Simone watched Xeik for a moment, “He can portal me anywhere as long as I’m in the castle. He doesn’t understand how strong he is. I’m pretty sure Lila is the same way but she’s too busy getting into things to really test it out. I worry about it. What if I’m in the bathtub and he portals himself under the water or worse. He’s still our little baby, he doesn’t know. What if he portals Glyn. I think he understands it's dangerous but he doesn’t understand his own strength.”

Lila looked up at Xeik, “Play?”

“Chess? You like chess Lila?”

“I like play,” Lila said preoccupied with setting up the pieces. She couldn’t reach one so she made a very Lewis face before the piece levitated and went into its spot. “Ready.”

“That’s a new one… It’s like whenever they find an obstacle these two just remove it. It’s been progressing so fast it’s exhausting for us. They are intelligent Xeik. They know what they are doing and how to do it. They always have. For gods' sake, Lila was paying attention to Shaya’s class work and almost did it for her. I’ve never taught her how to do it. She just watched me teach Shaya. Even Shaya was struggling with it.”

“Well,” Xeik said as he crossed his arms. “They’re made with your magic, so I’m pretty sure anything you two can do, they can do as well. It may not be their own power they’re accessing either. Even though it’s not as strong as it used to be, there is still a connection between the four of you. It might be the same for their skills. It’s less about them learning quickly, and more of it being…shared between all of you?” He sighed. “It’s really hard to fathom. But…if I’m right, that means that if you two work at it, you might be able to set a limit yourselves.”

Lewis raised an eyebrow. “How?”

“Well, the power is dominantly yours and Simone’s. More Simone than you. Think of it as a well. Simone has full access to the well, but you, Janus, and Lila each take a bucket to the well. Simone can, in a sense, just block all access to the well, and suddenly no more magic. Of course, that would mean no resonance either. I’m sure with practice, though, she can control it better.”

“Something tells me that Janus and Lila would hate that…” Lewis said with a sigh. “Is that something we can start to work on?”

Simone looked at Xeik and frowned, “They would hate it and I’m pretty sure they would just push themselves to awaken their own powers even if they are drawing from ours.” She gently led her finger around Janus’s face and he gave a smile in his sleep. “I just think limiting how much they can take will help… but this portaling business has to stop… Now I’m scared that Lila is going to levitate her brother.”

Lila stopped what she was doing as she was climbing up on the chair, “Good idea.”

“Bad idea!” Simone looked at her daughter who had a cheeky grin. “See!”

Lila finished climbing up on the chair, “Play.” Once Xeik sat back down Lila started to play with him. It was pretty close to but Lila got tripped up on the aspects of checking since she hadn’t witnessed it before. “Bored.”

“You can’t just become bored when you don’t win Lila. How are you going to get better?”

“Watching.”

“I see.” Simone smirked a bit. “You would rather watch Daddy lose than to lose yourself.” Lila gave a grin up to Lewis and clapped her hands. “What little terrorists.”

“Look,” Rhenakos said with his hands up. “I promise everything will be fine. We can handle them,. No problem. Rex said he’ll drop by later and check up on things, and Lucas said he doesn’t mind keeping the older ones entertained. That just leaves Janus, Lila, and Glyn, right? We can handle at least that much.”

Lewis gave a doubtful look. It had been nearly a week since his arm was put into a cast, and he still wasn’t allowed to use it. Angela had been very clear about it. There wasn’t much to do left with the ‘farm’ that he had started, other than water and wait, and with the storm that was about to hit, that left waiting.

Simone crossed her arms. “Those two,” she said, pointing to Janus and Lila as they played in the main foyer. “Just…keep an eye on them. They’re the worst.”

“What do you mean ‘worst’…I had to deal with Izzy, remember?” Rhenakos said with confidence. “And I’ve gotten WAY better.”

“I really wish Leilah could have taken the job,” Lewis replied with disdain. “But we really do need the break.”

Rhenakos rolled his eyes. “Get out of here. Raile said he hooked you two up with the best accommodations silver can buy, and you know he’s not lying.”

“Fine, fine…” Lewis took Simone’s hand with his good arm, and the two said their goodbyes to the children. As the door shut behind them, Rhenakos turned around.

As if to signify the terror that was about to befall them, lightning crackled through the sky. When Rhenakos looked in the foyer, the twins were gone.

(This takes place a while after the first half)

Simone felt uneasy but she kissed her babies bye and Janus grunted at her. “I know but you’ll be just fine. Be nice to your sister.”

Lila grinned and got all the hugs and kisses she could squeeze out of Lewis before they left.

The lightning was the perfect thing for the twins to just up and disappear. Janus had decided the best thing to do in a storm was a nap. He had ported both Lila and himself, “NAP!”

“No,” Lila shook her head.

“Fine,” Janus ported into his crib and curled up passing out in a matter of minutes.

Lila on the other hand was on her way back downstairs. Their adventures gave Lila a map of where everything was. Glyn was upset and Lila opened the door to see Osiria trying to get him to calm down.

“Shhh, it’s just thunder and lightning.” Lila’s little blue eye met Osiria’s but it didn’t register to Os that Lila was currently ‘missing’. Next was avoiding the big guy and making her way into the kitchen. Before long she spilled open the cupboards and loud crashing sounds were made.

Once she was found, “Uh oh.”

Rhenakos was scrambling around the hallways looking for the two little ones. It hadn’t even been a full five minutes yet, and they were already causing a problem. It dawned on him, finally, to check their room, and lo and behold, at least one of them was present. “Ah…so there’s Janus, now where’s the girl…” Even from upstairs, Rhenakos heard the crashing sounds come from the kitchen below, and without hesitation he dashed down.

