Page 18 of Postpartum Spells & Infant Hells

“Don’t salt the windows tonight. Don’t sing lullabies older than your grandmother. And don’t leave the triplets near uncovered mirrors, dark glass, polished silver, or still water,” she finished.

My gaze snapped to the hallway mirror beyond the kitchen, and every fine hair on my arms lifted. “Why mirrors?” I asked, even though part of me already hated the answer. “What do reflections give them? Also, to clarify, are we talking about the echo children or the Veiled Ones?”

“Both,” Ava explained, her voice dropping until the room seemed to lean closer. “Lost children learn faces before anything else. And once they can wear a face the house loves, thresholds stop recognizing them as outsiders.”

“Can they get through tonight?” Aidon demanded, watching Mythia cover the hallway mirror from the living room. “Are they close enough to learn my children now?”

“They are close enough to try,” Ava clarified, and the line crackled like ice splitting. “Cover the mirrors. Dull the silver. Pour out still water. Keep your children with one of you at all times. That way if a child cries from another room, you can ignore the sound.”

I was clutching the phone as Melaina fussed in her bouncer. “Ava, how do we know whether something is real if they can copy people?”

“Breath,” Ava answered at the same time Clio reached for the glasses in the cabinet. “Living breath fogs cold glass. Echoes can copy sound and shape, but not the warmth born inside a body. Keep a glass with you at all times and keep it cold. Make anyone calling from out of sight prove breath before you trust them.”

Clio began lining glasses on the counter while Mom chilled them with a flick of her fingers. “That’s practical enough to survive panic,” Clio announced, handing one to Stella before setting another beside Nana. “Nobody goes anywhere without theirs.”

“Ava, what happens now? It would be nice to talk to you in person and learn everything we need. It’s hard to get all the details in a phone call.” What I didn’t tell her was that I wanted to get a read on her. I wasn’t sure if she was an enemy or not. “Caolinn said to use his warded room at nine. Can we meet there?”

“Caolinn’s room is safe for the second call, but not the first meeting,” Ava corrected, and something scraped on her end like a chair being dragged back. “Bring Stella to the diner in Bar Harbor at noon tomorrow. Bring the brass key, the card, Mythia’s note, and something of the three babies. Your god, dragon, and healer are not welcome. Do not bring anyone with Underworld blood. And absolutely no grandmother with a shotgun.”

Nana’s mouth fell open. The insult on her face could have soured milk. “I am a delight with a shotgun, you rude, secretive heifer,” she snapped, pointing toward the phone while Thaniel watched her with wide eyes. “If you had manners, you would know better than to exclude the most experienced woman in the room.”

“You’re not the most experienced woman magically. You’re excluded because you would shoot me for looking at you wrong. Your reputation precedes you,” Ava told her as a faint thread of dry humor slipped through the line. “I admire the instinct. But it would ruin everything.”

Stella pressed a hand to her chest and grinned despite the tension. “I would like to point out that I’m included because my cheerful energy is stealthier than Nana’s murder posture.” She slid the yellow teether into a zippered pocket of her tote. “This is a huge day for bubbly women with snacks.”

“You’re included because you're more open than the others. Life hasn’t jaded you. You’re still able to see sideways,” Ava corrected, making Stella’s grin grow. “Phoebe sees pain and runs toward it. You see the room around the pain. Tomorrow, that may keep her alive.”

Aidon crossed to me and put his hand on the back of my neck. “She’s not going without me,” he challenged in a voice that was quiet but carved from stone. “Ask for anything else.”

“I’m not asking,” Ava replied, and the pressure on the line deepened. “I’m telling you what will be allowed. If you come, the door will remain closed. If Hades comes, it will burn. If Phoebe does not come, your children will remain marked and in danger.”

The room went still enough to hear rain ticking against the windows. I placed my hand over Aidon’s, where it rested at my neck. “I’m going with Stella,” I told him. “You stay with the babies because you’re the protection they need here. I’ll be the idiot with the key who walks through the door.”

Stella lifted one finger without looking up from her notebook. “The beloved idiot with the key,” she amended, underlining something. “Accuracy matters during quest planning.”

Aidon closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them, the fury was still there, but so was trust. “I hate this,” he admitted, his thumb moving once against my skin. “I hate every part of it. And I especially hate that I understand why it has to be you.”

“That makes two of us,” I returned, forcing a smile because my throat had gone tight. “Although I’m comforted knowing Stella will pack snacks and lip gloss. Nothing terrible can happen if my mouth is shiny and I have a protein bar.” My best friend had always had my back. Even after I moved away for twenty years.

Stella patted her tote with solemn pride. “The lip gloss is called Unbreakable Rose, and it’ll stand up to any demon fight,” she declared, then glanced toward the covered mirror and lowered her voice without losing the smile. “We’re going to be okay, Pheebs.”

Ava's line crackled again, and her voice thinned beneath the static until I had to lean over the island to catch it. "Be careful, Phoebe," she pressed, the words fraying at their edges. "The echo children and Veiled Ones are not to be trifled with."

I dug my fingers into the lip of the counter and traded a glance with Aidon, who was clutching Nyssa. "Caution is our specialty," I warned.

"Cover everything reflective before sunset," Ava instructed again. "Keep the babies with you. Don’t forget what I told you. The echo children are expert tricksters. It’s how they have stayed under the radar so long."

She ended the call before I could ask another question. The silence it left behind pressed against my eardrums. It was somehow louder than all that static had been.

For several seconds, no one moved. Then Melaina sparked gold from the tips of her fingers. Nyssa cracked her eyes open against Aidon's chest, and her shadows shot out. And electricity sparked around Thaniel’s tiny hands.

"Good boy," Nana praised, pressing a kiss to the dark fuzz on his head. "You have excellent timing, which already puts you ahead of half the adults I have known."

The room moved after that with the frantic purpose of people given instructions urgent enough to follow without argument. Stella taped napkins across the microwave door and labeled the whole covered mess Do Not Flirt With Reflections. Across the kitchen, Mom and Clio set chilled glasses at every doorway while Selene built a list of questions for Caolinn and Lilith, her pen scratching with the speed of someone trying to outrun her own dread.

Aidon shifted Nyssa and hauled me against him with one arm. I felt the solid weight of him settle along my side. "You need to be careful tomorrow, Queenie. Ava seems like an ally, but we know nothing about her. I don’t want you taking any chances," he murmured into my hair. His voice dropped low enough that it belonged mostly to me.

I nodded in agreement. "Stella will be with me. I’ll take an extra protection charm. But I really hope nothing comes into this house wearing our children’s faces. The mere thought is going to give me nightmares.”