Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Lila
T he auditions exhaust me, and when I get home, I ask Zeydan for a rain check on our date, mostly because I want to be able to focus on him, and right now, my attention is scattered. Instead, I suggest we have family dinner and game night. It feels like it’s been forever since we were all in the same room together. Xavier and Tirrian arrived from Fluxx, so we’re all here, but Nik is insisting on making the call to Aquilia first. He wants to see if they are still going to provide some Aquilians for their act.
He’s quite agitated as we sit down in front of the large screen that doubles as a TV and a video conferencing device. “You know, even if they don’t, we have the makings of a cute little act right here,” I tell him, rocking Hali in my arms. Thankfully she’s asleep for now, because she does not stop. Ty is a lot calmer, which is so funny considering his name. We certainly got that wrong. We should have called him Tranquil or Millpond or something more appropriate.
“Wouldn’t it be fun to have you and the children in the act? Maybe we can incorporate the krakens into it as well.”
He looks thoughtful, but before he can reply, the screen lights up, and his mother is staring at us, wearing an expression that makes her look like she smelled something bad.
“What is it, Nikos? I’m pretty sure I made it clear that if you chose the path you did that you would no longer be welcome on Aquilia.”
My mouth drops open in surprise, and I gape at my husband. “You never told me that. When did she make you choose?”
He sighs, brushing a hand over sleeping Ty’s small head. “A few days before I gave birth, she answered one of my calls and gave me an ultimatum. If I gave you full custody of the children and returned to Aquilia, she would make me crown prince again, and I would be forced to marry an Aquilian woman of her choice. She was planning on claiming my babies were stillborn, as they are the rightful heirs to the throne with the way Aquilian succession goes. It’s supposed to be the firstborn.”
“You hag, what a horrible thing to do to your son,” I sneer at his mother, disgusted by her ultimatum. “You are no better than that slug of a husband. You probably would have kept me in the dungeon and pimped me out too if Tirrian hadn’t saved me,” I say, knowing that’s what her husband planned to do with me.
She shrugs. “You would have been a good money earner,” she remarks nonchalantly.
“Mother, I thought if you saw the babies, you would change your mind.” Nikos holds up Typhoon so she can see him. “This is my son, Typhoon, and Lila is holding our daughter, Hali.” I don’t bother disturbing our child by holding her up. I don’t want this woman to have anything to do with my babies.
Her eyes light up a little at the sight of Typhoon, but it’s with greed and not joy, and I feel ill. Yup, not letting her anywhere near them. Her attention turns to me and my beautiful girl, and she wrinkles her nose again.
“What is wrong with her coloring? That’s not the coloring of an Aquilian.” The only part of Hali she can see is her hair, which is the same as mine.
“She takes after Lila, which is dictated by the dragon eye gem. She is the keeper of their mine,” Nikos brags, and I wince. Damn it, she didn’t need to know that. I can see the greed in her eyes multiply at possibly having access to the gems.
“Fine, you can bring the female child with you too, and I expect a delivery of the dragon gems once a quarter as payment for letting them return.”
I stare at the woman, completely gobsmacked by her audacity. She wants me to pay her to take my mate and children back. Does she expect me to just be okay with this? She didn’t mention anything about me going with them.
“Mother, where is Nixie? I’d like to introduce my sister to her niece and nephew.” Nikos doesn’t give her an answer to her demand, and I reach out with my warlock powers to see how he feels. He looks very calm, and I will kill him if he is even considering it. I shouldn’t have worried, though, because inside him is a ball of fury, and I can feel his worry for his sister.
His mother huffs in disgust. “She turned out to be as useless as you. She is unavailable to see your spawn, as I have her locked in the dungeon for some correctional behavior. I’ve given her womb to General Mallon to use. He expressed interest in breeding her when I initiated bidding rights.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Nikos explodes, waking up Typhoon who wails with fright. He glares at his mother before standing up and shushing Typhoon, bouncing him up and down to sooth him. “I cannot believe you. After how Father treated you, you’re now acting as badly as him.”
“Being nice doesn’t pay, Nikos.” His mother smiles contemptuously. “Now that I’m in charge, we’re doing things my way.”
“But who are you going to have as your heir?” I ask the mer bitch, still rocked by her attitude. She smiles, and it makes me feel ill. It’s slimy and reminiscent of her dearly departed husband. I shudder.