“Oh boy…” Rhenakos said with a heavy sigh. At least Lila was safe. He walked over to her and picked her up. “All right, you little devil…” The house help showed up moments later, and offered to clean up the mess Lila had made. This left Rhenakos to deal with her, which, of the two tasks, was the harder.

Lila stuck her tongue out at Rhenakos, and blew a raspberry. “Down. Play!”

“I think you should probably calm down first…”

“Play!” she said, grumping. “Chess!”

“I uhh…okay…” Rhenakos blinked. Lila knew how to play chess? He knew that Lewis and Xeik had been playing, and that there was a board set up in the foyer. He knew the basics of the game, and wondered if Lila just wanted a few games to ‘practice.’ “Eh…what’s the worst that could happen?”

Osiria brought Glyn down to check on Rhenakos, “Everything okay I heard a crash…” Glyn was still threatening to cry every time there was a crack of thunder but Osiria’s warmth was a lot like Simone’s so he was comforted by it. She even had layered some of Simone’s perfume on a shawl around her which seemed to help Glyn.

She ran her fingers through Rhenakos’s hair and kissed his cheek. “Yell my name if you need me okay? I’m still trying to calm Glyn down. The storm is scaring him.”

Lila got out of his arms as soon as they were in the great room. The board had all the pieces in a little box just in case a child bumped into it. She opened it and threw the lid without care before setting up the board. Just like before she levitated pieces she couldn’t reach. “Ready!

She clapped her hands and after five horrific games of Lila crushing Rhenakos, she made a face. “Bored. Run!” She got down and immediately took off. She was screaming and squealing as her little legs took her as far as they could. “CATCH!” She threw a little fireball at Rhenakos. Then suddenly Rhenakos was floating in the air and Lila was giggling like a little demon. "FLY!"

Rhenakos’ eyes went wide when he lost the first game of chess to Lila. He wasn’t exactly the best player around, but he knew the general basics of the game and at least figured he could beat a toddler. Yet, as the second, third, and fourth games of losing, he was starting to wonder just how bad he was if a toddler could win. On the fifth and final game, though, he realized that it wasn’t him. It was a move that Xeik had used on him one time, a Queen’s Gambit to open. It wasn’t something that a toddler should know, let alone understand.

“No way…” he said as he lost the fifth game. “How the hell are you this good!?” Unfortunately, he wasn’t given an answer, and instead Lila ran off. At once, Rhenakos jumped up to chase her, “Oh no you don’t!” He started after her, and was shocked when a fireball came whirling towards him. He caught it in hand, forcing it to fizzle to nothing.

“Gonna have to try harder than tha-” Suddenly, he was floating, and he started to flail. “WHA-!? He tried to move, but found himself unable to. “Let me down you little gremlin!”

Next to Lila, a portal opened and a yawning Janus plopped on the floor next to her. He looked over to his sister, and smiled. “Nap done. Play now!”

“Play!” Lila said happily.

“Yesss,” Janus replied. The two looked at Rhenakos, and the hunter’s eyes widened.

“The hell little demons are you!?”

Janus smiled, “Pop!” He raised his hand, and Rhenakos flinched. Yet, he felt nothing. He opened his eyes, looking around. Janus and Lila had disappeared once again, but he was still floating.

“What the hell!?” As he spoke, he fell to the ground, crashing into a piece of furniture. He groaned, standing up. “All right…where the blazes did you get to.” He started to run, and ran past a rather shiny shield on the wall. Something didn’t quite look right, and so he backtracked, and looked into it.

“Oh fuck no…” Rhenakos’ hair was, once again, a vibrant pink….

"Os….I need help…"

“YYESSSSSSSS,” Lila giggled up at Rhenakos.

Now that Janus was up Lila’s eyes lit up. She loved her brother when he wasn’t in a crabby mood. Lila was laughing at Rhenakos now as she looked at the bright pink hair.

The twins were now in the family room with all of their toys. “ROAR, ROAR, ROAR!” Lila yelled as she flipped a tower Janus was working on.

“BAD!” Janus yelled and Lila frowned as she put the tower back together with him. “Good.”

Osiria finally got Glyn to sleep and she made her way to Rhenakos and stopped, “What the hell happened to your hair?! AGAIN?!”

She looked around, “Where are the twins?!” There was panic in her eyes.

“The little devils did this to me,” Rhenakos shot back angrily. “Then they took off! They LEVITATED me, Osiria. These aren’t little kids, they’re full on hellions!” When Osiria asked where they went, Rhenakos threw his hands up. “I HAVE NO IDEA!” At once, Rhenakos and Osiria started to scour the rooms one by one. Finally, they heard giggling coming from the family room close by, and when the two entered, Janus and Lila both looked up, their azure eyes seeming to pierce through Rhenakos and Osiria.

“Oh hi!” Janus said as he waved. “Play?” He offered up one of his blocks.

“Look her you little shi-” Rhenakos started.

Lila frumped, and gave Rhenakos a look. “Play!” It was less a question and more a demand. “Play, or FLYYY!”

“How the hell did you even do that!?” Rhenakos asked, not expecting an answer.

“Momma,” Lila responded proudly.

Janus nodded with a smile. “Momma! Flllyyyyyy.” He spread out his arms, and Lila lifted him, flipping him upside down. The two started to giggle and laugh at the little ‘act’ they were doing.

“Oh my gods…” Rhenakos said, half crying. “They’re absolute demons…”