Ovation (Galaxy Circus #9)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

Zeydan

M y mate stiffens in my arms and pulls away. I would love to spirit her away and hide her from all her problems. My planet would be the perfect place to hide, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. I’ve lived away from company for a long time, and it is taking me a little bit of effort to adjust to all that my life has become. I yearn for when life was simple, but I was hiding, not wanting to face the fact that all is not right in the galaxy and the planets my brothers and sisters crafted with such love. Even when they forgot about their creators, we still watched over them despite being limited in power. I feel like we’re on the verge of something big, and this is exactly where I need to be for now.

After my conversation with my sister, I’m even more sure of this. When Lilessa told me her story, the fury I felt was all encompassing. Being betrayed by one of our own is a kick in the gut I never saw coming, but my anger is not the focus at the moment. I shove it down and move out of the way to allow my mate to enter the room and meet her grandmother for the first time. I need to put aside my own emotions so I can support my mate while she copes with her own. I can feel how fragile she is at the moment, despite the brave face she wears.

“We’re going to leave you to it. We heard her story, and I think she would like to tell you it herself,” John says to Lila as she pauses to see if they are coming.

“Yes, I need to make a call or two and get Brannock back here to make a plan to deal with Vivian,” William says.

“Are we going to kill her?” Eric asks, and I frown.

“Despite our lack of power, killing her will not be easy,” I tell them, and Lila frowns, her confusion evident. “Even if you succeed, she will eventually reincarnate.”

“Not if I have anything to do with it,” a steely voice calls from inside the room, and Lila and I turn to face the owner of that voice. “Come closer so I can see you,” my sister calls to my mate. The Adams brothers send her away with encouraging nods, and I follow my mate into the room, closing the door behind us.

My soul sister is reclined on the bed, looking paler than I remember, and there’s a certain fragility about her that shocked me to the core. I may be half the deity I used to be, but she barely has a spark of her previous power. She smiles that same serene gentle smile that I remember, though, as her eyes roam over my gorgeous mate, taking in everything.

“Come closer, sweetheart, I don’t bite. We were just discussing the possible whereabouts of our brothers and sister. We are going to need them if we are going to get our powers back.” She pats the bed next to her when Lila hesitates. I watch as my mate steels her spine and goes over to the bed, lowering herself into the spot my sister pointed out. “Look at you, you’re just as gorgeous as your mother.” She looks between the two of us and rolls her eyes.

“For god’s sake, Z, sit down and stop hovering. We’re both big girls and will be fine. She might not remember me, but we were very good friends once upon a time.”

I huff at my sister’s attitude but do as she says and take the seat I previously sat in, pressing my knee to my mate’s in silent support as my sister continues talking, reaching for Lila’s hand and taking it in hers.

“Imagine my surprise when I finally woke up and found my soul brother patiently waiting for me to wake with my own mates.” She doesn’t peel her eyes away from her granddaughter, and Lila squirms under her scrutiny. A small grin kicks her lips up, and her eyes sparkle. “Still can’t sit still, I see. Now forgive me, but my story is a long and tedious one, so I hope you don’t have somewhere you need to be.”

Lila shakes her head. “No, Gigi, I don’t.” That small grin on my sister’s face turns into a blinding smile, and her eyes glitter with unshed tears.

“You remember?” she asks, and Lila shrugs.

“A little. I remember calling you Gigi, and mostly, I remember feeling loved and safe with you. My memories are so foggy from that time. Xavier’s parents said they may eventually return but not to force it. Every now and then, I get snippets of a feeling, but that’s it, nothing substantial.”

My sister’s blinding smile drops, and I can’t help feeling sorry for her. “Your parents?” she asks, and Lila shrugs like it’s not a big deal, but I know that isn’t how she feels.

“Same.”

Liliana sighs and nods decisively. “Well, I guess I should start at the very beginning, and eventually, we will get to your parents. Does that sound okay?” Lila nods, and Liliana’s brows dip into a frown.

“My story starts a short time before the war between the Una’s and Aza’axians. You know about that, right?”

Lila nods. “Yes. Over the orb of power of which the Galaxy Circus now guards.”

Liliana’s eyes turn a little unfocused, like she’s remembering a time long past, and nods. “Yes. I believe fate had a hand in the Adams’ ancestors becoming the guardians of the orb and your grandfathers being my mates, but that happens a little later in the narrative. When my brothers and sisters created the galaxy, we were worshiped, as was our right. We created planets and filled them with life, both sentient and non-sentient. We spent time on each of the planets, gifting our worshipers with good fortune and luck as well as granting favors and basically being benevolent benefactors. Each of us was a master of our domain—life, death, water, fire, air, and earth.”

