Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Lila
When we rematerialize on the platform of the palace of Celestia, William and Eric are there to meet us. They look exhausted, but they have big hugs for me and the kids.
“You got the flower! And I see you got something else as well. New hairdo?” Eric lifts a strand of my sparkly silver locks. “You look like a My Little Pony.” He chuckles, but the laughter doesn’t quite reach his eyes, which is out of character for Eric. John’s illness must be wearing on them.
My husbands assured me they love my new hair color, but I can’t help but feel self-conscious about it. I asked Xavier to glamor me, and he refused to. He said I should wear it with pride. It is a sign of high status in Rilu.
“Yes, Link has it.” They both turn to my cyborg, who is holding the bag with the flower in it.
“Let’s not keep John waiting any longer, shall we?” he says, and Corethea approaches. She stayed back to give us a moment of privacy for our family reunion.
“Lila, you are looking much better than when I saw you last,” she greets me, taking my hands. I bob slightly in a curtsy.
“Thank you, Your Majesty. It is lovely to see you again, and I don’t know how I can ever repay you for what you did.”
She squeezes my hand. “Nonsense. You brought me my boy back, and I hear you and his Susie are best friends. That makes us family as far as I am concerned, and family doesn’t owe anything.
Now, introduce me to your beautiful babies so I can have a quick cuddle before Tabbris and I heal John.
He has waited long enough, but baby cuddles trump everything. ”
I introduce her to my babies, who are completely fascinated with the huge, white wings on her back, but I can tell by the way that Eric and William fidget that they have reached their limit.
“Would it be alright if we visited with Susie while you do your thing on John?”
“Of course. I will have someone show you the way to their quarters. Both my son and Susie have been impatiently waiting for you to arrive. I’m surprised they aren’t here.” Corethea laughs and gestures for one of their royal guards to escort me and the rest of our motley crew where we want to go.
“I’m going to stay and help. I would like to see the flamegem flower in action, and I want to see if my suspicions are right about the virus being a cyborg construct,” Link tells me.
We haven’t told William and Eric the news about their wife yet.
We wanted to wait until John was stable again and tell them all at once, but one of us needs to know how to use the flower, and Link volunteered so I can visit with Susie.
“How about just you and Cas go and visit with Susie and Mark. Having all of us there would be overwhelming. The rest of us can figure out something to do while we wait,” Xavier suggests.
“Don’t go too far. As soon as John is up and ready, we will make our way to Westalin,” I warn the rest of my mates.
“We have a very nice bar for palace employees. How about I have one of the guards show you to that?” Corethea suggests, and the rest of the guys eagerly agree.
We split up, and Cas, the babies, and I are shown to Mark’s wing of the palace. There are guards stationed in every hall we travel down. “Is it normal to have so many guards? Are there threats against the royal family?” I ask the one who is escorting us.
He grunts. “The royal family is being overzealous at the moment due to the return of their son. They are worried there is a credible threat to him since he was kidnapped. His reappearance halted any talks regarding changing from a monarchy to a republic. There are, of course, some people who are not happy about this.”
“That seems reasonable to me,” Cas says, bouncing Cordy and Cally up and down on his hips. “I would do the same if I thought my children were in danger.”
Thankfully we can mostly control who gets access to our children on our ship. We’ve started using a more stringent background check after the Madovian incident, so hopefully we don’t have any more issues going forward.
The guard stops at a door and lifts his hand to knock, but it opens before he can.
“Lila!” Susie screams and jumps for me, but she stops abruptly when she sees Jack in my arms. Her eyes soften and become misty.
“You’re a mother,” she murmurs, running a finger across Jack’s soft cheek.
“Holy crap, they are not babies like I thought they’d be.
Come in and tell me everything.” She steps out of the way, allowing us to enter.
We visit with Mark and Susie and their new family for probably two hours.
The children are fascinated with Mark’s new set of royal blue angel wings.
They keep trying to touch them until he plucks them each a feather of their own.
That kept them occupied for a good ten minutes, but Aura and the rest of their family had a blast keeping them distracted so I could fill Susie and Mark in on everything going on in my life, and they could share all their news, but we are eventually summoned to return to the throne room.
“Good luck on Westalin,” she tells me as we hug, both of us reluctant to let go of one another.
“And good luck here. I hope it all goes well. When the royal family loosens the reins a little bit, you are all welcome to return back to the circus if you want.”
She and Mark exchange a look. “We worry about Aura. They’ve been despondent since they lost the Pleasure Inn.
This is the happiest they’ve been in weeks.
We are hoping we can either establish a new one here or have our Earth ban lifted.
We are working with the Galactic Council to see if they can intervene for us. ”
“I’ll talk to the grandpas. They have some pull, and those charges were bogus. Agent Smith deserves to be investigated. He is very anti-alien, and he is not the right kind of person to be in his position, but unfortunately, we have a few more pressing issues first.”
“Good luck with your grandma and meeting Xavier’s family. The warlock royal family is no joke. They are feared by many. Mark and I have been having royal classes to get up to speed on important royal families in the galaxy for when we are invited to functions or have trade meetings.”
A wave of nerves rushes over me, but I force a smile. “I’m sure it will be fine. My parents were friends with them, so they can’t be all bad.” I figuratively cross my fingers in hope.
When we return to the throne room, I’m thrilled to find John up and about. He looks pale and has lost a little weight, but he beams as Cas and I approach with the children.
“Lila, Cas.” He struggles to get to his feet, and William helps him. “Look at you all. I can’t believe so much has happened. A mimic in the family. I never would have guessed that. And look at these beauties.” He’s staring at my babies with wide-eyed wonder.
