Jaden shook his head. “You know better than to ask. Last time I tried to intervene to help him, I made it so much worse. Poor kid. He should never have been brought here.”
“Why they hates him so?” Simi asked.
Sadness darkened Jaden’s mismatched eyes. “His father is our brother, Set. They hate Set, so they punish his son in his place.”
Ouch. Simi remembered that scary god Set who had only liked his daughter, Bet’anya. Whenever akri had gone near him, she made sure to be a tattoo on his body ’cause Set was terrifying. And not terrifying like akri or akri-Savitar or akri-Thorn.
Scary on a whole different kind of level.
Akri-Thorn ran his hand through his hair. “So Adarian is loose in the human world. I’ll let my Hellchasers know to beware of him and watch out.”
“And tell them Caleb’s now enslaved to the Malachai, too.”
“What?” Thorn gasped.
The Simi had the same shocked reaction akri-Thorn did.
Akri-Jaden nodded and there was no missing the aches he had in his heart over his son being tooken by the Malachai. “Adarian’s striking back at all of us. Lashing out at anyone he can as retaliation.”
Pain went across Thorny’s face to say that he felt akri-Jaden’s pain. “I’m sorry.”
Akri-Jaden didn’t respond to akri-Thorn’s words. Instead, he jerked his chin toward Simi. “You’d best get her home. Protect what you can until we know what Adarian has planned.”
“I will.”
Simi pulled away from akri-Thorn and went to akri-Jaden. “The Simi’s very sorry about your babies. But they’s very strong demons and gods. The Simi has faith they’ll be all right.”
“I hope so, Simi. Xev’s been trapped a long time. There’s no telling if he’s even sane anymore. And even if he’s not, I’m sure he hates me.”
She gave him a hug, then went to akri-Thorn so that he could take her home to akri-Lexi who was no more thrilled to hear about the Malachai being free than akri-Thorn was.
Akri-Lexi inclined his head to Thorn. “I’ll tell Acheron as soon as he returns.”
“Thanks. I’m off to let my soldiers know before they get caught unawares.”
“Good luck with that.”
Akri-Thorn snorted, then vanished.
Alone in the throne room, Simi turned toward akri-Lexi. “Is it that bad that the Malachai is loose? Haven’t they always been loose?”
“With the exception of the first Malachais, the rest of them had human mothers. While they inherited the strength of their fathers, the human blood of their mother’s kept them containable. This one was created by Noir and Azura. They sent a demon out to be his mother and breed a whole new beast. He’s stronger than many of his predecessors and we don’t know how badly they tortured him while he was in Azmodea. Torture takes its toll on everyone.”
“That’s what akri-Thorn said. But no one was hurt more than my akri and he’s not mean. He’s still gots a wonderful heart, full of love.”
“Acheron’s special, Simi. Sadly, there are very few like him.”
While she agreed, she didn’t understand what made him special. “But why he different?”
“I don’t know.” Akri-Lexi pointed with his thumb toward the kitchen. “You hungry?”
“Always!”
“Let’s get you some food.”
“Okies.” But as she followed after him, she couldn’t help wondering if the Malachai would cause harm to those she loved. The last thing she wanted was to see akri-Thorn or anyone else harmed.
Something inside told her that the Malachai wasn’t just tied to akri. He was tied to her, too. The Simi just didn’t know how. But she had an awful feeling that it wouldn’t be good.
