Chapter 2
The drive home took seventeen minutes. I counted every single one. My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles had gone white. I couldn't seem to let go even after we pulled into the driveway.
Nina kept glancing at me from the passenger seat.
Her mouth opened and closed like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.
In the back, the triplets had finally settled into sleep.
Their tiny chests rose and fell in perfect synchronization.
I'd almost lost them. At a farmer's market, of all places.
"Mom?" Nina's voice was small. "Are you okay?"
"No." The word came out harsher than I intended, but I couldn't manage the lie. "But I will be. Help me get them inside."
Nina helped me get the strollers out of the back before we tackled the babies.
She unbuckled Melaina while I carefully lifted Thaniel from his car seat.
His warmth seeped through my shirt, and I pressed my face against his downy black hair for just a moment.
Breathing in his baby scent—milk, magic, and something uniquely him—calmed some of the storm raging inside me.
He stirred but didn't wake when I pried his tiny hand off my collar and set him in the stroller.
Getting the babies out of the car was a juggling act I never could have managed alone.
Nyssa was last. Her purple eyes blinked open as I reached for her.
Her shadows stretched lazily toward me, making me think of Tarja waking from a nap.
I smiled at her when they wrapped around my wrist. Tears burned behind my eyes at the warmth that flooded through me—reassurance, comfort, love.
Whether she meant to send it or I was reading into things didn't matter.
I held her a little tighter than necessary before settling her into the stroller beside her sibling.
Aidon and Murtagh had built a ramp so I could bypass the stairs.
I grabbed the diaper bags and pushed one stroller while Nina managed the other.
I was vigilant as we made our way to the front door.
The moment we crossed the threshold, something shifted in my chest. It was a hollow ache I couldn't quite name. There wasn’t any danger close by.
Our wards would have screamed at me if there was anything to fear.
This was different. The house felt... hollow.
Empty in a way that had nothing to do with furniture or decoration and everything to do with the absence pressing against me like a physical weight.
Aidon was still in the Underworld meeting with his father. I'd gotten used to his presence without realizing it. The constant hum of his power usually permeated every room. And shadows clung a little closer to the walls when he was here. Without him, the house felt emptier.
“Miss him?” Tarja's voice slid into my mind, followed by the sensation of soft fur against my ankles. She'd been waiting by the door. Her green eyes narrowed on me with concern.
"Always," I murmured, heading straight for the nursery. "But right now I need him. Something happened when we were at the market."
Mom appeared in the hallway, dish towel still in her hands, her face draining of color the second she saw my expression. "Phoebe? What—"
"Everyone's fine," I said quickly, but my voice shook on the words as we went into the living room to lay the babies down. Yes, we had cribs in both places. We wanted the kids close when we were downstairs in case anything happened. All of the shit we’d been through had made me more than a touch paranoid about things.
Mom picked up Thaniel, and I grabbed Nyssa.
Nina was already settling Melaina into her crib in the nursery when we got to the room.
The obsidian runes along the frame immediately began absorbing the residual heat from our daughter's agitation.
Mom placed Thaniel into his lightning-proof sanctuary.
I placed Nyssa in her silk-draped haven with hands that had started trembling again.
They were safe. They were home. They were—The trembling turned into full-body shakes, and I collapsed into the rocking chair.
"Oh, hell no." Nana's voice cut through the doorway before she did. "Who do I need to curse? Because that's the look of someone who nearly got dead."
"I'm calling Aidon," Nina said before anyone could respond, grabbing the backup phone we kept for emergencies since Thaniel had fried her primary earlier. She paused, thumb hovering over his contact. "Unless you want to?"
"I can't." My voice sounded distant even to my own ears. "I'll break down if I hear his voice right now. That’ll wake the babies."
Mom approached me cautiously as her gaze kept darting to the babies. "Breathe, sweetheart. Just breathe."
I nodded as Nina stepped into the corner and began speaking in low, urgent tones. "Well, someone better start talking," Nana announced, planting herself on the ottoman with a grunt, "because I'm too old for suspense and too mean to be patient."
I sank deeper into the rocking chair while Nina made the call, my eyes fixed on the triplets.
