It was Artemis dressed in a white gown and looking just as she did the night Sam had sold her soul to the goddess. Artemis was furious as she confronted Apollo in his temple. "What have you done, brother?"
Apollo's golden hair gleamed like pure sunlight. His features were beyond perfect. He sat on an overstuffed gold chaise with his sister beside him. "They betrayed me. They killed my son, my baby son. Was I supposed to forgive them that?"
Artemis shook her head. "Why would you curse all of them?"
He sneered at her. "Like you have never acted impulsively? This is all your fault. Had you not been sleeping with a human whore none of this would have occurred!"
Artemis glowered at him. "And you've killed him too and damn near all of us in the process. Would you destroy this entire pantheon over your dead whore?"
He stood up to tower over her. "Why not? You risked it for yours!"
Artemis refused to back down as she faced him. "Leave Acheron out of this, brother, or so help me--"
"What? You won't do anything to me, Artemis. If you do, I'll tell every god here how you, the virgin goddess, spread your legs for a common piece of human filth."
Sam reeled from that revelation.
Artemis didn't flinch as she fisted both of her hands as if she was one step away from punching Apollo. "I hate you."
"And I return that to you tenfold, sister. Now leave me."
"I can't. Your people are feeding on the humans because of your curse."
Apollo bristled. "Not my curse. Apollymi was the one who taught them how to steal human souls. She's the one housing and protecting them now. I have nothing to do with it."
"Then lift your curse from your people. Apollymi won't be able to control them if they don't need to take human souls to live."
"I can't."
Artemis shook her head. "Can't or won't?"
"Can't. If I take it back, it will kill me and undo the entire creation of the world. I can't fix this."
Artemis let out a long sigh before she raked him with a repugnant sneer. "You're pathetic, Apollo. Pathetic." She turned and left him alone in his temple where he stared into an orb similar to the one in Sam's palm.
Apollo's hand shook as he conjured an image of Stryker in his orb. His eyes swam with tears. "You were ever disappointing to me, but I never meant to hurt you. I was trying to make you strong." He choked on a sob. "If I could undo this, Strykerius, I would. I would.... I am so sorry for what I've done...."
Sam pulled back from the scene as her head whirled with everything she'd learned.
Especially about Acheron. Was that what had made him the first Dark-Hunter?
He'd been Artemis's lover?
A whore...
Surely Apollo hadn't meant that Acheron was really a whore, whore. Had he? Or was it just his anger at Acheron that caused him to say that?
"Well?" Stryker prompted. "How do I kill Apollo?"
She blinked at Stryker's impatient tone as her mind replayed everything in sequence.
Zephyra sat forward on her throne. "What did you see? Can we break the curse?"
Sam shook her head. "It can't be undone."
Rage contorted Stryker's handsome features. "You lie!"
"No, I swear. There is no way. Apollo would have undone it in the beginning had he been able to."
Stryker cursed. "And his weakness? What will bring him to his knees?"
Oh he wasn't going to like the answer to that question. She knew it. "The same thing that caused him to curse the Apollites to begin with."
"His whore, Ryssa?" Stryker asked.
She shook her head. "The death of the son he loves more than anything."
Scowling at her, Stryker sat back. "I don't understand. What son?"
She licked her dry lips and braced herself for his wrath. "You, Stryker. You're his weakness. You're what he loves above everything else.... You're the only thing he loves."
Zephyra put her hand on his shoulder as Stryker sat there completely stone-faced. "She's telling the truth."
Stryker grabbed Sam by the arm and jerked her to him. "Are you playing with me?"
"Why would I?"
Snarling, he threw her away from him. One minute she was in the center of the hall and in the next, she was being sucked back into the vortex.
Sam fought against it with everything she had. Stryker had lied, there was no Dev. He was sending her back empty-handed.
Screaming, she tried to stop falling. Tried to get back to Kalosis so that she could hunt for him.
It was no use.
She found herself on the street just a few feet from where she'd gone into the vortex earlier.
"No!" she screamed as it closed right behind her and left her alone. She got up and ran around trying to find another opening.
There wasn't one.
She was here and Dev...
Oh God, Dev...
Tears blinded her as that old helpless feeling ripped her apart. "You lying bastard!"
Guilt and grief tore through her. Dev was dead and it was all her fault. She'd caused this. Had she not thrown him out, she would have been there to protect him when Stryker came to get him.
How could she have let him go?
You're a fool. Twice now she'd lost the man she loved.
And as she wept, she felt her Dark-Hunter powers waning. I don't care. Nothing mattered to her anymore. Let them kill her.