Styxx (DH #33)

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

  Zakar set the coffee down and arched his brow. “Is he an offering?”

  “No!” Seti snapped.

  “But he’s marked by Apollo.”

  “He wasn’t marked by choice and he’s no friend of our enemy’s.”

  Zakar frowned. “Is that why you brought him here?”

  “No. I brought him here so that we could use him.”

  December 21, 2012

  “Simi … are you sure this is a good idea?”

  “Absolutely.” Simi grinned at her sister Xirena as they entered the basement of akri’s temple on Katateros. “Now where’s a light switch.”

  “There’s not one.” Xirena breathed fire onto an old spider web–covered torch. As soon as one lit, it spread light to all the others in the dark marble room. The flames danced along the wall, adding creepy shadows to the already creepy environment.

  Simi stepped back at the number of statues that were housed here. While she’d known they’d been placed here centuries and centuries ago, she’d never actually visited them, especially since they made her akri very unhappy. “The Simi didn’t remember there being so many … Akra really broke bad on all these nonquality peoples.”

  “I remember.” Xirena’s tone was low and breathless. “It was not a pretty day.”

  Simi arched a brow. “You were there, Big Sissy?”

  Xirena nodded. “Xedrix, too.” Xedrix was their brother, who’d been Apollymi’s most favored Charonte after their mother’s death. But Xed had deflected … no, defected when akri-Styxx opened the portal in New Orleans and let him out. Now he owned a club in New Orleans where the Simi got to eats lots of good seafood.

  “Ooo, so what happened, Big Sissy?”

  “The bitch-goddess Apollymi was furious. They all died screaming. Except for two.”

  “Who two?”

  “Dikastis and Bet’anya. She tried to keep the bitch-goddess from killing her baby, but the bitch-goddess didn’t listen. She yanked it right out of her belly, and then turned her into one of these.”

  Simi touched her own stomach in sympathetic pain. “Why was akra so mean?”

  Xirena shrugged. “The bitch-goddess was always mean. She only likes you and her son … and akra-Kat and Mia-Mia.”

  Simi climbed up on the woman closest to her and poked at her stone eyeball. “Which one is she?”

  Xirena spat on the ground at the statue’s feet. “Epithymia. She an even bigger bitch-goddess. She used to pull the wings off Charonte who made her mad.”

  Simi cringed then poked harder in the goddess’s eye, hoping she could feel it. “Who the one who lost her baby? She’s the one the Simi needs.”

  Xirena walked around them, looking at them, up and down, until she found one in the back. “This is Bet’anya.”

  Simi headed over then gasped. “She look just likes akri-Styxx’s drawings. She the one he loved so much.” Biting her lip, she met her sister’s gaze. “Was she nice?”

  Nodding, Xirena touched Bet’anya’s hand. “She was always very sad though. Even when she was happy, she looked so sad. Like something wasn’t quite right in her heart. Chara goddess used to say it’s because they took something from her long ago they shouldn’t have.”

  Simi gave her sister a knowing look. “That’s cause she didn’t have her akri-Styxx. He loves her and so this is the Simi’s Christmas present to him. I told him on his birthday that wishes come true and his wish is for his akra to come home to him.”

  “Yeah, but Xiamara, this…” Xirena shook her head. “I don’t think we should.”

  “We gots to, Big Sissy. This the only time them portals things open. If we don’t do it now, akri-Styxx will have to wait a long, long time and he already waited a long, long time. The Simi don’t like to see him so sad. He don’t get prezzies and the Simi wants to get him the best prezzie ever.”

  The ground beneath their feet rumbled. Simi’s eyes widened. “What’s that?”

  Bug-eyed, Xirena shrugged.

  Simi’s watch tingled, letting her know it was time. She had less than one minute to free the goddess. Using her wings, she hovered and placed the sacred anti-aima to the goddess’s lips. When akri had been frozen that time in New Orleans, she and akra-Kat had used this to free him so she was hoping it would work on Styxx’s akra, too.

  Hmmm …

  Another rumble went through the room. Something akin to a dark shadow shot out and flew past Simi’s head.

