“I think he’s waking,” I reply as a groan leaves Phillip’s mouth, and he lifts a hand to his head. The four of us wait patiently despite wanting to pounce on him and demand answers. Even an asshole like Phillip deserves a little leeway.
CHAPTER THREE
Lila
“Fuck, 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, thingschanged. 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.”