“Nikos, your friend Hurricane is a captain in our armed forces, isn’t he?” Queen Nerissa asks, and I brace for wherever she is going with this.
“Hurry? Yes, he’s stationed at the barracks near the trench. His unit is in charge of making sure none of the creatures escape.” My mate sounds confused.
“He has twins in his family, right?”
Nikos nods as Typhoon falls asleep, although there is a small hitching of breath as he still sobs in his sleep. My poor baby. “Yes, he has younger twin sisters. They must be in their mid-teens now.”
“Excellent. He will be a suitable breeding partner. I will have him relocated to the palace immediately. I’m still young, and who knows, the next lot of spawn we give birth to may actually be competent.” She pushes her hair back behind her ear and flutters her eyelashes girlishly.
Nikos’s eyes widen with horror, and he looks at me. I can feel his desire to warn his friend of his mother’s plans. I decide I’ve had enough of this whole interaction. Time to cut it short.
“Well, good luck with that.” I brush off her announcement like it means nothing to us. Narcissists like her only want attention, and I am not feeding into that. I’m thankful she’s not going to be in my children’s lives, because after that little performance, there’s no way she is spending any time with them. “Nikos and our babies will be remaining with the circus. I take it you no longer want to be associated with the Galaxy Circus, Queen Nerissa, so I shouldn’t rely on Aquilian performers returning now that the show is resuming its tour, correct?”
I’m done playing games. I don’t want this woman anywhere near any of us.
“No Aquilian will demean themselves by performing in that freakshow anymore.” She curls her lip in disgust.
“Fine, I’ll have the council made aware of your stance so that when we refuse to bring the show to Aquilia, they will know why. I’ll also share your decision with my in-laws. That would be the ruling families of Vilax, Westalin, and Iceen as well as Snakebite Logistics and the suppliers of suva, to name a few. I’m sure they will agree that a boycott on anything Aquilian will be appropriate since you consider us all freaks.”
Her entitled look drops, and she starts to sputter.
“Oh, and I’ll make sure my mate, Zeydan, the god of earth, lets his brother know that the ruling royal on Aquilia approves of selling females for breeding purposes. I’m sure Tito, the god of water and your patron god, will be interested to hear that. He may even decide that Aquilia needs a reset or, at the very least, a new ruling family,” I bluff as I pass Hali to her father and stand up, putting my hands on my hips as I glare at the now pale woman on the screen. “Watch your back, bitch. Nobody messes with my family and gets away with it.”
I wave my hand to turn the screen off, feeling spitefully pleased at the shocked look on Nerissa’s face.
“I need to call Hurry and warn him about my mother’s plans, and I need to go rescue my sister,” Nikos tells me, juggling both children flawlessly.
“Wow, so that did not go well,” Xavier says, leaning against the kitchen counter and drinking a beer. Saxon and Tirrian are sitting at the dining room table with their own beer, and they were thankfully quiet through the whole conversation. We didn’t need to add fuel to the flames, but I can feel Nikos’s embarrassment.
“Not sure your mother is any better on the throne than your father,” Caspian points out unnecessarily, and I glare at his tactless ass. He just shrugs.
“How long do you give it until the Aquilian people rebel? They must have thought their luck changed when Marlin was dealt with. They are not going to like what she’s doing,” Saxon muses, and Nikos nods.
“Yes, I don’t doubt Mother will have to quell possible civil war. She should have kept Nixie as her heir. She is the beloved princess of Aquilla. Our people will not be happy to hear she will be replaced.”
Xavier puts his beer down and walks over to us, making grabby hands for the children.
“Give me my guppies. I’ll watch them while you call your friend.” He’s so grabby for all the children, and he spoils them rotten. I think he’s been secretly working on a spell to help him breathe underwater. I heard him muttering when he thought nobody was listening, and he was considering getting Caspian or Nikos to give him a mating bite so he could shift and swim with them. Talk about extreme measures.
Nikos hands Hali to Xavier, and I take Ty from him.
“But you can’t leave to rescue Nixie. Is there no one else you trust on Aquilia who could help you? What about this Hurry person?”
