Page 107 of Galaxy Circus Act One

“Of course you must be, and here I am being insensitive by flaunting my three mates in your face.”

“Three?” Eric quickly latches onto her statement, and all three of them turn to look at Xavier. “Do you have something to tell us?”

Xavier doesn’t wilt under the glares of the three men, and instead calmly explains about searching Lila’s mind and finding his hidden memory that his parents removed and implanted. You could have knocked the brothers over with a feather when they heard about their son and his wife appealing to Xavier’s parents for help. That reaction couldn’t be faked, so they definitely knew nothing about it, and my heart hurts for them.

“And Lila’s powers and her memories will be returned to her when we get to Westalin?” John sounds hopeful, and whenXavier confirms it, I see tears well in his eyes. “Well, thank fuck for that. I’ve been so worried about her always being in danger.”

“Care to explain a little more about that?” I press, hoping that he may be more forthcoming than William.

“No,” William responds, snapping his gaze to me before John can, and I can tell by his tone there will be no arguing. “As much as I want to say screw Earth and let’s go straight to Westalin, we can’t. We have that deportee being delivered later in the week, and we can’t leave without him.

“And Susie is coming now. I need to see her if I’m not going to be able to see her for months,” Lila chimes in almost desperately. The relaxation I saw on her face moments earlier has dimmed, and she’s nibbling on her lip, waiting for her grandpas to comment.

“Of course you can see your friend. You can tell her whatever you need to, and as long as Xavier agrees to the plan, he can either take away her memories of the conversation or make it so she can’t talk about it to anyone but you,” Eric reassures her with a soft smile. “But as a compromise, how about you give her the option of which choice she would like? That way you won’t feel guilty about taking away her choice.”

I notice Lila’s spine stiffen slightly. It’s similar to something she mentioned earlier about having no choice in who her mates are except me. “Yes, that is a great idea. Thank you for recommending the alternative.” Lila breathes a small sigh of relief. I guess the decision was eating her up.

“First things first. Tomorrow, you need to see the rest of the show. I can’t believe you’ve been with us for over two weeks and haven’t seen the whole thing yet,” William mutters.

“In my defense, a week of that was spent in space, and it’s your fault for running me ragged that first week,” Lila argues and sticks out her tongue.

“Okay, how about we get some dinner and sit down for a nice meal?” Eric suggests, standing up and brushing off his pants. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I want to hear more about Lila’s life when she was growing up. We’ve been so busy with all of the circus stuff, we haven’t really had a chance to learn about that.”

“I’m not sure what you want to know. It wasn’t very exciting,” she tells him, and he waves a hand.

“I want to know about your first boyfriend and hobbies and activities and all that stuff we would have known had you been in our lives.”

She giggles, and I raise an eyebrow.

“What’s so funny?” I ask her.

“I was just thinking about who or what my first boyfriend would have been if I had actually grown up in the circus. I bet it would have been very different than the one I had.”

“It would have been me,” Xavier growls. “If my parents had not interfered, there would have been no way I would have let you see any other boys.”

She giggles harder. “Funnily enough, your Earth glamour kind of looks like my first boyfriend did. All punk rock and angst. So I guess you’re not far off the mark.”

He growls again as the rest of us chuckle and settle in for an evening of family time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Lila

The morning was spent hiring crew to handle the concession and souvenir stands. It didn’t take long, and the ones we hired had previously done the same job at other times for the circus, so thankfully, interviews weren’t needed. I ran around supervising the unloading and displaying of the merchandise, as well as the setup of the food vendors and equipment in the catering kitchen. The grandpas kind of just threw me on headfirst with very little instruction, and even if it’s tooting my own horn just a little, I think I did an amazing job. I was originally worried I’d have to stop people from trying to sneak backstage, but they were all professional and knew the drill. I deflected a few questions from one or two newbies, but the majority were just happy to get on with the job. The newbies realized that their questions weren’t going to be answered, so they gave up after a while too.

Our merchandise ranges from stylish shirts and hoodies to plush lightning cats and ridiculous tentacle plushies that doubled as scarves. I can’t deny that one of the latter may havefound its way around my neck, but I plan on hiding it from Cas later so he won’t tease me. It’s nothing like the real thing, but it helps ease the ache I feel from not seeing him all that much over the last few days.

The sun starts to sink, headlights begin to pull into the parking lot, and the arena starts to fill up slowly. I take that as my cue to get out of the way. The excited buzz of the patrons was enough to get my own adrenaline pumping, and when I took my seat between Eric and John, I couldn’t wait for it to start.

“I’m so excited to see the rest of the show,” I tell Eric as I hand them both a beer that I grabbed on my way down. Our seats are in the front row, and I have an up close and personal view of the performances. Although I wish I could be watching strictly for pleasure, my future role as owner of the circus requires this to also be a business meeting.

“The beginning looks a little different now too,” he replies, taking it from me. “Caspian has worked hard to revise it, and both of the new shifters have integrated well. I’ll make sure that you get a chance to meet them later.”

“Yes, although it is still juggling, fire breathing, and knife throwing, they added another element to it. It’s a fake fight between the two new shifters. Anyway, you’ll see. I think the audience will like it.” John sounds just as eager as I am about their new performance.

Like before, my new senses kick in, but this time it’s easy enough for me to block out the scents and sounds of the excited crowd. Instead of being overwhelmed by it all, I find it fun to people watch as they take their seats and wait for the show to start.

The lights dim and the show begins with William appearing in a flash of smoke and lights in the middle of the arena. Eric sighs.