Page 59 of Spectacle

“How are the twins?” I ask him.

“They are alright. They are pain free and in the same kind of stasis as Liliana. Spend time with your family, and you can finish healing them when the children go to bed.”

“I can go now,” I argue. “I actually got a huge burst of power from Zeydan while we were at the sanctuary, and I feel the strongest I ever have,” I tell him, and he looks intrigued.

My gaze slides to Xavier, who is pretending not to pay attention, but I know he heard.

“Huh, that’s interesting. I wonder why you can absorb power from him. Did you mate in the way of the gods? Or do you think that it worked because he is a god?” Link asks as I strip and shift, and he numbers each of my tentacles.

“I mated him. I decided it was time to embrace my new destiny. I think maybe there was a part of me that hadn’t completely accepted everything, and it was making things difficult. I’m hoping things will be different from now on. I shouldn’t be fatigued so quickly, according to what Oshan told me.”

“Well, that’s great. Alright, you’re all set. Have fun,” he tells me before moving over to a table with Brannock, Tirrian, and Silac. Tirrian is dealing cards, and bets are being placed.

“Ah, I think you’re missing the point of Go Fish,” I call out, but Brannock waves a hand.

“Hush, woman. I am a Go Fish champion, thanks to Chloe’s fascination with the game. I’m about to win big. Don’t slow my roll.”

I smirk at my Aaz’axian, the last one remaining to seal the mating bond. I will be concentrating on him and making sure Zeydan is locked down as soon as possible, but now is not the time or place to be thinking about it. I’m just thankful my grandpas can’t smell how horny I am.

I leave them be and turn my attention to the others. William, Eric, John, Ghosie, Xavier, and Zeydan are all sitting around a Clue board, and William is dealing the cards and explaining the game to everyone.

“No mind reading allowed. Work out the murderer by playing the game,” I call out to both Zeydan and Xavier, who look at me with suspiciously innocent expressions. Xavier winks at me, so hopefully he’s over his little snit. We’ll have to talk about it, but it can wait.

“Where’s Saxon?” I ask, looking for my final mate who seems to be missing. I didn’t see where he went when we arrived home.

“He went for a shower and needs to feed. He grabbed a bag and said to tell you to stop feeling guilty,” Caspian says, waving for Nikos to spin the spinner. “He said he’ll join in with cards on the next round.”

I do feel incredibly guilty and have to count my blessings that he’s a patient and understanding male.

Playing Twister with five eight-legged krakens playing is not an easy challenge. We aren’t even supposed to have five people playing at once, but the kids didn’t want to hear it, so we do our best, but the five of us end up tangled so badly that when Saxon returns, he has to physically help us unknot. The children are revved up and beside themselves with giggles by the end of it, so when Eric solves Clue, Zeydan stands up.

“How about we go run some of that energy off outside before we go to bed?” he suggests, pointing out the patio doors where it has started snowing.

The children cheer, and it takes us another half hour to get them bundled up in their adorable snowsuits, hats, gloves, and boots. The two cats go out with them, and I lean against the doorframe and watch as Cordy, Cally, and Jack try to teach Ty and Hali to roll snowballs. They only end up throwing tiny fistfuls, so they abandon that and make snow angels instead.

A knock on the front door brings my attention back inside. “Are we expecting anyone?” I ask, but everyone looks as bewildered as I am.

John gets up and goes to see who it is, and I blink in surprise as he returns with Vivian in tow.

“Vivian, what a surprise,” Eric greets his sister-in-law sarcastically. There’s no love lost there. “To what do we owe this visit to?”

I deliberated whether or not to contact her and let her know about Phillip and Fiona, and in the end, I had chosen not to out of caution, just in case she is mixed up with all of this.

I turn my attention to Vivian, surprised at what I’m seeing. Unlike the perfectly put together woman I met the first time we came to Skarr, this woman is completely different. Her smile is forced, and she looks rough. Her clothes aren’t as perfectly pressed as they were the last time she was here, and she has dark circles under her eyes. She wrings her hands together, drawing my attention to them, and I notice her knuckles are bruised and one of them is split and oozing.

Saxon’s nose flares, and he zeroes in on the same thing I do. That’s interesting, considering we found my cousins barely hanging on to their lives at the dino sanctuary, beaten to within an inch of their lives before being attacked by a rampaging raptor.

She takes a deep breath, and it’s like she pulls herself together, straightening her back. “I heard that you found Liliana. I wasn’t waiting for an invitation to visit my sister. I want to see her,” she demands haughtily.

“Well, she’s still hasn’t regained consciousness yet,” William explains coldly.

“I would like to sit with her anyway.” Vivian doesn’t seem inclined to take no for an answer.

Link stands up, abandoning his hand of Go Fish somewhat reluctantly. I’m pretty sure he is winning, looking at the pile of cards next to him.

“I’ll just go check on her if you give me a moment.” He hurries in the direction of my grandpas’ wing, where Liliana and my two cousins are. Hell, how are we going to explain that? Maybe Link is going to move them into another room until we can learn the truth from them. It’s better that she doesn’t know they are here.

Xavier, can you help him? I ask, sending the thought to his mind, and he stands up and wanders subtly in the opposite direction, but I know as soon as he is out of sight, he will teleport to help Link.

Vivian looks around the room, unable to hide her disgust as she takes in all my remaining mates. “Quite the menagerie you have here, William,” she sneers at my grandpa, who leans back in his chair and just grins.

“Yes, our Lila has mated some of the most powerful beings in the universe,” he replies, acknowledging her slight and turning it upside down. “We couldn’t be happier that our legacies will be continued for many years to come. We have two new grandbabies—two more Adams to take on the mantle of the circus.” He is not so subtly rubbing that she is not an Adams in her face while gesturing to the children playing outside. She follows his gaze, and I watch as her mouth drops open, and she pales considerably before she starts to back out of the room.

“You know what? I don’t have time to wait for permission to see my sister. I’ll come back another time when you aren’t so inundated.” She quickly turns and hurries back the way she came, leaving us to exchange confused looks. I follow where her gaze had gone and see Zeydan’s nine tails bristling with excitement as he watches the children play in the snow.

Was it Zeydan who sent her scurrying? Before I can ask anyone else what they think, Xavier appears in the middle of the room, looking frantic. His gaze stops on my grandpas, who are on guard.

“John, William, Eric, come quickly. Liliana is awake.”

The End… for now.

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