  Suddenly the other bitch-goddess Xirena didn’t like opened her eyes. And so did Archon …

  Uh-oh.

  Simi ran to her sister. “Go get help. The Simi will hold them off!”

  December 23, 2012

  Savitar paused as he watched Styxx, silhouetted by the setting sun, on top of a small dune. He’d stripped down to nothing but his loose pants and boots while he played Frisbee with his dog. Over and over, Styxx would laughingly take the Frisbee, praise the animal then wait for the dog to run out again so that he could toss it for the dog to jump, catch it, and return.

  It was the first time he’d ever seen Styxx at ease. Unguarded. For that matter, it was the only time he’d known the prince to play.

  Or laugh.

  And as he watched Styxx with the dog, he didn’t see the feral military commander who’d terrified a pantheon and nation, or the rigid prince who had to ooze decorum at all times. He didn’t even see a man. He saw the boy who had never been given a chance to live. One who’d been cut down in the height of his youth and deprived of a normal, mortal life.

  Because of the way Styxx and Acheron acted, the maturity, responsibility, and pain they held that went far beyond their years, it was easy to forget how young they’d been when they died. But Savitar saw it now.

  And the injustice of it burned inside his heart.

  I have no right to ask this of him.

  None of them did. Remorse gutted him as he felt for the childhood and life Styxx would have had had they not interfered. Styxx would have been that beloved, cherished and spoiled prince that everyone thought he was.

  And he would have been a proud Chthonian guardian for the world …

  To save and protect Acheron, they all had taken a turn at ruining Styxx. Athena has said it best at their births. When Apollymi had joined their lives, she ordained that whatever ills were committed against Acheron would be done to Styxx. Only for Styxx, it would be so much worse.… Savitar knew he should go and leave the boy in peace. Styxx wanted only to be alone and he’d certainly earned the right to it.

  But he couldn’t. Acheron was too important to the world.

  Most of all, he was too important to Savitar personally.

  Savitar waited until Styxx had poured water into a bowl for the dog before he appeared beside him.

  Faster than he could blink, Styxx had a knife in one hand and gun in the other. Both angled at Savitar’s head.

  “Impressive.” Savitar hadn’t even known Styxx was armed.

  Gone was any hint of the boy who’d been playing with his dog just moments before. This was the rigid general who had led armies, and fought gods and fiercely trained warriors in an arena with such strength and cunning that his enemies had been forced to resort to tricks and traps to defeat him.

  Styxx glared his hatred. “What do you want?”

  “You to point those somewhere else.”

  He lowered them to Savitar’s groin.

  “Cute.”

  Smirking, Styxx tucked the gun into the holster at his back and returned the knife to the sheath on his forearm. “Whatever it is you want, it has nothing to do with me.”

  “Some of the Atlantean gods have returned.”

  “As I said, it has nothing to do with me.”

  “They want vengeance.”

  Styxx bent down to pull his water out from under his aba. “So?”

  “On Acheron.”

  Styxx took a swig of his bottled water before he capped it. “Nothing to do with me.”

  “So that’s it then? You’re just
going to let your brother die? And he will.… There’s no way for him to survive this.”

  Styxx swallowed the pain inside him. “Are you deaf? The gods know, Acheron has said it enough. I don’t have a brother.”

  “The world as you know it will end.”

  He laughed bitterly at that. “The world as I knew it ended the moment my wife was killed. And anything remotely related to the life I once lived ended while I was held in solitary confinement for over eleven thousand years. I know nothing of this place and I have no dog in this fight. It has nothing to do with me,” he repeated. He headed toward his horse and camel.

  “Tory’s pregnant again.”

  Styxx froze as those words cut him to the quick. “Good for her … and Acheron.”

  “Are you really going to condemn an innocent woman and her two children to live without their husband and father?”

  “That’s not fair!” he growled, glowering at the Chthonian he wanted to shoot.

  “Life, like war, isn’t fair. It just is. Isn’t that what Galen taught you?”

