Once her sister disconnected, Cadence was alone in the world again, only the scarce sounds of the desert creatures around her and the vast expanse of sand and sky. Tempted to pick her book back up and just continue reading, she finally decided against it. She needed to let someone know what her sister had discovered.
It should’ve been Aaron, but it couldn’t be. She would talk to him again before the moon began to fill the night sky, but not now. It wasn’t quite 3:30, and if he found out now that she did have Elliott with her, he could still potentially find a way to reach her in time to ruin her plans.
The moon was actually already beginning to climb the sky, though it was difficult to see with the sun still up. As far as she knew, it didn’t matter where the moon was at in the sky, but it did need to be dark. Since the sun wouldn’t set for another couple of hours, she wanted to wait to even get the ashes out. The last thing she needed was a spill. She was also hopeful that, if she waited until the conditions were ripe, she wouldn’t have to spend several hours praying over a bag of ashes for the portal to open.
So she contacted Jamie instead of Aaron and let him know what Cassidy had reported. He found it quite fascinating and took detailed notes so that they could follow through with Cadence’s suggestion and check again after the moon to see what chatter sounded like then. He was also able to assure her that Aaron was still at headquarters, and though he’d been in a pretty foul mood the last few days, he was both confident that her goal was not attainable and irritated that she wouldn’t just come home already.
Once that conversation was over, Cadence returned her attention to her book for another hour or so before she decided the sun was low enough and it was time to contact Aaron.
He answered immediately, which let her know he had been anticipating her call. “How’s it going?” he asked.
She hadn’t really spoken to him since that day in the diner. It had been easier to ignore him than argue. “Good,” she replied. “What’s going on there?”
“The usual. I have no idea where you are, so I don’t know the time zone. Is it dark there yet?”
“Yeah, just about. I thought I should talk to you really quickly before I get things set up.”
“So you haven’t gotten the urn out then?” he asked, and she wondered how long she might be able to drag this out if she didn’t just go ahead and tell him she knew what he did.
“No, but I don’t have the urn,” she replied, cautiously.
“What?” he asked, clearly confused. “When I asked you the other day, you said you did.”
“I know,” Cadence admitted. “That was a lie.”
“I’m confused. The urn is gone.”
“Yeah, I hid it.”
“You hid it?” he asked. “Cadence, what do you mean?”
She knew how much he hated being outsmarted, be it by a Vampire, a teammate or anyone else. She was hopeful that he would potentially be proud of her for knowing him so well she could anticipate his underhandedness before it took place, but she was doubtful. “I know what you did, Aaron,” she said quietly.
“What?”
“I know that you emptied the urn.”
Silence, for a lengthy amount of time. “Okay. So… you can’t possibly know what I did with the contents.”
“Interesting choice of words,” she noted. “No, I don’t know. Although I would guess you put them in your safe in our office. The one I still don’t know the combination to.”
“No one knows it, except for me.”
“And Mrs. Carminati. Who loves me and bakes me dinner.”
“She wouldn’t tell you the combination,” he said, hesitantly.
“No, but she might use it for me.”
“But she didn’t. I checked. The remains are still there.”
“No, they’re not,” Cadence begged to differ, “but the ashes from the fireplace might be.”
The pause was even more significant this time. “The… what?”
“I’m sorry, babe. I really am. But I know you too well now. I knew you would do something like this. You said it yourself—you’d prevent me from going through with this at all costs. So… I had to be preemptively sneaky.”
“What did you do, Cadence?” His voice was much more stern now than it had been before.
She took a deep breath before answering. “I emptied Elliott out of the urn right after you left to go talk to Jamie that first night when I told you I knew about the portal, and I hid him.”
“You hid him?’
“Yes.”
“Where?” he asked, but before she got a chance to answer—not that she would have told him anyway—he continued, “Cadence! So you do have Elliott with you after all?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re planning on going through with this?”
“Definitely.”
The tone of his voice sounded more desperate now. “Cadence, please don’t do this. I am begging you not to.”
“It’ll be okay, Aaron.”
“No, it won’t. It really won’t.”
“Yes, it will. You’ll see. It will all work out.”
“Cadence, just wait. We’ll do it together, next time there’s a blue moon.”
“I love you, but I have to go now.”
“Cadence….”
She turned her IAC into complete off so that no one could contact her. The other team members had a feature in their IAC that allowed Aaron and Cadence to force them to come on no matter where they were or what mode they were in, but something had malfunctioned when hers was installed and that had never worked. She was glad it didn’t now. She didn’t want to be distracted by anyone trying to get in touch with her.
The sky was dark, the moon was full, and though it hadn’t quite reached the meridian, she didn’t think that mattered, so she went ahead and got started with her task, hopeful that the nightmare that began nearly eight months ago would be over shortly.
