Authors: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Yes, he would.
Sighing, he listened to her heart beating against his ear while Dynatos barked outside and Galen laughed in play. Those sounds brought tears to his eyes.
“Dad!” Galen came running inside.
Styxx had barely pulled his chiton back on and covered Bethany before his son pounded on their door. Making sure he wouldn’t scar the boy for life, he cracked open the door and knelt down. “What is it?”
“There’s a turtle! Come see!”
Styxx belted his chiton then stepped into the kitchen and took Galen’s hand so that Bethany could dress in peace. “Where is it?”
Galen ran with him outside to show it stuck in the mud by a tree. “I tried to free her, but couldn’t reach it without getting dirty and I promised Mama I would stay clean for your homecoming.”
Styxx knelt in the mud and pulled his son close as he remembered all the times his father had been a bastard to him because Styxx had wrinkled a garment or allowed a hem to sag. “You can roll around in it like a happy piglet for all I care, Galen. The only thing that matters to me is that you wear a smile when I come home to you. And that is the only thing I don’t want tarnished.” He held Galen out so that he could grab the turtle and pull her to safety.
He brushed his son’s hair back and kissed his cheek. “Do you know where the khelone gets her name?”
“The gods!”
Smiling, Styxx helped Galen take the turtle to the pond and wash her off. “That’s right. Khelone was a nymph who refused to attend Zeus and Hera’s wedding feast, even though Hermes himself had gone to fetch her. Furious, Zeus went to the khelone and demanded to know why she would dare defy and disregard his authority. And do you know what she said?”
Galen shook his head.
“She said, and I quote … be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”
“Is that why she carries her home on her back?”
“It is, indeed.” Though the tale claimed Hermes and Zeus had done it as punishment for her refusal to leave her house. But that wasn’t a punishment to Styxx. “If I could, I would carry you and your mother on my back with me everywhere I go.”
“You’d look very silly, Daddy.”
“Some things are worth looking silly for.”
Screwing his face up, Galen shook his head vigorously. “I hate looking stupid.”
“To make you and your mother laugh or smile, I’d paint myself pink and walk naked around the world.”
Galen laughed then freed the turtle into the pond. He threw himself against Styxx and smeared mud all over him. Pulling back, Galen stiffened. “Uh-oh.”
“What?”
Galen leaned in to whisper against his ear. “Mama’s here and she doesn’t look happy that we’re covered in mud. You might want to get your sword and shield, Daddy.”
“Don’t worry,” he whispered back. “I’ll protect you.”
“I don’t see how.”
Styxx’s heart swelled at the sight of Bethany approaching them. “The secret is not to lop the head off the gorgon, son. It’s to make her smile.”
Galen’s eyes grew even wider. “I think it would be easier to lop off her head.”
“Only as the last resort.” He kissed Galen’s cheek then rose to his feet with Galen in his arms. Slowly, he approached Bethany who frowned at them.
“My two heroes mired in mud. What am I to do with you?”
“Oh, Beth, that answer’s simple.”
She arched a brow at him.
“Love us.” He dipped his head to kiss her then playfully wiped his mud-covered hand down her cheek, leaving a long smear of it. Laughing, he cuddled Galen and stepped out of her reach.
Shrieking in mock anger, she ran at them.
Galen’s laughter mixed with theirs as she and Dynatos chased them until the traitorous dog tripped him. Styxx hit the ground with his shoulder, making sure he kept Galen from harm. He rolled to his back so that Galen was straddling his chest. Bethany fell down on top of him and straddled his waist. She grabbed Galen in her arms and hugged him till he protested. Then she hugged him even harder.
“Daddy! Help! The gorgon’s trying to squeeze the breath out of me.”
“Help? Very well.” He rose up to wrap his arms around Bethany and trap Galen between them.
Galen protested even more. “I meant help me, not the gorgon!”
Laughing, he cradled his son to his chest and laid his head on Bethany’s shoulder. Yet even as he savored this happiness with them, he knew it wouldn’t last.
It never did for him.
The thought of it ending tore through his soul with talons.
Please, grant me this one wish. Please, just let me stay here with them.
But he knew the truth. Acheron had spoken it to him long ago.
Styxx was damned and happiness never came to the damned.
January 19, 2009
Urian ground his teeth as he led Savitar into Styxx’s bedroom. “He’s been like that for over a month.”
