, its sound wrapping around her like barbed wire.
“Whose blood is shed here?”
“Ours, for Oneirios.”
Cadi spun around to face the dais, and the feeling of a thousand insects crawling over her skin took hold when her eyes locked with the sapphire blue of Oneirios’s stare.
Fear cut through her at the small twitch at the corner of his lips, his satisfied smile telling her everything she didn’t want to believe was true.
She didn’t know how … but this was him. All of it. He had her exactly where he wanted her.
And she’d walked right into his web.
She had to get out. She had to get back to Sera.
Cadi turned and rushed forward, only to collide with something solid that nearly knocked her backward until someone caught her arm with a force strong enough to hurt.
“Hey there, Newbie. Thought I might find you here.”
Terror surged hot beneath Cadi’s skin at the sound of his voice. A voice that slammed her back to an empty street, her body trapped against her car. Her breaths came in short, panicked bursts as she looked up into Damon’s cruel eyes, a vicious smirk twisting his mouth as he stared down at her.
She raged against his hold, her pulse spiking at the sound of blades being unsheathed.