by Aimee Carter
“She sticks up for Orion. He’s the one who took Mom, and she thinks it’s no big deal.”
“She knows it’s a big deal. She helped me try to get Mom back,” said Simon. “He abandoned Winter, and she doesn’t have anyone except us, all right? You don’t have to make it worse.”
Nolan gritted his teeth so hard a muscle in his jaw twitched. “Fine. I’ll tell Garrett to lay off.”
“Thanks,” said Simon, and he averted his eyes, focusing on a loose thread hanging from his backpack. “You can sit with us whenever you want, you know. There’s always room for you. And Garrett, too, if he’s nice.”
“Garrett’s never nice,” muttered Nolan. “Just—promise me that next time, you’ll let me come with you.”
Simon opened his mouth to say there wasn’t going to be a next time, but that was a lie. As badly as he wanted to protect his brother, if he kept pushing him away like this, that was only going to make Nolan do something stupid. He still couldn’t tell his brother about also being the Beast King’s heir—that would only give Nolan another reason to hate him—but next time they had to leave to find a piece, Simon could include him. Zia was right, after all. They wouldn’t always be as lucky as they had been on this trip. Maybe having Nolan would tilt the scale in their favor.
“I promise,” said Simon. “I’m sorry.”
“I know,” said Nolan, and he sighed. “We’ll get her back. He can’t run forever.”
Simon hoped more than anything that his brother was right. “I miss her. Is that weird? I only got to see her once or twice a year, but—I miss her.”
“It’s not weird. I miss her, too. I don’t know how you did it, never getting to see her like I did.”
“I don’t know, either,” he admitted. “You adapt, I guess. It never goes away, and some days are worse than others, but you get used to it.”
The way he was getting used to Darryl’s death. The way he was getting used to Nolan and Malcolm and the L.A.I.R. and a new life he’d never asked for. Sometimes, when he thought about it, it all became too much. Today, however, with Nolan standing across from him, he managed to push the overwhelming fear aside. Not everything that had happened was terrible. He had, after all, gotten a brother out of it.
“Come on,” said Nolan, and he turned away, rubbing his eyes. “Dinner’s going to be ready soon, and if I’m sitting with you, we’ll need to grab a bigger table.”
Simon hesitated. He still had to unpack and hide the piece, but it could wait. Felix would watch it for him. Right now, he was going to have dinner with his brother. “Yeah, all right. We’ll have to warn Winter, though.”
“I’ll make Garrett apologize. He’s been a jerk lately anyway,” said Nolan, and they headed out into the atrium together. It would take a long time for them to work out everything between them, but for the first time in weeks, Simon was hopeful.
At dinner, everyone was surprised to see Simon and his friends, and student after student came up to them, asking where they’d been. On the plane ride home, they’d discussed cover stories, finally settling on something as close to the truth as they could get: Winter had wanted to go to Arizona, and they’d helped her. She seemed fine with it, especially since it placed her in the spotlight, and for once, even Nolan seemed all right with not being the center of attention.
By the time Simon returned to his room, he was exhausted. It had been a long day, and he was eager to catch up on the sleep he’d missed during their trip, but first he had something he needed to do.
Pulling the collection of postcards from his backpack, he flipped through them until he found the card from September, two years ago. On the back was a picture of a great white shark, and Simon made a face, flipping it over to read his mother’s handwriting.
Great white sharks are formidable predators, growing over twenty feet in length. Though they are responsible for the most attacks on humans per year, they do not typically see humans as prey. Great whites are, for the most part, a deeply misunderstood and feared species, but I wouldn’t recommend swimming up to one and trying to befriend it no matter how chummy he might seem.
Terrific. Not only did he have no idea exactly where the piece was, but apparently he would have to fight a shark to get it. He groaned and slid the card back among the others.
“You wouldn’t happen to know any great white sharks, would you?” he said to Felix, who meandered in through the bathroom.
“No, but I do know something that might interest you,” said Felix. “Someone’s rearranged your brother’s room again. And that someone left a note on my pillow.”
“They’re my pillows, not yours,” said Simon, but sure enough, a white envelope rested on his bed. Simon pulled out the note, which was written in scratchy handwriting he recognized as Malcolm’s.
A member of the pack will always be watching you. Don’t go far, and most of all, be safe.
