Thorn by Joshua Ingle Page A

the dance floor, at the bar. Maybe if I play their game with them and get some girl drunk and date-raped, they’ll help me pry Shenzuul away from Amy.
    His hopes vanished when he saw Marcus at the bar, watching him. The Scourge of the Congo loomed over two dozen of his own followers, who busied themselves with clubbers while Marcus regarded Thorn hatefully. Thorn reflected the enmity back. Too many of my own followers are here. He wouldn’t attack me in public. Would he?
    “Antonio Ellis?” Lexa found him sooner than Thorn had expected. “Oh my god, hi! I’m such a fan.” She introduced herself and flirted expertly, occasionally bringing Kelly into the conversation but ignoring Amy entirely.
    Marcus gracefully floated his burly body above Amy’s head, and whispered to her in his silky smooth voice. “Look at Lexa. Just look at her charm. She’s so outgoing, so good with people.” He coiled his body around her shoulders. “Why can’t you be like that, Amy?”
    So they’re just here to assert their control of Amy. That was a relief… but also sad. Thorn had been with Amy so long—on a human timescale—and knew her so well. Seeing her stuck in the rear of another social experience made Thorn long for her company as much as she longed for acceptance. Indeed, in the midst of Marcus’s followers, Thorn felt just as lost as she must have.
    Other demons joined in the whispers, no doubt to mark their territory like the wolves they were.
    “You ugly,” Shenzuul whispered to Amy.
    Another demon drifted down to Amy’s other ear. “They like her better than you.”
    Many more devils swirled around the poor girl. “You should not have worn clothes so tight.”
    “They can see right through you.” A tear welled up in Amy’s eye. The further they took her from him, the more desperate Thorn grew. He wished he could slaughter them all here and now, and reclaim his favorite possession.
    “Try and find a man inside,” one demon said.
    “You can’t find a decent man because you are ugly.”
    “Ugly, yes.”
    “Both inside and out.”
    “And insecure.”
    “No fool in his right mind would find you attractive.”
    “Hideous.”
    “Why are you so ugly?”
    “You’re unfathomably ugly.”
    “You’re beautiful.” Time seemed to freeze. Thorn couldn’t be sure why he’d said it, but at once he found it thrilling, and terrifying. Amy immediately turned away from Lexa and looked Thorn right in the eyes.
    “Excuse me?” she asked him.
    The other demons had suddenly vanished. Where had they gone? Thorn checked behind him to see who Amy was talking to, but all he found was a stack of barstools. Surely she can’t see…
    When he turned back to face her, he turned a little too far, and his shoulder bumped into her. And he felt it. Thorn looked into her eyes again, and for the first time in thirteen years, she looked back.
    “Do I know you?” she said, recognition glimmering faintly on her face.
    Thorn searched for words, but remained speechless.
    “Amy, come on!” Lexa called. She and Kelly were heading toward a private booth with Antonio’s crew.
    “Sorry, I’ll be right there.” Amy turned back to Thorn, but this time she looked through him, at the barstools. As he watched her scan the vicinity, he noticed that the other demons were back, and completely motionless. They all gaped at him.
    “Amy, what are you doing?” Lexa called.
    “There was just a guy here,” Amy said. She scanned the room again and soon gave up, though Thorn still stood before her. “Huh.” She followed Lexa to the booth.
    In awe, Thorn watched her go. What…? Even Marcus and Shenzuul appeared dumbfounded by what had just happened.
    A devil moved between Amy and Thorn, blocking Thorn’s line of sight. The demon stared him up and down as if afraid to speak, then said, “You broke the Second Rule.”
    How? Thorn was still in shock.
    They took him to the Judge.

5
    Family and friends of the deceased wore grays and blacks—the