Yet here she sat, alone with him, far away from the goddess's watchful stare.
Deep-seated emotions engulfed her. Unable to stand the tide of them, Kat lay against him and hugged him close, wishing he were awake to know her. To feel her.
But he wasn't.
He would never know she'd been here. That she had been the one to help him. Simi was forbidden to tell him and as soon as she vanished, the others below would forget they had ever seen her, too.
"I love you," she whispered against his ear. "I always will." She placed a chaste kiss on his cheek before she pulled back and took his large hand into hers.
Tears streaked her face as she brushed his fingers against her cheek. "One day," she breathed, "we will' know each other. I promise."
Kat unlocked the door with her powers, then pulled a small satchel out of her pocket. It held three leaves from the Tree of Life that only bloomed in the garden of the Destroyer, deep in the halls of her temple in Kalosis. It alone could break the ypnsi, the sacred sleep that Orasia had once dispensed from the sacred halls of Katoteros back in the days when the ancient Atlantean gods had ruled the earth.
This alone could restore Acheron to his full strength.
Kat wrung the leaves until they were moist. Holding them over Acheron's lips, she twisted, more until they were able to drip nine drops into his mouth.
She watched as the color spread from his lips, slowly, over the rest of his body.
He took a deep breath, then opened his eyes.
She vanished instantly.
Ash felt the air stir around him. He sat up quickly, then wished he hadn't as pain swept through his body.
Wiping his lips, he grimaced at the bitter, nasty taste in his mouth.
"Akri?"
His heart stopped beating as he heard Simi's hesitant voice an instant before she burst into the room and leapt onto the bed beside him.
Suddenly, everything came back to him. The Daimons.
The blow...
What the hell had hit him?
"Simi, what am I doing here?"
She tackled him with a hug that left him flat on his back with her wrapped around his upper torso. "You scared the Simi, akri. She didn't know what was wrong with you. You turned all gray and nasty like one of them statues or something. You not supposed to do that! You said so."
"I'm okay, Sim," he said, cradling her. "I think. Why am I in Kyrian's house... with you in human form?"
"We brought you here."
Ash tensed at the sound of Kyrian's voice. He sat up slowly with Simi still hugging him.
With his arms folded over his chest, Kyrian stood in the doorway with Julian and Amanda.
"You okay?" Kyrian asked.
Ash nodded. "I think so. Still a little fuzzy, but breathing." Or at least trying to given the fact Simi was latched onto him like a protective mother bear.
"Do you know what happened to you?" Tabitha asked from somewhere out in the hallway.
Unfortunately yes, but it wasn't something they needed to know about since Simi had gone for the antidote and restored him. Thank the gods she'd understood his order.
If the others ever learned who and what he was...