He laughed at her childlike philosophy. While she was thousands of years old, she only looked like a young teenager. And Acheron had kept her so sheltered from the brutality of life that she had no real understanding of what the rest of them dealt with. To her, everything was good and easy.
No one dared teach her the hard lessons that had been shoved down their throats. Betrayal. Cruelty. Viciousness. Jealousy. Hatred. Those horrible emotions were unknown to her. How he envied her that.
Most of all, he wished he could have given the same gift to his poor son who’d been raised every bit as cruelly has he had.
No, Cadegan had it worse. At least he’d been able to fight back against those who bullied him. Cadegan had been forced to deal with cruelty and take it.
Thorn couldn’t imagine anything more awful than to be forbidden to fight back. It was a wonder his son was sane.
And there was something even worse that both and Cadegan understood better than most …
“You don’t know betrayal, Simi. Be grateful. It’s a hard thing to put behind you. If not impossible. The more brutal the betrayal the longer it takes to heal.” Because betrayal began with trust. No one should be punished for trusting or loving someone else.
Of all life’s cruelty, betrayal was the most vicious bitch.
Frowning, she turned to look at his son who was dressed in armor as he moved about the camp of warriors Thorn had assembled to battle the demons and others set to prey on humanity. Cadegan was a handsome young man, and Thorn couldn’t be prouder of him. But the one thing he never wanted was for Cadegan to curse Thorn’s existence the way Brigid had.
And he couldn’t blame the boy for hating him. Brigid had condemned his son to a wretched childhood. If only Thorn had been able to find him sooner, Cadegan would have been spared all that pain.
Even though Thorn had tried, he’d failed repeatedly. He’d never forgive himself for that.
But now that he’d found him, Thorn had no intention of ever letting Cadegan know he was his father. Cadegan pinned that blame on Paimon. And why should Thorn correct that misassumption? Paimon wanted to lie and pretend to be his father instead of Thorn. So be it.
Just like Paimon continually claimed to be Thorn’s father. Sometimes he played along.
Other times …
Thorn made Paimon pay for his part in his conception.
Even more ironic? The monks at the Cymara Clas monastery where Cadegan had been hidden had written down that Paimon had fathered the boy.
Imbeciles.
To a degree. They were right in that Cadegan’s father was a vicious demon, but one much more powerful than Paimon. And Thorn was sure Brigid had done that as a way to slap at him. She knew exactly how he felt about that pathetic demon.
So be it. He could take her cruelty. He’d taken a lot worse. Besides, the last laugh was that he was grateful to them for blaming someone else. This way, Cadegan couldn’t hate him for his mother’s actions.
Simi turned toward him and made an adorable face. “Do he know what he is?”
Thorn shook his head. “I’m here to make sure he doesn’t discover the addanc inside him.” Because that was a terrible beast that the world was unprepared to fight.
“What if it gets out?”
Thorn didn’t want to think about that. In truth, there were times when he feared his son might actually have more power than he did and in the form of the addanc, there was no telling how destructive his son could be.
If Cadegan turned against the humans …
Acheron would be honor bound to destroy him, and he’d go after Acheron to avenge his child. A vicious cycle that wouldn’t change anything.
Other than to make them both bleed.
Still, Thorn was going to protect his son. No matter the cost.
“I don’t want to find out, Simi.”
She smiled. “I trust you, akri-Thorn. If anyone can keep Cadegan on the right, it’s you.”
He loved her confidence. “I appreciate that.” Thorn jerked his head toward the camp. “Would you like to meet him?”
