It was then I realized the hurt boy I'd saved was gone. The man on the bed was bitter. Angry. Defiant.
This wasn't the youth who'd fearfully snuck out of his room so that he could feel the grass on his feet.
This was a man who had been used one time too many. And he wanted the world to know exactly how much he hated it and everyone who was part of it.
"Get up," my father snarled. "Cover yourself."
One corner of his mouth quirked up in a mocking expression. "Why? People pay five hundred gold pieces an hour to see me naked. You should be honored you get to look for free."
Father strode over, grabbed him roughly by his arm and pulled him from the bed.
Acheron covered Father's hand with his own and tsked at him. "It's a thousand gold pieces an hour if you want to bruise me."
Bile rose in my throat.
Father backhanded Acheron so hard he fell to the floor where he sprawled naked on his back.
Laughing, Acheron licked at the blood on his lips before he wiped it away on the back of his scarred hand. "It's fifteen hundred to make me bleed."
My father curled his lips. "You're disgusting."
With a wry grin, Acheron rolled to his side and gracefully pushed himself up from the floor. "Careful, Father, you might actually hurt my feelings." He walked around my father like a proud, stalking lion, looking him up and down. "Oh wait, I forgot. Whores don't have feelings. We have no dignity for you to offend."
"I am not your father."
"Yes, I know the story well. It was beaten into me years ago. You're not my father and Estes isn't my uncle. It saves his reputation if everyone thinks I'm some poor waif he found on the streets and gave shelter to. It's fine to sell a homeless beggar, a worthless bastard. But the aristocracy frowns on those who sell their blood relatives."
Father backhanded him again.
Acheron laughed, unfazed by the fact that his nose was now bleeding along with his lips. "If you really want to hurt me, I'll ring for the whips. But if you continue to strike my face, you'll make Estes unbelievably angry. He doesn't like anyone to mar my beauty."
"Estes is dead," my father roared.
Acheron froze in place, then blinked as if he couldn't believe what he'd heard. "Estes is dead?" he repeated hollowly.
My father sneered at him. "Yes. Would that it were you in his place."
Acheron took a deep breath and the relief in his eyes was tangible.
I could almost hear his thoughts in my head.
It's over. It's finally over.
Acheron's obvious relief made my father furious. "How dare you have no tears for him! He sheltered and protected you."
Acheron looked at him drily. "Believe me, I've paid him well for his shelter and concern. Every night when he took me to his bed. Every day when he sold me to whomever paid his price."
"You lie!"
"I'm a whore, Father, not a liar."
Father attacked him then. He beat and kicked furiously at Acheron who didn't bother to fight or protect himself. No doubt he'd been trained to take that too. I ran to Acheron, trying to shield him.
Styxx pulled Father back. "Please, Father," he said. "Calm down! The last thing you need is to tax your heart. I don't want to see you die as Estes did."
Acheron lay on the floor once more. His face covered in blood and bruises, had already started to swell.
"Don't," he said, pushing me away. He spat the blood from his mouth to the floor where it landed in a stark red splatter.
"Get out," Father snarled at him. "I don't ever want to see you again."
Acheron laughed at that and cast a look to Styxx. "Rather difficult for that, isn't it?"
Father started for him again, but Styxx put himself between them.
"Guards!" Styxx shouted.
They appeared instantly.
Styxx indicated Acheron with a jerk of his chin. "Put this trash on the street where it belongs."
Acheron pushed himself to his feet. "I don't need their help. I can walk out the door on my own."
"You need clothes and money," I told him.
"He deserves nothing," my father said. "Nothing but our scorn."
Acheron's battered face was completely stoic. "Then I am rich indeed from the abundance of that which you've shown me." At the door, he paused to smirk one last time at our father. "You know, it took me a long time to realize why you hate me so much." His gaze went to Styxx. "But then it's not me you really hate, is it? What you truly despise is how badly you want to fuck your own son."
My father bellowed in anger.
With his head held high, Acheron left the room.
"How could you?" I asked Father. "I told you years ago what Estes was doing with him and you denied it. How can you blame him for this?"
My father snarled at me. "Estes didn't do this. Acheron did it himself. Estes told me of the way he parades himself around. The way he tempts everyone. He's a destroyer just as they said at his birth. He will not rest until he ruins every person he's around."
I was appalled. How could a man renowned for his practical sense be so blind and stupid?
"He's just a confused boy, Father. He needs a family."
As always, Father ignored me.