Cadence had set her alarm for a few minutes before noon, but when it went off, she was already staring at the ceiling, trying to piece things together in her mind. She’d been asleep long enough to have a dream—not a pleasant one either. But then, most of her dreams had been unpleasant since she’d killed Jack. With time, visions of him chasing her had dissipated some. Now, he wasn’t the one in pursuit in her mind when she fell asleep. It was someone else, something else. She couldn’t see its face, but she knew it was to be feared.
She’d awoken with beads of sweat on her forehead and the idea that she probably shouldn’t sleep again until everything was right with the world, though what she’d said to Cassidy before was true. They needed to get some sleep if they were going to be of any use to anyone. Still, not sleeping meant not dreaming, and that was a positive as well.
Her phone buzzed and she reached for it, flipping the alarm off and seeing she had two minutes until the portal opened. A message was ready to go, but she was more anxious to see what the Guardians had to say. She knew Brandon would be nervous to hear how Cassidy had accepted Alex’s death. In the message she’d typed up to them, Cassidy had thanked them for letting her know. She seemed matter-of-fact about it, but Cadence was certain she’d broken down as soon as she was alone in her apartment.
While she waited, she turned on the one social media app she sort of kept up with and flipped through the pages of her missing friends. Aaron didn’t have an account, but there were pictures of him scattered amongst the others, especially on her own timeline. God, she missed him so much. A tear rolled down her cheek and wet the pillow, and her hand reached for the spot on the bed where he should be. None of this seemed right or fair. They should be at the rehearsal for their wedding, not missing each other with an entire universe between them.
She swiped at her eye and clicked on a photo of him with Elliott, both laughing at something in Vegas. She didn’t know what it was, but she could see the Eiffel Tower lit up behind them. Had it only been a week or so ago when this picture was taken? Aaron looked as carefree as she had ever seen him, his blue eyes as bright as the electric lights behind him. What she wouldn’t do to feel his strong arms wrapped around her now, to inhale and breathe in his scent, to feel his lips on hers, to hear him tell her it was all going to be okay. They’d have to figure out a way to get him back. Cadence knew she couldn’t do this without him—none of it, not LIGHTs, not Vampire Hunting, not living, not breathing....
“Cadence? What did they say?” Cass’s IAC flickered in her mind, and Cadence checked the time on her phone. 12:02. Something was wrong. Sitting up abruptly, she opened her text messages, hoping she just hadn’t gotten an alert. Message Failed to Send. She manually tried to send it through again knowing it was likely too late now anyway. Not only did it fail, there were no new messages from Brandon or anyone else.
“Cadence?”
“Sorry, Sis. Nothing. My message didn’t go through, and they didn’t send one either. Did you get anything on your IAC?”
“Son of a bitch,” Cassidy muttered. “No. Nothing.”
Falling backward onto her pillow, Cadence took deep breaths and tried to remind herself that there had to be a good explanation for this. She held her phone up in front of her face one more time as the other people waiting to hear from her started pinging her IAC. “I’m sorry, but something went wrong this time. Nothing came through.”
Ashley, Aurora, and Tara all had a few swear words to say in response to that, as well as a few general suggestions of what she should try. Cadence turned her phone off and turned it back on. Nothing. “Let me check with Ward and Christian and see if they have any idea what’s going on.”
“All right,” Tara said, as did the rest of them, but no one was happy with the situation. “By the way, while you were sleeping, one of Holland’s planes took off. We tracked it to Fiumicino.”
“Fiumicino?” Cadence echoed. What would she be doing in Rome? “All right. Did anyone get off of it?”
“Yeah, but no one we recognized. Italian LIGHTS is in pursuit.”
That seemed very strange, but Cadence didn’t have time to contemplate what Holland might be up to. She had a message from Daniel that Stewart was on campus. They’d locked him up in the cell formerly occupied by Cowboy Sam. She’d go see him, but first she wanted to check in with Christian and Ward.
She hopped out of bed, fixed her ponytail, ran her tongue over her teeth and decided a mint would do the trick, and headed out the door, popping a Certs in her mouth as she went. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten—maybe the pizza Trina had ordered? She wasn’t hungry, but she could’ve probably used a shower. No time for anything....
The trip to the archives only took a few minutes. Hannah was still with the other two, and from the excitement brewing from their voices, it seemed like perhaps they were on to something. She listened for a minute before she let them know she was there, hoping she could gather information from what they were shouting at each other, but it was mostly numbers. Cadence cleared her throat. Nothing. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, hey, Cadence!” Hannah said first, dropping the pen she’d been using to write down whatever the other two were shouting at her. “How was your nap?”
“Awful. How’s it going?”
“Great—relatively speaking,” Ward replied. “I believe we’ve made some major progress!”
“Really? What is it?”
