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“I’m surprised you don’t know,” Sam said as he began to pace. “She’s the witch sect liaison.”

Ah. Right. My family were witches, and Sam had no idea I was a psychic and not the same. We hadn’t exactly been active in politics either. That’s the part I said aloud.

“Hang in there,” I whispered to Maryanne’s stomach, hoping my mind-bending powers could help keep them alive.

I’d wasted time kissing Julian in the parking lot while trying to sort out our complicated relationship. It was not something I would have done if I’d known there was still a chance of saving anyone—especially four unborn babies.

Not five minutes later, the elevator reappeared, and out rushed a woman not much older than me with purple hair, maple skin, a ratty band T-shirt, and ripped jeans. She wore high-tops that matched her short hair and held a bundle of fur with two golden eyes in the center that blinked at me.

“What’s the emerg—oh fuck!” Hazel dropped what I now realized was a cat and puked.

When she finished, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and narrowed her eyes at Sam as she waved the mess out of existence. Meanwhile her cat wound figure eights around my ankles, his soft fur strangely comforting in the midst of all the tension.

“She’s pregnant,” I blurted out, getting Hazel’s attention. “Maryanne. The body. She has four babies, and they’re still somehow alive.”

“But not for long,” Julian stated, hand firmly on my arm in what I read to be a warning. His gaze was locked on Hazel.

“You think I can do something?” she laughed without mirth, but we all just waited. “Well, shit. I can try, but you’d have better luck with fae magic.”

“The fae cannot be trusted with bargains. Particularly the queen,” Julian said.

“True enough.” Hazel rubbed her hands together rapidly as she eyed the stomach of the body. I wasn’t sure if she was simply avoiding the head and shoulders or actually trying to focus. “I wish I had a potions expert with me. I think a combination of that, and my spells, might actually pull this off. But I’ll try anyhow.”

“Did you say potions expert?” I asked, jerking out of Julian’s grip with excitement as her cat darted away. “My Mama is amazing with potions. I can call her, and she can be here in minutes.” Shit. I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t want my sister’s ability of creating temporary portals to be known. She didn’t need to be a lab rat either. But no one questioned the remark.

“Cool. Send her over. I’ll prep.” Hazel plopped down on the tile floor in the lotus position, and the cat leaped into her lap to curl up.

With a nod to the men, I excused myself to call my mother from my office behind the closed door. She could portal into the woods just outside the tarmac so Zoe wouldn’t have to mess with the wards around the base that would take extra time and possibly send up red flags.

In less than twenty minutes, the women were set up around the body, my mother having barely reacted to the sight, save plastering on an even larger fake smile. Zoe had come along out of curiosity, and Julian had escorted both women up to the lab since they didn’t have clearance.

At least Sam was friendly with both. Mama could win over a rabid grizzly with her cooking, and Zoe had that bubbly personality that attracted others like honey. I just wished she would stay out of my love life.

“We’re going to need an incubator, someplace warm and protected,” Mama said, rolling up her sleeves. She’d used a stock cauldron and brought her bag of ingredients so she could whip up the potion Hazel wanted. “Something to hold the littles until they’re cleared by the doc and we can find their father.”

Shit. I hadn’t even thought…

“Who was her partner?” I asked Sam as Julian zipped off to arrange something.

“As far as I knew, she didn’t have a steady one,” he said with a shrug. “She was pretty new here on the island. She’d been bitten in the last year and was learning the ropes while staying out of range of the prick who’d turned her since he only got a month before going on parole. The human police got to him for assault before I could.” His eyes flashed silver.

“Poor kid,” Zoe said. “She was trying to get away from violence and this…”

Hazel placed her hands on Maryanne’s stomach. They began to glow forest green as she mumbled to herself, and I wondered if anyone else could see it. After a minute, she nodded to Mama, who injected her potion below Michelle’s belly button, using the syringe she’d borrowed from my supplies.

The forest green brightened, penetrating the faint yellow of the babies’ auras and swirling together as Hazel focused. A bead of sweat formed at her hairline and slid to drip from the edge of her nose.

Maryanne’s stomach moved, making me jump. The color of the auras shifted to pink, white, green, and orange as the skin swelled and bulged as though we viewed the pregnancy in a timelapse film. Hazel’s shoulders slumped, and she caught the edge of the table where I rushed to her side.

“Are you okay?” I asked, helping guide her back as her cat raised its hackles.

“Yeah, just a lot of energy to do that spell. I never thought rapid aging could be used in a positive way until this moment. Can you take over, Darlene?”

Mama nodded and moved over the actively rippling stomach. “Sam, take Hazel into Char’s office to rest. Zoe, get her a restore charm and come back here to help.”

Hazel smiled at me and motioned to her cat, who leaped into the air, morphed into a raven, and perched on her shoulder. She followed Sam where I pointed, and they shut the door.

“Did not know it was a shapeshifter,” I said, shaking my head as I hurried over to Mama with Zoe rushing back to join us, having delivered her charm.