Ovation (Galaxy Circus #9)

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Lila

“ F uck, I feel like I got stomped on by Viggy,” he mumbles.

“You’re not totally wrong,” I reply, and he flinches.

“Lila?” he asks as his eyelids flutter like he’s trying to open them.

“Yeah, take it easy. Don’t force it. I healed you, but you were both pretty banged up. There’s probably going to be some residual exhaustion,” I tell him quietly, but he doesn’t listen and struggles like he’s trying to get up.

“Whoa, Phillip, just calm down.” John comes over and pats his great nephew’s foot, trying to reassure him.

“Fiona?” he asks, managing to crack his eyelids open. I wave my hand and dim the lights, using my Celestian powers, and it seems to help as he blinks a couple of times and looks directly at me.

“She’s over there. She hasn’t woken yet, but we are hoping it will be soon.”

He swings his head in the direction I point, wincing before heaving a sigh of relief when he sees his sister and settles back against the bed once more.

“Phillip, what happened to you?” Eric steps a little closer. I see him shudder and grimace, then his jaw sets in a stubborn line.

“We can protect you,” William tells him, and I see the tension in his jaw ease ever so slightly. “Just tell us the truth.”

The room is deadly quiet except for the beeping of the various monitors. William reaches over and turns the sound off on Phillip’s and patiently starts removing the leads. There is no point in disturbing Link when he’s been up all night. I see the exact moment Phillip decides he’s done keeping secrets and wait patiently for him to blurt out everything.

“Did you know that animal persuasion or animal affinity is not my and Fiona’s strongest power?”

I scoff. “That’s not really any surprise. Htaed was a menace.”

He grimaces and nods. “Yes, unfortunately his mind was not stable enough to deal with our powers. It turned him a little mad. Because they aren’t the strongest, we have to press them hard upon an animal to get a response, and sometimes it doesn’t work well.”

“So if that isn’t your strongest power, then what is?” John prompts.

“The ability to withstand pain. Both Fiona and I have an extraordinarily high pain tolerance and rapid healing.”

I frown skeptically, thinking of the state we found them in. They weren’t healing at all. “Are you sure?” I ask doubtfully.

“Our powers became clear when she and I survived the accident that killed our parents. We were sent to live with our grandparents. Our grandpas were always very careful to have us regularly checked over by a doctor since we would hurt ourselves and not even notice, but when they died, things changed. Grandmother didn’t pay us much attention and left us alone frequently—that is, until she discovered we were a good way of taking out her frustrations. Vivian has an uncontrollable temper. Usually she would just break things, but one day, Fiona jumped up to stop her from breaking a photo of our grandpas, and Vivian hit her instead. When Fiona didn’t even flinch, that was the ultimate challenge to our grandma, and she used her as her punching bag.”

I gape at him, shocked at his words, and I can tell the grandpas are equally as stunned.

“You’re probably wondering why I didn’t stop her,” he says. “We were only thirteen at the time, and I hadn’t had my growth spurt, not to mention the ability to discern a lie is not Vivian’s only power. She has many that she doesn’t show people, and one of them is the ability to hold someone frozen in stasis.”

You could hear a pin drop in the silent room.

“She would immobilize us until she worked through whatever was angering her then release us and leave us to heal. Our power to heal is slow, but we were able to recover from all the damage. If you hadn’t found us, we would have eventually healed. It isn’t the first time she beat us as badly as that.”

“What were you doing at the sanctuary?” Eric asks, but before Phillip can answer, a moan from the other bed has us turning to look at Fiona.

She’s so pale, she’s almost translucent, but she manages to open her eyes, and she glares at her brother. “What are you doing?” she mutters, her voice rough from disuse.

“I’m telling them the truth. She tried to kill us this time, and I’m not willing to die for the wicked she beast. None of the things she told us will come true. She’s delusional, and I won’t let her drag us down with her. You know she will.”