  Styxx winced at the reminder of all he’d lost … because of his brother and the gods he’d hated since the moment of his birth. “You’re not helping your case by reminding me of Apollo’s treachery, Chthonian.”

  “Fine then. Stay here in your desert. At least you’ll have the comfort of knowing Acheron’s widow and fatherless children will be able to commiserate with your pain.”

  Whirling about in fury, Styxx threw the water bottle at him.

  Savitar ducked. Had that hit him, it would have counted.

  “I hate all of you!” Styxx growled deep in his throat. A throat that was still damaged because of Acheron and the gods who could never leave him alone.

  Damn it all …

  No, damn them all.

  None of them had ever taken pity on him. He was thrown aside and forgotten like garbage.

  Until they needed him.

  All he’d ever wanted was a family. One person who treated him like he mattered to them. And all he’d gotten was disappointment.

  Slapped in the face and stabbed in the heart.

  By all of them. It’d taken him centuries to come to terms with the one single fact that no one could or would ever love him.

  What the fuck does it matter? Really? He didn’t have a life. He never had.

  And he damn sure didn’t have a wife or a child.…

  Never mind two kids.

  Go ahead and die already. There was no one to mourn his passing.

  Angry, hurt, and aching over a fact he’d never been able to change, Styxx pulled his aba on then jerked his backpack up from the ground. His breathing ragged, he glared his hatred at Savitar. “Can you make sure my animals and gear go to someone who needs them and that my dog doesn’t get eaten by his new caretaker?”

  Savitar was stunned. “You agree?”

  Styxx averted his gaze as a thousand emotions pile-drived him to the point he didn’t really know what he felt. Other than hurt and alone.

  But that was nothing new for him.

  He met Savitar’s stoic lavender gaze. “I’ve never been quite the bastard all of you labeled me. You knew I couldn’t let him die, otherwise you wouldn’t have come here.”

  “Thank you, Styxx.”

  “For what?”

  “Being the man I knew you were.”

  “Go fuck yourself, Savitar. Just take me wherever I need to go and stop with the sentimental bullshit you don’t mean before I give in to my desire to punch the shit out of you.”

  * * *

  Tory wanted to beat her husband into the ground. “I would give anything to have enough god powers for five minutes to Force choke you with. You can’t do this.”

  “Sota—”

  A bright flash in the corner cut his words off.

  Tory sucked her breath in sharply as Savitar and Styxx appeared in the room on Savitar’s island home where he’d taken them for safety until this latest threat was resolved. Alexion and Danger were in the back of the house, tending Sebastos while she’d tried to argue sanity with her obstinate husband.

  Her jaw went slack as the two men joined them. The last time she’d seen Styxx had been very brief on the night he’d saved her from Satara. Then he’d been identical to Acheron.

  Now …

  Dressed all in black Bedouin clothing, he looked like something out of a Mummy movie. His wavy, short blond hair was faded by sunlight and his skin a deep, dark olive. While Acheron had never been pale, he appeared so in comparison to his twin. And with Styxx’s eyes ringed in kohl, they were a vibrant, haunting blue like the deepest part of the Aegean. Shirtless beneath the aba, he was covered by horrifying scars that testified to how brutal a past he’d survived. The sight of them made her stomach clench in sympathy.

  Ash growled at their unexpected appearance. “This has nothing to do with him.”

  Savitar snorted. “Ye gods, I don’t know why you two fight all the time. You’re just alike and not only in looks. You know what it tells me? You can’t stand yourself and you both know what an asshole you are to deal with … that’s why you don’t get along.”

  Simultaneously, they gave him a matching droll stare that caused her to laugh.

  Until they turned it to her.

  That made her laugh harder. “They are like matching, moving bookends, aren’t they?”

  A tic started in Acheron’s jaw. “You’re not funny, Sota.”

  “I’m pleading Savitar on this.”

  Styxx’s gaze fell to her distended belly. The utter grief and misery those eyes betrayed tightened her chest. To see that kind of agony on a face that was identical to the one person who meant everything to her …

  She wanted to soothe him, but knew better than to try. Neither her husband nor Styxx would appreciate it.

