Looking instantly uncomfortable, she cleared her throat and leaned back into her throne. "You were different and I didn't lie. I merely forgot to mention a few things."
"That is semantics, Artemis, and this isn't about me. This is about what you've done to them. You can't leave those poor bastards out there like you have."
"Why not? You've survived quite well on your own."
"I was never the same as they and well you know it. I had nothing in my life to go back to. No family, no friends."
"I take exception to that. What was I?"
"A mistake that I've been lamenting for the last two thousand years."
Her face flushed. She came off her throne and descended two stairs to stand before him. "How dare you speak to me that way!"
Acheron whipped his cloak off and tossed it and his staff angrily into a corner. "Kill me for it, Artemis. Go right ahead. Do us both a favor and put me out of my misery."
She tried to slap him, but he caught her hand in his and stared down into her eyes.
Artemis saw the hatred in Acheron's gaze, the scathing condemnation. Their angry breaths mingled and the air around them snapped furiously as their powers clashed.
But it wasn't his fury she wanted.
No, never his fury . . .
Her gaze drifted over him. Over the perfect sculpted planes of his face, his high cheekbones, his long, aquiline nose. The blackness of his hair.
The eerie mercury of his eyes.
There had never been a god or mortal born who could equal his physical perfection.
It wasn't just his beauty that drew people to him. It wasn't his beauty that drew her to him.
He possessed a raw, rare kind of masculine charisma. Power. Strength. Charm. Intelligence. Determination.
To look at him was to want him.
To see him was to ache to touch him.
He had been built to please, and trained to pleasure. Everything about him from the sleek muscles that rippled to the deep, erotic timbre in his voice seduced anyone who came into contact with him. Like a lethal wild animal, he moved with a primal promise of danger and masculine power. With the promise of supreme sexual fulfillment.
They were promises he delivered well on.
In all eternity, he was the only man who had made her weak. The only man she'd ever loved.
He had the power in him to kill her. They both knew it. And she found the fact that he didn't intriguing and provocative.
Seductive and erotic.
Swallowing, she remembered him as he had been when they first met. The strength of him. The passion. Defiantly, he'd stood in her temple and laughed when she threatened to kill him.
There before her statue, he had dared do what no man before or since had ever dared . . .
She could still taste that kiss.
Unlike other men, he had never feared her. Now, the heat of his hand on her flesh seared her, but then his touch always had. There was nothing more she craved than the taste of his lips. The fire of his passion.
And with one mistake, she'd lost him.
Artemis wanted to weep with the hopelessness of it all. She'd tried once, long ago, to turn back the hands of time and redo that morning.
To win back Acheron's love and trust.
The Fates had punished her severely for the audacity.
For the last two thousand years, she'd tried everything to bring him back to her side. Nothing had worked. Nothing had ever come close to making him forgive her or to journey back to her temple.
Not until she thought of the one thing he could never say no to-a mortal soul in jeopardy.
Acheron would do anything to save the humans. Her plan to make him responsible for the Dark-Hunters she'd created with his resurrection powers had worked and now he was back.
If she could just keep him.
"You want me to release them?" she asked.
For him, she would do anything.
"Yes."
For her, he would do nothing. Not unless she forced him to it.
"What will you do for me, Acheron? You know the rules of the gods. A favor requires a favor."
He released her with an angry curse and stepped back from her. "I've learned better than to play this game with you."
Artemis shrugged with a nonchalance she didn't feel. At this moment everything she cared about was on the line.
If he said no, it would destroy her.
"Fine, they will continue on as Dark-Hunters then. Alone with no one to teach them what they need to know. No one to care what becomes of them."
He released a long, tired breath.
She wanted to comfort him, but knew he would reject her touch. He'd always rejected comfort or solace. He was stronger than anyone had a right to be.
When he met her gaze, it sent a raw, sensual shiver over her." If they are to serve you and the gods, Artemis, they have things they need."