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 was the 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 other than 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 in warmth 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.
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 magical energy 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."