Authors: Sherrilyn Kenyon
Bethany laughed so hard, she had to give Bas back to his mother before she dropped him.
Tory kissed Bas’s head. “You’re right, Bethany. He’s hilarious.”
“And now that he’s back,” Ma’at said, “we need to finish something. Will all of you excuse us?”
Unsure of what she needed, they allowed her to flash them to Savitar’s home.
Bethany was baffled at the location. “Where are we?”
Ma’at answered by beckoning her into the same bedroom Simi had taken her body originally.
Styxx’s breath caught as he saw Bethany’s body still on the bed where he’d left her earlier. No wonder her dress was clean now. Still … “I don’t understand … what’s going on?”
“Set told you. He split her heart. She hasn’t been whole since the day Apollo tricked her into killing you. When Leto summoned the vengeance part of her, she only had that portion of Bet that had loved Aricles.” She gestured to the Bethany standing next to him. “This one.”
“Is that why the amulet wouldn’t join?”
Ma’at shook her head. “As a link to Bethany and Bathymaas, the amulet was worthless once it was broken by Aricles’s death. Bathymaas told you herself, long ago. You are her heart. She gave it to you as Aricles and it was reborn with you and you alone. It’s why she couldn’t smile or laugh until she found you again. Set bound her heart to your soul to make sure you kept your word to return to her.” She moved toward the bed. “Now come, Bet. Let’s put you back together, for once and for all.”
Bethany hesitated. “Will I be different?”
“No, precious.” Ma’at gave her a kind smile. “Except you will be able to be fully happy again.”
Biting her lip in trepidation, she looked up at Styxx.
He rubbed her shoulders. “I’m right here, Beth. I’m not going anywhere.”
Reluctantly, she left him and went to the bed. “What do I do?”
“Just lie down on top of yourself.”
“That’s it?”
Ma’at nodded.
Hoping it worked, Bethany laid herself over her other body. At first, she felt nothing. Then a slow burn started. One that spread through her blood until she saw stars. In the next instant, she fell and opened her eyes.
She sat up and looked around. “What happened?”
“You’re back.” Ma’at kissed her cheek. “And I’m out of here. Savitar is on the beach and won’t return until after dawn. There’s no one to disturb you two at all and I know you both want some alone time.” She flashed out.
Suddenly unsure and cautious, Styxx sat on the edge of the bed.
Bethany watched him staring at her. There was a light in his blue eyes that told her he was terrified that this wasn’t real. That he’d wake up alone again.
In truth, she was disoriented by it all. It’d been one bizarre day. But now …
She reached out to finger the hole in his shirt where her knife had gone through it. Sickened over what Leto had caused her to do, she grimaced. “I’m so sorry, Styxx. Now every member of your family has tried to kill you.”
“Except Urian.”
She tried to suppress her smile and failed miserably. “The day’s still young.”
He laughed. “If it means getting you back, Beth, you can carve out my heart and serve it on a platter.”
She gave him a suspicious stare. “Have you really not been with a woman in all these centuries?”
“Trust me, you’re about to find out. If I even last long enough to make it inside you, it’ll be a miracle.…” His haunted gaze burned her as he swallowed hard. “That is, if you’ll have me.”
And that was what she loved most about him. For all his confidence and power, he still had moments of profound shyness and uncertainty. Not many, but enough to be endearing and fallible.
She pulled his shirt off, and placed her hand over the scar in the center of his chest. “I feel so bad for you. To me, it seems like we were together only yesterday. I have no concept of how long I slept. But for you—”
He placed his fingers over her lips. “It doesn’t matter.”
Yet it did, and she knew it. While he’d been off delivering Apollo to Apollymi, Tory and Acheron had told her about his sketchbooks. About how tortured and miserable he’d been all these centuries without her. She had no idea how he could have kept his faith and troth. How he’d managed to find the strength to carry on and survive. But she was so glad that he had. Then again, her Styxx had never been a coward. He was, and would always be, a steadfast warrior hero. Imperfectly perfect. The keeper of her heart. Wanting to please him, she moved to straddle his hips.
