CHAPTER FORTY #3
“Let me go!” she demanded, slamming her fist against him and twisting her arm in an anguished bid to free herself. Damon’s expression shifted to mock concern as he tugged her close and leaned in until his breath coated her skin. She angled her head away, fighting the urge to gag.
“What’s wrong?” he crooned. “Nervous? Here. Let me give you a hand.”
Something flashed at the edge of her vision, then, burning pain erupted in her palm. Cadi cried out, yanking her hand free when Damon at last released his hold on her.
Her eyes went wide, and panic detonated in her veins as she looked down at her hand, at the crimson liquid that pooled from a gash left by the blade still clutched tight in Damon’s fist.
Cadi held her injured hand to her shirt, the fabric already blooming with red where her blood seeped into the fibers. She had to get to Sera, had to get out before any of it reached the temple floor.
Damon’s cruel chuckle sliced through her as she surged forward and slammed herself into the wall of bodies, but no one would move.
“Please, you have to move, I have to—”
Her desperate plea cut off when she looked up into the unconcerned stare of the man in front of her.
It was almost like he hadn’t even noticed her violent attempts to shove past him.
She saw the same look of disinterest on the woman standing to her right, and a cold fist closed around her throat as she started to understand.
Their binding. Oneirios had them.
“Fuck,” she hissed, slamming her shoulder between them.
Stone crashed against stone somewhere behind her, followed by a cacophony of shocked gasps filling the hall. Cadi whipped around and sucked in a broken breath at the mayhem unfolding on the dais.
Where the high priest had Oneirios pinned to the ground.
Smoking coals scattered around them from where they had collided with the stone brazier, and she watched as a team of white-robed acolytes sprinted up the steps and began trying to pull the high priest off their god.
Cadi felt the crowd shift, and the Order members who had been blocking her path stepped forward to get a better look as clarity returned to their features. Oneirios’s hold had been broken in the attack, and she couldn’t waste the opportunity.
She launched herself at the small gap that had been left and immediately began to squeeze through the crowd toward Sera.
“Cadi!” Sera cried, shoving her way between bodies to find her. She gasped when her eyes landed on Cadi’s hand, her features hardening with determination.
“Move!” she said, pulling her toward the doors.
A violent crack reverberated through the hall, and Cadi looked back over her shoulder just as the high priest was sent crashing to the ground, his black resin mask skidding across the red stone.
Oneirios towered over him, his perfect face twisted with fury.
With a snap of his fingers, the acolytes lifted the high priest from the dais and started to drag him down the steps, into the blackness of the corridor.
She couldn’t think about what would happen to him. What punishment awaited the high priest who had openly attacked his god. Right now, she had to get out.
As the doors drew closer, her heart pounded with the strain of fighting through the crowd and the throbbing pain in her hand. Sera got there first, slamming all her weight into the metal bar across the door to throw it open.
Cadi surged forward, inches away from the threshold, from safety. Her fingers caught the door jamb, pulling herself through. A desperate sob broke from her throat, relief seeping into her bones as the exit came into view—
A ringing clap cut the silence.
Everything went still.
Suspended.
Frozen.
Then, blinding pain tore through her chest. The sound of her own scream filled her ears at the sickening feeling of a hook embedding itself into her heart. With a violent lurch, the force of the binding pulled her forward, sending her knees crashing into the stone floor.
Someone was shouting her name, but she couldn’t tell who; the voice was clouded and distant. Like they were shouting to her from the edge of a canyon. Strong hands gripped her arms, shaking her, and Sera’s face swam into focus.
“We have to go, come on!” she urged, but every ounce of strength drained from Cadi’s body in an instant.
Her muscles went slack, and she slumped to the side, barely able to lift her head as her eyes caught on the trail of red that had soaked into the stone floor.
The trail that led right to where she sat.
“No,” she whispered, shaking her head. “No. No. Nonono …”
Someone gripped her beneath her armpits, and then she was standing. Time didn’t make sense anymore. Everything came through in flashes and waves.
Fresh air hit her face. The temple steps. Strangers teemed around her. She stumbled.
The smell of rain-soaked asphalt. A parking lot. A yellow four by four.
Soft leather pressed into the backs of her arms. Buildings sped by.
Her reflection in Sera’s window. Blood saturated her clothing.
She didn’t care. It didn’t matter anymore.
He had taken her.
Just like he said he would.