She runs a finger over the now closed gash that probably would have scarred her face if I hadn’t interfered. She meets my gaze when she finds only smooth skin.

“Thank you,” she tells me, and I can see in her eyes that she means it. “Can someone help me sit up? I want to face my humiliation head-on.”

William gives her a hand, stuffing another pillow behind her back, and I pass her a glass of water, which she quickly chugs.

She waves a hand at her brother, gesturing for him to continue his story, so we turn our attention back to him, but I keep an eye on her. I want to see her reactions too. I reach out with my warlock powers, trying to get a feel for both of them. They could be excellent liars, but surprisingly, all I feel is humiliation and regret.

“We were at the sanctuary because we know we fucked up with Htaed. We wanted to make it up to you, so we were working on a new act with the mini steggies. Vivian tracked us down to make demands, and when we refused, she beat us then released Htaed. I’m pretty sure she meant for him to kill us, but I don’t know if he got bored after taking a swipe at us, or if we managed to drive him off, but he lost interest and started in on the steggies. Vivian had left by then. I’m sure she thinks we’re dead,” Phillip says flatly.

“What did she want you to do?” I press, and it’s Fiona who answers.

“She’s been obsessed with some object for years, claims that you guys guard the legendary orb of power and commanded us to find it. It’s why she pushed for us to be in the circus to begin with. She wanted us to find it. For a while, we were able to put her off. We told her we needed to establish trust, but she started to lose patience, so we had to make some effort to look like we were searching for it. It’s why we freed Viggy on Earth. She has contacts there, and they reported it to her. We told her we were able to search the ship while everyone was distracted with that.”

“It’s also why we helped the warlock and Vilaxian bitches release Saxon from stasis. We are sorry for that, by the way.” She looks at me, and I’m surprised to see she means it.

“What was the mean act about then? I got the distinct impression you didn’t like me.”

Fiona rolls her eyes. “Vivian had spies aboard the ship who reported to her. We needed to make it look like we were actively working against you since that was her goal. If we couldn’t find the orb, then we were supposed to get rid of you so the Adams brothers had no choice but to hand the circus over to us.”

I gape at her, my mind blown by everything the two of them are telling us.

“She’s evil, Lila. No compassion or empathy exists inside her whatsoever. She puts on a good show in public, but in private, the monster she is shows through.” Phillip looks as broken as his sister does, and I can’t help but feel sorry for them. It could easily have been me if I had been placed with the wrong foster family.

“Well, you don’t ever have to return to her. As far as she knows, you perished in that supposed dino attack. We can make an announcement of the sort and then give you new lives if you want.” William is in planning mode. “Alina and Marcus’s house is still available on Earth. It would be good to have another family member on the planet to help with alien management and to run the safe house again, especially now that Aura is no longer there.”

“I think they want to return if we deal with Agent Smith. Susie said as much,” I tell him, and he nods.

“That would be great. Aura would be on the West Coast, and your parents’ place was in Connecticut, so we’d have people on either side of the continent.”

The twins exchange a glance. I wonder if they have some kind of twin telepathy, because it seems to drag on forever before Fiona nods. “I think we’d like that, but I would like to request a change of identity. I don’t want grandma to be able to find us.”

A growl rumbles deep in Eric’s chest. “Trust me, that will not be a problem, but we can arrange new identities for you with our Earth lawyers. You just let us know what names you would like to use.”

“We had no idea Vivian was like that. Why didn’t you ever come to us?” John looks at the twins with anguish in his eyes. “We would have helped you.”

Phillip shrugs. “Trust is not something that comes easily to us for obvious reasons. The person who was supposed to love and care for us turned us into their punching bag. We think she actually had our grandfathers murdered once Liliana disappeared, paving the way for her to coax you three into a bonding with her. She was obsessed with the circus and certainly didn’t mourn them in private, even if she put on a good show in public.”

“Well, we know she had a hand in what happened to Lili, and she will pay for her treachery, but it’s probably a good thing you both went along with her plans. I don’t think she would have hesitated to get rid of you either,” William tells them.

