Nina dropped her tablet and rushed to my side. Her face was pale with worry. "Mom, what can I do? How can I help?" Her voice cracked with the kind of helpless desperation that came from watching someone you love suffer and being powerless to stop it.
"Honey, unless you've got some secret midwife training I don't know about, the best thing you can do is stay close and keep your eyes peeled," Nana said as she shifted her shotgun to her other hand so she could squeeze one of Nina’s. "We need to watch for that evil bitch who thinks she's entitled to these babies. She shows her face, and I'll show her what buckshot tastes like."
"Can I at least hold her hand or something?" Nina asked, her voice small.
"Course you can, sweetheart," Mom said gently, moving to Nina's other side. "Just be ready to duck if those babies decide to show off their magic again."
Through another wave of agony, I felt something else. It was a pulling sensation. Like invisible hooks dragging at the babies' power. Every surge of their magic was being siphoned away, feeding something hungry and malevolent.
"The ley lines," I gasped, understanding flooding through me as agony ripped through my core. "Something's pulling power from the babies. Every time they use their magic, it's being syphoned away and shredding me in the process."
The ground beneath us shuddered, and the ley lines convulsed like wounded animals. Each network of magicalenergy that connected sacred sites across the continent was being systematically corrupted. The backlash was flowing directly into my unborn children.
"She's using the labor," I realized through gritted teeth. "Lyra's feeding off their terror and pain to corrupt the ley lines faster."
Clio's healing magic pressed against me, trying to ease the pain. She pulled back with a sharp hiss when she tried to send a stronger wave into me. "I can't do anything. It’s like my powers don’t work anymore. The magical backlash is interfering with everything. Every time I try to slow the contractions, their power surges and makes it worse."
"Then don't fight it," Aidon said as his body wrapped around me. "Support her through it. Help her, don't try to stop it."
Clio's expression shifted from healer trying to fix a problem to midwife helping with a birth. "Okay. Okay, we can work with this." She moved to my other side, her hands now offering steadying warmth instead of intrusive magic. "Is there any time between contractions? It doesn’t seem like it."
"There is none," I panted as another wave began building. "They're just... constant now. Building and releasing and building again."
"That's not normal," Clio muttered, but she kept her voice calm and professional. "Even in magical births, there should be breaks between?—"
Her words were cut off as the next contraction erupted through me like molten metal in my veins. The babies' magic responded in kind. Their combined power created a maelstrom that made every piece of electronic equipment in our yard spark and die. Car alarms started wailing in our garage.
Nina winced as her tablet went completely dark, but she didn't spare it a glance. Instead, she remained beside me. Heryoung face was set with determination. "Tell me what you need, Mom. Anything."
"Just... stay close," I managed between gasps. "Don't let them take you too."
The back of Clio’s hand went to my forehead. She checked my pulse next. "Your heart rate is too high.” Her touch moved over my belly with professional efficiency next. “The babies' positioning..." She frowned. "Something's wrong. They're not moving into position. It's like they're fighting the birth."
"Because they're terrified," I said through gritted teeth. "They can feel Lyra getting stronger with every contraction.”
“They’re feeding off of your thoughts, Phoebe. You think that if they stay inside, you can keep fighting her," Tarja pointed out. “You need to shield your thoughts from them.”
“I’m trying,” I gritted out as Aidon supported me.
“We should move inside the house,” Nana pointed out. “Unless you want to give birth out here for all to see."
Shaking my head, I barely sucked in a breath when another surge of pain crashed through me. This time the magical backlash was visible. Golden, blue, and purple light erupted from my skin, creating a light show that painted everyone's faces in otherworldly colors. The beauty of it was completely ruined by the agony that made my vision blur white at the edges.
Aidon carried me into the house and took the stairs two at a time until we reached our room. He deposited me on the bed and climbed on beside me. Clio was right there, sending healing energy through me.
It felt like an eternity as the healer kept feeling my stomach. Finally, she looked up at Aidon and said, "This can't continue." Her professional mask had slipped to show real fear. "The magical strain is going to kill you. And if the babies won't move into position... I don't know how to deliver babies who are actively using their magic to resist birth."
"Can you calm them?" Aidon asked, his hands moving to frame my face. The pain stole my voice. All I could do was shake my head. My efforts with them weren’t working.
Clio made a noise I barely heard. "The babies are in distress." Those words slammed into me like a physical blow. Each syllable added to the terror already clawing at my chest. She knelt beside my bed. Her usually steady hands trembled as they pressed against my swollen belly. The professional mask she always wore had cracked. "Their fear is causing them to resist the natural birthing process."
My world tilted sideways. Through the haze of pain and exhaustion, Aidon's emotions crashed over me like a tidal wave. His rage at his own helplessness was enough to make it hard to breathe. Add to that his desperate love for our children. And underneath it all was a terror so deep it made my fear look like a gentle whisper. His hand found mine, squeezing so tight I thought my bones might crack. I welcomed the pain. It grounded me when everything else felt like it was spinning out of control.
"We need to find a way to get them out, or we're going to lose them." Clio's voice broke on the last word. Something inside me shattered completely. Lose them. The thought was like having my soul ripped from my body while I was still breathing.
The healer who had delivered half the magical babies in the city was admitting defeat. "I'm out of my depth here. This is a magical crisis that happens to involve labor. I need help."
Aidon's anguish slammed into me through our bond. His silent howl of fury and helplessness made my chest ache for him. His free hand clenched into a fist, his magic crackling along his skin like barely contained lightning. He was fighting every instinct that screamed at him todo something, to fix this, to protect us. But there was nothing he could do. That knowledge was eating him alive from the inside out.
