Authors: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Simi started to go to Styxx, but Ash held her back. Since she wasn’t Styxx’s Charonte, Styxx might unwillingly hurt her.
There was only one person in the room who could stop this and she was about to make the horrendous mistake of attacking Styxx.
Ash summoned as much of his powers as he could and teleported himself to where Styxx hovered. He knew it was an idiotic move, but he had no alternative.
The moment Bathymaas saw Ash, her nostrils flared with anger. “You!”
When she moved for him, Ash caught her with his powers. “Kill me and Styxx dies, too. Is that what you want?”
“Kill them both!” Leto shouted, still trying to put the two halves of the Egyptian heart together.
Bethany rose up as if she’d obey Leto, but then her gaze went to Styxx and she calmed instantly. “What do I do to save him?” she asked Ash in an anguished tone.
“You have to ground him. Make him aware of who and what he really is outside of his powers.”
“How?”
Ash shook his head. “Damned if I know. I’ll try and hold him, but you have got to reach him or those powers will rip him apart and destroy us all.”
Nodding, she stepped back and cleared the way for Ash to launch himself at Styxx. When his brother went to hit him, Ash embraced him with everything he had.
Styxx bellowed furiously as he tried to break free.
In her Bethany form, she appeared in front of his brother and cupped his face in her hands. “Styxx? Can you hear me?”
Another blast went through the room as something like a hurricane swept through with enough force that it knocked Bethany back. Ash held on to Styxx and grabbed Bethany before it carried her away.
Bethany trembled as all her memories merged with Bathymaas’s and she was fully restored. She saw herself with Styxx and with Aricles, and remembered everything the gods had done to them both to tear them apart and keep them from each other.
Anger rose up, but she forced it down. There would be a full accounting later. Right now, she had to save him. No matter what, she couldn’t allow him to suffer another day or die for these bastards.
Or for her.
He shoved Acheron away and turned on her with a murderous glint in his blue eyes. Scared and unsure, she did the only thing she could think of.
She kissed him.
Styxx froze as the scent of eucalyptus and lilies invaded his head. As softness again filled his arms and he remembered what it was like to be part of a whole. That sweet, precious touch calmed him instantly.
Afraid he was dreaming, he pulled back ever so slowly to look down at the woman in his arms. Was it real? Was she real?
“Beth?”
She gave him a smile that harded him instantly. “Are you with me,
akribos
?”
“I’m not sure. Am I dead?”
She laughed. “I don’t know. Am I?”
“No!” Leto screamed as she ran for them.
Without hesitating, Ash intercepted her. But as soon as he neared her, she stabbed him through his stomach with the same Atlantean dagger laced with ypnsi sap that Bethany had used to kill Styxx. While the poison was fatal to mortal beings, it was a potent miasma for the gods, and it was the same serum Apollymi had used on her family to lock them in deathlike limbo when she’d confronted them over Acheron’s death.
Ash staggered back and fell to his knees.
Styxx ran to him. “Acheron?”
“Simi!” he called, ignoring his brother.
“Simi on it, akri!” She vanished.
Acheron’s body was quickly turning gray as the poison spread from the wound to the rest of him. His eyes flared red as he cupped Styxx’s cheek and pulled him into his arms.
Before Styxx realized what Acheron intended, his brother sank his fangs into his neck and handed over his powers for Styxx’s use. As soon as it was done, Ash fell back and locked gazes with Styxx. “Kick their asses, brother.”
“With pleasure.” Laying Acheron on the floor, Styxx saw Urian fighting Phanen. “Urian, on deck.”
Urian flashed over then cursed as he saw Acheron’s condition.
“Watch and protect him.” Styxx rose slowly to his feet as he let the weight of Acheron’s power and his own newly acquired ones mingle. Damn … Acheron’s abilities made a mockery of Apollymi’s. If Katra really was stronger than her father …
That was a terrifying prospect.
“Styxx?”
He hesitated at the fear in Bethany’s voice. She was the only person in this room he’d never willingly hurt. Taking her hand into his, he pulled her closer so that he could protect her, and she could keep him grounded in case his powers surged beyond his control again. “I’m fine,” he assured her. “As long as you’re with me.”
All around him, the gods battled.