  Blinking, he blanked out his eyes and looked to Acheron. “Stop being stupid. Tell me what I need to do.”

  “Go home.”

  “Fine.” Styxx shrugged. “I’ll be more than happy to comfort your wife and raise your children in your absence. I’m sure after one night in my bed, Soteria will never remember you exist.”

  Bellowing in rage, Ash attacked him. He threw Styxx to the ground and started banging his head against the floor. Styxx rolled and slugged him then kicked Acheron back.

  “Stop it!” Savitar roared, putting himself between them as Ash went in for more. He passed a peeved, almost fatherly expression to Tory. “Have you ever?” he asked her.

  “No. Do they always do this?”

  “Yes,” the three men said simultaneously.

  Styxx cursed as his nose started bleeding. He pulled a white handkerchief out of his pocket and used it to pinch his nostrils closed.

  “Lean your head back,” Tory instructed.

  Styxx sighed. “Forward’s better.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’ve been getting them since birth.”

  And he’d ruined several of his sister’s gowns with them. Something Ryssa had held against him the whole of her life. Tory wanted to cry for him. “Can I get you anything?”

  “Where’s the bathroom?”

  She pointed to the door right outside the room.

  “Excuse me.” He left them to tend it.

  The moment he was gone, Tory stalked her husband. “What is wrong with you?”

  Ash glared after his brother. “He always knows exactly what to say to thoroughly piss me off.”

  Tory folded her arms over her chest. “You know, my father had an old saying—the sharpest knives cut both ways.”

  “You’re defending him?”

  “No, baby. I would never defend anyone over you. I love you with every part of me. But I also know you better than anyone and this isn’t about saving Styxx. It’s about punishing yourself. Whenever you feel guilty, you lash out. And if you go to them and die, you won’t be punishing yourself or helping Styxx. You’ll be punishing me and Bas and this one.” She took his hand and held it to her stomac
h so that he could feel their son moving inside her. “Is that really what you want to do?”

  Ash looked past her as Styxx returned. The haunted, tormented look in Styxx’s eyes as he stared at Ash’s hand on Tory’s stomach was heart-wrenching.

  He locked gazes with Acheron. “You know, a long time ago, my mentor taught me that there’s only one reason to go to war. To protect the ones you love. But life has taught me that sometimes protecting isn’t about leaving them. It’s about being here when they need you. It doesn’t take courage to die, Acheron. It takes courage to live and to fight.”

  “And it takes a lot more to forgive.” Ash left her to approach Styxx. He held his hand out to him. “Brothers?”

  Styxx hesitated. Then he slowly shook his head. “I’m not going to let you do this to me.”

  “Do what?”

  “Send me out to die in your stead with regret. How dare you. Don’t you even try to be a brother to me now when it no longer matters. I needed my brother eleven thousand years ago. I begged for a brother then and in ’07 and again even in ’08, and you turned your back on me and walked away without a second thought. Every time. I have no forgiveness inside me for you. Not anymore.” Styxx paused then laughed. “You’re right, Acheron. I am a selfish bastard. I had to be, because no one else ever gave a single shit about me except me.”

  Acheron winced. “You can hear my thoughts.… I forgot you could do that.”

  “You forgot a lot of things I wish I could.” He looked over at Savitar. “What do I need to do?”

  “I need to take you to Apollymi so that you can fully pass for Acheron.”

  He went rigid as if he couldn’t breathe. After a minute, he expelled a bitter sigh. “Of course you do. ’Cause my life just isn’t miserable enough.”

  A tic worked in his jaw before he returned those cold blue eyes to his brother. “And yes, Acheron, I do know how much you would give to have your mother embrace you. The same amount I’d have given to have mine hold me. Not stab me in my heart because she birthed you.” He pulled the aba tighter around his body. “Take me to her. Get it over with before I change my mind.”

  “Styxx—”

  He held his hand up to silence Acheron. “If you thank me for this, I swear to the gods I loathe that I will put my fist through your face, and I don’t care how much it hurts me when I do it.”