263. We need a photo

263. We need a photo
Lia
It happened on a quiet morning when nothing else was happening. I woke up to a sunny day and a clear sky. The birds were singing. The twins were still asleep, tangled in blankets at the foot of my couch. For a moment, everything felt normal, peaceful, even. I remember thinking how rare that was.
For Solen to appear like this, on such a wonderful day, seemed almost fitting. Almost cruel.
He must’ve planned it. He had to have. Striking not in the middle of chaos, but in the calm, when our guard was down, when we were most vulnerable. When we might forget, just for a second, that monsters still walked in shadows. That they had names. That they wanted what we loved most.
The moment I stepped outside, I felt it. The shift. The air didn’t smell different, not exactly, but something had soured in it. The wind weighted it, a stillness too unnatural to ignore. Birds had stopped singing. The world had gone eerily quiet, like it was holding its breath.
“Guys, it’s time!”
The Moonveil pack went after the twins. They started walking into the forest, following this invisible path. I wanted to grab them and run in the opposite direction, but this would mean Solen was going to win.
None of us could allow Solen to win. Mostly for the fact that the world would be over. Everything we had been fighting for this entire time would be over.
The further we got into the forest, the darker the sky became. The air around us became stale, making it harder to breathe. I took deep, slow breaths, trying not to allow it to overwhelm me. But it was difficult when it was wrapping around us like a noose.
Then I saw it. In the distance was this portal, and standing there was this strange humanoid creature. Long, tendril-like hair, strangely pale skin, and nothing but black holes for eyes. It was truly terrifying.
This was Solen.
I… wanted to scream, but when I tried, nothing came out.
The twins looked at me.
“We have this, Mama.”
Solen beckoned them with a crooked finger, a strange smile making its way onto his mangled face.
“Come, children. Be a part of me and allow me to live again through you. It will give you the peace you need.”
I think my connection as the twins' mother was allowing me to hear this.
Behind me, the twins began to glow. Their skin shimmered with the same eerie light the Spiritborn radiated, and their eyes turned silver-white. The forest around us groaned as if waking from a long, tortured sleep. Branches twisted toward the sky. The ground pulsed beneath our feet.
Whatever was happening, it was starting.
And there was no stopping it now.
My heart was hammering in my chest.
The air crackled with energy as the battle truly began. Solen roared, an unearthly sound that made the trees tremble and the ground quake beneath our feet. The twins were small—too small—and yet they moved like ancient warriors, appearing and disappearing in blinks of light, their hands glowing with raw power.
They struck him again, and Solen staggered back, black smoke pouring from his chest where the psychic blast had landed. He snarled, his body twisting in impossible angles, tendrils of shadow snapping out to grab them, but they were too fast.
“Rowan! Gemma!” I shouted, but they didn’t look back.
They couldn’t.
Their eyes were white-hot now, no pupils, no humanity, only light. They weren’t my babies in that moment. They were something more. Something terrifying and beautiful. Beings of soul-fire, born to end this monster once and for all.
Other creatures came out of the portal, meaning we had to go ahead and do something before they interrupted.
I called on my magic, letting it rise from deep inside me like a storm. Flames burst from my fingertips, setting the shadow-creatures ablaze as they lunged at us from the treelined. I spun, throwing ice like daggers, freezing the ones that tried to circle behind Rain and the others. We moved as one, swift, focused, unstoppable.
The fight was going the exact way I wanted, each blow calculated, each step forward pushing back the darkness. For the first time in what felt like forever, I believed we might survive this. All of us.
But just as I turned to strike another creature down, I felt it.
A pulse.
It wasn’t from me. It wasn’t from the others.
A large creature came out, attacking us and trying to drag us down to hell. Or it's version of hell.
Rain appeared behind it with his vampire magic. I stared at the man who could sometimes be such a good ball, but he was willing to put in the effort when he needed to.
My eyes kept drifting to the twins.
Then I saw it.
