Page 56 of Spectacle

My well of power still drains very quickly, and I know if I heal Fiona completely, I won’t have enough left in the tank for the rest of the steggies and Phillip, so I cut off the power and look at Saxon.

“Call Xavier. Get him to teleport here and bring them both back to the mansion so Link can monitor them, and I can heal them fully after recharging. I need a few more of my battery chargers on hand for that.”

Saxon rolls his eyes playfully but pulls out the communicator to contact our warlock while I shuffle over to Zeydan and Phillip.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so unhelpful. I bring nothing to this family with my powers diminished so much,” Zeydan laments, staring at my cousin with frustration. I give his hand a squeeze before activating my healing powers and working on Phillip.

“That’s just not true, and I’m sure once Liliana wakes up, she can shed some light on that problem.” I think we’ve all resigned ourselves to the fact that my grandmother was once the goddess of life and has answers to a lot of our questions.

Once I get his wound to stop bleeding and I stabilize him, I try to wake him, but like Fiona, I have no luck. I release my power and sit back on my heels, looking at my new potential mate.

“Did you happen to notice that both Phillip and Fiona seem to be in the same kind of stasis that Liliana is in?” I ask him, wondering if he noticed when he was helping heal them.

“Yes, I noticed. It has the same magical signature. It’s like whoever did this doesn’t want them to be able to talk.”

“Why not kill them outright then?” a voice asks, and I startle, standing up to see my mist-covered warlock standing in the entrance to the barn.

“Holy shit, that’s the warlock,” Connor mutters. “You really do have some powerful friends.” He looks at me with awe, and I roll my eyes when Xavier corrects him.

“She has some powerful husbands.” He walks over and looks down at my two extremely injured cousins. “Someone worked them over good. I’m assuming the wreckage is all because of Htaed?” he asks. “You might want to move him. I think the smell of steggy blood may rouse him sooner than you hoped. I saw a talon twitch when I walked by.”

Connor jumps to his feet. “Fuck, I’ll tranq him again, and we can move him.” He hurries out of the barn, and Xavier lets his mist dissipate before he raises an eyebrow at me.

“Why don’t you just teleport him to where he needs to go?” he asks, and I frown.

“Because I don’t know where he has to go. I’ve never seen it.”

He shakes his head in disappointment, tapping the side of it with his finger. “Take the image out of his mind.” He nods in Connor’s direction.

I wince. “Yeah, but then I have to strip and change forms, and it’s cold.” I’m not ashamed to admit I whine. Sometimes these powers are more of a pain than they are worth.

“Babe, you’ve practiced accessing other powers of different forms, not to mention Celestians can teleport and read minds,” he reminds me, and I feel stupid, but then I double down.

“But I don’t want to run out of power and be useless.” I really do worry about this. Instead of having unlimited power, it seems to run out very quickly.

“Well, you have a husband and another potential mate who can help you refuel.” He nods at Saxon and Zeydan.

“But Zeydan can’t power me up because we’re not bonded.” I’m being deliberately stubborn now, but he’s pissing me off. I cross my arms and glare at him.

“I’m sure you can manage five quick mutual orgasms. He’s a god, so his recovery period has to be spectacular.”

“Why are you being like this?” I demand, getting really pissed off now. His tone is flat and bordering on annoyed.

“Because, Lila, your human sensibilities are limiting your potential.” He stabs a finger at the injured Skarrians. “You need to fix all your bonds and level up. What do you think the chances are that they should be dead so they couldn’t tell us who did it, but the attack was interrupted by a rampaging dino? What’s to say this isn’t all related to everything we have going on? Who’s to say you or, God forbid, the babies aren’t the next victims?”

“Why would they be involved?” I argue, but my heart starts to race. I haven’t even considered motive yet except they were assholes. I’m sure I’m not the only person they were nasty to.

“Lila, they are Adams adjacent. Until you appeared, they were touted as being next in line to inherit the circus. We’ve already suspected them of some dubious behavior, and their grandmother is highly suspicious as well. I think we would be stupid to dismiss this as some random attack. Just think about it.”

He is clearly pissed at me, because he doesn’t even wait for a response. He just teleports himself and my cousins.

I gape at thin air and rub the ache in my chest that I feel whenever one of my mates is angry at me.

“Ouch,” I whisper, too embarrassed to look at Saxon and Zeydan.

“While he was unnecessarily cruel in his worry, he’s also not wrong. It’s all been heaped on you, and the fact that you haven’t devolved into a gelatinous mess in the corner is admirable. You need to adapt quickly, though, and finally make that decision to assimilate to your new life. Part of you is holding onto the past. Zeydan says you are mates, and there is some piece of you that recognizes that, even though you are reluctant to admit it. It’s time to embrace it and become the woman you need to be to take down the Syndicate and Agent Smith.”

“I didn’t ask for any of this!” I shout, and I want to rage, but arms wrap around me, and I’m pulled against a hard chest, my wings pinned against me. Zeydan gave up his half naked ways to assimilate with the family, and I am sad to feel a couple of layers between us now.

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