"We can call Stella tomorrow," I said firmly. "Tonight, we secure the house, hold our babies, and refuse to fall apart. That's what they want."
He studied my face. "When did you get so calm?"
"I nearly vomited twice on the drive home, and my hands didn't stop shaking until you got here," I admitted. "This is me faking it."
That surprised a laugh out of him. It was short and sharp but genuine. "Fair enough." He pressed his forehead to mine. "Tomorrow, we hunt them. Tonight we—" Nyssa started crying.
It wasn’t her normal baby cry. This was the sound she'd made during the attack. It was high and piercing. Thaniel joined in a heartbeat later. His electrical field spiked hard enough to make the lights flicker. Melaina's crib erupted in flames.
"Shit!" Nina lunged for the magical fire suppression system, but Aidon was faster. He made a sharp gesture, and the flames were snuffed out. It left Melaina startled but unharmed in her magically fireproof bedding.
“Do you sense anything?” I asked Tarja.
My familiar jumped onto the windowsill and looked out the window. “No. And our wards have not been touched.” That was exactly what I had picked up.
"They're reacting to our stress," I surmised, hurrying to Nyssa. Her shadows reached for my hands. "They can feel what we're feeling."
"Then we need to calm down." Aidon scooped up Thaniel, the baby's sparks went harmlessly into his chest. Nana picked up Melaina. “Everyone, take a breath."
Gradually the triplets settled. Shadows retracted. Sparks faded. Temperature normalized.
"They've never synchronized their freak-outs before," Nina observed in a neutral tone.
"The attack triggered something," Aidon said. "Defensive instincts, maybe."
“They know,”Tarja projected. “They know someone tried to hurt them. Even if they don't understand it consciously.”
That thought sat in my stomach like a stone. I didn’t like my infants burdened with these fears. There was nothing I could do but reassure them and make them feel safe and loved.
We spent the next hour putting them back to sleep. Nina hummed off-key lullabies. Aidon murmured prayers in ancient Greek. When they were finally settled, the others left us to do other things. Aidon and I stood in the doorway, watching three small chests rise and fall.
"Bed," he said quietly. "We need rest for tomorrow's war council."
I nodded, but my feet wouldn't move. My eyes kept tracing Melaina's crib and the obsidian runes. "Phoebe." His hand found mine. "They're safe. The wards are holding. Tarja's standing guard."
I shook my head. "I need to check the stroller first. It's downstairs."
His brow furrowed. "It can wait?—"
"No. It can't." Something was nagging at me, a detail I hadn't processed. "I need to see exactly where that lance would have hit."
Understanding flickered across his face, followed by resignation. "I'll come with you."
We descended the stairs in silence. Tarja's soft paws barely whispered against the wood as she trailed behind us. The quiet felt heavy, like the moments right before lightning strikes.
"What's up, Buttercup?" Layla's voice cut through the space as she and Selene appeared in the entry. Both read the situation as soon as she asked the question, and their expressions turned serious.
I gestured toward the stroller with a hand that wanted to shake. "I need to check something."
Under the chandelier's unforgiving light, the scorch mark was undeniable. It was six inches across and right where Melaina's chest would have been. The floor lurched beneath me, or maybe that was just my world tilting off its axis.
I made it three steps. Maybe four. Then my knees gave out like someone had cut the strings holding me upright.
Aidon caught me from behind. His arms banded around my waist as he held me together when everything inside me wanted to fall apart. "She would have died," I breathed out, each word scraping my throat raw. "Instantly. That would have gone straight through her heart."
"But it didn't." His voice was gravel and smoke against my ear, rough enough to ground me. "Your deflection worked. Nina's shield held. Melaina is upstairs sleeping, safe and sound."
"This time." I turned in his arms, and the fear I'd been wrestling down since the market finally broke free, flooding through me like a dam giving way. "What about next time? What if they come for us at home? What if?—"
