Yes, it was. No one should be born for no other reason than to suffer. Yet, that did seem to be the fate of so many.
It wasn’t right and she wished she could help.
“Can’t akri find her?” Surely with all his powers, her akri could locate such a poor baby girl and save her.
Thorny shook his head. “None of us have the ability. We’ve all tried. So long as Cam is shielding the child …”
That made her feel worse. “It just like akri when he was a baby. No one could find him, neither.” Not until the evil Apollo god had kilt him and her matera.
He winced as if he had a bad headache. “There’s something else going on, Sim. Something I can feel. A lot has been happening, and I can’t figure it out.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s like the universe is realigning.” He looked up at her and his eyes turned a bright red. “Can’t you feel it?”
“No. Are you sure it’s not hunger pangies?”
“Definitely not. But I want you to promise me something.”
His tone sent a wave of fear over her. “Okies.”
“If I ever turn to my father’s side, you won’t hesitate to kill me.”
Simi froze at the last thing she expected him to ask. “Wait … what, akri-Thorn?”
“I’m serious, Sim. It’s hard to do the right thing. And it’s getting harder for me every minute.”
“Maybe you should move to another dark castle, akri-Thorn. Get away from your evil daddy.”
He laughed bitterly. “I wish it was something that simple. Geography won’t change anything. It’s the part of me that I was born with. I can feel it growing stronger as I get older, and it scares me.”
Simi covered his hands with hers. “But you not a demon, akri-Thorny. You are decent.”
Thorn wished he could believe her. But a decent person wouldn’t have condemned his son. More than that, he made hard decisions every day. Who to save. Who to cut loose.
Who to damn.
Every one of them took its toll and made him want to lash out, more and more.
He didn’t know how much longer he could hold on. Or even why he bothered. Humanity was heading to a dark place. Maybe he should just sign on with Adarian and let him know what was already in the works.
Damn humanity.
But as he felt Simi’s hands on his, he wanted to fight for all those like her.
To make it one more day.
Because she believed in him when no one else did. When everything was bleak, she was there.
He wanted to be the man she saw him as. If someone as pure of heart thought he was worthy, maybe he wasn’t so bad, after all.
Simi squeezed his hands. “You’ll be fine, akri-Thorn. The Simi knows it.”
He could listen to her lilting accent and happy tone all day. There was something so infectious about her. Something that made even the worst day better.
“Don’t ever change, Simi.”
“Don’t plan to.”