Leto came at them with the dagger raised. Styxx stepped in front of Bethany to confront the
kuna
who had twice tried to destroy his wife. It was time he ended this and her, once and for all. Leto leapt at him. The force of her attack unbalanced her. He jerked her forward and disarmed her with a single twist to her wrist.
But in spite of everything the bitch had done to them, he couldn’t bring himself to strike her. It’d been hardwired into him by Galen that there was never, ever any reason for a man to hit a woman, no matter what she did to deserve it. Men were much too strong.
Leto laughed as she realized he wouldn’t strike her.
Until Bethany came around him with a grim, determined glint in her eye. “I’ve got this bitch.”
Styxx stepped back and let her take fourteen thousand years of vengeance out on the goddess they both hated. The goddess who had done her best to destroy them both.
And speaking of hatred and retribution …
He turned toward Archon who was battling Zakar. Manifesting his sword and shield, Styxx headed for them.
“Zakar?”
The Sumerian looked past Archon then fell back as Styxx moved in to engage the Atlantean god.
Archon laughed. “Really? You think borrowed powers scare me, boy? I’ve wiped my ass on higher beings and better warriors than you.”
“I’ll concede the higher beings, but you should remember, Archon, there has never been born a better warrior than me. It’s why you helped Apollo and Leto cheat in order to kill Aricles. You knew the debt I owed Apollymi for her favor and that I’d be coming for you eventually.”
Scoffing, Archon brought his axe down across Styxx’s shield. Styxx lunged at his feet with his sword. The older god danced away as Styxx twirled with an uppercut that nicked his arm.
Archon screamed out in pain.
Styxx drove him back as Archon struggled to keep up with his blows. And he saw the fear in Archon’s eyes as the god realized he wouldn’t win this round.
“Go ahead,” Archon taunted, “put me back to sleep. I
will
get free again. And when I do, I’m coming for all three of you. There’s nothing you can do to stop me. I will return.”
“No,” Styxx said firmly. “You won’t.” He feinted right and when Archon moved to defend, he shot back with a well-practiced swing that severed the god’s head in one final stroke.
Everyone in the room froze as they realized what Styxx had done. And more to the point, they became aware of what he really was.
A Chthonian god-killer. They alone had the power to destroy a god and send his or her power back to the Source without destroying the fabric of the universe. And while killing a god weakened them, they were still the baddest asses in the Nether Realm.
The only things that could kill one of them was the Source, one of its servants, or serums or another Chthonian.
In that moment, the Atlanteans did what they’d done in Halicarnassus when they realized Styxx would not be defeated … they dropped their weapons immediately, and stood down.
Except Bethany and Leto who continued to battle. The bloodlust in his wife’s eyes was a scary thing.
“Should we break them up?” Urian asked as he joined Styxx.
Before he could answer, Set intervened by grabbing Leto in a fierce sleeper-hold. As soon as she passed out, he tossed her over his shoulder. “While I respect your need to beat on her, daughter, I’m the one with a much larger grudge against her. Not just for what she did to you, but for what she did to your brother.” He leaned forward to kiss Bethany’s cheek. “I will be back very soon and never fear … while I wouldn’t deign strike a lady, this bitch is open season.” He paused to glance at Zakar, who smiled in wicked anticipation.
Then the three of them were gone.
“Brother?” Bethany whispered in confusion as she turned to Styxx. “What brother?”
He pointed to Seth across the room. “Seth was born long after Apollymi had frozen you in Katateros.”
Bethany went to meet him for the first time while Styxx knelt beside Acheron. He was stone gray from head to toe. Frowning, Styxx glanced to Urian. “What causes this?”
“Aima,” Dikastis answered, kneeling next to Styxx.
Styxx started for Dikastis to finish him off, but Urian stopped him.
“He’s on our side.”
“You sure?”
“He stabbed that one.” Urian pointed to Teros. “And saved my ass.”
Maahes joined Seth and Bethany while Ma’at moved to stand by Styxx. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Acheron will be fine. As soon as Simi brings the antidote, he’ll wake up.”
Styxx wanted to believe that. “Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Otherwise, Apollymi wouldn’t be so quiet.”
And she was quiet … eerily so. Even when Simi returned with three leaves from the Tree of Life that only grew in the Destroyer’s temple in Kalosis, Apollymi remained extremely reserved and dubiously silent.