“He would, but if my mother caught him, he’d be just as trapped as Nixie. There isn’t really anyone else. I didn’t make myself too popular with that idiotic act. It kept away true friends as well as those who only wanted to be with me because of my status. Hurri was the only one who saw through it.”
“And it’s not like we can send any random mercenary team to break her out, because I’m assuming she will be kept in the castle at the bottom of the ocean.” Saxon pushes back from the table and takes Ty from me, putting him over his shoulder and swaying on the spot. My merman starts pacing back and forth across the floor, pulling at his hair.
“What am I going to do?”
“Do you think they are treating her badly? Like, would your mother torture her or anything?” I ask, stepping in front of him and blocking his path. I wrap my arms around him and rub his back, hoping to calm him slightly.
He shakes his head. “No, I don’t think so. It will just be an out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. She often told us she couldn’t stand to look at us when she was having a particularly bad day. It’s why she didn’t argue when we decided to leave for the circus.”
“Okay, well good, so she should be fine where she is for now. It’s important that you warn your friend so he can hide or maybe go off world for the moment until your mother sets her sights on someone else. She won’t be able to wait too long to produce an heir, or maybe one of your father’s other bastards will make a play. This should keep her busy until we can do our thing on Earth, and then we can rescue Nixie,” I suggest, and I feel him take a large breath before he pulls away and sighs.
“Okay. Yeah, you’re right. I’m not leaving our family for the moment, and Nixie will be okay.”
“Lila,” William calls as he emerges from their wing of the house. The kitchen and dining area is centrally located and shared by both wings. He’s frowning down at a tablet in his hands.
“Hi, Grandpa Will. How’s Grandma?” I ask him. The three men mostly stay close by in case she wakes. Link disappeared into their wing not too long ago to run some more checks on her. “Are you ready for dinner and family game night tonight?”
I finally have everyone where I want them, and tonight, we’re attempting to play some of the games I brought from Earth. There’s Twister, Game of Life, Clue, Monopoly, Jenga, Go Fish, and Operation. I’m going to set up stations, and we can take turns playing the games. I’ve also arranged drinks and snacks. I can’t wait.
He smiles, but it almost looks like a grimace, and I wave a finger at him. “Nope, you’re not getting out of it,” I tell him before he can even wrangle an excuse.
“Fine, but I just got a funny alert at the dino sanctuary. I was wondering if you could drive out there and check it out. Most of the staff go home in the evenings, and they rotate who stays overnight. I tried to get in contact with Connor, who is supposed to be on shift tonight, but he’s not responding. I’d go, but I don’t want to leave Liliana when she may be close to waking.”
“Yeah, okay, I have time to run out there before dinner is ready. Maybe Zeydan can come with me since we didn’t get our date tonight.”
He and Brannock were in the library before I sat down with Nikos, so I head in that direction. I’ve never been out to the dino sanctuary before, but I’ve been granted access to all Galaxy Circus holdings. Hopefully I can find Connor, and he can show us around. I’m sure he’s probably just seeing to an animal and can’t come to the phone, but I don’t mind a little one-on-one time with Zeydan. I really like him and want to know him better, and this will help with that.
The library has an open fire that crackles, making the room toasty warm. Zeydan and Brannock are both curled up in plush chairs with books as they read quietly. I love that neither of them feel the need to communicate with one another to be comfortable. I think Zeydan has spent so much time alone that he struggles in big crowds now, and let’s face it, our family is loud and demonstrative and loving, so he’s going to need quiet time regularly to decompress. Brannock must be the same, used to isolation because he and Chloe lived separate from society the last year. It’s nice to see them bonding.
“Hi.” Both of them look up when they hear me. Brannock gives me that smile that makes his eyes crinkle at the edges, and my heart go pitter-patter. God, I love this man.
“Hey, baby, are you coming to join us?” He points at the plush chair that has my romance novel on it. I left it there earlier, so I knew where to find it next time.
I shake my head. “I’d love to, but I have to run an errand for William, and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me,” I ask Zeydan, who quickly puts a bookmark in the place he was reading and stands up.
“Sure, I’d love to.”
“Do you need anyone else?” Brannock asks, but I shake my head.
“No. Enjoy your peace and quiet, because I guarantee game night is going to be anything but.” I laugh as he winces. I know it’s not really his thing, but sometimes we need to sacrifice for the good of the masses.