Chapter 15
Ihad maybe five seconds before the Thessmark reached me. That wasn't long to do something, anything, before Audrey Taverner got her hands on me and made good on her threat. I had to save myself, and by extension, our children.
I spent four of those seconds trying to find power that wasn't there.
My inner fire guttered weakly. I tried to conjure my witch fire in my hands.
It was barely more than sparks. Destroying the Scythe had drained me past empty, leaving my magical core feeling like a wrung-out sponge.
My knees shook from pure exhaustion, and my vision kept graying at the edges.
I spent the fifth second doing something stupid.
Without stopping to second-guess the impulse, I slammed my hand against the stone floor.
I spoke a word that Tarja whispered through my mind.
She might have been explaining what it would do, but I was too focused on getting the hell out of there to pay attention.
The floor beneath me rippled like water, then dissolved entirely.
And the world rushed past me as I fell. My body passed through darkness that pressed against my skin like velvet wrapped in thorns.
I didn't have the power to manipulate dimensional magic.
That kind of magic was difficult for most gods.
But desperation makes you capable of impossible things.
And right then, I was desperate enough to tear holes in the Hellmouth itself to escape.
Audrey's furious scream followed me into the void. It echoed strangely as I plummeted through a space. Did I open a dimensional slip? Or was it a portal? That wasn't as important as focusing on being deposited somewhere safe. Somewhere I desperately needed to be. And survive the landing.
The next thing I knew, the impact with solid ground was knocking every molecule of air from my lungs.
My poor ribs would never recover. I hit concrete hard enough that stars exploded across my vision.
For one terrible moment, I couldn't breathe.
Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything except lie there like a landed fish, gasping uselessly.
"Phoebe!" Familiar hands grabbed my shoulders and hauled me upright. Aidon's face swam into focus, his sapphire eyes wild with terror and rage. "What the fuck—how did you—"
"Desperation," I managed to wheeze out, my ribs screaming in protest. Holy shit, it had actually worked. "Tarja instructed me on how to use the dimensional magic to get out."
Stella appeared at my other side, her pink witch fire crackling around her hands as her gaze flew around us. "Can you move? Because we need to go. Now."
"Working on it." I let them pull me to my feet, biting back a groan as my abused body protested every movement. Everything hurt. My ribs were cracked. My shoulder throbbed where the Thessmark had sliced me. And my magical core felt like someone had scraped it raw with sandpaper.
Nana was already in the car, shotgun across her lap. "Get in. We're leaving before more of those things show up."
Aidon practically threw me into the back seat before sliding in beside me.
He pulled the door shut with enough force to make the entire vehicle rock.
Stella got behind the wheel, and within fifteen seconds of my arrival, we were moving.
Stella drove like a madwoman through town.
Her knuckles were white on the steering wheel.
"Taverner?" she asked, taking a corner fast enough to make the tires squeal.
"Shit," Aidon gasped as he hit the door. His shadows flickered weakly around him. They were barely more substantial than smoke.
"Taverner is alive,” I replied. “She's coming for the babies."
"I think I lost ten years of my life listening to that," Jean-Marc grumbled. His voice echoed through the earbud that was somehow still in my ear.
"Is the building still standing?" I asked my son.
"Surprisingly, it’s structurally sound,” Jean-Marc replied. “The explosion was contained to the sublevel. Your containment circle worked better than we hoped. But the magical discharge knocked out power to a six-block radius, so emergency services are on their way. They will have company soon."
My relief lasted approximately three seconds before terror replaced it. Through my bond with Tarja, I felt a spike of fear from her that made my heart stop. The sensation was sharp and immediate, as if someone had driven a spike of ice directly into my chest.
"The house," I gasped, grabbing Aidon's arm hard enough to bruise. "Something's happening at the house."
Stella's foot slammed down on the accelerator. The car surged forward with enough force to snap my head back against the seat. We were fifteen minutes away from home, but she made it in nine. She ran red lights and took corners that made the tires scream in protest.
Through our bond, Tarja showed me that the Thessmark were at the property line. A platoon of them with their gray skin gleaming in the moonlight. They were battering at the wards, trying to get past them.
Nana lowered her window and shot the Thessmark so Stella could zip past them and speed down the driveway. We pulled up to find our worst nightmare made manifest. At least forty Thessmark surrounded the property. They hadn't breached yet, but it was only a matter of time.
Shit. Standing at the front of this assault force and directing them with calm authority that made me want to set something on fire was Audrey Taverner herself. It was unfreaking real.
"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me," Nana snapped. "What did she do? Portal here on a goddamn express lane while we were stuck in traffic?"
"She must have used the dimensional magic to get here before us," Aidon snarled. He called his power up despite his exhaustion. It answered sluggishly—like it was dragging itself out of bed after a three-day bender—but it came.
Of course she did. Because apparently, evil megalomaniacs came with a complimentary subscription to Backup Plans Monthly. We’d learned that with Lyra.
Taverner saw our car, and her smile turned triumphant. She looked completely unharmed. The stolen essence she'd consumed was clearly working overtime. "There you are! I was just about to introduce myself to your family. But since you've saved me the trouble of hunting you down..."
She gestured with one hand, and half the Thessmark turned toward us.
The other half continued their assault on the wards.
They were still a good twenty feet from the house.
Their clawed hands scraped against the invisible barriers that kept them from our children.