“Do you think she killed your parents too?” I ask and have a sudden shocking thought. “Do you think she had anything to do with the deaths of my parents?” Again, you could hear a pin drop as the room descends into sudden stunned silence.

Another rumble erupts from Eric’s chest, one worthy of a dragon. “I’ll kill her myself.” He puts his hands together and cracks his knuckles.

“I don’t know about your parents, but maybe, since you were supposed to die too. She was livid when we told her you had been found. I’m just glad we were nowhere near her, because I’m not sure we would have survived that temper tantrum.” Fiona grimaces at that thought before she continues, her despair clear. “But I don’t think she had anything to do with our parents’ deaths. It was a random car accident. A drunk driver slammed into our car, killing them instantly. Phillip and I survived because of our gifts, but it was close. We were in the hospital for weeks afterwards, our grandpas barely leaving our sides until they could bring us home.”

The pang of sympathy that rolls through me is almost crippling. All the animosity I felt toward them is gone in light of their story. I don’t blame them in the least for protecting themselves, and I forgive them for everything. I just hope we can move forward and create a solid family bond, because there is no way I’m going to let them go back to being treated like that. “I’m so sorry you’ve had to live with this for so long, but I promise we will make sure you never have to again.” All three of my grandpas nod, murmuring their agreement.

The relief radiating from Phillip and Fiona is staggering, and my warlock powers pulse inside me, begging me to absorb such strong emotions, but I remember Xavier’s rules. Consent is always necessary, so I clench my jaw and don’t absorb it from them. “You should both rest a little longer. The ship isn’t leaving until tomorrow. Is there anything you need us to retrieve for you? I can send Xavier to your place to get it so you don’t have to chance running into Vivian.”

They exchange a glance. “It would be nice if we could go get our things,” Fiona says, and I look at my grandpas.

“Can we create a diversion to make sure she isn’t home so they can do it?”

They exchange one of their mysterious glances, and I can practically feel them using telepathy to communicate, even if I can’t hear them. William turns his gaze to me and stares—I know he’s thinking and not trying to see through me—before nodding.

“Actually, I think we have just the thing. I need to speak to Brannock about it first, but I will let you know,” William says secretively, and I frown but refrain from questioning them. They’ll tell me what they are planning when they are good and ready and not a second before.

“Then I’ll speak to Xavier as soon as he returns. You two stay in bed until he does. You’re healed, but it won’t hurt to get some sleep and a good meal. I’ll bring something up to you in a little while.” I turn to leave, but before I can get very far, Phillip’s hand shoots, out and he grabs my wrist. I look down at it before meeting his eyes.

“Thank you, Lila. We don’t deserve it, but I hope you can forgive us for our treatment of you.” I feel all kinds of awkward but pat his hand before removing it from my wrist.

“It’s fine. I could have been in the same kind of situation if I hadn’t been placed with kind families.”

He leans back, and his eyelids flutter closed, his exhaustion weighing him down. I move out from between the beds, and Fiona’s eyes follow me the whole way. When I get to the doorway, I turn to look at her. She mouths, “Thank you,” before she also closes her eyes. I sigh and make my way out of the room, my grandpas trailing behind.

I lean against the wall outside their room, closing my eyes as I ponder another problem that has been added to our shoulders.

“Lila?” The voice has me cracking one eye open to find Zeydan looking at me from the doorway of my grandmother’s room. “Are you okay?” he asks, but he obviously knows the answer, because I see sympathy in his eyes. I shake my head but push off the wall and walk toward him.

“No, but I will be.” He opens his arms, and I walk straight into them and sag against him. He holds me tightly, and I feel a small amount of my worries ease just from his touch.

“Lilessa… Sorry, Liliana would like to see you now,” he says quietly, and just like that, all my nerves come back to me with a vengeance, and my body stiffens as I pull away from him.

I nod and brace myself for the next emotional kick in the teeth. “Lead the way.”