Page 18 of Bedrest Blues & Otherworldly Clues (Mystical Midlife in Maine #17)

I ’d fallen asleep at some point during my training with the babies. I woke to an empty bedroom. The house hummed with activity, though. Footsteps pounded on the stairs, urgent voices called back and forth, and doors slammed. Something was happening. And once again, I was stuck in that damn bed.

I struggled to sit up, my swollen belly making every movement an exercise in overcoming physics. "Hello?" I called out. "Is someone going to tell me what's going on? Or do I need to start levitating furniture to get attention around here?"

The door opened, and Nina came in. Her face was flushed with excitement, but her eyes betrayed her exhaustion. "They found one of Lyra's locations," she announced as she perched on the edge of my bed. "Aidon and Stella left an hour ago to investigate."

My heart stuttered. "And no one thought to wake me?"

"Mom, you had a rough afternoon. The babies exerted a lot of power, and Clio said you needed rest." Nina's expression softened. "Besides, Aidon didn't want you to worry. "

"Because keeping me in the dark works so well for my stress levels," I muttered as I reached for the water glass on my nightstand. "Tell me everything."

Nina hesitated, then nodded. "Murtagh's scouts tracked unusual energy fluctuations to an abandoned temple about forty miles north. The magical signature matches what we detected during Lyra's last attack."

I closed my eyes, reaching for the vanity mirror across the room.

The now-familiar sensation of my consciousness extending outward flowed smoothly as I directed my magical sight toward Aidon's location.

It went against bedrest, but I didn't use much of my power.

And I needed to see my mate and best friend.

The mirror's surface rippled, then resolved into a clear image.

Aidon and Stella moved cautiously through stone ruins that had been partially reclaimed by vegetation. Ancient columns were broken and weathered. They framed a crumbling altar at the center. The place radiated neglect. Except for the altar itself. That gleamed as if recently cleaned.

"This is the third site with the same shit," Stella said. Her voice came through faintly. She knelt beside the altar, gesturing to symbols etched into its base. "Look familiar?"

Aidon crouched next to her. His power extended to probe the markings. "This is the same corruption we found on our wards," he confirmed. I heard the fury simmering in his voice. "These were practice sessions."

"She didn’t get good without a lot of practicing.

" Stella traced a finger along the edge of the altar, where a dark residue had collected in the stone's natural grooves.

"She's also been harvesting. Whatever power was once consecrated to this place, she's stripped it away. She hasn’t even left enough to maintain the structural integrity. I’m surprised this is still standing. "

"She’s a fucking magical vampire," Aidon cursed as he straightened. "Draining anything and anyone she can of their power for her ritual."

Stella nodded grimly. "Something about the locations bothers me." She pulled out her phone, tapping quickly before turning the screen toward Aidon. "If we map all three locations we've found so far..."

"They form a triangle," he realized. "With our house at the center."

My vision blurred as a wave of dizziness hit me. Nina's hand on my arm anchored me. "Aidon and Stella discovered it too," I recounted. "Lyra's creating a ritual perimeter around our house, using corrupted sacred sites to do it. Her sacred site might not be beneath the Mediterranean after all."

Nina nodded grimly, the memory of what we'd both seen reflected in her eyes. "I'll update Jean-Marc immediately. This fits with his mapping of magical disturbances. It might help him identify other locations in her network."

As she turned to leave, my eyes caught a flicker of movement near the bedroom door. It was a whisper of darkness where there shouldn't be one. "Nina, wait," I said sharply. "We're not alone."

She pivoted instantly, her gaze following mine to the shadow creeping along the baseboards. Unlike Nyssa's familiar darkness, this moved with predatory purpose. It was another one of Lyra's creatures. How had it evaded our detection?

Without hesitation, Nina thrust out her hand. Golden light erupted from her fingertips and struck the shadow directly. It writhed and twisted. Its edges began fraying as her power tore through it.

"I can see its structure," she said, her voice strained with concentration. "It's a magical circuit board."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Can you disrupt it without Nana’s potion? "

"I think so." Her brow furrowed as she intensified her focus. The shadow creature convulsed as its form unraveled thread by thread. "It's anchored to something. There’s a trigger point near the window."

