"That one? Nearly fifteen years. She was one of my early experiments in consciousness transfer. I needed to understand how to separate magical essence from individual identity before attempting to merge with the Pleiades artifacts."
The implications hit me like a freight train made of pure horror. "You've been practicing for decades. All of this—the parasitic bonds, the power theft, even taking me—it's all been preparation for stealing my babies' magic."
"Finally beginning to understand the scope of my work?" Lyra's voice carried genuine satisfaction. "Your children represent the culmination of generations of research. Divine hybrid magic combined with the raw potential of the Pleiades bloodline. They're perfect vessels for what I need to accomplish."
As I moved through the rows of imprisoned beings, I got a look at the faces of her victims. There were hundreds of containers, each holding a different supernatural creature. There was even what looked like a young dragon curled in one of the larger vessels. It made me think of Kalli. I could not imagine that bubbly, beautiful little girl in one of these. All of them were conscious. They were also aware. And trapped in whatever sick experiments she'd been conducting.
"The eclipse energy will allow me to finally merge with the original Pleiades artifacts," Lyra continued, her voice echoing from deeper in the chamber. "But I need the moment of your children's birth to anchor the transformation. The raw magical potential released during delivery will provide the final component I've been missing."
"I won’t let you use their birth as a power source," I snarled.
"You can't stop me now. The instant their magic transitions from potential to active will create a resonance cascade that I can ride directly into godhood. I'll become all seven of the original sisters merged into a single, incomprehensibly powerful being."
The triplets stirred restlessly at her words, their combined magic pressing against the inside of my skin like caged lightning. Through our bond, I felt their determination to protect not just themselves, but every trapped soul in this underground nightmare.
"Aidon is going to rescue me, and he is going to make your life a living hell,” I promised.
"Let him try," Lyra said, her voice carrying amusement rather than concern. "This chamber exists outside normal magical space. His power, impressive as it may be, cannot penetrate the barriers I've spent decades perfecting."
The entire time she had been talking, the babies were stirring, and their magic was burbling. I realized then that the triplets' magic was creating its own network. I felt as threads of their powers were spreading from me to each of the prison containers. They were establishing connections that bypassed whatever barriers Lyra thought were protecting her collection.
"Actually," I said, feeling their magic reach every trapped soul in the chamber, "I think you're about to find out exactly what three pissed-off divine babies can do when someone threatens their family."
CHAPTER 17
The moment the triplets' magic connected with every trapped soul in Lyra's chamber, I got hit hard. It was the emotional equivalent of a freight train carrying broken dreams and decades of torture. "Oh, fuck me sideways," I breathed.
My knees buckled as wave after wave of anguish crashed through the babies' network. I threw up a shield faster than a mom protecting her kids from a horror movie. No way were my triplets experiencing this nightmare.
That didn't stop each prisoner's story from unfolding in my mind with brutal clarity. These people were walking ghosts. If Lyra got her way, soon I'd be joining their chorus of the damned. Not that I was going down without a fight. But until I found a way to escape, I'd be their witness. Someone had to remember their stories.
Sarah had lost her spark around her third year here. I watched as she stopped fighting and stopped screaming when Lyra came for her daily 'snack’. Now she hummed lullabies and braided invisible hair. She would sometimes smile at memories I had no desire to reach. She'd been living like that for fifteen long years. I wasn’t sure she was sane any longer.
Watching dragon shifter Kieran break had been the worst. Dragons weren't meant for cages. They were fierce creatures. Their claws could shred aircraft carriers. They were also social beings. Their clan bonds ran soul deep. Lyra had captured him after taking his mate and children when they were sick. Watching Lyra kill them had broken him completely. Now he carved tally marks into the wall, counting what he considered his failures while plotting his revenge.
The memories didn't give me time to process the emotions coming at me before moving on to Moira. Lyra's special torture for her was forcing her to watch her daughter Elspeth live an entire life while she remained caged. Sixty-three years of birthdays and heartbreaks she could only witness. When Elspeth finally had a heart attack and died, she was still wondering what had happened to her mother, Moira screamed for three straight days.
I wanted to learn their stories. It was important to me that I know every devastating detail. Someone had to carry their suffering forward. They deserved to be remembered as people who'd fought until they couldn't anymore. But when the memories began looping again, I couldn't take it.
"Stop," I whispered, pressing my palms against my temples and praying the emotional overflow didn't crack my sanity. I had to stop this, so I could find a way to get us all out of there.
"Now you understand,"a voice rumbled through the network. It was Kieran's voice. It was ancient and terrible in its fury."This is what she has done. This is what she must answer for."
"I understand," I said through gritted teeth, forcing myself to stand despite the weight of the trauma pressing down on my shoulders. "And I'm going to do something about it. Right fucking now."
The babies' magic pulsed in agreement. Their combined power hummed through my veins with renewed purpose. They'd shown me the horror of this place not to break me, but to motivate me. Smart kids. They knew their mama wouldn’t stand for this kind of shit.
I studied the chamber with new eyes. Looking past the obvious horrors wasn’t easy. But I had to search for the structural weaknesses. The triplets were highlighting some of them. The life-support systems feeding each jar operated on a closed magical loop that fed into Lyra. By having so many, she could prolong their torture and feed herself a veritable smorgasbord of power. Break one connection and the whole thing would cascade. But I needed to be careful. These people had been suspended for decades. Dropping them wrong could kill them just as effectively as leaving them there.
"Sarah," I called softly to the woman in the nearest container. Her eyes found mine through the preservation fluid. She was alert despite her physical state. "I'm going to get you out of there, but once I do, I need you to help me with the others. Can you do that?"
Her mouth moved, yet no sound escaped through the fluid. I felt her response through the magical network. Or maybe she spoke into my mind. I couldn’t be sure because while Lyra was draining me, I was being boosted by being close to the Pleiades relics she had in her possession. I doubt that was something Lyra anticipated. Because she could only dream of being a Pleiades, she would never understand the reality of what it was like.
“Yes. Please. Help us,”Sarah begged.
“I won't leave without you,” I promised.
I pressed my palms against the cool surface of her containment unit as the familiar hum of my power built beneath my skin. The Pleiades magic didn't rage through me like itusually did. Instead, it moved with the careful precision of a surgeon's blade. It was responding to my desperate need for control. I couldn't afford to mess this up. Not with so many lives hanging in the balance.
