Page 41 of Bedrest Blues & Otherworldly Clues
Aidon felt it immediately. "Focus, Phoebe," he shouted. "We'll deal with traitors later. Right now, we need to survive this attack, and I don’t want the backlash to hurt you while you're thinking of something else."
He was right. I pulled my scattered emotionsback under control and tried to regain my composure. That wasn’t easy. The babies were insistent, and my magic wanted to be out there.
"They're fighting in pairs," Clio observed, watching the coordinated defense. "The magic is more effective, but it's draining them twice as fast."
She was right. I could feel their energy signatures flickering like candles in a strong wind. Each coordinated attack was devastating to Lyra's forces but cost our defenders dearly. I wasn't the only one who noticed.
"They're trying to exhaust us," I said. "They have shifted gears. Now, it's attrition warfare."
A searing pain suddenly lanced through my abdomen. It was sharp enough to double me over. The magical connection wavered as I gasped for breath.
"That's it," Clio declared as her hands moved to another spot. "No more heroics. You're putting too much strain on your body."
"I can't just watch them die!" I protested as she began weaving healing magic around me.
"And they can't watch you and these babies die," she countered firmly. "Trust them to handle this. They're stronger than you think."
As if to prove her point, Aidon roared with fury on the battlefield. His shadows erupted into a maelstrom of dark energy that tore through a dozen corrupted creatures. The display would have been awe-inspiring if I couldn't feel how much it cost him. He was pushing himself to the breaking point.
Another contraction seized me, and I bit my lip to keep from screaming. This wasn't good. The babies' magic was surging chaotically within me. But instead of directing it outward as I'd been doing, they turned it inward. They created a protective cocoon around themselves.
"Something's happening," I gasped, placing my hands on my belly. "The triplets—they're doing something new."
A golden luminescence spread from my abdomen, flowing outward until it covered my entire body. It pulsed in time with my heartbeat, growing brighter with each beat. The light began spreading across the floor in a pattern that looked oddly familiar.
"Those are Hattie's sigils," Nana exclaimed as she recognized them before I did. "I’ve seen them in her grimoire!"
She was right. The magical light was tracing protection symbols that I'd seen in Hattie's grimoire. They were ancient runes designed to safeguard Pleiades witches and their bloodline. But I'd never activated these. I didn't even know how.
"The house," Clio whispered, her eyes widening in understanding. "The foundation spells are responding to the triplets."
Nana laughed, a sound of pure delight that seemed bizarrely out of place amid the chaos. "Hattie, you clever old witch! You built in a failsafe!"
The golden light reached the walls and began climbing upward. It illuminated hidden sigils and protection runes that had been carved into the very bones of our home. They'd been dormant for years, perhaps decades. The shielding spells were woven into the house's foundation by Hattie long before I'd met her, let alone inherited her power.
The magic spread outward from our home in expanding rings of golden light, reinforcing our faltering wards with ancient power that felt older and more primal than anything I'd wielded before. It carried the essence of the original Pleiades sisters. The daughters born to the Titan Atlas and the sea nymph Pleione. Their power was as raw as the divine seven who had been created in a time when the boundaries between gods and mortalswere thinner.
Zeus and the other Olympians feared the sisters' combined strength might one day rival their own, and they sent them to Earth. They became the first witches. Their energy now surged through our protection spells. It was ancient, celestial, and untamed. Where this power touched Lyra's forces, they recoiled as if burned.
"Holy crap, what is that?" Jean-Marc's voice came through the shattered window. He stood in the yard, gaping at the golden light emanating from our house.
"Hattie's last gift," I replied, though I knew he couldn't hear me. "Her final protection."
The corrupted creatures screamed as the golden light engulfed them. They withered like plants touched by frost. Their stolen power dissipated back into the natural world. Within minutes, what had been a desperate battle turned into a decisive victory.
As the last of Lyra's forces retreated or fell, the golden light began to recede. It pulled back toward the house, sinking into the walls and floor until only faint traces remained. I collapsed against my pillows, utterly spent.
"Did we win?" I asked weakly.
"For now," Aidon replied from the doorway. He was leaning heavily against the frame. His clothing was torn and spotted with something that looked like black ichor. Despite his exhaustion, his eyes burned with fierce pride as they met mine. "That was some display of power, little queen."
"Not mine," I corrected, patting my belly. "Theirs. And Hattie's."
He crossed to the bed and sat beside me, taking my hand in his. "Hattie's protections were impressive, but they wouldn't have activated without the triplets' power triggering them. And the triplets wouldn't have been able to channel that much energy without you guiding them."
I squeezed his hand weakly. "Is Stella okay?"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking," my best friend called as she limped into the room. Her shirt was torn and bloody. Clio raced over and began healing her immediately. "Just a few scratches. That magical shield you sent my way saved my ass. I'm just glad the effort didn’t hurt you."
