Page 48 of Bedrest Blues & Otherworldly Clues
"I'm considering all options," I corrected, meeting her gaze steadily. "And my instincts tell me this is important."
Before she could argue further, the back door opened. Stella and Persephone rushed in. Both looked like they'd been dragged through hell backward. Stella's left arm was bandaged, and Persephone had a nasty gash across her forehead that was slowly leaking golden ichor.
"What happened?" I demanded, struggling to rise from my chair.
"Stay put," Aidon ordered before he crossed to his mother’s side.
Persephone waved him off and said, "We found something. Something bad."
"Define 'bad,'" I replied as I watched Clio begin healing her. "On a scale from 'oops, I forgot the milk' to 'apocalyptic disaster’, where does this fall?"
"Definitely closer to apocalyptic," Stella confirmed grimly. She unfurled a map across the table, shoving books aside to make room. "Lyra has created a network of focal points throughout the region. Specifically, at these locations." She marked spots in a circular pattern.
"They form a heptagram," Jean-Marc observed. "A seven-pointed star."
"The Seven Sisters," I whispered, the connection to the mysterious messages suddenly clear. "The Pleiades."
Persephone nodded. "Each point is corrupting the nearest ley line and rerouting its energy toward a central location.We managed to disrupt two of them, but they're heavily guarded."
"That's where we got these," Stella added, gesturing to their injuries.
"Aside from redirecting power, what exactly are these focus points doing?" Mom asked as she studied the map with a frown.
Stella pulled out her phone and showed us images of strange structures embedded in the ground. "They're energy collectors. Each one absorbs ambient magic from its surroundings and funnels it toward Lyra's ritual site."
"She's creating a massive power reservoir," Jean-Marc theorized. "Something to enhance the alignment's natural effects."
"That was our assumption, too," Persephone said with a wince as she touched the cut on her forehead. "These locations in Maine aren't random picks from a magical hat. Lyra has somehow managed to create mystical connections between these local points and the places where the original Pleiades sisters first manifested their power on Earth."
I stared at the map as if I would be able to see the underlying power she was using. "Holy shit balls."
"Language," Mom muttered without any real conviction.
"No, I think 'holy shit balls' covers it nicely," Nana countered. "Why is that important? Some of us didn't get lessons in ancient witch history."
Persephone's lips twitched with amusement. "As you know, the original seven Pleiades weren't just random descendants of power. They were divine daughters, banished from their celestial home."
"Right, their parents were forced to send them away," I nodded, absently rubbing my belly as the triplets shifted.
"Exactly," Persephone confirmed. "Atlas and Pleione had no choice but to exile their daughters whenthe Olympian council discovered their latent abilities. The other gods were terrified of what the sisters might become and demanded they be cast out before their powers fully manifested."
"It was exile or execution," Nana added grimly. "Not much of a choice."
Persephone nodded. "They scattered their daughters across the mortal world, as far apart as possible, hoping distance would dilute their combined potential."
"Nothing like a little divine family drama with a side of exile," I quipped.
"Something like that," Persephone agreed dryly. "What you might not know is that Maia discovered her gift for illusion in Europe. Electra found her connection to lightning in Canada. Taygete's shape-shifting abilities emerged in central Africa. Alcyone commanded the winds in North America. Celaeno's divination powers awakened in northern China. Sterope harnessed fire in Australia. And Merope, the youngest, developed her healing abilities in what would become Russia."
"But these points on our map are all within fifty miles of us," I said, feeling the triplets shift anxiously inside me.
"That's Lyra's sick genius at work," Aidon interjected, pointing to the clustered markers. "She's creating focal points here in Maine that tap into the energy signatures of those original sites across the globe. It's like she's folding space, creating magical tunnels that connect directly to those ancient power sources."
"She's attempting to tap into the very first source of Pleiades power,” I summarized. “And reaching through time and space to the original transformation spots."
"Exactly," Persephone confirmed. "If she succeeds, she could potentially access the entirety of Pleiades' magic throughout history—past, present, and future. She'd becomea magical black hole, sucking in power from the beginning of your lineage."
"Well, fuck me sideways with a broomstick," Nana muttered, collapsing into a chair. "As if we didn't have enough problems."
