Chapter 4
Vera's words about fear and anger corrupting the spell barely had time to register when a sound ripped through the night. It made every atom in my body stand at attention. It wasn't a howl exactly. It was more like someone had taught a rusty chainsaw to sing lullabies while gargling glass.
The ritual circle collapsed as everyone's attention snapped toward the tree line.
Persephone's spring magic flared defensively while Hades' power began spreading like spilled ink across the lawn.
My hand flew to my belly as the triplets responded to the immediate threat with agitated movements that felt like tiny prizefighters warming up.
"What in the seven hells was that?" Nana demanded, clutching her shotgun.
The answer came bounding out of the woods on legs that were bent at odd angles. They might have been three wolves at one time. Calling them wolves now was like calling a tornado a light breeze.
“We can thank Lyra for these abominations,” Mom snarled.
I wanted to check on her and make sure she was okay. Seeing more of Lyra’s experimentation victims would be a sore subject for her. Mom was a tri-bred creature now, thanks to that vile witch, but I couldn’t move my eyes from the wolves.
Once upon a time, these things had probably been so beautiful you couldn’t help but stop and stare.
Now? Not so much. Their fur looked like someone had taken a weed whacker to it.
It was patchy and sad. It also hung off bodies that had clearly missed more than a few meals. Way more. Like, all the meals.
Their eyes were the real showstoppers, though. Orange lights danced where normal eyeballs should be. They left glowing trails when they turned their heads. It was the kind of special effect that would've been cool in a movie, but in real life? Hard pass.
Oh, and the drooling. There was so much drooling.
Thick ropes of saliva hung from jaws that unhinged like a broken suitcase and gaped wide enough to park a Honda Civic.
Someone had also clearly gone shopping in the shark aisle of the monster parts store, because those razor-sharp triangles belonged in the ocean.
“Who would do something like that?” Nina lamented.
“The crazy bitch trying to steal our sisters and brother,” Jean-Marc replied at the same time as one of the wolves fixed its burning gaze on me.
The intelligence there was shocking, given the condition of the rest of it. It opened that horrible mouth and spoke in a voice like grinding bones. "The children will feed us. The blood will make us whole."
"The hell they will," I snarled. My magic flared hot enough to make the air shimmer.
Aidon stepped in front of me. His divine power manifested as black iron spikes that thrust from the ground like defensive walls. "Phoebe, get back to the house."
"No way," I replied. Apparently, being eight months pregnant hadn't cured my stubborn streak. "I'm not abandoning our ritual."
"The ritual is postponed until we deal with this," Mom said firmly. Her teeth had sharpened, and her fingernails elongated as parts of her tri-bred nature rose to the surface. "These things are here for the babies."
The second wolf-creature laughed. The sound was like breaking glass mixed with dying screams. "The witch-mother calls us. We hunt what she desires." Its massive head swiveled toward me again. "Four hearts beat within one. Such power will feed our hunger."
Before anyone could get a word out—or you know, maybe run for their lives like sensible people—all three wolves decided it was go time.
They moved like a death squad, eating up the space between the trees and the garden faster than I could process what was happening.
Which, let's be honest, wasn't saying much given my current state of ‘what the actual hell is my life right now’.
Murtagh's battle cry likely registered on the Richter scale. He shifted mid-sprint, and holy wow. His wolf was the kind of gorgeous that made you forget you were about to die. He was rippling muscle and predatory grace wrapped up in a package that screamed pissed off apex predator.
When he slammed into the lead wolf, it sounded like someone had crashed a semi into the side of a skyscraper. Except louder. And with more teeth involved.
The second wolf veered toward the coven witches. Its burning eyes were fixed on Vera. She threw her hands up, and moonbell flowers erupted from the ground in a defensive ring. The chiming intensified to a painful pitch that made the creature stumble, clawing at its misshapen ears.
"The sound disrupts whatever magic is driving them," Vera called out over the noise. "But it won't hold them long."
The third wolf ignored everyone else and came straight for me. Its massive paws left smoking prints in the grass as it bounded forward. Aidon's shadows rose to meet it. Somehow, it crashed through the spikes with only a slight stumble.
