“Really?”
“Yes, really. I don’t make stopping in for a visit a habit any more than you do.”
“What are you doing here?” a voice growled from the darkness.
They turned in unison to see Paimon in the doorway.
Thorn curled his lip. “Well, if it isn’t my least favorite hemorrhoid.”
“I’d pick another almost adjacent body part.”
Screwing his face up, he turned his head toward Shadow. “Seriously?”
“Sounded better in my head.”
“Enough!” Paimon shouted. “Why are you here?”
Shadow arched a brow. “I didn’t know he had a repeat function. Did you?”
“I don’t think it’s that so much as he’s broken. Maybe a thump to the head might get something else out of him.”
Shadow nodded. “Hit him hard enough, and we could get brain matter.”
“Nah. He’d have to have brains for that to happen.”
Paimon let out a long, aggravated growl. “If you’re looking for Noir, he’s busy in the dungeon. If it’s Azura, she’s busy elsewhere.”
Thorn didn’t want to think about what elsewhere meant any more than Shadow did. So, he closed the distance to Paimon.
“What do you know about the new Malachai?”
Paimon paled. “Nothing.”
Yeah, right. He exchanged smirks with Shadow. “You’re lying.” He pushed Paimon toward his cousin.
Shadow caught the demon about his arms. “Tell us what you know, or we’ll interrupt my mother and blame you for it. Because the one thing I know about her is that she never wants to be interrupted when she’s elsewhere.”
Thorn winced at the very thought. “Hate to be you, buddy. Azura isn’t known for forgiveness.”
Paimon let out another growl before he shrugged off Shadow’s grip and motioned them closer. “They’re going to capture the Malachai and use him to fuel their powers. They’re hoping if they have him here, they can get Apollymi to contact them or build up their powers enough that they can escape.”
That made no sense to Thorn. “But the Malachai isn’t Apollymi’s son.” Why would she care after all these centuries?
Paimon gave them a droll smirk. “He’s descended from Monakribos. They’re hoping it’ll be enough to sway her.”
It was a stupid idea. But Thorn wasn’t about to tell them. “What if they can’t capture him?”
Paimon shrugged. “Then this one will destroy the world.”
Four months later
* * *
Simi knew something was wrong, and it wasn’t just because akri was off with the heifer goddess she hated. Artemis was a terrible goddess. Even if hating was wrong, she didn’t care. The moo-moo goddess needed to be added to the Simi’s menu. Why wouldn’t akri let her to that?
But what she felt wasn’t akri needing her.
So, she went to akri-Alexion.