She gestures to me, acknowledging my element. I think back to that time and remember I was happy, but nothing like I am now. Something was always missing in my life, and now that I have met my mate, I know it was her. My happiness then was but a small meteor in the sky compared to what I now feel.

“We were happy, or so I thought, but I was wrong, and I paid for it dearly, as did my elemental brothers and sister because one of us was far from happy.”

“Vivax,” I growl, and Liliana nods.

“Yes, our sister of death. Death brings sadness, but without it, there can be no renewal, and it’s an integral part of the circle of life, but Vivax came to resent her powers. She created life, but instead of nurturing her creations, she frightened them, and they came to fear her. Instead of changing her ways, she reveled in that fear, and her creations became more and more terrible. She started avoiding spending any time with us and always had excuses why when we asked her to. The final straw was when she created a race capable of subjugating others and feeding from their turmoil and pain. We decided to have an intervention. Although we didn’t like to interfere with one another’s creations, she had gone a little too far. That race was wicked, and I had a vision of them spreading throughout the universe, destroying everything we worked hard to create. The remaining five of us believed we could convince her to unmake them,” Liliana says wryly, and I roll my eyes and snort.

“Boy, were we delusional.”

My sister nods, her mood becoming somber. “Yes, we were, because by then, Vivax resented us immensely and had been making plans to get her revenge as she desired. She flat out refused to unmake her creations, and none of us could do it because we didn’t have a hand in creating them.”

“Revenge against what?” Lila asks, sounding confused, and I don’t blame her. We hadn’t actually done anything to Vivax, but in her paranoia and impending madness, she believed she was a victim. Even though we were not responsible for her creation or her powers, she decided to hold it against us.

Liliana shrugs her shoulders. “Something she supposed we had done to her. She blamed us for her having death magic, which is ridiculous since none of us know where or how we came to be, we just were, but she claims we stole all the ‘good magic.’” Liliana makes quotation marks with her fingers.

I huffed at the sheer ridiculousness of her accusations then just as I do now. She was like a small child having a temper tantrum when we confronted her, but little did we know, she had spent some of the time she was avoiding us crafting a plan that blindsided us all.

“We appealed to our creators, praying day and night for some guidance, and Sanshia

was gifted a vision that said if we combined our powers, we could unmake that race. So that’s what we did, but it backfired on us. When we went to the planet to unmake it and its creations, Vivax was waiting. She stood aside without an argument, and that’s when I should have known it was a trick, but we thought our sister was finally coming to her senses. When we started channeling our power into the core of the planet, Vivax redirected our powers into a crystal that none of us had ever seen before. It was capable of absorbing and storing power, and we could feel it stealing everything from us—not just draining us, but actually stealing it completely.”

Lila is listening with rapt attention, and her mouth rounds in awe as Liliana continues her story.

“When Lilessa realized what was happening, she was able to cut us four elementals off and banish us, sending us far away from the planet, her power always being slightly greater than ours as the goddess of life,” I chime in, remembering finding myself flying through the vast expanse of space, confused and alone. “When I finally came to my senses and returned to the planet, I couldn’t find her or Vivax. There was a huge crater a mile wide where we had stood. When my brothers and sister also returned, we searched for days, but there was no sign of either of them.”

Lilessa nods, and a tear trickles down her cheek, but I don’t even think she notices because she’s so wrapped up in remembering what happened. Lila reaches for her hand again and gives it a squeeze.

“What happened?” she prompts, and Liliana startles before wiping away that tear.

“When I managed to release the others from the pull of the crystal, I cast a spell to entrap Vivax in her own treachery, hoping if she was trapped as well, then she would end it, and all of our power would return to us, but that isn’t what happened. Once she was ensnared, she was drained as well. I was horrified. Both of us were going to die, completely drained of our power.”

Lila gasps, her eyes wide as she leans forward ever so slightly, completely absorbed in the tale.

“Vivax fought, but it was too late. I knew we would reincarnate, but I had to ensure that the orb now full of our power didn’t fall into the hands of the same race that we were trying to destroy, because that would have been a disaster. I summoned the most enlightened race I created, the Una’s. They had the ability to become vapor and travel through space at great speeds. I entrusted them with the protection of the orb, making them promise to share the power that the crystal now contained with the universe, and I was confident they would. Their core makeup didn’t contain avarice or lust for power. Vivax fought the whole time, going so far as to attack me with all her remaining death power, but our powers were never meant to be used against one another, and it was the final death blow. It backfired, and she exploded, the blast taking me with it because I had lost all of my own power and was incapable of shielding.”

