We hit our back lawn like a meteorite made of displaced supernatural beings. Kieran cushioned the landing for several of those closest to him with his dragon form. His massive solid bulk created a slope for the more fragile prisoners to slide down safely.
When I blinked, Aidon was racing toward me. His face was twisted in equal parts relief and homicidal fury. Behind him came our entire family, along with Hades and Persephone. The former looked prepared to personally dismantle any obstacle to find his grandbabies. I wasn’t going to kid myself and think hecared about me. It was all about the offsrping I carried in my womb.
"Phoebe." Aidon caught me as exhaustion from channeling so much power finally hit me. "Are you hurt? Are the babies?—"
"We're okay. All of us. I got away from her and brought company," I murmured as I gestured to the survivors.
"Where’s Lyra?" Aidon demanded as his power searched for threats.
"She’s mostly powerless. Most of her collection was the source of her strength. Without it, she's just human again." My hand flew to my belly as the triplets calmed. "But she's not going to quit. Women like her don't give up when they lose. They just get more creative about revenge."
CHAPTER 18
Jean-Marc's laptop started shrieking like Lyra had back in her prison pocket realm at that moment. Either my ears were extra sensitive, or they’d gotten louder. The noise clawed at my brain.
"The anchor readings are going insane," my son called out. He’d stopped making his way to me and diverted to the remnants of the patio table where his laptop was sitting. "Every site we cleansed is being re-corrupted. I can’t tell yet if it’s going to stick. She's working at triple speed."
I looked up at the sky and immediately wished I hadn't. The eclipse Lyra had been trying to force was happening now. Three hours ahead of schedule. She was going to make her move to force my labor and get my babies. I wasn’t sure how much of her plan was salvageable, but she was insane and wouldn’t care. In her fucked-up mind, my babies belonged to her.
The moon was sliding across the sun with unnatural speed. "She's forcing everything forward," Artemis said as her silver eyes tracked the movement. "Your escape made her abandon subtlety entirely. She's drawing power from every backup site simultaneously."
Kieran, still in his massive dragon form from our escape, raised his head and inhaled deeply. His expression changed to pure alarm, and he shifted back to a human. "The barriers between realms are dissolving. I can smell creatures gathering at the dimensional boundaries. They’re beings I have smelled on Lyra more than once when she returned to torture me."
Sarah stumbled like she'd been sucker-punched. The witch I'd liberated from years of magical imprisonment suddenly looked fragile as spun glass. Her face drained of color as waves of Lyra’s power rolled over us in nauseating pulses.
Vera's reflexes kicked in. She caught Sarah before she could face-plant into the dirt. The look my coven-mate shot me over Sarah's trembling form made my stomach drop straight through the floor.
Without making sure Sarah was stable, Vera dropped to her knees and pressed her palms to the ground. "Something's wrong with my connection to the Earth," she gasped, her voice strained with effort. "The ley lines are screaming."
Screaming.The word landed in my chest like a lead weight. Ley lines didn't scream unless something catastrophically bad was happening to the magical foundation of our world. We were apocalypse-level screwed.
“Ungh!” A familiar tightness began deep in my lower back then. It felt like someone was slowly twisting a knife between my vertebrae. I had maybe three seconds to think,Oh no, not now, please not—before my entire world narrowed to a single, devastating realization. My body had chosen this exact moment of planetary crisis to stage its own rebellion.
The contraction bulldozed into me with the subtlety of a wrecking ball through tissue paper. The previous labor pains I had been experiencing for weeks were love taps in comparison. This was not one of those adorable false alarms. Oh no! This wasthe real deal. And my uterus had, apparently, been taking notes from a medieval torture manual.
The pain started as a molten brand pressed against my lower spine, then exploded outward like someone had detonated a bomb made of pure agony in my pelvis. It wrapped around my midsection with the crushing embrace of a boa constrictor, squeezing until I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think or do anything but double over and make sounds that would've embarrassed a dying walrus.
"You've got to be kidding me," I wheezed, clutching my belly as the contraction reached its crescendo. My knees buckled, and I barely managed to keep myself upright by grabbing onto the nearest solid object—which happened to be Vera's shoulder. "Now? Seriously,now?"
My babies had inherited my absolutely flawless disaster radar. Here I was, standing in the middle of what could generously be called a supernatural shitstorm. The ley lines were collapsing like dominoes. Sixty-seven traumatized magical beings were looking to me as their only lifeline. And there was a very real possibility that we were witnessing the opening act of the apocalypse. To top it off, my three little passengers, bless their tiny, chaotic hearts, decided this was the ideal moment to hand me their evacuation papers.
The contraction released its stranglehold on my body, leaving me doubled over and gasping like I'd just run a marathon through molten lava. Sweat traced cold rivulets down my spine as I forced myself to straighten. Every muscle trembled with the effort. My uterus was already warming up for its next performance. I could feel it gathering strength like a storm building on the horizon.
"Phoebe!" Aidon's arm encircled my back before I could topple over. His solid warmth anchored me to something otherthan pain. His power unfurled around all of us like a shield made of strength and steel. "Is it the babies? Are they?—"
"I'm in labor," I managed through clenched teeth. The words scraped my throat raw. "The magical stress from the escape must have triggered it. These kids are definitely their father's children. They've got absolutely spectacular timing."
Clio appeared at my other side. The healer’s face was grim with determination. "Let me see if I can stop this," she said as she reached for me with hands that glowed faintly. Her healing magic wasn’t usually so visible. It had to be the ley lines and the chaos they were causing.
"It went from zero to a hundred in about a millisecond," I panted, shaking my head even as another wave of cramping began to build. "I don't think there's anything you can do. This isn't Braxton Hicks. Or even regular labor. It's magical overload."
“The babies are terrified,”Tarja's voice sliced through my pain-fogged mind. It was sharp with concern. My feline familiar had wisely stayed inside the house. It wouldn’t be safe for her to come out with the chaos outside. “They sense the magical disturbance, and their power is responding. They’re trying to protect everyone. You need to reassure them.”
Golden light began seeping through my skin like liquid sunshine. It was Melaina's protective warmth spreading across my arms and chest. Thaniel's electric blue energy crackled along my fingertips in sharp, angry bursts, while Nyssa's deep purple shadows pooled at my feet like spilled wine. They were magnificent and terrifying. My three little warriors were trying to save the world from inside my womb.
“It's okay, my loves,”I projected to them as gently as I could manage between waves of pain. “Mama and Daddy are here. You're safe. You don't need to protect anyone right now—just rest. We will see you soon.”I tried to wrap my thoughts inwarmth and calm, even though my body was doing everything but cooperating.
I hoped they settled soon because each surge of their combined power sent fresh waves of pain cascading through my body. It was making my contractions bite deeper and last longer. They were trying to help, but they were also making everything infinitely worse.
