Unless it was the mysterious emotion called love.
“If it makes you feel better, Father, I’m pissing off the Nasaru more than I am you by redeeming the damned.”
Actually, it did make him feel better. A lot better. “Are you?”
Thorn nodded. “They despise the idea that someone damned might be able to escape their punishment.”
A wave of … happiness? Yes, it was actual enjoyment that swept through him. “I like that.”
Thorn winked at him. “Knew you would.”
Noir took a second to reevaluate his fury at his child … a child he shared with no one.
There was another thought he’d never had before. His other children were born from goddesses. Each of their mothers had an equal sway with them. Even if they hated their mothers, their mothers were still there.
Forever.
But Thorn’s mother was dead.
This child belonged exclusively to Noir.
For the first time in his existence, he felt a peculiar need to protect someone.
Thorn is mine alone. But the last thing he could afford was for Thorn to know that he held any tenderness toward him. That would make Noir weak.
Vulnerable.
Clearing his throat, he stepped back. “Very well. I’ll allow you to continue angering the Nasaru.”
Thorn bit back a smile at his father’s surly tone. He’d seen the look in his father’s eyes. It was the same one Tesiah held whenever he came home victorious after battle. A subtle pride that would never be acknowledged.
Strange how similar the two of them were. Noir thought himself a monster and in many ways he was. But there was something beneath the beast that neither of them wanted to acknowledge.
Like Thorn, a creature of his birthright and environment. Even though Thorn hadn’t spent much time with his mother, she had still taught him things Tesiah never had. Morality. Justice. Strength.
Not just physical brutality. The ability to show mercy on those he defeated. On those who were weaker.
While Tesiah had done his best to beat those traits out of him, he preferred to see the world through the eyes of his tiny mother.
So, he did what would have made his mother happy, he held his hand out to his father. “Friendly enemies, then?”
Noir took his arm and jerked him forward. Quicker than Thorn could blink, Noir hugged him, then shoved him away. “We never speak of this. It didn’t even happen.”
Stunned, Thorn had no response or reaction before Noir vanished.
Okay, then.
Had his father really hugged him, or had he hallucinated the whole thing?
He’d taken enough hits in battle that he could be imagining it. Anything was possible.
But one thing he was rather sure had happened. His father had approved his army of Hellchasers.
If for no other reason so that Thorn could anger both their enemies.
He was now free to find damned souls in need of redemption. Those who’d been good people forced by others into a bad situation.
They deserved that chance to save themselves and not be damned by circumstances.
