Chapter 5 #3
We brought them up to date on the latest and were just finishing up when Layla emerged from the woods, shifting back to her human form. She took the robe Nana handed her. "I found two more sets near the western perimeter. They're all positioned with clear sightlines to different windows."
"They've been mapping the house." Aidon stood, fury rolling off him in waves so thick I could taste it. It was bitter and electric on my tongue. "Learning our routines. Identifying vulnerabilities."
A baby's wail cut through the morning air. My head snapped around to see Nina jump as Melaina's cry pierced straight through my chest. My oldest daughter kept her head enough to keep a firm hold of her crying sister. I was about to ask what was wrong when Thaniel and Nyssa joined in.
It hit me that it wasn’t their hungry or messy cry. This was something else, entirely. Nyssa squirmed in my arms, her tiny face scrunching as shadows began leaking from her skin. Thaniel's cry carried a static charge that made Mom's hair lift.
"Something's wrong," I gasped. I was barely able to contain my witch fire. The heat from it sparked unbidden beneath my fingertips.
Nina shifted Melaina in her arms, and I watched the baby's skin flush an alarming shade of red. "She's burning up—"
The words died in her throat as heat shimmered across Melaina's tiny form, making the air around her ripple. Nina bit back a yelp as Aidon stepped closer and put his hand on Melaina’s back.
"They're reacting to something," Aidon observed.
"They sensed the surveillance," Tarja projected. "They sense the dark magic and don’t like it."
"How?" My voice cracked. "They're three months old—"
Movement exploded from the tree line. It came fast. My brain registered the blur of gray that was roughly human-shaped. The next thing I knew, those pit eyes locked onto Nyssa with predatory focus. Time crystallized into sharp, brutal clarity.
"Take her!" I shoved Nyssa into Nina's free arm. Her shadows wrapped around all of them as if trying to shield them. "Get behind the inner wards. You and Thaniel, too, Mom. Now!"
"Phoebe—" Mom started.
"Go!"
Nina didn't argue. She turned and ran, Mom right beside her with Thaniel clutched tight to her chest. Latin spilled from Nina’s lips.
The spell was cast quickly. A shimmering dome of golden light erupted around the two of them and all three babies.
The shield would hold long enough to get them to safety.
And not a second too soon. The creature had lifted one clawed hand. Dark energy gathered around those talons and coalesced. It lunged forward with inhuman speed—and slammed into an invisible barrier ten feet from us.
The outer wards flared to life, brilliant white magic crackling across the creature's gray flesh, making it shriek. The creature threw itself against the outer wards again. This time, they buckled. The magic spider-webbed with cracks before shattering into a million pieces.
"How is it doing that?" Layla demanded, already shifting mid-stride.
Bones cracked and reformed with nauseating speed as black fur erupted across her skin.
Beside her, Murtagh's transformation mirrored hers, but with dark brown fur.
Within heartbeats, two massive wolves stood ready, lips peeled back from fangs that could tear through steel.
"It's designed to break wards," Tarja snarled, her mental voice edged with fury. "Thessmark excise magic. It’s not a stretch to think they can do that to the wards. And clearly, it has been working on the outer ones for a bit now."
The creature's skin began to smoke where it touched the next layer of wards, but it didn't retreat. Didn't even slow. Those talons raked across the magical barrier, each strike sending shockwaves through the air that I felt in my bones.
I threw my hand forward, and teal fire erupted from my palm in a concentrated blast. The flames hit the creature square in the chest and slammed into gray flesh with enough force to make it stagger. The smell of burning corruption filled the air, but it barely slowed.
Aidon's shadows exploded outward like a living weapon, wrapping around the creature's arms and pushing it backward away from the wards. Away from my children. "You don't get to touch them."
The creature thrashed in his shadow grip. Its head swiveled toward Aidon and screamed. The sound was hungry and fueled by twisted power. Aidon’s shadows wavered. For one terrible heartbeat, I thought they'd break.
Aidon's expression went cold. Colder than I'd ever seen. His shadows tightened, and I watched the creature's gray skin begin to dissolve where they touched. It began flaking away like ash. revealing something underneath that looked like tarnished metal fused with bone.
"What the hell is that thing made of?" Nana growled as she threw a magical bomb at it, which was simply absorbed into it.
Layla circled it with Murtagh flanking the opposite side, both looking for an opening.
Behind us, Tseki's shift rippled through the air.
The magic from it made my skin prickle. His body elongated and expanded, scales erupting across his skin in a cascade of emerald green.
The transformation was fluid, graceful, nothing like the bone-cracking brutality of the wolves.
Within seconds, a serpentine Chinese dragon coiled across the ground between the Thessmark and the retreating forms of Nina and Mom.
He was now thirty feet of scaled muscle and ancient power, too large to take flight in the dense tree line but perfectly positioned as a living wall. His whiskers streamed as he lowered his massive head. His eyes fixed on the creature with predatory focus.
"It's still trying to reach them," Tarja projected, her mental voice tight with rage. "It isn’t afraid of Aidon. All it cares about is the children."
My witch fire erupted in both hands, and teal flames licked up my arms. "We will just have to disabuse it of that fixation."
The creature did something I didn't expect. It split apart into dozens of smaller pieces, escaping Aidon’s shadows. It scattered in every direction before reforming beyond the outer wards' reach.
"No!" Aidon's roar of frustration echoed across the yard as his shadows grasped at empty air.
The creature was whole again but diminished.
Smaller. Weaker. But those awful eyes tried to see around Tseki with single-minded hunger.
It turned as if to circle, to find another way in, but Layla was on it before it took two steps.
Eight hundred pounds of pissed-off shifter slammed into the creature with bone-crushing force.
She drove it further from the wards. Her jaws closed around what passed for its shoulder.
I heard the sickening crunch of whatever served as its bones breaking.
Murtagh hit it from the other side. Their dark fur was rapidly streaked with the creature's strange blood as their fangs tore into gray flesh.
The creature shrieked and twisted with unnatural fluidity.
Its talons raked across Layla's flank and sliced furrows open through her black fur. She didn’t relent.
The creature staggered under the combined assault but didn't fall.
Whatever these things were made of, they were built to take punishment.
Aidon's shadows wrapped around the creature's legs this time and yanked it off balance. It hit the ground hard enough to crack the earth. The impact vibrated through my boots.
The creature thrashed, those black talons digging into dirt as it tried to drag itself toward the house. Toward my children. Jesus, that was disturbing.
"Persistent bastard," Nana snapped as she looked for a vulnerable place to shoot it.
I stepped forward, teal fire blazing hot enough to make the air shimmer. "You won't get them."
The creature's pit eyes met mine, and I felt the weight of its attention. It was hungry, patient, and calculating.
It dissolved again and scattered into the tree line like smoke on the wind.
Both wolves gave chase, disappearing into the underbrush.
Tseki's serpentine form launched into the air, flying above the trees.
His emerald scales flashed between branches.
I already knew they wouldn't catch it. Whatever these things were, they could escape in ways we hadn't anticipated.
Aidon stood twenty feet out with his chest heaving and his shadows still writhing around him in barely contained rage. When he looked back at me, his expression nearly broke me. I went to him and wrapped my arms around him. “We survived.”
He sucked in a breath and refused to meet my gaze. “But the Thessmark just showed us exactly how outmatched we are. And they got close enough to confirm what they'd come for. They know the triplets' power is worth the effort.”