Page 10

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7382 BC

B ug-eyed, Simi stared at the strange human ghosty man akri had brought home with him. For her life, she couldn’t imagine why akri would let someone come into their home. It didn’t make sense. “Why he here, akri?”

Akri smiled at her as he ruffled her hair and tugged playfully at her red hornays. “Alexion … meet Simi.”

Almost as tall as akri, Alexion had blond hair and blue eyes, and he stared at Simi as if she were something annoying that was stuck on the bottom of his foot. “What is she?”

“My daughter,” akri said with a note in his voice that told the human ghosty he would kick his butt if he hurt her feelings.

Simi wrinkled her nose. “What is he?” Let him see how that felt.

“Our new …” akri scowled at Alexion as he walked toward his throne. “Steward.”

That only confuzzled her more. “What’s a steward, akri? Do they cooks?”

Taking a seat on his throne, akri arched a brow at Alexion. “Do you?”

“I have. Never said it was edible.”

Flying, Simi went rushing to the throne so that she could tug at akri’s black formesta robe. “Why’s he here?” she whispered, only it must not have been quiet because the ghosty looked a bit perturbed.

“Why am I here, Acheron?”

Akri let out a long, tired sigh. “I don’t know what else to do with him, Sim. I made a mistake, and he’s stuck like that. It’s all my fault.”

“Then send him home.”

Akri toyed with her hair. “This is his home now. He can stay with you while I’m …” He didn’t finish his sentence.

Which meant there was one thing he was thinking. “With the heifer goddess?”

That made akri’s eyes twinkle. He always liked whenever she called Artemis the heifer goddess, which she was. “I don’t like leaving you alone. Now you’ll have company when I’m not here.”

Simi looked back at Alexion, not sure about that. While he might be nice, he wasn’t akri and she didn’t really like the idea of sharing her space with someone she didn’t know. “But Simi don’t know about being lefts alone with him. What if he a murderer?”

“He won’t dare harm you, Simkey. I’d gut him.”

Alexion arched a brow at that. “I won’t hurt you, Simi. I love children, and I would never do harm to a little girl.”

Simi frowned at the way he said that. The words gave him a pain in his heart. “You have a little girl?”

A deep, awful sadness made Alexion’s eyes droop. She knew that look, too. It was one akri had whenever he thought of his sister and nephew who had died.

“I thought I had a daughter.”

She hated that she’d made him feel bad. Scooting off akri’s lap, she flew back to Alexion. “Simi sorry you lost your little girl. I’m not her and you’re not my akri, but if it makes your heart less achy, Simi coulds pretends to be your little girl, too.”

That made him smile even as a tear slid down his cheek. “Sure, Simi. I’d like that.”

Taking his hand, she looked back at akri and flicked her tail. “Okies, akri. Simi won’t eat the ghosty. But he needs his own room. Simi don’t want to share. Does Simi have to?”

Akri laughed. “No worries, Sim. He’ll have his own place that won’t interfere with yours.”

Rising, akri moved to pick Simi up and hold her in his arms. “Come, Alexion. I’ll show you your new quarters.”

Simi wrapped her arms around akri’s neck as he led Alexion in the opposite direction of her room and akri’s. She loved her room. It was down the hallway from where akri … well, she didn’t know what he really did there. He seldom slept. Never ate. Yet he had a room there where he sat up late at night.

Alexion’s room was on the other side of the temple where the Atlantean messenger god used to sleep and have big parties. Simi had never really liked that mean old god. But he did have a big room that made Alexion gasp when he saw it.

“This is bigger than my entire village.” He walked around the ornate bed and gilded chest and table.

“Do you need anything?” akri asked.

Alexion shook his head.

Akri grimaced in that familiar way Simi knew so well. He was being summoned.

“Heifer goddess?” she asked.

Akri didn’t answer. Instead, he sighed again. “I need to go commune with Artemis. Keep Simi company until I return.”

Before either of them could say anything, akri vanished.

Alexion stared at Simi who stared at him in turn.

“What do you do for fun?” he asked.

“Eats.”

“Is there anything here for you that you like to eat?”

Simi left him and went to the room where akri kept her food. She opened the cupboard so that she could look around for her favorite snacks. They was all there, like always. Her jerky and honey. Some bread and cake. Akri took good care of his Simi.

Alexion’s shadow fell over her. She looked up to see him staring at all the food. “How long will that last?”

“Depends on Simi’s belly. Maybe an hour … could be two days at mostest.”

He laughed. “Then I’m glad I don’t eat food. I’d hate to deprive you of anything.”

And as he started helping her prepare her snack, she decided she liked the ghosty human. “Thank you, akri-Alexion. You good quality people ghosty.”

“Thank you, Simi. You’re a good quality …”

“Charonte.”

“Is that what you are?”

She nodded as she climbed up the chair so that she could sit at the long table where she normally ate her food. “We quality demons. Much better than the others.”

“I will definitely give you that.” He placed her food in front of her, then brushed his hand through her hair. “And I promise I’ll be a good surrogate demon-dad for you.”

Smiling, she dug into her eats.

Tired and angry, Acheron came home to find his temple eerily quiet. That was concerning.

Normally, Simi would greet him with loud complaints over how long he’d been gone. But as he walked over his seal in the entry and his clothes changed to his flowing black Atlantean formesta robes, there was no echoing Simi call. She didn’t teleport to greet him.

Glancing into his throne room, it was empty.

