His eyes flick to my stomach. “Keep going before it gets them.”
A sick dread crawls down my spine when I process what he’s saying. “Gets who? Before what getswho?” He can’t be talking about the twins.Please say he’s not talking about the twins.
He doesn’t look away. “The portal. It needs balance; it needs the babies.”
“No! What? No!” I take a step back; my hands find my belly and I gasp. It’s huge! How is that possible? There’s a kick in my stomach. It’s no longer a light flutter. “No, it can’t have them.”
“It’s taking them!” he screams, now standing. “You have to get them out before it’s too late.”
“What are you talking—” My words morph into a scream.
A sharp pain shoots through my abdomen. Dark tendrils crawl across my skin like black veins. My stomach tightens as shadows seep in, pulling like they’re trying to take what’s inside.
“Stop!” I choke out, pressing both hands to my belly. “Stop, please!”
“It won’t stop,” Nate yells. “You need to cut them out. Get them before the portal does.”
“Cut…what? No.” This isn’t real! It’s not! I spin in a circle, searching for a way out, but there isn’t one.
He’s standing next to me now, tears streaming down his face. “Please, save them. Cut them out, Frankie! Don’t let it get them!”
The pull deepens until I can’t tell where my body ends and the magic begins. This can’t be happening. I’m dreaming…having a nightmare!Wake up! Wake up!
Nate is sobbing so hard now that I can barely make out his words. “Don’t—be like mom! Save…them. Give them…a better life than we…”
No, please no! There has to be another way!
Pressure builds as searing pain claws at my stomach. Threads of smoke snake toward me, coiling around my middle. “Help! Someone help me!” I scream as it tightens, each tendril burning me from within. I can feel my magic answer, but it’s not enough.
“Frankie, you have to.”
I don’t remember reaching for my knife, but I’m gripping it now. I press it to my belly, my hands shaking so violently it takes both of them to hold it steady. “Please, please don’t make me do this. Take anything else, not my babies!”
My vision blurs, and then…nothing
No pain, no sound. Just black.
When I blink again, the pull is gone. The smoke, the pain, all of it. I’m floating, or maybe falling. My hands are pressed against my stomach, but the knife is gone. I open my fingers, and in its place is a rabbit’s foot.What? How did I get this? I thought Nate took it the first time he made me black out?I look around the portal for my brother, but he’s nowhere in sight…not even the child version of him.Was it all an illusion?
My hands find my stomach. It’s flat again. Then it hits me. Oh my God! I almost cut my babies out!
A sound breaks out of me, so raw, so full of anguish that I’m not sure who it comes from. I fold in on myself, shaking until my teeth clatter. My chest crushes in on itself, my ribs unable to stretch wide enough to breathe.
I curl onto my side, clutching my stomach.
It doesn’t move.
CHAPTER 45
Zarreth
“Frankie!” I fall to my knees, pain ripping straight through the bond. It crushes my chest, locking around my ribs, searching for a way out. It tears through every thought, clawing up my throat until it breaks free, leaving me hollow. I need to get to her.
The sound still rings in my ears when another scream cuts through it…hers. She needs me!
The portal erupts, the ground splitting under its force. I lift my head in time to see Dante stagger back, his eyes wide, staring at his hands. The black veins fade, as if the power the portal gave him is fading too.
Horror twists across his face. “No. No.” His voice climbs, frantic. “What did she do?” His eyes lock on mine, burning with a fury that rattles something in my chest. “This isn’t over.”
