~Samantha~

Diana was hitting past her limits and it didn’t take much to know why.

“Diana,” I called, already walking toward her, “baby, please ease up.”

“Diana, pull it back a little,” Killian added. “If you push harder than this, you’ll get hurt.”

“I can do it,” she insisted, breathing heavier than she should have been. Her jaw was set in that stubborn way that always made trouble. “Don’t stop me.”

Across from them, Devon had his own light going, brighter and smoother, and Dominic stood beside him with that proud Alpha father.

So much for being remorseful.

“You’re picking up faster than I expected, buddy,” Dominic said, like the devil personally paid him commission for bad timing. “It could have been the same for your sister but she chose the other guy.”

My head snapped toward him. “Why would you say that right now?”

Dominic frowned like I was the problem. “What? I’m just stating the obvious. I’m a better teacher.”

“We talked about this before. Stop comparing them!”

Diana heard every word. I watched the hurt flash in her eyes, then that horrible little fire children got when they decided they would rather die than look weak in front of their sibling.

Devon turned to her. “Di, it’s okay to join us. I’ll teach you.”

She cut him off without even glancing over. “I said I can do it.”

“I don’t need your help.”

They used to be a perfect team but their father just had to be unreasonable.

“Diana, please stop this now.”

Killian reached a hand toward her but did not touch. “Listen to your mum.”

“I’m not weak,” she shot back, and there it was. The real problem. “I’m tired of everybody acting like I need extra help all the time.”

“Baby, this is not about being weak,” I said. “You don’t need to prove anything to anybody.”

“Everybody knows you are just as strong as mummy.”

“Dad and Devon don’t believe that.”

Her eyes got glassy, but the light in her hands only grew harsher. “I’m always the softer one. I’m always the one people talk to gently. He gets stronger. I get cautioned.”

Killian took a step around her line of power. “Diana, enough. Your brother and father were only trying to get into your head.”

Dominic muttered, “That’s because we want her to focus instead of getting emotional.”

“Can you shut up for one minute?” I whipped around at him. “Or better still, take Devon away and train somewhere else.”

“Let me handle the mess you already created.”

He frowned. “I’m not the reason she’s overdoing it.”

Liar.

“Sure because she started acting insecure out of nowhere.”

Diana made a strangled sound, and when I turned back, the silver glow had climbed too high. It flashed around her wrists and up her arms in unstable streaks.

“Mommy!”

The light burst wrong.

A violent crack split through the yard. Devon stumbled back. Diana’s knees gave out under her and she hit the ground so fast my heart damn near stopped inside my chest.

“Diana!”

I was on her before the echo died. Killian got there too, one hand at her shoulder, the other hovering near her head like he was scared to touch the wrong place. Dominic shoved in from the side, barking orders at everybody and nobody.

“Get the doctor now!”

Diana’s lashes fluttered. Her skin looked whitish. Her lips had lost color. I slapped her cheek lightly, my hand shaking so badly it pissed me off.

“Baby, wake up. Diana, open your eyes for me.”

Nothing.

“No, no, no, don’t do this to me.”

Killian crouched lower. “Sam, let me lift her.”

“Carefully,” I snapped, already checking her hands, her chest, her breathing.

Devon stood there frozen like his soul had exited his body. Then his face crumpled.

“I didn’t mean it,” he blurted. “I wasn’t trying to make her compete. I swear. I didn’t know she’d...”

I couldn’t even be mad at him. Dominic was going to hear the end of it.

“Somebody move,” I choked out. “Why is everybody standing there? Move!”

Dominic scooped Diana up from Killian with a rough care that only made sense if you knew him. Killian stayed close in case she slipped. I ran beside them all the way inside, one hand on Diana’s leg.

“You’re fine. You’re okay. You scared me, that’s all. When you wake up, I’m going to make your favorite meal. You hear me?”

She did not answer.

By the time we got her to bed, the doctor was already there. He started checking her while I stayed so close I was practically breathing down his neck.