He immediately teleported to the dining hall. Simi’s favorite place.

Also empty.

Panic began to surge. While she was free to leave, Alexion wasn’t. Because of the mistake Acheron had made in bringing Alexion back to some semblance of life, Alexion was trapped here in a limbo existence.

What had happened to the man sickened him.

Artemis was using Acheron’s stolen powers in order to bring the dead back to life so that she could use Acheron’s guilt to control him. To make him responsible for the men she was enslaving to serve her selfishness. Her army of immortal Dark-Hunters.

Unable to stop her, he’d come up with a bargain. Those she enslaved could earn their souls back provided a person who loved them was willing to restore their soul to their undead bodies.

What Artemis had failed to tell him was that the soul medallion would scorch the flesh of any human who touched it. Burn them deep enough to cause a permanent scar. That was how Alexion had died.

Staring into the eyes of the woman he loved while she told them both that she’d never loved Alexion, and that the children he’d been desperate to protect had been fathered by the man who’d killed him.

Acheron had done everything he could to save Alexion from dying a second time.

Nothing had worked. He’d been powerless as he watched the life Artemis had returned to Alexion fade from the man’s eyes. Only this time, Alexion had died with no soul. The only way Acheron could make his mistake right was to bring Alexion back as a soulless shade.

Damn me.

He still couldn’t believe he’d screwed up so badly. First, his stupidity had cost Simi’s mother her life, and now, Alexion existed as a ghost with no soul.

All because of him.

Sickened by his ineptitude, Acheron started past Simi’s room, then froze.

Simi was asleep on her bed with her legs running up the wall while Alexion sat by her side, watching over her.

As soon as Alexion saw him, he got up and moved silently across the room. “You’re home.”

Acheron frowned at the sight of his daughter in blissful slumber. “What happened?”

“I fed her, then started telling her human stories. She was curious until she fell asleep.”

That made him feel better. Normally, Simi fretted whenever he was away. And by the time he returned, she was agitated and anxious. It was nice to see her calm and resting, and not venturing off on her own to places he didn’t want her to go.

Alexion inclined his head to him. “Thank you, Acheron.”

“For what?” Ruining his life and his screwing up his death?

Alexion glanced back over his shoulder to where Simi lay sleeping. “I’ve been at war for so long that I forgot how much I missed being a father. It was good to spend a night with a child again. She’s quite remarkable.”

Yes, she was. “She saves my sanity … and drives me crazy.”

Alexion laughed. “Fatherhood. The scariest adventure of all.”

Especially when it involved an amoral demon. Even one as sweet as Simi.

Acheron cleared his throat. “I’ll be in my room if you need anything.”

Alexion looked down at Simi. “Will she be all right if I leave her alone?”

That was an interesting question. “Simi’s actually several thousand years old, even though she’s still a small child. Charonte age a lot slower than other species. So we need to keep an eye on her only because she’s mentally young. Even so, she’s remarkably self-sufficient.” And at least she couldn’t take a bite out of Alexion if she became hungry.

That was a big bonus.

Even three thousand years later, Acheron remembered the pain of the bite she’d given him. But it was nothing compared to the pain he felt at the thought of something happening to the only person he’d ever known who didn’t judge him. In Simi’s eyes, he was perfect. She didn’t see the mistakes he’d made or curse his birth the way his own twin brother had done.

Simi only saw her father. There was no purer love than that, and he was so grateful to her for it. For the first time in his extremely long life, he felt cherished and valued. Not pitied as his sister had done.

Or controlled like Artemis did.

Simi looked at him and smiled, and all the pain of his past was gone.

His heart warming, Acheron moved to the bed so that he could stroke her soft cheek. “She is perfect, isn’t she?”

Alexion chuckled. “Our daughters always are. She is funny and remarkably sweet. Thank you for sharing her with me.”

Acheron stepped away and nodded. “I really am sorry about what happened to you. I wish I could make it better.”

“You have. This makes the horror bearable.”

Nice way of putting it. “Simi has a way of doing that.”

“Peoples … stop talking. The Simi sleepy! Go to your rooms or bring eats.”

Acheron smiled. “Sorry, Simkey. Have a good sleep.” Leaning over, he kissed her forehead and left.

Alexion followed him out of the room, then headed toward his section of the temple.

Acheron wanted to say something, but he’d never really had a friend, and he was still uncomfortable around others. Too many years of being beaten and tortured. People had never been kind to him and as such it left him antisocial.

Even though he was currently a god, he continued to avoid others for fear of being harmed. While no one could physically hurt him anymore, his feelings were another matter entirely. Those were far more fragile than he wanted anyone to know, or even admit to himself.

And it was why he was determined to make sure no one hurt Simi’s. Or harmed her in any way. No one had ever been there to protect him.

But he would always protect her. No one would ever make her feel as low and base as others had made him feel. She was not insignificant, and he would kill anyone who made her cry.

You know that’s irrational.

He did, but it didn’t matter. After all, he was his mother’s son. Apollymi had destroyed the world as he’d known it over what had happened to him. While he appreciated the thought, it didn’t change the fact that she hadn’t been there when he’d needed her most.

When he needed anyone to reach out and tell him he wasn’t worthless. Or alone.

Simi would never have those feelings. She would always have him here to defend her. Here to tell her how wonderful she was.

And now she had Alexion, too. Together, they formed a weird family. But family, nonetheless.

A god, a ghost and a demon.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.