<b>Chapter </b><b>153 </b>


    I was still holding Felix’s hand when more voices drifted in from the trees. I turned, and my breath caught. Theo and Zion came first, their steps steady, quiet strength written in every line of their bodies. Behind them, oh gods, three familiar figures emerged from the dark. Mchi. Julius. Arztec. For a heartbeat, I thought I’d imagined them, that my mind had conjured them out of memory because I needed them so badly. But then Mchi’s gaze locked on mine, and I broke. I ran. The ground disappeared under my feet until all I felt was the solid weight of his arms as I crashed into him. His chest was as broad and strong as it had always been, and hisugh rumbled through me even as his own voice


    shook.


    “I didn’t think you would make it,” I whispered against him, the tears spilling hot and


    fast.


    “We wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Mchi replied, his lips pressing to the top of my


    head.


    When I finally pulled back, Julius was already reaching for me. He lifted me clear off the ground, his arms locked tight around me. “You think you’re doing this without us? Not a chance, little sister.”


    I sobbed andughed at the same time, clutching at him before turning into Arztec’s waiting arms. His hug was bone–deep, steady, the kind that said without words that I was


    safe, that I was his blood, always.


    “I can’t believe you’re here,” I said, pulling back to look at all three of them, memorizing the lines of their faces like I had to prove to myself they were real. “You made it.”


    “Of course we did,” Julius said firmly. “We’re your brothers, Nothing on this earth, or under it, was going to stop us.‘


    “”


    Arztec tipped his head toward my belly, his voice softer. “We came for you. And for them. Whatever happens tonight, you won’t face it alone.”


    I swallowed hard, my hand tightening over the swell of my bump. Around us, my friends and their parents now stood close, forming a circle of strength. Felix lingered at my side,


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    …


    :


    and Theo and Zion took their ce behind him, silent but unmovable in their support.


    “Are you ready?” Dad checked his watch, then looked up at the sky. “Not long now.”


    71


    Mum slid closer and wrapped her hands around my forearms. “Bet you wish you had that joint now,” she muttered with a crooked smile, catching the tremor in my fingers.


    I huffed augh that wasn’t really augh and looked at Felix. He stood steady in thentern light, the worry in his face softened by something gentler.


    “You’ve got this, little warrior,” he said.


    I pulled him into onest hug, breathing in smoke and soap and the aftershave I’d known since I was small. When I stepped back, my mates were already in position,


    Xavier, Haiden, Levi, Noah, shoulders squared, eyes on me, a wall you couldn’t get through. My brothers, Mchi, Julius, Arztec, took the outer ring with Theo and Zion. Aleisha and Tommy were shadows at the edge of the trees. Mum and Dad stood just


    behind my shoulder. Felix took my hands and we waited.


    The pain started low, like a fist closing deep in my gut. I locked my gaze on Felix’s, on the steady heat of his palms. I could feel him, his pulse, the hum of his life like a rope in my hands.


    “<i>Slowly</i><i>,</i><i>” </i>Layah’s voice brushed the inside of my mind, firm and calm. “<i>You </i><i>take </i><i>what </i><i>you </i><i>need </i><i>in </i><i>threads</i><i>, </i><i>not in </i><i>fists</i>. <i>Breathe </i><i>with </i><i>me</i><i>.</i>”


    I inhaled through my nose, counted four, exhaled six. A thin line of warmth bled from Felix’s hands into my wrists, spread up my arms, and slid down the center of me to where our baby rolled once and went still, listening. Then my right shin snapped. White light burst at the edges of my vision. The bone twisted, lengthening, the joint grinding. My knee buckled. I dropped, palms pping dirt, and Felix went with me, never letting my hands go. A sound tore out of me, raw and animal. My skull throbbed against my skin like it was trying to split. The world rocked on its axis.


    “Stay with me,” Felix said, voice low, every word anchored. “Envy, look at me.”


    I did. I clung to that rope of heat and hauled another thread across. Not all. Not too much. A breath. A stitch. My left thigh seized. Something inside it tore and re–knit in the


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    :


    <b>71 </b>


    same heartbeat. I tasted metal and bit it back. The baby pushed, a flutter against my palm. I curved over the bump, protecting it with my body without thinking, a reflex older thannguage.


    <b>Milly </b>


    I rushed forward and knelt on the grass at her side, unable to simply watch, one arm around her shoulders, the other smoothing her hair back when it stuck to her damp face. “That’s it,” I whispered into her ear. “You’re doing it. Breathe, sweetheart. In for four. Out for six. Again.”


    Her hand reached out, one still on Felix’s, her fingers crushed mine, and I let them. I knew this edge. I’d walked it for them, all four of my boys, and for others through the years. Change hurts, even when it’s meant for you.


    “Almost there,” I promised, even though we were only beginning. “You’ve got a whole


    house behind you. A whole pack. You…” The air tore. It felt like hands closed around my


    lungs and wrung them dry. My words cut off, shredded. A force like a wave hit me square


    in the chest and flung me backward. The world went end over end, sky, ground, sky, and


    then a tree rushed up and caught me. Bark mmed my spine. Stars burst across my


    eyes. I slid down the trunk and hit the roots so hard my teeth clicked.


    “Milly!” Charles’s shout ripped across the hill.


    He sprinted, but a sharp stream of cold light knifed through the dark and struck him in the shoulder. He spun and went down hard, rolling once before he mmed t. A line


    of light sizzled across his jacket where it hit.


    “WITCHES!” Xavier’s voice snapped the night.


    The quiet hill became a battlefield in a blink. Shapes broke from the tree line, cloaked figures, pale faces marked with ash and crescent shes, hands cutting the air in hard,


    practiced lines. The first st seared the grass where Envy had been lying two heartbeats before Noah dragged her an arm’s length sideways and took the brunt of it on his shoulder. He didn’t fall. He bared his teeth and shoved back,


    “They’re here for the baby,” I rasped, forcing air into my chest, fighting for my feet. “They want my grandbaby.”


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