"Stop." His hands came up to cup my face, thumbs pressing against my cheekbones with just enough pressure to make me focus. His eyes—those impossibly blue eyes—demanded I look at him. "I need you to hear me. Really hear me." I nodded, not trusting my voice not to crack completely.
"My greatest fear isn't dying," he said. There was something raw in his tone, something that made my chest ache. "It's not torture or imprisonment or losing my immortality. It's failing to protect you and our children. The thought that I might not beenough to keep you safe—" His jaw clenched, a muscle jumping beneath his skin. "Thatdestroysme."
"Aidon—"
"But I also know I'm not alone in this." His thumbs brushed away tears I hadn't even realized were falling. The gesture was so gentle it nearly undid me. "Not only are you a Pleiades witch who's survived things that would destroy most people. But we have allies who would burn the world down to defend those babies."
"Yes, you do," Selene agreed. I'd almost forgotten they were there, witnessing this moment of complete vulnerability. “And we won’t let anything touch them.”
"We're still just people." I had to swallow the lump in my throat. "And someone very powerful wants our children dead or worse."
"We will find them." Something shifted in his expression. His fury mixed with determination in a way that would have terrified me if it wasn't so beautiful. Sodeadly. "And stop them.”
Layla bobbed her head in agreement. “We’ve faced down a lot of evil creatures and won. This won’t be different. We will make sure they can never threaten our family again."
“Layal’s right. You aren’t facing this alone,” Selene reminded me.
“We're stronger as a unit,”Tarja projected, winding between my legs affectionately. An image flickered through our connection of our family. Both blood and chosen, standing like a wall against the darkness pressing in from all sides.
"Damn right we are," Layla muttered. “This asshole won’t know what hit him.”
Without warning, Aidon scooped me up, making me yelp despite everything. "What are you doing?" I squeaked.
"Taking you to bed before you collapse." His voice held that note of absolute certainty that meant arguing was pointless."You're running on adrenaline and stubbornness. Both are about to run out."
He wasn't wrong. I could feel the crash hovering just out of reach. The wave was about to break over my head and drag me under.
"We'll check the wards and reinforce them," Selene called after us, already moving with purpose. "Triple layers. Nothing gets through."
"And then we'll check the perimeter," Layla added. "If there's anything out there, we'll find it."
Aidon carried me to our bedroom and set me down on the bed with a gentleness that made my throat tight. Turning on the tablet next to the bed, he pulled up the baby monitor app.
The screen was split into three feeds showing each crib. Their magical signatures were steady and calm. "They're okay," I said, trying to convince myself as much as him.
"They're perfect," he confirmed, settling beside me on the bed. "And we're going to make sure they stay that way."
I threaded my fingers through his, anchoring myself to him as I watched the monitor. Melaina shifted in her sleep, her tiny fist curling against her cheek. Thaniel's fingers twitched, sparks flickering and fading like dying stars. Nyssa's shadows pooled contentedly around her blanket, protective even in dreams.
“Rest,”Tarja commanded me. “I'll keep watch. Nothing will touch them while I draw breath.”
"Thank you," I whispered as I got under the covers next to Aidon.
The last thing I felt before exhaustion claimed me was Aidon's lips against my temple and his whispered promise. "No one hurts our family and lives. I swear it on the River Styx itself." I believed him. Gods help anyone who tried to prove him wrong.
CHAPTER 3
Life with newborns meant sleep didn't last. The baby monitor's soft chime dragged me from the first deep rest I'd managed in months, yanking me back to consciousness like a fishhook in my chest. I blinked at the tablet's glowing screen, disoriented and fuzzy-headed until I registered Thaniel's fussing.
The numbers read 12:47 AM. Barely three hours since Aidon had carried me to bed. "I've got him," Aidon murmured as he moved with a preternatural grace that came naturally to him and made me jealous. His hand squeezed my hip before he slipped out of bed. "There are still bottles from when you pumped last. Rest."
I tried. Really, I did. But the moment he left the room, my mind kicked into overdrive. Someone had tried to kill my daughter. A modified wraith—or something worse—had tracked us to a public place. And then launched an attack precise enough to target Melaina's heart. That scorch mark on the stroller was going to haunt me for the rest of my life.
We'd been lucky. Next time, we might not be. The thought had me reaching for my phone. If there was going to be a next time—and there would be, I wasn't naive enough to thinkotherwise—I needed every advantage I could get. Every ally. Every scrap of information and protection we could gather.
My fingers flew across the screen, composing messages I should have sent hours ago. It was the middle of the night, but my friends would forgive me. This couldn't wait. Not when my children's lives hung in the balance.
"Emergency family meeting. Kitchen. 10 AM. Be there."