Savitar gave Urian an arch stare.
“I know, right? It’s like his whole body has shut down. He hasn’t eaten or drank or even moved. Every now and again, he whispers in ancient Greek or Egyptian, but I can’t make it out.”
Frowning, Savitar pulled the blanket back to examine the wound Acheron had sealed. The moment he saw Styxx’s extensive scarring he gaped in horror. “What the hell?”
Urian sighed as he understood Savitar’s reaction. “Aside from being a war hero who fought in dozens of battles, he spent a year as a POW in Atlantis. He never really says much about it other than it sucked, but from the scars I’d say they tortured him the whole time he was there.”
Savitar expelled a heavy breath. “I had no idea. Does Acheron know about this?”
“I don’t know. Given his extreme hatred of Styxx, though, I’d say he doesn’t care. He’d probably say Styxx deserved it.”
Savitar felt Styxx’s forehead. “How long has his fever been this high?”
“Since the fight with Stryker. He had it when I brought him home and it hasn’t broken or gone down at all.”
Savitar placed his hand to Styxx’s throat. “He barely has a pulse.”
“Yeah. I didn’t know what to do. Not like I can call a doctor. I tried to tell Ash, but he said Styxx was probably faking it for attention. He told me Styxx couldn’t die and would be fine. Not to concern myself with it. But he doesn’t look fine. He looks like a corpse.”
“All right. Stand back. I’m going to shock him out of this.”
Urian moved to the doorway as Savitar placed his hand over Styxx’s chest. A slight hum filled his ears a few seconds before what appeared to be a sledgehammer-like bolt shot from Savitar’s hand into Styxx’s chest.
Styxx’s eyes flew open. Panting, he frowned at Savitar and then Urian as if he didn’t recognize them at first. As soon as he did, his eyes filled with panic and tears.
“No!” Styxx breathed raggedly, sweeping the room with his gaze. “Beth! Galen!”
Styxx wanted to scream as he found himself not in his cottage, but back in hell. Desperate and hysterical, he rushed from his bed to frantically search his condo for his family.
They weren’t here. They were gone.
All gone.
Treacherous agony tore him apart as he fell to his knees and bellowed. “Why did you bring me back here? Why? I was with them and we were happy! I was with them.…” Styxx buried his head in his hands and tried to come to terms with the reality he despised. “Beth, don’t leave me again … please … please come back to me … I can’t live without you anymore.” And he couldn’t stand the thought of being here alone.
Urian choked at the sight of a profound grief he knew better than anyone. For a long time, he’d hated Ash for bringing him back to life. Every day he lived without Phoebe was a day he despised with fury.
Why didn’t I leave him alone?
Had he known Styxx was in a coma with his family, he’d have left him there forever.
His heart breaking for his newfound friend, Urian knelt down beside Styxx and gathered him into his arms. “I’m sorry, Styxx. We didn’t know.”
Savitar came up to them and placed his hand on Styxx’s shoulder, knocking him out again. “Unfortunately, he won’t stay that way.”
“Help me put him back in bed.”
Instead of helping, Savitar picked Styxx up as if he weighed nothing and carried him to the bedroom. There was something weird about how Savitar was acting now. But Urian didn’t know him well enough to even hazard a guess about his thoughts.
“It’s disturbing, isn’t it?” Savitar asked him as Urian entered the bedroom.
“What?”
“How much he favors Ash.”
Urian shrugged. “They’re identical twins. I had two sets of brothers who were, too. But while they may share looks and some tendencies, they are usually very different people.”
Savitar swept his gaze around the room then opened the closet where Styxx had two pairs of jeans folded neatly on the top shelf. One sweater, a jacket, two long-sleeved button-downs, and three short-sleeved shirts. One pair of shoes. Frowning, Savitar continued searching all six rooms of the condo.
Curious, Urian followed him around. “What are you looking for?”
“What’s your impression of this place?”
Urian answered with the first word that popped into his head. “Spartan.”
Savitar nodded. “Not exactly the kind of place a spoiled prince would be happy in, is it?” He handed a bankbook to Urian. “Acheron gave him plenty of money. And you can tell by the lack of dishes, he doesn’t do much, if any, entertaining. The only thing he appears to have splurged on is the computer.”
“Only because I ordered it for him. He didn’t know anything about them and asked my advice.”