Melaina's face was scrunched in sleep, her tiny fists clenched like she was ready to fight even in dreams. Thaniel's fingers sparked faintly, little arcs of electricity dancing between them in an irregular rhythm that matched his breathing.
And Nyssa... her shadows had settled around her like a blanket.
They pulsed gently, as if keeping time with her heartbeat.
“I’m with Nana on this one. You need to tell us already,” Tarja demanded, leaping onto the chair's arm. Her mental voice carried the sharp edge of command that only familiars could manage. “Everything.”
My eyes tracked Binx as he entered the nursery, and the words spilled from me.
Nina would have added her observations, but she was murmuring urgently into the phone.
I shuddered when I told them about the crawling sensation I'd felt at the market and the hooded figure watching us.
I thought I was going to throw up when I mentioned the reddish-orange energy lance that had come within inches of killing Melaina.
Mom's hand tightened on my knee until her knuckles went white. Nana's hand twitched like she was missing her shogun. "Tell me what this son of a bitch looked like. Every detail you can remember. Height, build, how he moved. Anything we can use to find the son of a bitch."
“I didn’t see much. He was pale. He had gray skin, maybe?" My throat felt tight. "His nails were—"
“Not nails,” Tarja finished for me as her fur stood on end. Her tail lashed with each word I spoke, the tip cracking like a whip. “Were they talons?”
“They were pale as bone with extra-long fingers ending in what looked like black nails or maybe small claws.”
"Jesus, Mary, and all the saints who've given up on this family," Nana muttered. "That's new."
A flutter of wings announced Mythia's arrival before the tiny pixie materialized on the arm of my chair.
Her teal eyes were sharp with concern. Light brown hair fell past her shoulders in a long braid, and she was holding a mug that smelled of chamomile and honey and was comically large for her size.
The pixie might be tiny, but she was stronger than she looked—in every way that mattered.
"I made you tea," she explained. Steam rose from the liquid in delicate spirals. "I thought it would help."
"Mythia, I don't—"
She gave me a look that cut me off. "It’s your mother’s special blend. Just drink it. You need a clear head."
I took the cup with shaking hands. The warmth seeped into my palms. The first sip sent heat cascading through my chest, easing the knot of tension that had been strangling me since the market. “This is helping,” I admitted. “Thanks for insisting.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” she told me.
“Tell me if this is close to what you saw.” Tarja projected an image so clear it might as well have been a photograph.
I shuddered involuntarily and nodded. “That’s a good replica,” Nina interjected as she ended the call, telling me Tarja had shown it to everyone. "Aidon's coming. Like, right now. He sounded—" She paused, searching for the right word. "Scary."
That was fair. Aidon in full protective mode could make gods nervous.
I'd seen him face down Hades himself when his father had suggested the triplets might be safer in the Underworld.
The argument had ended with scorch marks on the throne room floor and Persephone diplomatically suggesting they all take a breath.
"We will kill it and make sure the babies are safe,” my familiar promised.
"I appreciate the sentiment," I said, running my hand down her back. "But we need to figure out who it is first."
"Once we know, we kill them,” she purred, the sound promising violence.
"Then we kill them," I agreed.
"Damn right we do," Nana said. "And I want first dibs on their kneecaps."
Mom shot her a look. "Mother."
Nana gave Mom an exasperated look. "What? I'm being helpful. Kneecaps first means they can't run while we're questioning them."
Mythia zipped around the room, checking each crib.
Her expression was one of love and fierce protectiveness.
Like the rest of the people who had become family, she would die to protect our babies.
Her tiny hands brushed over the protective runes, reinforcing them with sparks of pixie magic that glittered like starlight.
My gaze skipped to the door when I felt Aidon’s presence. The back door slammed open hard enough that I heard it up in the nursery. Footsteps thundered through the house.
"Oh good," Nana said dryly. "The angry god has arrived. Someone get me popcorn."
"Mother," Mom hissed
Then Aidon was there, filling the doorway with divine energy that made the air taste like ozone and dark wine. His normally sapphire eyes had gone completely black. The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.