Page 37 of Bedrest Blues & Otherworldly Clues
The front door exploded inward with a crash that sent splinters flying. Aidon materialized beside me in a whirlwind of darkness. His shadows danced around him like living things.
"Phoebe!" His voice cracked as he dropped to his knees beside me. Panic was etched into every line of his face. Even in my pain-fogged state, I could see the raw fear in his eyes. He never showed fear. "What the hell happened?"
"Your brilliant wife decided to nuke Lyra's forces with a magical bomb," Nana drawled as she cocked her shotgun. Was that a Molotov cocktail hanging from her hip? "Took 'em all out. She also nearly took herself out inthe process."
Aidon's hands trembled as they hovered over my swollen belly. "The babies?"
"Critical," Clio snapped, not looking up from her work. "We're going to lose them if we don't stop these contractions now."
"Fuck that," Aidon growled. His shadows surged forward, wrapping around my abdomen as he poured his power into me. His eyes turned completely black as he connected with our unborn children. "We need you three to fight to stay here. And don’t try to save your mother. I have her. You worry about yourselves."
"You were losing," I whispered. Another contraction stole my words as my back arched off the floor. "Couldn't... watch you die."
Aidon's expression softened for just a moment before hardening with determination. "And I can't watch you die. Or our children." His power surged, and the room temperature dropped twenty degrees as he channeled more energy than I'd ever felt from him before.
"It's working," Persephone announced as she and Hades entered the house. Her golden light mixed with Aidon's darkness in a swirl of power. "The contractions are slowing."
Exhaustion hit me like a freight train. My eyelids weighed a thousand pounds each. "Are they... okay?"
"They're fighters. Like their mother," Aidon said in a voice rough with emotion. He gathered me into his arms with impossible gentleness for a being of such power. "No more heroics. I mean it, Phoebe. Nothing is worth losing you and these babies."
Clio continued healing me while he carried me up the stairs. I could feel her repairing my cervix. It was an odd sensation, but I was too tired to give it much thought. My head lolling against his chest. My eyes refused to close until I knew my babies were okay. A sigh left me when I felt themstir weakly within me. They were alive. We had survived. For now.
But Lyra would be back. And next time, I'd need a better plan than ‘launch a magical nuke and hope for the best’. As darkness claimed me, I felt Aidon's shadows wrap protectively around us all. I'd once found them terrifying. Now, I couldn't imagine living without them.
CHAPTER 12
My eyes slowly opened and landed on the aurora surrounding our house. It had become a permanent fixture. It shifted from vibrant waves of color during the day to a subtle, pulsing glow at night. Three days had passed since our improvised counterattack. We'd entered an uneasy stalemate with Lyra's forces. They hadn't launched another full-scale assault since we'd repelled them with my magical EMP.
I shifted uncomfortably in my bed and watched the early morning sunlight filter through the window. It cast rainbow patterns across the floor where it passed through the magical barrier. My body ached from the strain of carrying three increasingly active magical babies and from the magical exertion of days ago. I was nearly thirty-one weeks pregnant, and each day felt like a miracle. Clio had begun giving me betamethasone injections to develop the babies’ lungs. It was a precautionary measure that would ensure they survived if she couldn’t stop labor next time.
"You look like hell warmed over," Nana declared as she entered with my morning tea.
"That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me," I replied as I accepted the steaming mug gratefully. "Any news from the overnight patrols?"
"All is quiet on the western front," she said, perching on the edge of my bed. "Too quiet, if you ask me. That witch is planning something big."
“Yeah, the Ascension,” I replied as I sipped.
Nina entered then with a flushed face. She clutched a small leather pouch that seemed to be writhing in her grasp. "We have a problem," she announced without preamble. "A big one."
I set down my tea and was immediately alert. "What is it?"
Nina held up the bag like it contained a venomous snake. "I was preparing the emergency supplies. You know the extra potions, spelled crystals, and daggers. Something was off as I was working." She opened the pouch and carefully extracted what looked like ordinary sea salt. "This was supposed to be purified for protection circles."
"It's not?" I asked. Cocking my head, I squinted and really looked at the stuff. A second later, I noted a faint sickly glow.
"It's been corrupted," Nina confirmed grimly. "And not just this. All of our backup magical resources have been ruined. The emergency crystals, reserve potions, and even the enchanted weapons. They've all been tainted with Lyra's magic."
Nana cursed colorfully. "That sneaky, manipulative, conniving?—"
"How did she manage this?" I interrupted. "We've been checking everything that enters the house."
"That's just it," Nina said as she set the corrupted salt on my nightstand where it continued to emit its subtle, malevolent glow. "This corruption is different from what we've seen before. It's like a magical slow-release poison.It was clean when it entered the house, but over time, it's been slowly transforming."
"Which will limit our options when it comes down to fighting her," I realized. "If we can't trust our reserves..."
"We're essentially fighting with one arm tied behind our backs," Nana finished.
