Chapter 16 #2
“And I will find the snake and the dragon. They shouldn’t miss the happy occasion,” Maxsim says, and I beam at him. I’m so proud that he’s making an effort to be friendly now that we are mated to Lila.
A hand on my shoulder has me looking over to see whom it belongs to. “Well done, Echo.” William nods his appreciation. “I’m afraid Lila has had things thrown at her from the very beginning, so it will be fun to blow off a little steam.”
“Yes, but we must do it again when we can have all of your families and friends in attendance as well,” John says, looking between us. “Once we have our wife back with us and the circus resumes its tour.”
“But this one will do for now. You all have jobs, and if you don’t, you need to find something fancy to wear and then head to the dining room and program the replicators with party food.
I’ll talk to Silac about music. He’s the tech wiz.
” Eric is practically bouncing on his toes.
I think this is the distraction everyone needed.
We can’t make time go faster, so at least we can do what we can to make it feel like it’s passing quicker, and we are closer to retrieving their wife.
Everyone takes their leave, and after giving Max a kiss, I take the elevator down to the Aquilian pool deck.
It’s quiet when the elevator doors open, and only the sound of water lapping against the side of the pool breaks the stillness.
I look around and find that the walkways over to the cute little houses are out.
I’ve never been down here before, but Lila told me that the walkways are usually retracted, so someone who needs them must be here somewhere.
“Hello?” I call out as I make my way to one of the houses. I can smell the electric scent of the cyborg, so I’m assuming he’s somewhere in this direction.
“Echo?” Link peers out of one of the large, open windows and waves me forward. “Come on in. What are you doing here?” he asks, sounding surprised. “I would have thought it was too warm in here for you.”
“The king gave me protection so I could hang out with Nikos and talk pregnancy with him. Lila suggested it might be good for him.”
Link heaves out a relieved breath of air.
“Yes! Yes, what a wonderful idea. I just made him a meal, one that is full of everything a pregnant Aquilian needs.” He points at a plate on the table.
“I was just going to go down to the pool entrance and see if I could call him out of the water and make him eat it. There’s also a vitamin drink I want him to have. ”
“Great. I’ll stay and talk to him while he eats, but then he will need to sleep to build up his strength, and you and I have a party to go to.” I tell him about the party everyone is planning, and his eyes shine with gratitude.
“That’s a great idea. I’m not sure why none of us thought about it,” he admits, looking slightly guilty.
“Don’t feel bad. It’s a perfect time to have one while we still have a day of travel.
No one can concentrate on anything else until we have Liliana Adams back with us anyway.
Once we have her back and Nikos has his child, we can have another one all of our family and friends can attend.
I would like to meet your family,” I tell him, and his smile drops, and he shudders.
“My father definitely. My mother won’t be getting an invitation,” he says with conviction, and I feel a rush of sadness for the cyborg. I guess not everyone’s families are as good as mine and Maxsim’s. Natalia is proof of that. I’m just sad that someone as kind and caring as Link has this problem.
“I will come back tomorrow, and we can bask in the sun and talk baby names and what it feels like to be pregnant. I’ll make sure the can of tuna knows he is wanted and welcome,” I assure the cyborg, and he nods, taking the plate and glass of liquid and heading down the stairs to the basement pool entrance.
“We will make sure he is in tip top condition for when he has his babies.”
“Maybe this situation is going to work. I don’t think there’s been a mating like ours, and I was worried that with so many strong personalities, we’d end up clashing, but it all seems to be working seamlessly. It’s almost like it was meant to be,” Link mutters.
“Maybe the gods of creation orchestrated it,” I say jokingly, and he stops and turns, looking at me intently.
“Gods of creation?” He sounds confused, and I shrug.
“Yes, you know, the six ancient beings who were said to have created the galaxy. My parents told me stories about them when I was younger.” He keeps walking, but I see him shake his head.
“The cyborgs don’t believe in those stories, but maybe it’s something I need to do some research into.” He sounds excited, and I can’t help but grin. Only the cyborg would be excited to learn what a lot of us were made to learn in school.
“Ask the warlocks. If anyone knows anything, they will. It’s rumored that they aren’t even originally from this galaxy. They may be able to shed some light on the legend of the gods. Legends like that usually have a small amount of truth to them.”
“I’ll do that,” he tells me as we step off onto the landing. This one is a cave-like grotto with a pool of water lapping against the side. Before I can ask how we are going to get the merman’s attention, a little animal’s head pops out and barks at Link.
“Sweetpea, get Nikos for me,” he says, and with a splash, the animal disappears.
“Wow. That animal is smart,” I say, trying to peer through the water to see where it went, but Link just laughs.
“I’m not sure if it will work, but let’s hope it does.”