Savitar picked up Styxx’s phone, looked at it then handed it to Urian. “Yours is the only number he has, and it’s the only one he’s called.”
And not often, and even then not for very long. Their longest conversation had been about the computer and that had probably been no more than twenty minutes, tops.
Urian sighed. “I assumed he had other people he hung out with.”
“Has he said anything to you about being alone?”
“He really doesn’t talk much. He mostly asks questions about modern things he can’t figure out. Or customs and phrases he’s unfamiliar with.”
Savitar scowled. “Does he ever mention Ash or their sister?”
“Only if I bring them up, and then he quickly deflects the conversation to another topic. Tonight notwithstanding, or when he and Ash went at each other, he’s usually quiet and reserved. Unassuming. But he does have a wicked sense of humor.”
“How so?”
Urian smiled at the memories of their brief conversations. “One of my personal faves … he made a snarky remark over a random online encounter and then apologized by saying that he was so allergic to stupidity that it caused him to break out into rampant sarcasm. Another time, I made the comment that he was a leader and not follower. He corrected me by saying if it was a dark place with loud growls then fuck that shit, he’d gladly follow me in to investigate it.”
Savitar laughed.
Urian continued, “He also wanted to know why sour cream, buttermilk, and blue cheese have expiration dates. Why boxing rings are always square. Why buildings burn up as they’re burning down.” He paused to laugh. “And my two favorites, he asked why we have doctors now and not physicians.”
Savitar screwed his face up. “They’re the same.”
“That’s what I said, but then he pointed out to me that back in the so-called barbarian days, we didn’t have doctors who practiced medicine, but rather physicians who healed you … or killed you, just like now. He asked me how modern man could trust someone with so little confidence of knowledge of their field that they told you right up-front that they were still in the learning process.”
Savitar snorted. “I never thought of it that way.”
“Yeah, and a few months ago, he was in a grocery store and wanted to know why lemon juice was artificially flavored, but dishwashing soap contained real lemons. And what did modern people have against turkeys? He could find turkey masquerading as bacon, steak, and burgers, but no plain turkeys. Needless to say, I never thought about any of that. Probably because the only time I was ever in a grocery store I was shopping for humans.”
Savitar ignored those last comments. “It must be hard for him to adjust.”
“He doesn’t complain. He just tries to understand modern mind-sets, such as how can he be a chauvinist pig if he opens a door for a woman and then he’s an insensitive pig if he doesn’t.”
“The day he figures that one out, tell him to write a book and we’ll all be rich.”
“He already has. He stays back until she goes in and then he runs for it before another one comes along.”
Savitar laughed, then sobered. “Tell me honestly, Urian. What do you think of him?”
“I like him, and it’s not because I idolized him as a military hero when I was a kid. He was a fierce old fart to me then. Kind of like you.”
Savitar arched a censoring brow then smiled and heh’ed.
“You know me, Chthonian, I don’t play well with others, and I basically hate everyone, all the time, but I would actually cross the street to have a conversation with him.… In fact, I have.”
“Coming from you, that’s the highest endorsement I can think of.”
Urian nodded. “I just don’t understand their mutual hatred. I mean, I had brothers I couldn’t stand to be around for more than five minutes, but I didn’t really hate them. We were just different. While I might deck one from time to time, I never really tried to kill one.”
“I get why Acheron hates him, and it is justified. Believe me. Apollymi herself has told me about their bad blood, and I know she’s not lying. I’m just having a hard time reconciling the stories I’ve been told with the man who lives here. Of course, eleven thousand years can change someone.… I don’t know.” Savitar sighed. “Keep an eye on him and let me know if he slips back into another coma.” He vanished.
Urian started to leave, too, but given how distraught Styxx had been, he didn’t want Styxx to be alone when he woke up.
Sighing, he glanced around for something to occupy himself with. His gaze fell to a sketchbook on the end table. Curious what it contained, he walked over to it and flipped it open.
His jaw went slack at what he found inside. The majority of the book was filled with drawings of an absolutely stunning woman who had to be Bethany. Some of them were so real, she looked like she could step off the page and touch him. But the ones that were truly haunting were drawings of Styxx and her. He’d perfectly captured their smiles and laughs, but most of all he’d caught the anguish and love on his own features as he held her. There were also pictures of Bethany with a son, and of the boy by himself. A boy Styxx had never met. It wrung Urian’s heart.