Simon’s heart skipped a beat, and it took everything he had not to immediately run into Nolan’s room. Instead he pulled on his coat and boots, knowing if his mother or uncle were here, they would insist that he wear both in the November cold.
“I’ll be back soon,” he said to Felix. “If Nolan comes in, tell him I’m going to fly tomorrow morning, and he can come if he wants.”
Felix tugged on his whiskers. “Don’t get eaten.”
“I’ll try not,” he said, and with a grin, he darted through the bathroom and into his brother’s empty room. Felix was right—the bookcase that had covered the secret tunnel had been replaced by Nolan’s desk once more, and whatever measures Malcolm had taken to close it had been reversed.
He didn’t know why his uncle was giving him this privilege after everything he’d done to not deserve it, but Simon wasn’t about to protest. Shifting into a mouse, he ran through the tunnel at top speed, relishing the sensation of his muscles and lungs burning. After his trip across the country, the Den had never seemed more claustrophobic. At least now, when he sneaked out, he could do it mostly guilt-free.
He paused long enough to shift into a golden eagle once more before stepping out into the Central Park Zoo, his talons scraping the stone courtyard. It was eerily quiet, and a snowflake landed on his beak. Closing his eyes, he tilted his head up toward the dark sky, letting the cold swirl around him. There really was no place like New York.
Eventually he flapped his wings and rose into the air. Rather than flying around Central Park, however, he only went a couple hundred feet, landing at the base of Darryl’s statue. The stone wolf bayed at the moon, and Simon shifted back, patting its muzzle.
“Sorry I’ve been gone,” he said quietly. “I went to Arizona to find Mom. And I did, but—it’s the same as it’s always been, I guess. She’s there, and I’m back here now.”
He couldn’t say anything else about his trip, not when a member of the pack could be listening. Even with the snow muffling his words, he couldn’t take the risk, and instead he cleared his throat. “I think Nolan and I might get along more now. We just need to figure out how to stop getting in each other’s way and—”
Simon frowned. Underneath the loose stone at the base of the statue, he spotted a rectangle of glossy paper, its edges damp from the snow.
Another postcard.
With trembling hands, Simon picked it up and angled it toward the light. On the front was a picture of a beach with the bluest waves Simon had ever seen, and the words Greetings from Los Angeles were printed at the bottom.
A lump formed in his throat, and he turned it over. His mother had only written two words.
I’m sorry.
Simon sank to the cold stone ground, reading those words over and over until he’d memorized every last curve of the letters. “I’m sorry, too, Mom,” he whispered, and as the snow swirled around him, he tucked the postcard into the safety of his coat pocket and gazed up at the statue of the wolf. One day they would be a family again. They would never be whole, not without Darryl, but they would be together, and that was the import
ant part. No matter what it took, Simon would make sure of it.
About the author
Aimée Carter started writing fan fiction at eleven, began her first original story four years later, and hasn’t stopped writing since. Besides writing and reading, she enjoys seeing films, playing with her puppies and wrestling with the puzzles in the paper each morning. Simon Thorn is her first series for middle-grade readers. Aimée is also the author of several young adult books. She lives in Michigan, USA.
Visit her online at aimeecarter.com
Copyright © 2017 by Aimée Carter
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First published in the United States of America in February 2017
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
This electronic edition first published in February 2017
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Carter, Aimée, author.Title: Simon Thorn and the viper’s pit / by Aimée Carter. Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2017. | Series: Simon Thorn ; [2] Summary: Simon Thorn only recently discovered that he’s an Animalgam—one of a secret race who can shift into animals. Now, for the first time in his life Simon has real friends to train and study with at the secret Animalgam Academy. The only missing part is his mother, held captive by his evil grandfather, Orion, who’s bent on taking over the animal world.Identifiers: LCCN 2016023118 (print) | LCCN 2016036824 (e-book) ISBN 978-1-61963-715-3 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-1-61963-716-0 (e-book) Subjects: | CYAC: Human-animal communication—Fiction. | Shapeshifting—Fiction. | Animals—Fiction. | Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. | Kidnapping—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic. | JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / General.Classification: LCC PZ7.C24255 Sh 2017 (print) | LCC PZ7.C24255 (e-book) | DDC [Fic]—dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016023118
Book design by Donna Mark and John Candell