"It's daytime and until the sun sets he's beyond our reach. You wouldn't want one of us to die and deplete your strength now, would you?" "
She wanted to knock that smug look off his handsome face. Unlike the rest of his blond Daimon horde, his short hair was as black as his heart. Perfectly dyed to keep him from looking exactly like his father. "Protect him, Strykerius. Your existence hinges on his. Remember I will kill you to protect him."
Stryker forced himself to wait until she was gone before he curled his lip in repugnance. He couldn't believe that he'd ever been dumb enough to think that Apollymi loved him as a son. That she would protect and care for him the same way she cared for Acheron. And every year that had passed since the moment Stryker took his own son's life to prove himself to her and had been forced to see the truth of his relationship with "his" mother had only made his bitterness grow.
"Tear him apart, War," he said, glancing back to the sfora. He wanted blood. Unfortunately, there was nothing there. No sign of War, Acheron, or Savitar.
Growling in anger, Stryker slung the orb against the wall, shattering it. Where the hell had they gone?
"WAR'S BROKEN OUT."
Artemis looked up at Ares' angry declaration as he appeared in the center of the Hall of the Gods where she and the rest of the Greek pantheon were having a small feast.
Her father, Zeus, cursed as he rose off his throne. "What have you done?"
Tall and blond, with muscles honed by his daily training, Ares held his hands up in surrender. "I did nothing. It was Apollo's son, Strykerius, who released him."
Artemis felt the color fade from her face at the mention of her nephew. If Stryker was involved, there was only one target he'd have. Acheron. And like as not, Acheron's mother along with Acheron would blame her for his attack. As if she'd dare.
Athena shot to her feet. She moved so fast that her actions startled the owl on her shoulder, causing him to take flight to the hall's rafters. Gold armor covered her instantly as she turned to face Zeus. "We should summon as many of the other pantheons as we can muster. It won't be long before War turns his sights on us again."
Zeus nodded in agreement. "Fetch Hermes and send him to them. As for the rest of us, let's prepare for war."
Artemis ignored her father's pun as she made her way out of the Hall of the Gods to her own golden temple. As soon as she was alone in her bedchambers, she used her powers to locate Acheron. He was alive but in pain. She let out a breath in relief.
Though he hated her and was planning to marry another woman in a few weeks and she wanted desperately to hurt him for that, she still loved him and the last thing she wanted to see was him killed after all they'd shared these past centuries. Their daughter's heart would be broken if Artemis allowed him to die. But how could she protect him when he wouldn't even speak to her?
No sooner had the question entered her mind than she knew how to stop Stryker once and for all. . . Zephyra.
The demoness had taken refuge in one of her sanctuaries centuries ago, before Apollo had cursed the Apollite race. At first Artemis had wanted to turn her out, but sympathy for the woman had swayed her. She, too, had been betrayed by men, and at the time Zephyra had begged her for shelter Artemis had been angry at Apollo and had wanted to strike back at her arrogant brother. In a rare moment of sympathy, she'd allowed Zephyra to stay in Greece.
Little had she known how beneficial that decision would one day be. "Zephyra?" she said, summoning the woman to her. She instantly appeared in the room.
Where Artemis was extremely tall, Zephyra was petite. Even so, her preternatural powers gave her an advantage over any except those who were divinity. Her long blond hair was braided down her back, and to the uninformed she looked like any twenty-seven-year-old woman and not the eleven-thousand-year-old warrior she was.
She lowered her head respectfully. "My goddess?"
Artemis narrowed her gaze on the smaller woman. "I have a mission for you. One I think you'll enjoy."
"And that is?"
"Kill Strykerius."
Lifting her chin, Zephyra's black eyes widened. "The son of Apollo?"
He was also the man who had betrayed Zephyra centuries before. And while he was Artemis' nephew by blood, she had no more love for him than he had for her. The two of them had battled too long and too hard for there to be anything other than hatred in their hearts.
It was time to finish it and him. "Yes."
Zephyra's obsidian eyes glowed with relish. "Show me where he is, goddess, and I will make you proud."
STRYKER HELD THE BOLT HOLES OPEN, CALLING out to his Daimons the world over to summon them to Kalosis. Apollymi thought he did it in accordance with her orders to protect Acheron. The truth was Stryker intended to use them as pawns to get at Nick and Acheron. If nothing else, they'd keep the two of them occupied while War slit their throats.