Styxx sucked his breath in sharply at the sensation of her soft body against his. He trembled at the one thing he’d been most desperate for. And still, he couldn’t believe she was really here in his arms. She sank her hands into his hair and gave him a kiss that set his entire being on fire. And when she trailed one hand down his chest to the button on his jeans, he thought he was going to die from the need to feel her hands on his bare skin.
Pulling back and sliding to his side, Bethany scowled as she tugged at his fly. “What is this thing?”
He laughed. “Zipper.”
“What’s a zipper?”
He smiled, remembering how confused he’d been when Dionysus had first taken him to New Orleans. “It secures clothes to the body.” He untied his boots and dropped them to the floor then showed her how to work the zipper and button on his jeans.
“I miss your chiton. It was easy access.” She pushed his jeans down until he was exposed to her questing hand.
His breathing rugged. Styxx did his best to think about anything other than her touching him. But when she brushed her hand down the length of his cock and cupped him, he lost the battle in one heartbeat. Against his wishes, he came in a blinding sweet moment of pure bliss.
His body still shuddering, he buried his head under the pillows and groaned in utter agony and embarrassment. He’d been right. Not only had he not made it inside her, he hadn’t even gotten close. “I’m worthless!”
She continued to stroke and tease him as she pulled the pillow off his face. “No, Styxx. You’re not. I didn’t doubt you, but this shows me how much you love me, and the fact that you have been every bit as faithful as you promised me you would be.” Wrinkling her nose playfully, she smiled down at him. “Besides, I know you. You’ll spend the next twenty-four hours more than making up for it. You are nothing if not an overachiever.”
He reached up to toy with a stray lock of her hair. “I am that, Beth, but only for you.” Then he pulled her peplos off and rolled her over so that he could savor the sight of her naked in his bed. His heart pounded as indecision on where to begin paralyzed him. He wanted to devour her.
So he started with her lips then moved south to her breasts.
Bethany cradled his head against her as he meticulously tasted every inch of her while his fingers stroked and delved, and heightened the aching need she had for him. And when his mouth replaced his fingers at the center of her body, she cried out in ecstasy.
He laughed deep in his throat. “That’s it, Beth. Come for me. I need to taste you.”
Those words sent her over the edge. Throwing her head back, she screamed as pleasure ripped her apart and her body spasmed with pure rhythmic bliss. Still he nibbled and teased until he’d wrung every last bit of orgasm from her.
Then he slowly nibbled his way back to her lips. He lifted himself up on his arms to stare down at her while his long hard body lay between her legs.
Bethany cupped his face in her hands as she felt his cock already hardening against her stomach. “See, I knew you’d be back in business.”
Smiling, he kissed her lips then slid himself inside her. They moaned in unison as she wrapped her body around his while he began thrusting against her hips.
“I have missed you so much,” he breathed in her ear. “And not just this. I could drown myself in your scent and warmth.”
“I am yours forever. Literally.”
“And I am eternally yours.”
This time, Styxx knew that nothing would ever to separate them again. And if anyone or anything was dumb enough to try, they were going to learn the lesson that he’d given both Archon and Apollo. Styxx of Didymos fought for what he wanted. He didn’t back down. He didn’t give up. He didn’t lose.
Even when it meant coming back from the dead. He wouldn’t be stopped and he would never again live without his most vital part. Bethany.
December 28, 2012
Azura entered Noir’s study without knocking to find him in the middle of entering one of their servants. “Put it away, love. I have business to discuss.”
Noir growled at her intrusion. “What is so important that—”
“Rezar has returned.”
He shoved the woman off his lap and quickly tucked himself back into his pants. “What?”
She nodded and watched as the servant made a quick exit. Crossing her arms over her chest, she faced her brother. “And Bathymaas is reunited with Aricles.”
“Then the prophecy is true.…”
“So it seems.” Azura wrinkled her nose at him. “Right at this moment, Darkness is covering the Light.”
“How do you know all this?”
“Our slave made a report.”
Noir considered that. “Has he found Braith yet?”
“No. He’s still looking. But with Bathymaas free…”
The Malachai wouldn’t be far behind. The balance must always be maintained.
And they were about to rain hell itself down on the unsuspecting humans.…
Noir couldn’t wait.
February 9, 2013
Acheron was expecting his brother to meet him so when the door to his bedroom opened, he was surprised to find the former dream god, Arik, there. Since Arik was the husband of Tory’s cousin Geary, it wasn’t unusual for him to visit.