Following her gaze, I spotted a tiny, malevolent glyph etched into the window frame.

One of Lyra's presents that we'd missed.

Nina redirected her power toward it, and the symbol flared bright before dissolving into ash.

The shadow creature gave one final, silent scream before it disintegrated completely. Nina swayed on her feet, suddenly pale.

"Hey," I said, alarmed as she slumped against the bed. "What's wrong?"

"Just... tired," she managed, her breathing shallow. "That took more out of me than I expected."

I reached for her hand, shocked at how cold her skin felt. "That's not normal magical exhaustion. Something else is happening."

Before Nina could respond, Mom and Nana came into the room. Their arms were laden with herbs, crystals, and what looked like ancient pottery shards. "We felt the magical discharge," Mom explained, quickly assessing the situation. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Nina's condition. "What happened?"

"It was another shadow creature," I replied, not letting go of Nina's hand. "Nina destroyed it, but it drained her somehow."

Nana set down her supplies and moved to Nina's side, her gnarled fingers pressing against my daughter's forehead. "Clever little leech," she muttered. "It was designed to extract energy from whoever attacked it. It had an innate magical defense mechanism."

"Will she be okay?" I asked, maternal worry overriding everything else.

"Nothing a good meal and some rest won't fix," Nana assured me, though the concern in her eyes belied her casual tone. "This girl's made of stronger stuff than most."

Mom helped Nina to the armchair by the window. "Stay there while we work," she instructed. "You need to recover before you try any more heroics."

"What are you two doing with all that?" I asked, gesturing to the peculiar assortment they'd brought.

Mom and Nana exchanged a meaningful glance before Mom answered. "Reinforcing the house's defenses. After what we learned from Hattie's grimoire, we realized we've been approaching protection all wrong."

"Traditional wards are based on magical formulas," Nana explained, sorting through her collection of odd objects. "But they're vulnerable to corruption because they lack organic anchoring."

"Organic anchoring?" I repeated, confused.

"Family bonds," Mom clarified, laying out a circle of salt around my bed. "The grimoire revealed that protection magic is exponentially stronger when woven through emotional connections rather than physical space."

Nana grinned wickedly. "In other words, we're turning this family's ridiculous codependency into a magical fortress."

Despite everything, I laughed. "Only you could make our love for each other sound like a psychiatric diagnosis, Nana."

"Call it what you want," she replied with a wink, "but that psycho witch won't be able to break through when we're done."

They worked methodically around my room. Mom channeled structured, precise magic while Nana's approach was more instinctual. They complemented each other perfectly. The wild card and her daughter each brought different strengths to the protection they were creating .

"This will be the innermost barrier," Mom explained as she worked. "Centered on you and the babies. It will draw strength from everyone connected to you."

"I can feel it," I said with wonder as their magic took shape around me. The sensation was unlike any ward I'd experienced before. It was warm and alive rather than rigid and formulaic. "It's like a heartbeat."

"Blood magic without the mess," Nana said approvingly. "Much more civilized than the old ways, but just as powerful."

As they worked, I turned my attention back to the mirror. I sought Aidon and Stella again. The image shifted to show him and Stella in a different location. They were in another ruined temple. This one was partially submerged in what looked like a flooded quarry.

"That's five sites now," Stella said as she photographed inscriptions on a half-submerged column.

"All with the same symbols. She has created a web around Nimaha House." We would need to come up with a different name for our property now that it had truly merged with Aidon’s next door. Nimaha didn’t really fit anymore.

Aidon nodded grimly. "She's creating a containment field to ensure the power she intends to harvest doesn't escape during the ritual."

"She could be keeping reinforcements out," Stella suggested. "These corrupted points are thinning the Hellmouth. Can’t you feel the Underworld pressing closer here?"

"I can feel it. I’ve been considering how we can reinforce that without Phoebe. Although I’m more worried my parents might have difficulty reaching us when the time comes," Aidon concluded as his expression darkened. "We're being systematically isolated."

A shadow suddenly detached from the ruins behind them. It was larger and more substantial than any we'd encountered before. It moved with lethal purpose and went directly toward Stella's unprotected back.

"Behind you!" I shouted instinctively, though they couldn't hear me.