“But wouldn’t the Una’s have been destroyed as well?” Lila asks. She shakes her head.

“No, because they were able to travel as vapor, so they were unaffected by the destructive blast. I’m assuming they retrieved the orb once the crater we created cleared.”

“Why didn’t the orb get destroyed as well?” my mate asks, and I can tell she is dying to ask more questions and is barely restraining herself.

“Because it contained the full power of the goddesses of life and death as well as half the power of the four elemental gods. It is indestructible, which is why it had to be guarded.”

“That’s why the Una’s couldn’t destroy it and had to pass its care on to the Adams family at the end of the war when their race was decimated,” I add, and Lilessa nods.

“Yes. The war was a miscalculation on my behalf. I had no idea that would happen, and my heart weeps for the Una’s. Maybe once I have my power back, I can help repopulate their planet. They were a favorite creation of mine, so gentle and unassuming, and it’s why they ended up decimated—they weren’t built for war.”

“So what happened to you? Did you reincarnate? How did you come to be my grandmother?” Lila stands up and paces across the carpet, all of her questions bubbling to the surface. I get up to soothe her, but Lilessa waves me down and watches her granddaughter pace. “Is Vivian actually Vivax?” She spins around, her hand on her hips, and I can’t stand it anymore, so I reach out and drag her into my lap, nuzzling at her neck to calm her with my touch. She sighs and sinks into me, and I feel smug satisfaction. Despite our one-sided bond, I can still help balance her emotions.

My sister beams at the two of us. “You two are so cute,” she murmurs before the joy in her eyes fades and she answers Lila’s question.

“Yes, Vivian is Vivax, and she is the person who trapped me in that box.” She pauses and reaches for a glass of water on the side table. Lila jumps up and passes it to her, and Liliana takes a sip through the straw. I can tell she’s starting to struggle, but I know she’s determined to tell Lila everything, so I keep my mouth shut. Lila doesn’t sit back down, instead wandering around the room. Her nervous energy would be endearing if the situation wasn’t so serious. Eventually, she just leans against the wall and focuses on Liliana again.

“This was not the first time we died during our existence. All of us have a time or two,” she tells Lila, and I chuckle. During times of boredom, we often dared each other to do crazy things, knowing we would always reincarnate. “But it was the first time that we didn’t have any knowledge of our former lives when we reincarnated, and we were babies instead of fully formed beings like in the past. Vivian and I were born as twins to a Skarrian family, and neither of us retained any of our former knowledge. Fate must have played a hand in my life though. Your grandpas courted me, and we mated, and until I was captured and tortured, I didn’t know any different.”

“But Vivian did?” Lila asks, and Liliana shakes her head.

“Not to start with, I don’t think. We were never super close, since she always considered me competition. She wanted the Adams brothers for herself, and when they started courting me, she became jealous, and we grew even further apart. But then she met her mates, and I thought she had gotten over her issues. We spent time together with our families. We were both pregnant, me with Marcus and her with Mitchell, Fiona and Phillip’s father. Things were good, but as the boys grew up, we saw less and less of them. We were, of course, traveling with the circus, and when we were back on Skarr, we saw Mitchell and his fathers, but Vivian was always busy. She was sitting on the Skarrian council in our family seat. Technically, it was my seat, as I am the oldest, but with my commitments to the circus, it was easy enough to let her take it. It made her less resentful as well, or so I hoped, and to start with, it worked, but she kept asking me weird questions—questions I didn’t think anything of because they never really made sense at the time. Every time I returned to Skarr, she asked if I had new powers or remembered anything from our past, wanting to know if the circus was a front for something else.”

“She remembered?” Lila slides down the wall and pulls her legs up against her chest, wrapping her arms around them and resting her chin on her knees.

“Yes, and I still had no clue. I demanded to know what all the questions were about. By this time, she had custody of Phillip and Fiona. They are three years older than you, Lila, so they would have been about seven. Mitchell and his wife were killed in a car accident, and I wasn’t able to make it back to Skarr for the funeral. Vivian decided she was going to bring the children to visit Earth and that it would be a good distraction for them all, so instead of traveling to Earth with the pod, I waited and was going to teleport down with them when they arrived.”

“But that obviously didn’t happen,” Lila remarks, and my sister shakes her head.

