I tried to scramble backward, away from the expanding portal before it reached me. Pregnancy had turned me into theleast agile creature on the planet. My center of gravity was shot. My reflexes were dulled by exhaustion. And the growing pull from the rift wasn't asking politely for my cooperation.
"Aidon!" His name ripped from my throat as forces beyond my control began dragging me toward the abyss.
My mate's power reached out to me desperately. Unfortunately, they moved like they were fighting through thick tar. The portal was creating a doorway at the same time it was actively jamming every supernatural ability within its influence. Even the triplets' protective dome began to flicker and spark. Whatever unholy energy Lyra was pouring into keeping this dimensional breach open was beyond comprehension.
The pull was getting stronger. My body had begun sliding across the bathroom floor. My fingernails scraped uselessly against walls that offered no purchase. I began throwing spells at the thing so fast, I barely thought each of them through. I just needed to disrupt the hold it had on me.
The portal wanted me specifically. And it was going to get me unless someone figured out how to stop this nightmare in the next thirty seconds. What I was doing was as effective as pissing in a hurricane.
"The portal is shielded against divine intervention," Nyx called out. Her voice sounded strained. She might have actually been trying to keep Lyra from taking me. "She has learned from our previous encounters and adapted her approach." Of course, she had. Why would anything in my life ever be simple?
My fingers slipped off the counter edge, nails scraping uselessly across smooth ceramic as my body betrayed me. My foot flew into the air, and suddenly I was weightless. Not in the good way, but in the way that meant gravity had stopped being my friend and started working for the enemy.
This was it. She had me.
The realization hit harder than the physical pull dragging me toward the void. All those months of running, searching, planning, and fighting—and it came down to this. Lyra had outmaneuvered us. She'd gotten exactly what she wanted. There wasn't a damn thing I could do about it except fall into her trap like the world's most pregnant sitting duck.
The triplets kicked frantically inside me. Their magic flared in distress as they sensed what was happening. I pressed both hands to my belly, trying to offer some kind of comfort even as terror clawed its way up my throat. They were going with me into whatever hellscape Lyra had prepared. My babies never asked for any of this. They deserved to be born into a world where their biggest worry was teething instead of ancient goddesses with vendettas using them.
I'd failed them. I'd failed everyone.
The last thing I saw before the portal swallowed us whole was Aidon's face in the doorway as he screamed my name. His expression promised the kind of apocalyptic violence that would make his father beam with paternal pride. For one heartbreaking second, our eyes met across the chaos. I saw my own desperate love reflected back at me. His agony shredded me.
Then the world folded in on itself like origami made of nightmares. The next thing I knew, I was falling through a space that existed in the gaps between dimensions. That didn’t last long. Before I knew it, I was landing on a hard floor.
I was about as graceful as you'd expect from someone who was eight months pregnant with triplets and had just been yanked through a dimensional portal. I hit solid ground with enough force to rattle my teeth. I immediately went into defensive mode. My hands flew to my belly to check on the babies and my power cast a protective shield around me.
The triplets were agitated but unharmed. Their magical signatures were pulsing with protective fury that made me proud despite the circumstances. "That's my babies," I muttered, pushing myself into a sitting position despite my body's protests.
The space I'd landed in was unfit for a pregnant person. We weren't in Lyra's floating sanctuary. There were no black coral walls. We were somewhere else entirely. Based on the weight of the earth pressing down from above, we were underground. It was vast enough that the walls disappeared into shadows above.
Ancient stone columns stretched up into the darkness, as well. Predictably, their surfaces were carved with magical symbols. The air tasted of minerals and magic so old it had fossilized. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped with the steady rhythm of a metronome counting down to disaster.
"Welcome to my true sanctuary," Lyra's voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. The acoustics of the space made her sound like she was speaking directly into my skull. "I do hope the journey wasn't too uncomfortable. Dimensional travel can be so taxing for mortals."
I bit back a snide comment about how I’d show her how mortal she still was and struggled to my feet. Using one of the stone columns for support, I scanned the vast chamber for any sign of the witch herself. "Your hospitality sucks," I called out, my voice bouncing off the walls. "Next time, send a limo."
Her laughter rippled through the space like poisonous music. "Oh, my dear Phoebe. Still making jokes when you should be terrified. I've always admired that about you. I knew you would be entertaining."
"Where are you?" I demanded, trying to use the anchor network to signal for help. I had to let them know where they could rescue me. I knew I wasn’t on Earth anymore. The connection that had been rock-solid since Jean-Marc's improvements was completely dead. Whatever this place was, itwasn't connected to our magical infrastructure. "Too cowardly to face me directly?"
"I'm preparing for the most important ritual of my existence," Lyra replied. Her voice shifted locations as she spoke, making me think she was moving. "But I wanted you to understand the full scope of what you've stumbled into before we begin."
Torches flared to life along the walls in a cascade of flickering orange light, revealing what had to be the most horrifying science fair project in history. The chamber stretched out before me like some demented cathedral. It was easily the size of a football stadium. And it was filled with row upon row of glass containers that looked like oversized pickle jars from hell.
Each one held a different supernatural being suspended in fluid that glowed. Witches, vampires, Fae, shifters. There was an entire supernatural zoo of preserved specimens. It was a mad scientist's wet dream.
"My collection," Lyra announced with the kind of pride most people reserved for showing off their prize-winning roses. "Decades of research into power extraction and magical essence manipulation. Every technique I plan to use on your children has been tested and perfected on the subjects you see before you."
My blood turned to slush in my veins. This was systematic torture disguised as research. And she wanted to do this to my babies.
I forced myself to walk closer to the nearest container, even though every instinct I had was screaming that I did not want to see it. I couldn’t go anywhere. I moved as fast as my pregnant waddle would allow. The young witch floating inside couldn't have been more than twenty. Her dark hair drifted around her face like seaweed. But it was her eyes that made my stomach bottom out completely.
They were open. Alert. Following my movement with an intelligence that meant she was still in there. She was still aware and experiencing whatever fresh hell Lyra had designed for her.
"You sick, twisted bitch," I whispered, pressing my palm against the glass. The surface was warm—body temperature warm—which somehow made everything a thousand times worse. "How long have they been like this? How long have you been playing mad scientist with people's lives?"
The witch's eyes locked onto mine, and I saw something flicker across her face. Hope, maybe. Or desperation. Either way, it was enough to break what was left of my heart into jagged little pieces.