"Oh, hell no," I muttered, channeling my magic through sheer protective fury. Golden light erupted from my hands. I was so torn between being shocked and keeping the magic flowing that I almost missed when it skidded to a halt with a yelp of genuine pain.
"Phoebe, your stress levels—" Clio started.
"Are the least of our problems right now," I finished, maintaining the magical barrier between me and the creature. The effort sent contractions rippling through my belly. I had to grit my teeth and hold firm.
The wolf began circling. It was obviously looking for any weaknesses in my defense.
Its orange eyes had dimmed slightly where my magic had hit them, but the intelligence behind them remained uncomfortably keen.
"You cannot protect them forever, star-daughter.
We know where you nest. We know where you sleep. "
"Yeah, well, I know where you're about to die," I shot back, pouring more power into the barrier.
Hades appeared beside the circling wolf without warning.
He moved so fast that he left afterimages.
His hand closed around the creature's throat.
I expected it to wither and die. Instead, the corruption began burning away like acid under his touch.
The wolf-thing shrieked and clawed, but the Lord of the Underworld held firm.
"Tell your mistress," Hades said in a voice that could have frozen lava, "that threatening my family was her final mistake." He squeezed, and the creature dissolved into ash that scattered in the wind.
Meanwhile, Murtagh and the lead wolf were having their own private war.
It was destroying what used to be a perfectly nice lawn.
Both of them moved like they'd been choreographed by someone with serious anger management issues.
Whatever Lyra had done to this thing had cranked it up to eleven on the "things that want to eat your face" scale.
Way past anything Mother Nature had ever intended.
The wolf's claws found Murtagh's shoulder, carving red tracks that caught the moonlight like some twisted form of modern art.
And that was when Tseki officially lost his shit.
He barreled forward looking like he'd forgotten every etiquette lesson he'd ever learned.
He looked ready to burn down half the county.
When someone messed with his mate, ‘civilized dragon’ went right out the window.
Fire bloomed around his hands, but this wasn't your standard backyard barbecue flame.
He aimed his dragon fire straight at the wolf's nastier bits.
The thing's scream shattered glass three counties over.
It also shattered three windows in the house.
The orange glow in its eyes started flickering like a dying lightbulb.
That's when wolf number three went statue-still and locked eyes on something behind us. Then it smiled. If you could call it that. I'd call it the kind of expression that makes you want to check your life insurance policy.
"The door opens," it said in that grinding voice. "The witch-mother calls us home."
A black portal tore itself into existence twenty feet away. Through it stepped a woman. Underneath the human mask was something ancient and hungry that had never been remotely human. "The Forgotten One," Persephone breathed
“The who?” I blurted before I backed up.
The woman's head swiveled toward me with the kind of interest that made every survival instinct I had start screaming. When she smiled, I got a good look at teeth that belonged in a horror movie. "The star-bearer. How convenient. My employer grows impatient."
"Your employer can bite me," I shot back, though my voice was more terrified chipmunk at the moment.
The Forgotten One laughed, and it sounded like someone had recorded a blizzard eating a wind chime, then played it backwards through a megaphone. "Oh, she intends to do much more than that."
Suddenly, the portal behind it began pulling—not physically, but magically.
The parasitic connections responded as well.
They were helping to drag me and the triplets toward whatever hellscape waited on the other side.
The babies' protective magic flared in response. It wasn’t enough to stop the pull.
"The bonds call them home," the Forgotten One crooned. "Come willingly, and the little ones need not suffer."
"Over my dead body," Aidon snarled. His power erupted in waves that made the portal flicker.
"That can be arranged," the creature replied pleasantly.
Nana stepped forward with her shotgun and proved that sometimes the simplest solutions were the most effective.
She had loaded special shells. She had Murtagh help her make them using enchanted iron and salt from the Dead Sea.
When she pulled the trigger, the blast caught the Forgotten One center mass.
The creature stumbled backward with a shriek.
"Fucking tourists," Nana muttered, pumping another shell into the chamber. "Always thinking they can come into my garden and threaten my family."