“No. When I met her shuttle, she was the only one on board. She hit me with a stun gun and kidnapped me. I’m not sure where we went, but I was kept in a cell. When I demanded to know what she was doing, she told me everything. I didn’t believe her at first, I thought she had a mental breakdown, but then she started torturing me, which eventually triggered my memories to return and activated my immortality again. She would hurt me, and I would heal, but I refused to tell her what happened to the orb. Hell, I didn’t know what happened to it then. All I knew was that it was in the hands of the Una’s when we died that day, so of course I wasn’t any help to her, but she couldn’t let me go because I knew she was after the orb now. She wanted her powers back and was going to keep mine and our fellow gods’ powers as well…” Liliana trails off, and I can see the toll this is taking on her, so I pick up where she left off.

“She orchestrated your parents’ death then offed her own husbands because, by then, she heard rumors of the Una’s meeting with someone on Skarr, and they were pointing to the Adams family and Galaxy Circus. She was going to convince the Adams brothers to take her as their new mate, and then she would have free rein of the circus to find the orb. When that didn’t work, she started the Syndicate and planted people within the circus, including the twins. She thought that getting rid of Alina, Marcus, and you would make the twins the next heirs. She wasn’t aware that the protection of the orb is tied to the Adams’ blood, but she hadn’t counted on you surviving. When she found out, she was furious. Her plan had to be paused until you surfaced and she could get rid of you again.”

“But you proved to be more powerful than she expected, though I am not surprised. You carry the genes of a god, so you were always destined to be more powerful, and to have such a large and powerful mating circle to protect you hindered her at every step.”

“Why put you in stasis?” Lila asks, and Liliana shrugs.

“She was worried that if I got close to the orb myself, then I could take my powers out of the orb and leave hers trapped—or keep hers for myself.” She scoffs like it’s ridiculous. “Like I want more powers. I would have been happy for her to keep hers, but I know that sentiment wasn’t returned.”

“So when and why did you finally admit the circus and the Adams had the orb?” Lila asks, and Liliana closes her eyes, but before she does, I can see the uncertainty in her gaze. I had a feeling she was hiding something, and this just confirms it.

She swallows and takes a breath, and when her eyes open, there’s no sign of any turmoil. “Vivian and Agent Smith of the Earth facility Area 51 became allies. I’m not entirely certain how, but she told me about his special project.”

When I heard about this, I felt ill, and I was ready to track this man down and flay his skin from his body, but the Adams brothers told me they have plans for him.

“Special project…” Lila sits up and looks more alert. “I wonder if that was what was behind the door we couldn’t access,” she mutters to herself, and Liliana nods.

“Agent Smith has been detaining aliens and has a breeding project. He’s trying to breed his own army to be able to take over the world. They threatened to start killing the children and add you to their program. They said you had no powers and were completely helpless. I’d already lost so much, and I knew there wasn’t much chance for me to be released, but I also didn’t want your grandpas to suffer again. Losing me and then your parents would have been hard enough to come back from, but losing you on top of that would have broken them…”

Lila nods her agreement. “Yes, I think you’re right. When John was ill, I was so worried about them.”

“You can’t let her get her hands on the orb.”

“But how are we going to stop her?” Lila asks, and my sister and I exchange a glance.

“We’re going to return everyone’s powers to them. We just need to track down our other sister and brothers,” I explain, and Lila frowns.

“Even Vivian’s powers? And how, exactly, do you plan to find your other siblings? They’ve managed to stay hidden for hundreds of years.”

Liliana shakes her head. “No, Vivian’s not trustworthy. We would be stupid to put faith in her again, but our siblings’ powers can’t stay trapped in the orb either.”

“So what are we going to do with them? Can someone else become the god of death?” Lila asks.

Liliana nods. “Yes, it should be possible for someone of the same bloodline.”

“So Phillip or Fiona?” Lila asks, frowning. “I’m not sure they would want to do that. They seemed pretty keen to start new lives on Earth.”

“Yes, possibly, but being one quarter divine may not be enough. You could do it, Lila,” Liliana says, and I feel helpless as Lila turns pale. I had much the same reaction, but when I argued with Liliana, she pointed out that we didn’t have much of a choice unless we wanted Vivian to take her powers back.

“Fuck no,” Lila says, shaking her head vehemently. “There has to be another option.”

“There isn’t. You’re the only one left with the bloodline after the deaths of your father and theirs,” Liliana replies, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m so sorry, my sweet girl. I would take them if I could, but I can’t be both the goddess of life and death.”