Artemis frowned at his reasoning. "It can't be that. I haven't any either and I am more than worthy. Perhaps there is a flaw to us." She paused as she thought about that. "No, that can't be right either. I have no flaws and yet I'm as alone as you are."
Never before had Artemis realized just how alone she really was. Her twin brother had friends. He had lovers. Apollo was the closest thing to a friend she'd ever known, but even he was reserved around her. Apollo never invited her to do things with him unless it involved destruction or punishment. He didn't laugh with her or ask her to go out carousing or gaming.
For the first time in her life, she realized just how lonely she was.
"Will you be my friend?"
Acheron was utterly stunned by her unexpected question. "You would befriend me?"
She cocked her head as she watched him with a small puckering of her divine brow. She was shimmery and ethereal-far beyond the reach of something like him. "Well, yes. I mean, we can't let others know it, but I like what you have shown me. I wish to learn more about this world and about you." She smiled warmly at him as if she were truly sincere with her offer. It reminded him how rare such a thing as sincerity was. And friendship . . .
It was an elusive dream he dare not allow himself. People like him didn't have friendship. Any more than they had love or kindness. Yet he found a foreign part of himself aching for want of it.
Aching for want of her.
"So, are we friends? I promise you, you'll never regret it."
This had to be the strangest moment of his life and given the oddity of his existence, that said a lot. How could a whore be the friend of a goddess?
Acheron pulled the blanket from the bed and wiped himself clean. "I think you would regret being my friend."
She shrugged. "I doubt that. You're human. You'll only be alive . . . what? Another twenty or so years? That is so little time that it hardly matters and I doubt I shall be your friend once you grow old and unattractive. Besides regret isn't something an Olympian feels."
She smiled as she traced his lips. "Kiss me. Kiss me and let me know that we are friends."
It was a ludicrous thought and yet he found himself doing just as she asked.
Friends.
The two of them. He wanted to laugh at the thought. Instead, he closed his eyes and breathed her in. Her hands were sublime in his hair. And as they kissed, he wanted her friendship with a desperation that made him ache. His only hope was that he'd be worthy of it.
December 13, 9529 BC
"What are you doing?"
Acheron opened his eyes to find Artemis standing on his balcony a few feet away from him. Even though it was freezing cold, he was sitting on the railing, leaning back against a column while he listened to the turbulent sea below. "I was getting some fresh air. What are you doing?"
She pushed her lower lip out into a becoming pout. "I was bored."
That amused him. "How can a god be bored?"
She shrugged. "There's not that much for me to do really. My brother is off with your sister. Zeus is holding council and I'm never invited to those. Hades is with Persephone. My koris are bathing and cavorting with each other and ignoring me. So I'm bored. I thought you might have some idea of something we could do together."
Acheron let out a long, tired breath. He knew where this was headed and yet he was still compelled to ask the rhetorical question. "May I at least go inside where it's warm before I remove my clothes?"
She frowned. "Is that what humans do when they're bored?"
"It's what they do with me."
"And you enjoy that?"
"Not really," he answered honestly.
"Oh." She paused a second before she continued. "Well then, what do you do for fun?"
"I go to plays."
Crossing her arms, she approached him. "That's those made up stories where they have people pretending to be other people, right?"
He nodded.
By her face he could tell that she had no understanding of why he might find that entertaining. "And you like that better than being naked?"
He'd never really thought of it quite that way before, but . . . "Yes. It makes me forget who I am for a while."
She looked even more puzzled. "You like to forget yourself?"
"Yes."
"But isn't that confusing for you?"
Not half as confusing as this conversation. "No."
Artemis tapped her fingers against her upper arm. "I guess if I weren't a god I wouldn't like remembering who I am either. I can see why people would feel that way. So, is there a play we can go to now?"
"There's one every afternoon in town."
"Then we should go," she said firmly.
He snorted, wishing everything was as easy as she seemed to think it was. "I can't leave."
"Why not?"
He glanced to his closed bedroom doors that had been slammed and locked since the last time he'd been thrown in here and left to rot. Oh wait, that would have been yesterday. "My previous guards were beheaded for allowing me to leave. The new set is much more cautious. If I try to speak to them, they draw their swords and push me back into my room, then lock the doors."
She shrugged. "They're no problem for me. I can take you into town."
Acheron swung his legs down from the railing as hope swelled inside him. He hated being trapped like a rabid animal. He always had. All he'd been doing for the last two days was dreaming of escaping this place if only for a brief time. But the only two ways to leave his room were through the doors behind Artemis or jumping from the stone balcony that dropped a hundred feet to the rocks below. "Really?"
She nodded. "If you'd like to go, yes."
It felt as if something in his chest was lifted at her words. He could actually kiss her for this. "I'll get my cloak."
Artemis followed her new friend into his room and watched as he pulled a cloak from beneath his straw mattress. "Why do you keep your cloak under your bed?"
He shook it out as he answered. "I have to hide my cloak or else the maids will burn it."
"Why?"
He gave her a blank look. "I told you I'm not supposed to leave here."