“So many reasons, little one. Some for power. Sometimes they do it to have control over another person.”
There was a note in his voice that made her achy in the heart. “You have a simi for that reason?”
“Their mothers had them for that reason. They wanted to control me. Even so, I still love them both. It’s not their fault their mothers lied to me. But I haven’t been the father they deserved. I didn’t dare let anyone know that I care about them because it would have made it worse on all of us.”
She didn’t understand that. Not even a little tiny bit. “How can loving someone be a bad thing?”
“Love isn’t easy, Simi. It’ll be a long time before you understand what I mean. It’s the greatest feeling in the world when you have it, but it’s one that leaves you more vulnerable than you’ve ever been. So long as the person you love loves you, you’re safe. But when they don’t love you … it’s the worst thing you can imagine. Truly, there’s no greater hell.”
Like akri and Artemis. Now, she understood. Akri had loved the goddess more than his life, and she had betrayed him horribly and left him to die. Hurt him in a way even worster than Apollo who had killed her akri. That pain never left akri’s eyes or his heart.
It was why Simi hated the ugly heifer goddess so much. No one should be so very mean to the person who loved them. Not for any reason.
And as she brushed her hand over Jaden’s back, he flinched. Gasping, Simi realized her hand had blood on it. “Akri-Jaden is bleeding?”
A deep grimace marked his handsome features. “It’s fine, Simi. I bleed so that my children don’t have to bleed worse.”
Still, she stared at the deep red color against her skin. It reminded her of her mother whenever she returned from battle.
I fight so that my children won’t have to.
That was what her mother had said, but it had never been that simple, and Simi knew her brother had fought battles even while their mother protested.
“Why do you live here, akri-Jaden?”
“Like Apollymi, I have no choice.”
“They made you a prisoner, too?”
He hesitated before he answered. “Something like that.”
Feeling terrible for him, Simi did what she’d been told never to do …
She healed his wounded back.
A look of extreme disbelief came over his features. “You’re a fide iuvit?”
She put her finger to her lips and shushed him. When she spoke, it was in the lowerest of whispers. “We never speak of such a thing. They don’t exist.”
Because it was a very rare thing, and her mother had schooled her well on what could happen to her if others learned what she could do. They would covet her powers and take her away. She didn’t want to be taken from her akri or hunted.
Not even her brother or sissy knew what she could do. She’d promised her mother to keep it secret, but akri-Jaden seemed to need it.
And he was just as stern when he spoke as her mother had been. “Never let anyone know of your powers, Simi. Not even Acheron.”
“Akri would never hurt his Simi.”
“Never let anyone know,” he repeated.
That only confuzzled her more. “But why not akri?”
“Because there are others who can read his mind and learn what he knows. Those people might want to hurt him, and the best way to do that is to hurt his Simi.”
“Oh.” That was a terrifying thought. “You won’t hurt Simi, will you?”
He hugged her close to his side. “I will never harm you. Just be careful and stay away from this realm.”
5