Dominic paced at the foot of the bed like he wanted to attack somebody. Killian stood near the window, jaw tight, eyes glued to Diana’s face. Devon came in too, crying quietly now, and it struck my last nerve.

“Mum,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

I snapped before I could stop myself. “Devon, out.”

“Join your Daddy.”

His mouth fell open.

“Mummy, do you hate me now?”

“I don’t but I can’t do this with you crying in here too. Go outside.”

The second the words left me, guilt choked me, but I was too deep in panic to fix it properly. Devon backed away like I had shoved him and left the room with wet cheeks and his shoulders folded in.

Well. Mother of the year. Somebody give me an award.

The doctor pressed two fingers to Diana’s wrist again, then looked at her eyes, then her hands where faint silver sparks still jumped under the skin.

“What is it?” I demanded.

He exhaled carefully, which never meant anything good. “She overused her purification power.”

“And her body is extremely drained, Luna. The bigger issue is magical instability. Ordinary medicine can ease the physical symptoms, but magical exhaustion is different.”

Cold slid straight through me.

Dominic stopped pacing. “So what do we do?”

The doctor hesitated.

“I do not have a full solution yet.”

“This is exactly why I said splitting them was a stupid idea. This whole thing became a contest the second you two started dragging them into your Alpha nonsense.”

Dominic’s head came up. “Diana made her own choice.”

I turned so slowly it probably looked demonic. “Excuse me?”

He realized too late how bad it sounded, but since the words were already out there ruining lives, he kept going. “Nobody forced her to push past her limit.”

Killian snapped his head toward him. “Are you hearing yourself right now?”

Dominic’s face darkened. “Don’t.”

“No, you don’t get to say that after spending the whole morning feeding Devon’s ego and tossing comments around like this was some stupid race.”

Dominic stepped toward him. “Watch how you talk to me.”

“Or what? You’ll compare me to a child too?”

I cut through both of them. “Enough!”

My voice came out loud enough that Diana stirred faintly on the bed. All three of us froze.

From outside the room, I heard Devon crying harder.

I pointed at the door. “Both of you leave.”

Dominic blinked. “What?”

“If Diana wakes up and hears you idiots fighting over whose fault this is, she will lose whatever strength she has left. Get out.”

“I’m not leaving her.”

“You are leaving my sight before I lose my mind on you too.”

Killian looked like he wanted to stay, but he was smart enough to back off first. Dominic stood there another second, chest rising hard, then Diana made the softest sound in her throat and that finally shut him up.

They both left.

I sat beside her and brushed her hair off her forehead. My fingers would not stop shaking. Hours passed like that. Maybe more. I did not care. My daughter stayed asleep.

At some point, Dominic came back carrying food.

“You need to eat,”

“I really don’t have any appetite but put it there.”

I picked at the food because he kept staring until I did. He stayed a little longer, then left after saying, “She’s going to be okay.”

Later, the door cracked open again and Devon slipped in.

He walked straight to the bed, climbed up carefully, and curled around Diana’s hand like he could guard her by being small and sorry enough.

“I didn’t mean it,” he whispered to her sleeping face. “I wasn’t trying to win. You don’t have to beat me. I’m sorry, Di. Please wake up.”

I should have called him back sooner and held him too.

“I’m sorry, baby for how I acted earlier. I was just upset with Dad and I took it on you.”

“It’s okay, mummy. I just want Di to be fine.”

Me too.

Almost everyone paid a visit to check up on Diana except Killian who disappeared sometime in the evening.

Nobody told me where he went but that was the least of my concern.

Night came, and everything got worse.

Her breaths started coming unevenly. Her hands twitched against the sheets. Tiny silver sparks snapped around her fingers like leftover power had gotten trapped inside and did not know where to go.

The doctor checked her again, gave her something else, waited, then checked again with a certain look on his face that scared me.

“Doc, what’s going on!”