He gave her a gentle smile. “Thank you, Simi.”
She touched her cake to his then ate it. “You gots to eat yours all in one bites,” she said with her mouth full. “’Cause we gots no candles to blow out, you have to eat in one gulp for the wish to come true.”
Laughing, he shoved the cake into his mouth and ate it all in one gulp like she said.
Nodding, Simi licked her fingers. “Good, right?”
He swallowed the cake. “The best ever.”
Happy that she’d given him a wish, Simi got up on her knees and kissed his cheek then hugged him. “If you want, akri-Styxx, the Simi can love you, too. ’Cause hearts are amazing things. They get lots bigger to make room for new people to love alongside the old people you love.”
She patted her chest. “The Simi gots lots of room to love you, too, if you want.”
Sadness darkened his eyes before he nodded. “I should like that very much.”
She hugged him again and patted his back. “Okay, the Simi have to go now, but she’ll be back to see you soon. And remember akri-Styxx that wishes are powerful, powerful things that come true when you believe in them. And the Simi believes you will be very happy, very soon.” Because she was going to make sure of it.
People deserved to be happy, especially one who looked so much like her akri. Akri had found his Tory, and they loved each other so much.
Everyone should have that, especially akri-Styxx who still ached for the goddess he’d lost.
Bethany had been particularly kind. And Simi knew where she was. She just needed to wake her up, and Styxx would never be sad again. It might make akri angry, but she wanted to repay akri-Styxx for what he’d done. He’d given her a new matera and a little brother named Sebastos.
Now it was his turn to be happy.
28
October 21, 2012
“Simi … Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Absolutely.” Simi grinned at her sissy as they entered the basement of akri’s temple on Katateros. “Now where’s a light switch.”
“There’s not one.” Xirena breathed fire onto an old spider web-covered torch. As soon as one lit, it spread light to all the others in the dark marble room.
The flames danced along the wall, adding creepy shadows to the already creepy environment.
Simi stepped back to stare at the number of statues that were housed here. While she’d known they’d been placed here centuries and centuries ago and had gone over them with akri when he’d first comed to live here, she’d never again visited them, especially since they made her akri very unhappy. “The Simi didn’t remember there being so many … Akra really broke bad on all these non-quality peoples.”
“I remember.” Xirena’s tone was low and breathless. “It was not a pretty day.”
Simi arched a brow. “You were there, Big Sissy?”
Xirena nodded. “Xedrix, too.” Their brother had been Apollymi’s most favored Charonte after their mother’s death. But Rik-rik had deflected … no, defected when akri-Styxx opened the portal in New Orleans and let him out on the night he’d tried to kill akri.
That was what had made Simi so mad at akri-copy.
“Ooo, so what happened, Big Sissy?”
“The bitch-goddess Apollymi was furious. They all died screaming. Except for two.”
Simi started to correct her sister, but she knew Xirena would never warm up to Apollymi anymore than Simi would ever warm up to Artemis.
So, she ignored her sister’s insults and asked the question that was most dear to her heart. “Who two?”
“Dikastis and Bet’anya. Bet tried to keep the bitch goddess from killing her baby, but the bitch goddess didn’t listen. She yanked it right out of her belly and then turned her into one of these.”
Simi touched her own stomach in sympathetic pain. Poor Bethany and akri-Styxx. “Why was akra so mean?”
