Savitar let out an elongated breath. "You know we have to stay on guard. War's modus operandi is to divide and conquer. He turns all friends into enemies."
Stryker rolled his eyes. "Well, since the three of us hate each other, there's not much more he can do."
Apollymi gave him a hard stare. "I don't hate you, Stryker. I would have never brought you into my realm if I had." She vanished. Stunned and uncertain about those uncharacteristic words, Stryker followed her. The one thing he'd learned over the centuries was that Apollymi was even less sentimental than he was.
Then again, there was another side to him in private that no one else saw, and it made him wonder what secrets she held. She'd adjourned to her secluded garden that was walled in by marble. Black roses bloomed all around in memory and in mourning of the son she could never see. Her two Charonte bodyguards stood on the side like statues. But for an occasional blink, it would be easy to think them dead.
"What are you saying?" he asked her as she took a perch on the edge of the pool that flowed backward, up the wall.
"I'm tired, Strykerius." She got up to leave.
He did what he'd never done before. He pulled her to a stop. "I want an answer from you."
She shrugged his touch away. "How dense you are, child. In all your hatred have you never once thought through our relationship?"
"Believe me, these last few years I've done nothing but. You used me and then you cast me off." She shook her head. "I adopted you, Strykerius. When your children died, I wept with you."
"The hell you did."
She pulled back the sleeve of her gown to show him her wrist. There were eleven black teardrops tattooed into her skin. It was the Atlantean custom to remember loved ones who'd died. "The one at the top is for my son. The rest are for your children."
He touched her arm, unable to believe her. "What about Urian? You told me to kill him."
"I told you your son had a secret that you should investigate. That he was keeping things from you. I never intended for you to kill him. You did that on your own."
"I don't believe you."
"You don't have to. I really don't care anymore. I would end both our lives at this point, but until I know for a fact that War is contained and my son is safe, I'm stuck here."
"With me."
Her silver eyes flashed in the dim light. But he saw the pain that she hid so elegantly. "I didn't say that."
"Your tone did."
She let out an aggravated breath. "You are so blind. Everything is black or white. I either hate you or love you. But that's not how it goes. Life is never that clear-cut. Emotions aren't that clear-cut." She touched him softly on the cheek. "Think, Strykerius. You and I were an allied force for thousands of years. Us against your father and Artemis. Against her army of Dark-Hunters and the humans we both hate. The only one I ever forbade you to touch was Apostolos, and now you know why. He is my son. But even so, I sheltered you and yours. I brought you in and taught you how to steal the humans' souls."
"So that you could hurt my father for killing Acheron."
She inclined her head respectfully. "That is true. Originally, I couldn't see anything more than my own revenge. But I watched as your children grew . . . as you grew, and I watched as they died. Do you really think me so cold that never once did I care?"
"Yes, I do. You killed your own family. All of them."
Her face turned to stone. It betrayed no emotion or passion. "I held the same anger then that you held the night you cut Urian's throat. No, I held even more. Their betrayal against me was far greater than what your son did to you. What Urian did he did out of love for a woman. He wasn't trying to hurt you. He was only trying to find happiness for the two of them and he meant you no slight. What my family did to me was out of selfish fear. They united against me to imprison me and kill my son. That is unforgivable."
She paused as the pain in her eyes flared bright and he saw how much she still ached over what had happened. "But just like you, after they were all gone and I was alone, I grieved for what I'd done. I missed that family, sorry though it was, and I wanted to see them again."
She looked over her shoulder to where her demons were still standing at attention. "While I cherish my Charonte army, it wasn't the same as my family." She turned her attention to him and her gaze softened. "And then this golden haired youth called out to me as he begged the powers that be for some way to save his small children from an unfair fate. He reminded me of my own son and so I offered to him what I'd never offered to another." The tenderness vanished under the cold countenance that was so familiar. "I bound my life to you in order to save you. The only time you and I were ever at odds was when I ordered you to leave Apostolos alone and you refused to do so."
"You failed to tell me he was your son."
"Because I knew it would hurt you," she said between clenched teeth. "Why else would I have kept that a secret?"