Page 8
Story: Simi (Shadows of Fire #5)
8
October 31, 8630 BC
S imi paused as she saw the awful, big bird-like creature fly way over her head. That was the kind of scary thing that made the humans scream and run. Part of her wanted to run, too, but not out of fear.
She wondered if they’d be good eats.
If it wasn’t so high, she’d be even more tempted. But while she liked to fly, she didn’t want to fly up there where it was really, really scary.
And mostly because akri would be mad if he knew she’d come here. Not that she’d told him she wouldn’t.
Shadow be mad, too.
They both had warned her many times not to venture here. Not for any reason.
But she’d heard akri talking to Shadow about akri-Leucious and how he’d lost his minds and decided to make peace with his nasty god-daddy.
That made her worried about akri-Leucious. She knew how he felt about the ancient evil god, and it explained why Simi hadn’t been able to check in on him. He wasn’t in the human world anymore. He was in the icky, scary place akri didn’t like for her to visit.
So, she pushed open the door to the dark creepy obsidian palace where she felt akri-Leucious’s presence. He was sad. Hurting. She could feel it with every bit of her heart. Now, she had to find him in this big old empty castle.
“Akri-Leucious?”
“It’s Thorn now, Simi. I don’t use Leucious anymore.”
Simi didn’t like being startled. But his deep voice made her jump as it came out of the darkness in the big room with a weird fireplace. He was sitting alone in the corner, near that fireplace, drinking. “Why are you here, akri-Thorn?”
He laughed bitterly. “I don’t know.”
Slowly, she crossed the cold empty room to the wooden chair where he sat with a goblet in his hand. She saw all kinds of other drink vessels on the floor around his chair. Akri-Thorn had been drinking a lot.
He wasn’t his usual selves. For one thing, he stank awful. And his long hair was tousled, and a gross beard was growing all over his face. He was still handsome, only he was messy handsome not the clean, neat handsome she was used to. “What happened to you? You lose your comb and razor?”
He laughed at that. “No. Something much more important. I lost my way, Sim. I don’t know who I am or why I’m here.”
“That’s easy. You akri-Thorn. Though Simi’s not sure why you changed from akri-Leucious. But that all your business. Change your name if you wants. Akri does. He Apostolos to his mama. Akri to his Simi and Acheron or Ash to others. Though some of them call him other names that make the Simi mad sometimes. They don’t seem to matter to him though. But that’s side the pointy. You the little boy who tried to scare the Simi, only you made me laugh insteads. That’s who you is.”
Thorn winced at that. “I wish I were that boy again, Simi. He knew what he wanted. What he was supposed to become. I don’t know me anymore and it hurts. I miss who I used to be.”
Putting her hands on her hips, she stared up at him. “Well, that’s just silly. Akri-Leucious meet akri-Thorn. See how easy that is? Now you know yourself.”
With a sigh, he drained his cup, then let out a belch like the Simi did whenever she eated too much moo-cow. “Leucious was a prince. He was going to rule his father’s people and conquer anyone who threatened his empire. Thorn … has no father. He has no purpose and no reason to be here or anywhere.”
“You gots a daddy. He’s in that other big place across the way. Not a nice god. But … we don’t gets to pick our daddies. Sometimes we just get stuck with them.”
“He doesn’t want a son, Simi. Anymore than Tesiah did. All he cares about is a tool to further his agenda.”
“Well, you not a tool, akri-Thorn. You not brainless. You gots a big heart.” She flew up so that she could sit in his lap. “Tools don’t have hearts.”
He smiled as he allowed her to perch on his thigh. “I don’t feel like I have a heart.”
She put her hand on the center of his chest. Through the dirty linen of his tunic, she could feel the strong beat. “’Course you do, silly. It’s right there. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.” She pulled his hand up so that he could feel it, too. “See?”
He took her hand into his and brushed his thumb over her fingers. “I wish I saw the world like you do, Simi.”
“That’s what akri says, too. Though the Simi don’t know why you can’t. It’s easy to do.”
Taking her hand, he held it up so that he could study her fingers. Akri also did that sometimes whenever he was saddened.
“You are very precious.”
“Thank you, akri-Thorn. You’re precious, too.”
He laughed bitterly. “No. I’m a product of an evil god who wants vengeance on the world he hates.”
“You sound like akri. He worries about his mama getting out and hurting everyone.”
“At least she would kill them. Noir wants to enslave the world and unleash his demons for the sake of havoc and cruelty. No real reason. He’s just an ass.”
“Havocy demons can be fun. They taste good, too. And akri don’t mind when Simi eats them. So let them out, I say.”
He laughed at that. “I’ve never tried to eat one.”
“You should. But not their bones. Those are hard on your teethies.”
He let go of her hand, then tossed his cup across the room. “I shouldn’t feel sorry for myself, should I?”
“Maybe. That’s up to you. Akri say a pity-party can be soothing to the soul. But Simi never does that. It not producive.”