Sparks of disrupted magic cascaded through the air with each strike.
Golden light bled like wounds across the protective shield.
The four of us piled out of the car. We were exhausted, injured, running on fumes and stubborn will. But there were forty Thessmark hell-bent on breaking through to take our babies. We didn't have a choice but to fight.
Defensive magic flared from the house. Selene and the members of the coven she’d brought earlier were working with Mom and Nina to reinforce the wards from inside. Thank the gods they were still holding. Against this many opponents and a sustained assault, they wouldn't hold long.
Overhead, Tseki roared. He soared through the darkness close to the house, his green scales gleaming in the moonlight. He'd stayed behind when Aidon and I left with Nana and Stella. Now I'd never been more grateful for his stubborn loyalty.
On the ground, Murtagh and Layla prowled in their wolf forms, leading the small pack of shifters that lived on our properties.
Wolves, a bear, and mountain lions formed a semi-circle between the Thessmark and the house.
Their teeth were bared and ready. They hadn't engaged yet.
They were waiting and watching. Their muscles were coiled tight with lethal intent, making the message clear.
You want our family? You'll have to go through us first.
"Jean-Marc," Stella snapped, reminding me he was still connected through the earbud. "We need backup. Now. Call everyone you can reach from the Mystic coven. And everyone in the network. I updated the file before we left. If they can fight, we need them here five minutes ago."
"I’ve been sending messages." I could hear frantic typing in the background. "Clio was already mobilizing local supernatural families. Lilith is out there with the coven. I've received confirmations from Portland and three smaller cities within fifty miles. ETA for the first wave is eight minutes."
Eight minutes. We had to hold for eight minutes against forty Thessmark while they tried to break into our house and harm our children. While struggling to breathe. Not great odds.
The front door burst open, and Clio came running out like a knight in shining armor. "I’ve got you, Phoebe!” She laid her hands on me, and her healing magic seeped into my chest. “Don't you dare argue with me!"
I didn't have the energy even if I'd wanted to.
Her hands moved to my broken ribs after her initial scan told her where my injuries were the worst. The deep, warm sensation of bone and muscle knitting back together flooded through me.
The constant ache that had been my companion with every breath evaporated.
I could breathe again without wanting to scream.
It was followed by energy filling my starved cells.
"Better?" Clio demanded, already moving toward Aidon.
"So much better." I rolled my shoulders, testing how I felt. Everything moved the way it was supposed to. There was no grinding or stabbing pain.
Clio grabbed Aidon's arm before he could protest. The exhaustion drained from his face as her magic worked through him. His shadows, which had been sluggish, surged with renewed vigor. They spread across the ground like an oil slick, eager and deadly.
"Now go fuck them up," Clio said, already retreating toward the house. "I've got to help maintain the wards."
I called my fire, and this time, it answered like a lover who'd been kept waiting too long.
It was desperate, hungry, and ready to burn the whole damn world down.
Teal flames erupted across my palms, licking up my forearms with an eagerness that made my pulse spike.
The fire wanted justice for the infants who lost their lives and for our babies who were being hunted like prey.
Good. So did I. "We need to send a message," I told my mate. "One that says you don't fuck with our children and walk away intact."
“Hell yeah, we do,” Stella agreed as her pink witch fire blazed to life.
On my other side, Nana stood with her shotgun cocked and ready.
Her silver hair whipped in the wind like some kind of avenging angel.
"Hey! Taverner!" Nana's voice rang out across the lawn, making the Thessmark pause mid-assault on our wards.
"Yeah, you! Your face looks like a haunted leather handbag that got left in the sun too long and then beaten with the ugly stick for good measure! " Jesus Christ, Nana.
But whatever insane strategy my grandmother had cooked up in that terrifying brain of hers worked. Taverner's attention snapped from the wards to us faster than a whip crack. Her expression twisted with rage.
The stolen essence in her eyes pulsed brighter.
"You think this is funny?" Taverner's voice climbed an octave, shrill enough to make my teeth ache.
"You think mocking me changes anything? I've been gathering power for fifty years!
I've harvested more than you can imagine! I've made myself immortal!"
She pointed at Nana with one shaking finger.
Orange light gathered around her hand like a diseased halo.
"And you—" Her voice dropped to something deadly, something that made the hair on my arms stand up despite the heat of my own flames.
"—are just a pathetic old woman who got magic as a consolation prize from her granddaughter. You’re nothing more than a scrap. "
Nana's response was to rack her shotgun with a sound that carried across the yard like thunder. "Yeah? Well, this pathetic old woman is about to show you that salt, iron, and spite will fuck up your day regardless of how many babies you've murdered. Now get off my lawn."
Nana pulled the trigger, and the Thessmark attacked.
They surged forward as one coordinated mass.
The shifters met them head-on. Wolves and Thessmark collided in a chaos of fur and claws and inhuman shrieks.
Murtagh's massive wolf tore into the nearest Thessmark's throat while Layla's smaller but faster form darted between enemies, hamstringing them with surgical precision.
Through the bond, Tarja showed me what was happening inside. Mom, Nina, Clio, and Selene were working frantically to reinforce the wards. The babies were crying. Their power was spiking in response to the danger, making the lights flicker and shadows dance.
"Hold on," I whispered, knowing they couldn't hear me but saying it anyway. "Just hold on." Help was coming.