"Can you track it?" I asked. “I could try, if you can’t.”
"Maybe." His shadows spread wider, darkening. "Whoever made these was careful, but they left traces."
"It’s a single person based on the prints," Tseki observed. "The weight distribution suggests they were carrying equipment. Surveillance gear.”
Mom grimaced as she held Thaniel close. “Or possibly the artifact itself.”
Tseki’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. “What artifact? What have we missed?”
We brought them up to date on the latest and were just finishing up when Layla emerged from the woods, shifting back to her human form. She took the robe Nana handed her. "I found two more sets near the western perimeter. They're all positioned with clear sightlines to different windows."
"They've been mapping the house." Aidon stood, fury rolling off him in waves so thick I could taste it. It was bitter and electric on my tongue. "Learning our routines. Identifying vulnerabilities."
A baby's wail cut through the morning air. My head snapped around to see Nina jump as Melaina's cry pierced straight through my chest. My oldest daughter kept her head enough to keep a firm hold of her crying sister. I was about to ask what was wrong when Thaniel and Nyssa joined in.
It hit me that it wasn’t their hungry or messy cry. This was something else, entirely. Nyssa squirmed in my arms, her tiny face scrunching as shadows began leaking from her skin. Thaniel's cry carried a static charge that made Mom's hair lift.
"Something's wrong," I gasped. I was barely able to contain my witch fire. The heat from it sparked unbidden beneath my fingertips.
Nina shifted Melaina in her arms, and I watched the baby's skin flush an alarming shade of red. "She's burning up?—"
The words died in her throat as heat shimmered across Melaina's tiny form, making the air around her ripple. Nina bit back a yelp as Aidon stepped closer and put his hand on Melaina’s back.
"They're reacting to something," Aidon observed.
"They sensed the surveillance," Tarja projected. "They sense the dark magic and don’t like it."
"How?" My voice cracked. "They're three months old?—"
Movement exploded from the tree line. It came fast. My brain registered the blur of gray that was roughly human-shaped. The next thing I knew, those pit eyes locked onto Nyssa with predatory focus. Time crystallized into sharp, brutal clarity.
"Take her!" I shoved Nyssa into Nina's free arm. Her shadows wrapped around all of them as if trying to shield them. "Get behind the inner wards. You and Thaniel, too, Mom. Now!"
"Phoebe—" Mom started.
"Go!"
Nina didn't argue. She turned and ran, Mom right beside her with Thaniel clutched tight to her chest. Latin spilled from Nina’s lips. The spell was cast quickly. A shimmering dome of golden light erupted around the two of them and all three babies. The shield would hold long enough to get them to safety.
And not a second too soon. The creature had lifted one clawed hand. Dark energy gathered around those talons and coalesced. It lunged forward with inhuman speed—and slammed into an invisible barrier ten feet from us.
The outer wards flared to life, brilliant white magic crackling across the creature's gray flesh, making it shriek. The creaturethrew itself against the outer wards again. This time, they buckled. The magic spider-webbed with cracks before shattering into a million pieces.
"How is it doing that?" Layla demanded, already shifting mid-stride. Bones cracked and reformed with nauseating speed as black fur erupted across her skin. Beside her, Murtagh's transformation mirrored hers, but with dark brown fur. Within heartbeats, two massive wolves stood ready, lips peeled back from fangs that could tear through steel.
"It's designed to break wards," Tarja snarled, her mental voice edged with fury. "Thessmark excise magic.It’s not a stretch to think they can do that to the wards. And clearly, it has been working on the outer ones for a bit now."
The creature's skin began to smoke where it touched the next layer of wards, but it didn't retreat. Didn't even slow. Those talons raked across the magical barrier, each strike sending shockwaves through the air that I felt in my bones.
I threw my hand forward, and teal fire erupted from my palm in a concentrated blast. The flames hit the creature square in the chest and slammed into gray flesh with enough force to make it stagger. The smell of burning corruption filled the air, but it barely slowed.
Aidon's shadows exploded outward like a living weapon, wrapping around the creature's arms and pushing it backward away from the wards. Away from my children. "You don't get to touch them."
The creature thrashed in his shadow grip. Its head swiveled toward Aidon and screamed. The sound was hungry and fueled by twisted power. Aidon’s shadows wavered. For one terrible heartbeat, I thought they'd break.
Aidon's expression went cold. Colder than I'd ever seen. His shadows tightened, and I watched the creature's gray skin begin to dissolve where they touched. It began flaking away likeash. revealing something underneath that looked like tarnished metal fused with bone.
"What the hell is that thing made of?" Nana growled as she threw a magical bomb at it, which was simply absorbed into it.
