"An evil creature who has come to kill the babies wouldn't ring the doorbell," Stella pointed out, her usual brightness dimmed with caution. Her fingers twitched toward the athame on the island.
"No," Nana agreed, pushing herself up from her stool. "But someone with manners who wanted to chat might. It’s a novel concept, I know. What is the world coming to?"
Aidon crossed to the door, peered through the peephole, then went very still. The kind of still that made my stomach drop to my feet. "It's Hecate."
"The Goddess of Witchcraft?" I squeaked, my voice jumping an octave. "Here? Now?"
"Apparently." He opened the door, and every protective instinct in me screamed to throw myself over my babies like a human shield.
The woman who stepped inside was both ageless and ancient. Her presence filled the room. She was beautiful, terrifying, and utterlyother. She wore modern clothes. Jeans and a leather jacket. Power radiated from her in waves that made my skin prickle and my magic reach out instinctively.
"Lord Aidon," she said with a slight nod. Then her gaze found me. I felt it like a physical touch. "Phoebe Duedonne. We need to talk about why your children are being hunted."
CHAPTER 4
Having a goddess materialize on your front porch should have been the strangest part of my week. It wasn't even close. Hecate swept into our house with the kind of presence that demanded attention without asking for it. She moved like water, fluid and inexorable. The power in the house ratcheted up by several degrees the moment she crossed the threshold, making my skin tingle.
Her dark hair fell past her shoulders in waves that would make a supermodel weep. Her eyes swept across our living room and zeroed in on the babies in the cribs we had for them on the other side of the room.
She declined the chair Aidon offered with a slight shake of her head. "I won't waste your time with pleasantries," she said. Her voice carried none of the warmth I'd heard when she'd blessed the triplets. This was another aspect of Hecate. This was the keeper of dangerous knowledge. The guardian of thresholds and crossroads. "You need to understand exactly what you're facing."
My stomach dropped. "It’s part of something bigger, isn’t it? The hooded figures have been hunting magical children for a long time."
"They have. They call themselves the Thessmark." She dropped that bomb and didn’t pause to see the damage, just plowed right on through. "They’ve been at it a long time and are excellent at what they do. They’ve had a long time to perfect their technique.
"Supernatural children born during peak lunar phases contain concentrated magical essence. The Thessmark want it," Hecate continued. "They extract it. Use it to extend their own lives and amplify their power. The younger the child, the purer the essence."
I nearly vomited right there on my own floor. This goddess was standing there talking as if she were discussing the weather. If being immortal made you cold like that, I wanted nothing to do with it.
“Why do the Thessmark sound familiar?” Aidon asked.
Hecate lifted one delicate shoulder. “They have ties to the Underworld. No, that does not mean your father can call them off. He has no power over them. Stories are that they were born in his realm to a goddess taken prisoner by demons. The goddess turned them to pulp and escaped, leaving the babies to fend for themselves. You can guess how they survived.”
I swallowed the bile in my throat. “By extracting power and ingesting it. And they want to steal my babies’ magic.”
"How?" Clio had to clear her voice. The horror was choking her. "How do they extract it?"
"The same way one might drain a reservoir." Hecate's expression didn't change. "Violently."
"Jesus Christ," Stella breathed.
"He cannot help you here." Hecate's gaze swept the room, landing on each of us in turn. "But I can. Which is why I'm giving you a timeline. There are five days until the next lunar phase. When the quarter moon hits, the attacks will intensify beyond anything you've seen so far. They have identified several familiesand are planning a massive offensive to claim the ones they missed."
"Intensify how?" Aidon demanded.
"The previous attacks were reconnaissance. They were testing your defenses, measuring your capabilities, identifying weaknesses." She moved to the window, looking out at the warded perimeter. "The next phase will be coordinated. Simultaneous strikes against multiple family members. They'll spread you thin, force you to choose who to save."
"They'll hit us all at once," Stella gasped as her hold on Melaina tightened.
"Precisely." Hecate turned back to us. "And they will not stop until they have what they came for, or until you destroy them completely. There is no negotiation with the Thessmark. They have no mercy. And they give no quarter."
My legs felt weak. I sank onto the couch before they could give out entirely. "Why are you telling us this? You could stop them yourself."
Something flickered across Hecate's face. It wasn’t quite amusement. Nor was it sympathy. "I am bound by laws older than your species, child. I cannot interfere directly in mortal affairs without consequences that would shake the foundations of everything I hold dear." She paused. "But I can give you information. I can give you a warning. And I can tell you this: you have the power to win this fight. All of you. You simply need to be willing to use it."
"We'll do whatever it takes," I said, and meant it with every fiber of my being.
"Good." Hecate moved toward the door, then paused. "One more thing. The Thessmark' magic is ancient. They have survived this long because they are patient, methodical, and utterly ruthless. Do not underestimate them. And do not hesitate when the moment comes. Hesitation will cost you everything."
