Page 13

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April 19, 411 AD

S imi sat with akri-Thorn in his dark hall, playing chess and munching good eats when all of a sudden, a loud screech sounded.

Eyes wide, she looked at him, then toward his doorway. “What was that?”

He shrugged. “Not sure. Since all my body parts are still attached, I know it’s not your father upset that you’re spending time with me in a place he told you not to visit.”

She rolled her eyes at something he said a lot to her. “Pish! It was a terrible sound. Should we look-see?”

“I don’t know, Sim. It came from my father’s side of things. Might be something we should ignore.”

“Might be something we shouldn’t ignore, too.”

Another scream echoed.

The Simi definitely didn’t like that. “Someone needs help, akri-Thorn! We gots to go help them.”

“That was a demon.”

“More reason to go see.”

Akri-Thorn gently took her wrist in his hand. “Sim … these are not the Charonte. The demons over there are vicious and mean.”

“Don’t matter, akri-Thorn. We should see about them. Just because someone’s mean doesn’t mean we should be mean to them. See?”

“Not in this case.”

She pulled her hand away and left him. Honestly, she didn’t think he’d come with her, but she should have known better. Akri-Thorn was a good demon in spite of what he thought or said. He actually sprung out his wings so that he could follow her over to his daddy’s side of the ugly woods and into Noir’s scary palace.

Simi didn’t like coming in here, even to see akri-Jaden. She much preferred seeing the demon broker whenever he visited akri or when they’s in the human realm.

But this seemed necessary.

Akri-Thorn pulled her toward a shadow and shushed her kindly.

They were hidden deep in the shadows as a group of blue demons went by them carrying another girl demon in the middle.

“She dead?” Simi whispered.

Akri-Thorn nodded. “It’s Teras.”

“Who that?”

“The current Malachai’s mother.”

Simi gaped. She hadn’t realized the Malachai had a matera. Though she should have known he had to have one. Most beings had a matera at some point, or they weren’t born. Still, the evil Malachai acted like no matera had ever loved him, so she’d never thought about him having one. “What do you think happened to her?”

“Not sure. But if Noir allowed her to die, I can only think of one thing. Come with me.” He took her hand and teleported them to where akri-Jaden normally rested and read. Simi hadn’t visited here much, but it was her second favorite place in this realm.

Not because it was pleasant. Because it had akri-Jaden in it, and she liked akri-Jaden. Granted he weren’t as nice as akri-Thorn, still … he was good quality people.

But he seemed a bit upset right now.

And the moment he saw the two of them, akri-Jaden was even more upset. “What are you doing here? Do you know how dangerous it is right now?”

Akri-Thorn released her hand. “I just saw Teras’s body being carried out. What happened?”

“Adarian escaped.”

Akri-Thorn cursed under his breath. “How?”

“Seth helped him.”

Simi’s jaw fell open at the mention of the last person she’d expect to help the Malachai. Seth was the Guardian for Azmodea and was supposed to help keep things in this place, not let them out. “Why he do that?”

“Idiocy,” akri-Jaden said with a sneer. “He trusted Adarian, and he’s paying the price for it.”

Akri-Thorn winced. “Is there anything we can do?”

Jaden shook his head. “You know better than to ask. Last time I tried to intervene to help him, I made it so much worse. Poor kid. He should never have been brought here.”

“Why they hates him so?” Simi asked.

Sadness darkened Jaden’s mismatched eyes. “His father is our brother, Set. They hate Set, so they punish his son in his place.”

Ouch. Simi remembered that scary god Set who had only liked his daughter, Bet’anya. Whenever akri had gone near him, she made sure to be a tattoo on his body ’cause Set was terrifying. And not terrifying like akri or akri-Savitar or akri-Thorn.

Scary on a whole different kind of level.

Akri-Thorn ran his hand through his hair. “So Adarian is loose in the human world. I’ll let my Hellchasers know to beware of him and watch out.”

“And tell them Caleb’s now enslaved to the Malachai, too.”

“What?” Thorn gasped.

The Simi had the same shocked reaction akri-Thorn did.

Akri-Jaden nodded and there was no missing the aches he had in his heart over his son being tooken by the Malachai. “Adarian’s striking back at all of us. Lashing out at anyone he can as retaliation.”

Pain went across Thorny’s face to say that he felt akri-Jaden’s pain. “I’m sorry.”

Akri-Jaden didn’t respond to akri-Thorn’s words. Instead, he jerked his chin toward Simi. “You’d best get her home. Protect what you can until we know what Adarian has planned.”

“I will.”

Simi pulled away from akri-Thorn and went to akri-Jaden. “The Simi’s very sorry about your babies. But they’s very strong demons and gods. The Simi has faith they’ll be all right.”

“I hope so, Simi. Xev’s been trapped a long time. There’s no telling if he’s even sane anymore. And even if he’s not, I’m sure he hates me.”

She gave him a hug, then went to akri-Thorn so that he could take her home to akri-Lexi who was no more thrilled to hear about the Malachai being free than akri-Thorn was.

Akri-Lexi inclined his head to Thorn. “I’ll tell Acheron as soon as he returns.”

“Thanks. I’m off to let my soldiers know before they get caught unawares.”

“Good luck with that.”

Akri-Thorn snorted, then vanished.

Alone in the throne room, Simi turned toward akri-Lexi. “Is it that bad that the Malachai is loose? Haven’t they always been loose?”

“With the exception of the first Malachais, the rest of them had human mothers. While they inherited the strength of their fathers, the human blood of their mother’s kept them containable. This one was created by Noir and Azura. They sent a demon out to be his mother and breed a whole new beast. He’s stronger than many of his predecessors and we don’t know how badly they tortured him while he was in Azmodea. Torture takes its toll on everyone.”

“That’s what akri-Thorn said. But no one was hurt more than my akri and he’s not mean. He’s still gots a wonderful heart, full of love.”

“Acheron’s special, Simi. Sadly, there are very few like him.”

While she agreed, she didn’t understand what made him special. “But why he different?”

“I don’t know.” Akri-Lexi pointed with his thumb toward the kitchen. “You hungry?”

“Always!”

“Let’s get you some food.”

“Okies.” But as she followed after him, she couldn’t help wondering if the Malachai would cause harm to those she loved. The last thing she wanted was to see akri-Thorn or anyone else harmed.

Something inside told her that the Malachai wasn’t just tied to akri. He was tied to her, too. The Simi just didn’t know how. But she had an awful feeling that it wouldn’t be good.