Acheron loved her and she loved him.
Sobbing, she dropped the knife and placed her head on his chest. As a man, he'd exposed her and threatened her in a way no one else ever had. As a god, he threatened the very existence of her pantheon. She needed to be rid of him.
But she couldn't.
Furious over her own weakness, she put him back in bed. She traced the line of his jaw and wanted to weep. She would have to do something.
Maybe she could find one of the other gods to kill him . . .
Acheron heard someone scream out. The sound was horrifying and gut wrenching. It echoed through his room. Rolling over in bed, he tried to get up, but couldn't. The drug Artemis had given him was still pressing down on him. He had no control over his body at all.
Then he heard Apollodorus crying.
"Theo! Appie need theo! Mama! Mama come to Appie. Mama!"
Acheron wanted to go to the baby, but he couldn't. His head was swimming viciously and even the subtlest movement made him queasy.
"I'll be there tomorrow, akribos," he whispered to his nephew before he passed out again.
And still the screams echoed in his drugged stupor.
June 25, 9527 BC
Noon
Acheron came awake to the sound of ultimate grief. Someone was wailing as if their heart was splintered. Blinking open his eyes, he found the sun bright, streaming through his open windows.
His head pounding in agony, he pushed himself up in bed, but almost fell as his stomach lurched sharply. He hadn't awakened this sick since he'd left Estes's home. It felt as if he'd overdosed on something.
Artemis.
There in the blinding light, he remembered her "gift." More than that, he remembered her holding a knife over him as she debated whether or not she should kill him.
"You fucking bitch," he snarled.
An instant later, his doors were thrown open. The sound echoed so sharply in his head that it made him flinch and made his head pound even more. "Not so loud," he whispered.
The next thing he knew, Styxx had him by the throat. He shoved him back on the bed to straddle him. "Are you drunk?"
Acheron shook his head.
Styxx backhanded him. He pulled the arc of herbs from the table next to the bed and flung it into Acheron's face. "You worthless whore. You lie in here on your drugs and drink while my sister was murdered!" Styxx punched him again and again.
Acheron tried to block the hits, but his muscles and reactions were still sluggish from Artemis's drugs. It took a full minute for those words to permeate the fog in his mind. "What did you say?"
"Ryssa's dead, you bastard!"
No! The denial echoed in his head. It wasn't right. Styxx was being an ass.
Surely not even the gods who hated him would do this to him.
Shoving Styxx away, Acheron forced himself out of bed and staggered down the hallway to Ryssa's rooms. Oblivious to the fact he was naked, he walked in to find the king holding Ryssa in his arms. She looked like a doll. Her face was blue, and her body . . .
He choked on what he saw. She'd been ripped to pieces. Her face and body ravaged by something that looked like large claws. There was blood all over the bed and floor. Falling to his knees, Acheron couldn't breathe or even think past the agony of what he saw.
Ryssa was dead.
And it was then, there on the floor before him that he saw Apollodorus and the nurse. Both bloody. Both dead.
Acheron banged his head against the stone floor, trying his best to clear the fog in his mind. To feel something other than the shattering of his heart.
"I heard them . . ." he whispered as the reality of last night slammed into him with fists more powerful than any that had hit him before.
Damn you, Artemis! He had the powers of a god, but not the power to come and save the only two people who'd ever loved him. And why? Because that whore had drugged him!
He screamed out in anguish.
At that instant, in his mind, he saw the entire event unfold. Saw the ones who'd come into the room from the windows and slaughtered them. He heard Ryssa screaming out for his help.
Heard Apollodorus again begging for his uncle . . .
Suddenly, something slammed into his ribs. The force of the blow knocked him to his side. Looking up, he saw Styxx's furious face as he kicked him in the stomach. Then his twin was on the ground, slamming his head against the stone floor over and over again.
"Why wasn't it you, you worthless maggot!"
Acheron couldn't even think to protect himself. In that moment, he wanted to die too. There was no reason for him to live. Ryssa and Apollodorus were gone.
Even Artemis had tried to kill him.
Impotent rage roiled through him. Roaring from the force of it, he shoved Styxx away from him, but before he could regain his feet a bright light exploded through the room. Acheron lifted his arm to shield his eyes as Apollo manifested.