They echoed and taunted him from the past.
How many times hadStyxx hurt him? Guilt gnawed at him, making him sick from it.
“I’ll take them away from you.”
Styxxflinched at the voice that sounded identical to his own, except for the soft lilting quality that marked Acheron’s from the years he had spent in Atlantis.
YearsStyxx wished to the gods that he could go back and change.Poor Acheron. No one deserved what had been handed to him.
“No,”Styxx said quietly, his voice shaking as he gathered himself together. “I don’t want you to.”
He glanced up to see the surprise on Acheron’s face.
It was something Acheron hid quickly behind a mask of stoicism. “There’s no reason for you to know all that about me. My memories have never served anyone well.”
That wasn’t true andStyxx knew it. “If you take them from me, I will hate you again.”
“I don’t mind.”
No doubt. Acheron was used to being hated.
Styxxmet that eerie swirling gaze of his levelly. “I do.”
Ash couldn’t breathe from the raw emotions he felt as he watchedStyxx push himself to his feet.
They were so muchalike physically and yet polar extremes when it came to their past and their present.
All they really had in common was that they were both longed-for heirs.Styxx was to inherit his father’s Greek kingdom while Acheron had been conceived by anAtlantean goddess to destroy the world.
It was a destiny neither of them had ever fulfilled.
To protect him from the wrath of theAtlantean gods who wanted him dead, Ash’s true mother had forced him into the womb ofStyxx’s mother and then tied their life forces together to protect Ash. Ash had been born human against his will...and against the will of his human surrogate family, who had somehow sensed he wasn’t really one of them.
And they had hated him for it.
“How long have I been here?”Styxx asked, looking around his dark prison.
“Three years.”
Styxxlaughed bitterly. “It seemed like forever.”
It probably had. Ash didn’t envyStyxx having to suffer the memories of Ash’s human past. Then again, he envied himself even less for having lived them.
He cleared his throat. “I can return you to the Vanishing Isle again, or you can stay here in the Underworld. I can’t take you into the Elysian Fields, but there are other areas here that are almost as peaceful.”
“What did you have to bargain with Artemis and Hades for that?”
Ash looked away, not wanting to think about it. “It doesn’t matter.”
Styxxtook a step toward him,then stopped. “It does matter. I know what it costs you now... what it cost you then.”
“Then you know it doesn’t matter to me.”
Styxxscoffed. “No. I know you’re lying, Acheron. I’m the only one who does.”
Ash flinched at the truth. But it changed nothing. “Make your decision,Styxx . I don’t have any more time to waste here.”
Styxxtook another step forward. He stood so close now that Ash could see his reflection inStyxx’s blue eyes. Those eyes pierced him with sincerity. “I want to go toKatoteros .”
Ash frowned at him. “Why?”
“I want to know my brother.”
Ash scoffed at that. “You don’t have a brother,” he reminded him. It was somethingStyxx had proclaimed loud andclear throughout the centuries. “We only shared a womb for a very short time.”
Styxxdid something he had never done before. He reached out and touched Ash’s shoulder. That touch seared Ash as it reminded him of the boy he’d been who had wanted nothing more than the love of his human family.
A boy they had spat on and denied.
“You told me once, long ago,”Styxx said in a ragged tone, “to look into a mirror and see your face. I refused to then. But nowMnimi has forced me to look at my own reflection. I’ve seen it through my eyes and I’ve seen it through yours. I wish to the gods that I could change what happened between us. If I could go back, I would never deny you. But I can’t. We both know that. Now I just want the chance to know you as I should have known you all those centuries ago.”