She nodded. “Sometimes they talk for hours. Get so excited they forget the Simi’s there. It gets so boring that the Simi wanders off.” She grinned even wider.
Um … yeah.
“Simi, your father doesn’t forget you’re there.” How could he? “He’s probably looking for you right now.” No doubt he was frantic, too. “I’m sure we need to get you back to him.” Because every minute she was gone, Acheron would be ready to gut someone over her absence.
And he definitely didn’t want to be that someone.
She made a buzzing sound with her tongue. “Pffft! Why you take all the joy out of my life, akri-Leucious? Don’t you know the Simi was bored? All they do is talk about stuff the Simi don’t care about. It so boring!” She threw her head back and groaned.
She was so adorable, but it didn’t change the fact that Acheron would be worried sick.
“The last thing I’d ever want to do is take the joy from your life, Simi. I’m more concerned about Acheron taking the life from me if he finds you gone and blames me for it.”
She laughed. “Don’t worry, akri-Leucious. Akri knows how the Simi slips off sometimes. He don’t like it, but he can’t stop his Simi from being a bad girl.”
“You’re not bad. We just need to return you to your father before he starts pulling body parts off others.”
Simi made a face at him. “If we must …” She was adorably put out.
“We must,” he insisted. “How do I get you home?”
With a long, heavy sigh, she approached his horse that rested in a nearby stall. “I’ve never been on one of them horsies before. Would you take the Simi back to her akri on that?”
“If you like.”
“Simi would like very much.”
“All right.” He gently picked her up and put her on his saddle, then he pulled himself up behind her. “Where am I taking you?”
She pointed at the door. “That way!”
He laughed again. “And after we go through the door?”
“Oh. They in a village thingie. Meyash new … yah?”
Leucious scowled at a name he’d never heard before. “Where?”
“It was Me-something.”
There was only one place he knew that began with Me. “Miadan?”
She nodded. “That’s it! Me-something.”
At least that wasn’t too far away. A couple of hours out of his schedule.
Or so he thought.
They had barely cleared the yard when Acheron appeared in front of him. Lightning flashed over his head and struck the ground so close that it caused his horse to rear.
Simi whooped as she clung to Leucious. “Go horsey, go!”
That made Acheron even angrier. “What is going on here?”
Leucious had never tasted fear before, and he wasn’t quite sure he felt it now. But there was a lump in his stomach that made him dread facing the older god. “I was taking her back to you.”
Acheron’s eyes turned blood red and the air itself pulsed with his fury. “Why is she here?”
Simi vanished from his lap, then reappeared next to Acheron. “Akri! Be nice. This is akri-Leucious’s birthday and the Simi wanted to give him prezzies like akri gib the Simi on her special day.”