“You mean productive?”
“No. Producive. It don’t produce anything but achies. Sad things happen and they shouldn’t. People are mean and they shouldn’t be. The Simi would like to eat all the meanie people, but akri say I can’t. He say that meanie people are mean ’cause no one taught them right. And that when they aches, they want to share their aches. But wouldn’t the world be so much better if people shared their happies, instead?”
He nodded. “Yes, it would.”
“Then Simi will always share her happies with you, akri-Thorn.” She stood up in his lap and took her thumbs to make the corner of his mouth turn up into a smile like she did with her akri.
And just like akri, he laughed, then pulled her against his chest so that he could hug her. “You’re amazing, Simi.”
“No … the Simi’s just making sunshine on a rainy day like her matera taught her. She said that rain has to come to wash away the ick in the gardens and water our soil so that good things can grow. Don’t fret the rain, Simi. Think of the harvest to come and celebrate what it’ll bring us .”
“I never thought of it that way.”
She lifted her head up so that she could see his pretty eyes. “So, what harvest will you bring, akri-Thorn?”
“Hope. That’ll piss off my father and give me something producive to do.”
She clapped her hands. “There you go. We can both be producive.”
Thorn still wasn’t sure why he’d moved to Azmodea.
Other than the fact that he didn’t have a place in the human world anymore, and he’d enjoyed throwing Paimon from the palace before claiming it as his own. Bastard deserved it for “fathering” him, and Thorn was going to make sure the demon regretted his part in Thorn’s conception.
For eternity.
Though to be honest, his heart wasn’t in conquering humans, and it didn’t seem fair to fight against their armies given that he wasn’t one of them.
Unlike his real and adoptive fathers, he didn’t find honor in taking advantage of people who couldn’t fight back.
He wanted a challenge.
And so here he was, leaving his new home and walking into Noir’s palace to make a deal with the devil.
Mostly because he was bored, and there was only so much drinking anyone could do, especially when they were immortal and couldn’t die from excess. And as much as he might want to, he knew he couldn’t spend eternity in a bottle.
Simi was right.
Sooner or later, he’d need some kind of purpose.
“What are you doing here?” Paimon asked as he met him at the end of a long hallway in Noir’s palace.
Thorn’s reaction was swift and decisive. He punched the weasel who’d helped create him. The weasel who kept pretending he was Thorn’s father.
And Thorn gladly took the modicum of satisfaction he felt as Paimon doubled over and whined before dropping to the ground at Thorn’s feet.
Another demon came forward from the shadows. It took one look at Paimon and was then more circumspect. “Can I help you, my lord?” Much better tone.
“Where’s my father?”
Paimon continued to wheeze. “His throne room. But?—”
“Thanks, Dad, but I didn’t ask you.” Thorn kicked him, cutting off his words. Arching a brow, he turned to the other demon. “Show me where he is.”
The demon quickly obliged.
Stepping over Paimon, he followed the demon to a room in the back of the massive palace Noir called home.
When they reached the tall, heavily carved black doors, the demon withdrew. There was no missing the fear in his eyes as he slinked away.
Fine. Thorn didn’t need anyone to announce him. Using his powers, he threw open the doors with hurricane force.
That succeeded in getting everyone’s attention, including his aunt, Azura, and his father who sat on his throne while Azura appeared to be frozen in the midst of pacing in front of it.
Tall and with hair as dark as the beast’s brutal heart, Noir was a handsome monster. One complete with sharp features and long hair he wore tied back from his face.
Azura was freakishly blue. Except for her white hair and eyebrows. She looked as frigid as the coldest ice storm. And Thorn knew from others that it wasn’t just her looks. She was cold through and through.
“What is the meaning of this?” Azura demanded.
“Hold, sister.” Noir’s words were low and feral. “This is my son.”
She scoffed at that. “He’s not the only son you have.”
That was news to Thorn. He’d had no idea that he had any brothers. Interesting that Grim had failed to tell him that .
All Grim had ever talked about was Thorn’s half-sister, Laguerre who was also Grim’s wife.
Of course, Grim said very little to him these days given that Thorn had betrayed him by refusing to help Noir. They were now at war, and honestly, he didn’t care.
Noir cut a menacing glare toward her. “Yes, but this one hasn’t disappointed me … yet.”
Thorn scoffed. “Far be it from me to stop a family tradition.”
That made his father stand up. “Careful with your next words, boy.”
He had planned on being careful.
And duplicitous.
“I’m going to reassemble my army.”
Noir smiled proudly at those words. “Good. Take whatever you need from my demons.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. Thanks, Gramps.” But what Noir didn’t know was that Thorn planned to use those soldiers to protect the humans, not harm them.
There would be hell to pay once Noir learned what Thorn was going to do, but he’d cross that bridge when his father dragged him over it to beat him.
For now …
Like Shadow, he preferred to move sight unseen.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8 (Reading here)
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42