“This is Grandpa John,” I tell them. They have heard all about him, of course. William and Eric made sure to tell them plenty of stories about him. Jack, my bulldozer, throws himself from my arms in a swift movement. Luckily John is close enough to catch him and does so with a surprised yelp.
“Whoops, sorry, that is one of their favorite moves—mostly because Xavier catches them with his powers if one of us doesn’t react fast enough.”
Jack snuggles into John as Cordy and Cally hold out their arms for Eric and William.
Corethea and Tabbris approach.
“Thank you so much,” I say to both women.
“You are very welcome. It seems that the cavern chose you as its guardian. If we have need of the flower again, we will call you,” Tabbris says in a soft voice, her pale, golden wings shimmering behind her.
“Of course, and if there is anything we can do for you, please let us know.”
We take our leave and return to the ship. Broderick plots a direct course to Westalin, but it’s time I share what I’ve learned about Grandma with her husbands. The guys take the children back to our living quarters while I escort my grandpas to their new ones on the deck below.
“You know you didn’t have to give up your rooms for us,” I tell them as we arrive at their new rooms.
William opens the door, and we follow him in. John immediately heads for the couch and sits down, exhaustion in his eyes.
“We know, but you need the space a lot more than we do, especially with two new little ones on the way.” William goes to the replicator and programs in the vitamin drink that Corethea recommended for John to help get him back up to strength.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask him, sitting next to him and grabbing his hand. “I can shift into Celestian form and check over you again.”
“Stop worrying, Lila. I just need some more sleep and a couple of good meals, and I will be right as rain. Also, Saxon has a rehab program for me to help build up my muscle strength. There was a bit of wastage due to not moving, but with time, I will be completely back to normal.”
William brings over John’s health drink while Eric grabs him and William two beers, and me a rilaxious. I am finally allowed to drink again now that I’m no longer pregnant. The first sip of my drink goes down like a treat, and I must mutter something of the sort because the grandpas laugh at me.
“Okay, well, I have some more news I need to share with you. Are you sure your heart is okay?” I ask John, and he frowns and nods.
“Yes, what did you want to tell us?”
“Are you pregnant again? Whose is it this time?” Eric asks, laughing, and I flip him off.
“No, definitely not. There are no more babies in my life for the near future.”
“We’ll see,” he mutters, and William raises an eyebrow.
“Another mate?” he guesses, and I shake my head despite what I know about Tirrian. I don’t have any plans on announcing his rejection of me to my grandpas. They don’t need any more added stress than the one I’m about to put on them.
“No, not another mate. This has to do with my trip to Rilu.”
“Where you just happened to have bonded with the most elusive herd of larnuks on the whole planet. Not even an individual horse, but the whole herd,” John says, chuckling and shaking his head. “Lila, I swear life is never going to be boring around you.”
“Ah, no, that’s not it. While we were there, I met Chief Zana’s mother, Zamala.”
“Is she still kicking around?” William sounds surprised.
“Yes, and she had a weird vision while I was there. Actually, all of us got weird, cryptic messages. The guys’ were a little more vague, but mine was very specific.”
“Zamala has a seer gift, but sometimes it works with glimpses of the future, and sometimes glimpses of the past. It is hit and miss when these visions appear to her, but very rarely is she wrong,” Eric says, confirming what Zala had already told me about her grandmother’s visions.
I asked, because I was worried she was a crackpot like Zilla insisted, and I wasn’t going to tell my grandpas anything if that was the case.
“Yes, well, there is no easy way to tell you this, but she gave me Grandma Liliana’s location.”
There’s a loaded silence while the three of them process what I just said.
“Lili’s alive?” Eric whispers like he’s not sure if he heard correctly or not.
“Yes, until recently, she had been kept in the very cave I got the flower from.”
“How? That cave is sacred. There is no way anyone other than the sacred family line should be able to access it,” William argues.
“Where is she now?” John demands, all traces of his ordeal gone from his face in the light of this new information. He looks like he wants to jump out of his seat and hurry to her rescue, which is completely understandable.
“I asked the same thing about the cave, but we have no answers on how they got her there. As for where she is now, well, according to Zamala, she is in a stasis box in the middle of the death forest on Husadavia.”
John blanches, and his already pale skin pales even further. “No.” Eric and William swear up a blue streak, both getting to their feet and pacing back and forth.
“Yes, but before you get too worked up, on the trip from Rilu to here, Xavier and I tossed around some ideas, and I think we have a fairly solid plan, but we need to go to Westalin first, have my memories returned, and have our intimate bond sealed. That will increase Xavier’s powers tenfold.
Between him and the rest of the plan, we will have Liliana back before you three can blink.
” I reach for John’s hand, giving it a squeeze. “I promise.”
“Liliana’s alive? I’d almost given up hope. Even though we hadn’t felt the bond break, I thought that maybe there was a reason for it.” Eric sits down again, resting his elbows on his knees and dropping his head into his hands.
“Did Zamala say why? Why was she taken, and who took her?” William demands abruptly.
“No, I’m sorry. I have no more information than that.”
“Well, it takes two weeks to get to Westalin. We better spend that time making sure you have everything you need to rescue our wife.”
“Not to mention run the circus. If we get Liliana back, then there is no way I am wasting any more time running the circus. After my recent scare, I want to spend the rest of our lives letting her know how much I love her and how much she has been missed,” John says quietly, and I can tell that both William and Eric are on board with this plan.
“Congratulations, Lila, you just got a promotion to ringmaster,” Eric tells me with tears of joy in his eyes.