“Tory’s not home. She went shopping for baby clothes with Bethany.”
“I’m not here to see Tory. I wanted to ask you something.”
Ash pulled the blanket up on Bas who was in the middle of his afternoon nap. “Sure. What do you need?”
“How old was Tory when her father died?”
Now that was an odd question. “Ten.”
Arik shook his head in denial. “When I first met Tory in 1996, Geary told me that she was six when her father died.”
He scowled at that. “I have photos of her with her father on her birthdays all the way up to ten. You must be mistaken.”
“No. I’m not. Even Geary now has memories of him being with Tory longer than that … and we have pictures that never existed until recently.”
Ash cursed at the significance of what Arik was telling him. “Who’s messing with the time sequence?”
“I don’t know. But since it’s affecting the one person nearest and dearest your heart…”
It most likely involved Acheron somehow. He winced in apprehension. “So whatever was altered had to have occurred between 1996 when you met her and 2008 when I met her.”
Arik nodded. “I’m thinking this time breach more than the cosmic alignment in December is what has unleashed Tiva and Zev.” Tiva was the original goddess of untime and her brother Zev of time itself.
Chaos and Order.…
Ash wanted to curse. “I saw Tiva in December. She was after the Time Stone.”
“Where’s it now?”
“Safe. Back in the hands of its keeper.” Neither Kateri nor Ren would allow anything happen to it. And Ren knew better than to let Tiva anywhere near the Stone.
“Glad to hear it. But with Order and Chaos unleashed…”
And not just Zev and Tiva. Set and Bethany were also Order and Chaos. And they were now released, too.
Yeah … this was looking bad.
“Something’s coming, Acheron. And I don’t know what it is.”
“Neither do I. But at least we’re forewarned about it. Let’s see if we can find other breaches and fluctuations. Maybe we can undo whatever has been done.”
Arik nodded. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“And I’ll do the same.”
As soon as Arik left, Ash turned back to watch his slumbering son as fear permeated every part of his being. Nothing good ever came when someone or something tampered with time. While Artemis had moments of profound lunacy, she wouldn’t dare mess with that one.
Maybe one of the Were-Hunters …
Or something a lot deadlier.
Whatever or whoever it was, Acheron would find them and he would make them pay for it. Most of all, he would stop them before they unleashed the one evil that nothing could ever defeat.
September 21, 2013
“Look at them, Apollymi. Have you ever seen anything more pathetic than two grown, immortal warriors so terrified of something so small? I don’t know who’s more nervous about the birth … dad or uncle.”
In her shade form on Katateros, Apollymi couldn’t agree more with Ma’at as they watched Styxx and Apostolos gather ice chips. “Should we have them boil water?”
Athena laughed. “Perhaps it’s my presence they find most unsettling. After all, the last time I attended a birth was theirs and … Well, thankfully this will turn out much better. I think.”
Styxx pinned the three goddesses with a stern frown. “You do know we can hear you, right?”
Athena laughed. “Of course we do, love. Wouldn’t be nearly as much fun if you couldn’t.”
“Styxx!” Acheron barked. “Get over here. Now!”
Ignoring the goddesses, Styxx ran to Bethany with the ice. “I’m right here, Beth.”
Lying on their bed in her temple, she took his hand and squeezed it as she screamed out in pain. Styxx was shaking in fear while Simi held a catcher’s mitt in expectation of their son’s birth.
Artemis rolled her eyes at Simi as she motioned for Ma’at to take over the birthing process. “He’s almost here. I’m sure you want to deliver this one.”
Tory wiped at Bethany’s brow. “Breathe, sweetie. Just a few minutes more.”
Acheron tsked. “I’m so jealous, Styxx. This is usually when Tory starts calling out for the wrath of the Furies to geld me.”
Tory passed a look to her husband that said he’d be spending the night on the couch.
Bethany laughed then groaned.
“One more push, child,” Ma’at said.
Closing her eyes, she obeyed.
Happy and terrified beyond belief, Styxx held his breath as his son entered the world. He didn’t breathe again until he heard the boy’s healthy cry. Shaking as much as Bethany, he pressed his cheek to hers. They were both laughing through their tears.