“What do I do with these?” Styxx asked Simi.
“Twist them until they’re moist,” Apollymi said. “Then drip nine drops into Apostolos’s mouth.”
Styxx hesitated. “What happens if I do ten by mistake?”
“Let’s not find out.”
Duly noted.
Bethany returned to his side as he carefully counted.
As soon as the ninth one hit Acheron’s lips, the color slowly returned to the whole of his body. Groaning, Acheron opened his eyes then grimaced. “Next time, add peppermint flavoring, somebody. That is the nastiest tasting crap on the planet.”
Styxx scoffed. “You’re not seriously complaining that I brought you back. Are you?”
“Yes, and no. Taste it yourself and you’ll bitch, too.”
Snorting, Styxx held his hand out to his brother. Acheron took it and allowed him to pull him to his feet.
They stared at each other, fully united for the first time since the day Estes had taken Acheron to Atlantis. Brothers forever and always.
Even through mutual idiocy.
Acheron hugged him close then stepped back to leave him to Bethany.
Still expecting all this to be a twisted dream, Styxx turned and wrapped his arms around her. He leaned his head against hers and took a deep breath as her scent and warmth filled him in a way nothing else ever had. While he’d learned to be whole alone, it didn’t compare to what he felt as one half of their whole. “I told you I’d come back for you, my goddess. That nothing would stop me.”
“Yes, but did you have to drag your feet? Seriously?”
He laughed in spite of the pain her teasing wrung inside him as he tightened his arms around her. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to get used to living with me right here. I will never again let you go. Just consider me a large exterior growth on your body.”
Her lips trembling, she smiled up at him as her own tears flowed. “I am so glad to have you back. I just wish we had our son with us.”
“I know, precious,” he breathed.
“Um … about that.”
Styxx glanced up at Apollymi’s trepidatious voice that she had suddenly found again. Dread replaced his happiness as he feared that nervous tone. “What?”
“Remember my promise to you, Styxx?”
That she would make everything right if he survived. “Yes?”
“I didn’t kill your son. I wanted to. Desperately. But as I looked down at that tiny, beautiful baby, I saw Apostolos and I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him.”
Bethany gasped. “He lives? Where is he?”
Apollymi’s gaze went to Urian who turned around to look behind him.
Styxx’s jaw dropped in understanding. “Urian is Galen?” And yet some part of him had known it the first time they met. He’d felt that connection and love. Now it made total sense.
Urian shook his head. “It’s not possible. I was born before they died.”
“No, you weren’t.” Apollymi smiled sadly. “Strykerius told you that because he didn’t want you to know that you and your brother were the first Apollites born cursed. And that was my fault. I intentionally chose Strykerius’s wife because I thought it the perfect revenge that Apollo should look after Styxx’s child given what he’d done to him … in both lifetimes. I had no idea Apollo would curse all of you over the death of a woman he really couldn’t stand. Like Apostolos and Styxx, your blood mingled with that of Strykerius’s real son, and that made you a part of Strykerius, too. You, child, are the only being alive who is part human, Atlantean, and Apollite … and you carry in your veins the blood of three pantheons and gods.”
Urian was aghast. “Does Stryker know?”
She nodded. “I told him long ago—after you were grown and he wondered about some of your heightened abilities—that you were very special to this world, but not who your real parents were. Your unique bloodline was why the evil souls you once lived on didn’t infect you at all. Why you could go longer between feedings than others of your kind, and how your blood sustained Phoebe while she lived. It’s also why Strykerius cut your throat instead of stabbing you in the heart. Unlike other Daimons, you wouldn’t have died from a heart wound. Only blood loss could have killed you back then.”
Urian looked at Acheron. “Did you know this?”
“I knew it was odd that Stryker cut your throat instead of stabbing you, but no. I had no clue you were my nephew. My mother”—he passed a peeved glare at her—“never mentioned it to me.”
Urian scowled. “Man, I’m messed up right now. My best friend is my father? The man I idolized as a kid … whose tattoo is on my arm … And he’s younger than me. Yeah, I don’t think I can handle this. Mindwipe me, somebody … please! Where’s that dragon from Sanctuary? Simi, go get Max. I need him.”