Solen was falling, landing on one knee. He looked like he was in pain, and I was loving it.
“We can seal him now!” I cried, recalling the ritual the little girl had told me.
Together, we launched our power toward Solen, a swirling mass of energy too bright to look at. The twins added their magic—silver beams of soul-light lancing from their palms, locking him in place.
Solen screamed.
He thrashed, tried to crawl away, but the ritual had already begun. The runes lit up beneath him, ancient symbols burning themselves into the ground, searing into the very fabric of existence. This was no temporary prison. This was the final.
He wasn’t going to be able to come back.
He wasn’t going to be able to do this to my twins again.
I was determined—desperate—to protect them in the only way I knew how: by ending it here, ending him here, no matter the cost.
The wind howled as the spell locked into place, sealing itself with a final, thunderous snap.
And then… silence.
Solen was gone. Truly gone.

“It’s over,” Matt said quietly, like saying it too loud might break it.
I didn’t answer.
I was already running.
The twins stood frozen near the shattered altar, still glowing faintly with the last threads of borrowed power.
I pulled them both into a hug so tight, they squeaked.
“You’re okay,” I whispered, burying my face in their hair.
“You’re okay.”
One of them hiccupped a breath, the other nodded fast against my shoulder.
Behind me, I heard footsteps—my pack, closing in.
No more fighting.
Just breathing.
Jesse clapped Colby on the back.
“Remind me never to let Lia negotiate with ancient evil again.”
Colby snorted.
“She wins every time. It’s terrifying.”
“I’m standing right here,” I said.
“And we’re grateful,” Jesse said, holding up both hands.
“Very grateful. I’d even write you a thank-you card, but my hand’s currently made of regret.”
“I’ll take a pizza instead,” I said.
Matt walked over, bruised, bleeding, grinning.
“Remind me to pass out in five minutes.”
“Make it ten,” I said.
“We need a photo.”
“I better look cool,” he said.
“No one posts the dying guy pics without filters.”
Rain stumbled into the clearing last, mud on his face and leaves in his hair.
“Did we win? Or did I hallucinate the part where Solen screamed like a kettle and got sucked into a glowing hole?”
“We won,” I said, smiling.
Rain dropped to his knees in the grass.
“Great. In that case, does anyone else smell toast, or is that just my brain melting?”
Colby snorted.
Jesse rolled his eyes.
“You’re fine.”
“Physically? Sure. Mentally?” Rain blinked dramatically.
“I’ve made a list of people I plan to haunt if I don’t survive, and I’m still crossing names off just in case.”
The twins giggled against my shoulders.
Matt laughed.
“You know what? That’s fair.”
Rain pointed at him.
“You’re still on the list.”
“Unbelievable,” Matt said, mock offended.
“I carried you through half that cave.”
“Yeah, and dropped me once.”
“It was a tactical stumble.”
“You said ‘oops’!”
Jesse grinned.
“He said ‘oops.’”
“It was a power move,” Matt insisted.
“Gravity made the move,” Colby said.
I looked around at all of them—laughing, bleeding, alive—and for the first time in what felt like forever, I let myself breathe.
“You did good,” I told them.
“We did,” Jesse said.
Rain raised both arms.
“So... does this mean we finally get a break?”
“No,” I said.
Everyone groaned.
“But,” I added, “we do get cake.”
Rain jumped to his feet.
“Screw the break. Cake is better. I fought a god, I deserve buttercream.”
“You also deserve a shower,” Colby said, eyeing him.
Rain sniffed himself.
“I’m choosing to interpret that as a compliment.”
“I’m choosing to stand upwind,” Matt muttered.
“One of you better carry me if my legs give out,” Rain said.
“Not it,” Jesse and Matt said in unison.
Colby sighed.
“I hate all of you, and I’ll do it anyway.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist, warm and steady.
“Let’s go home.”
“Yeah,” I said, holding the twins tight.
“Let’s.”