"Tell us what?" the king demanded.
"Don't, Ryssa," Acheron whispered from his pinched throat as he tried to push his father's arm away. "I beg you. If you love me even a little, don't betray me."
"They're going to geld you. If they know the truth, they'll leave you alone."
"I don't care."
Ryssa pulled their father away from him. "Father stop! He's innocent. He's with Artemis. Tell him, Acheron! For the sake of the gods, tell him the truth so he'll stop this beating."
His father knocked him to the ground. He then kicked him onto his back and pressed his foot to Acheron's throat to the point bile rose to choke him. "What lies have you told her, maggot?"
Acheron tried to push the foot away, but his father pressed it even harder against his windpipe. Speaking was all but impossible. "Nothing, p-p-please . . ."
"Blasphemer." His father stepped back then and left Acheron to strangle as he tried desperately to breathe through his bruised esophagus. "Strip him and drag him to Artemis's temple. Let the goddess witness his punishment and if he really was with her, then I'm sure she'll come to his defense." He'd turned a smug look at Ryssa.
The guards moved forward, but Ryssa put herself in front of him. The only way to get to him would be to harm her and possibly the baby she carried. "Father, you can't."
"This doesn't concern you."
"If you hurt Acheron, Artemis will unleash untold horrors on you."
Their father laughed. "Are you insane?"
"No, Ryssa, please stop!" Acheron begged. "Don't!"
"Acheron is her consort."
Acheron couldn't breathe as those words rang in his ears . . . Ryssa had betrayed him. But in her world the gods protected their pets. She had no reason to think that Artemis wouldn't come to save him the way Apollo would save her. Too bad Artemis was not her brother. Closing his eyes, he wished himself dead.
When he opened them, he saw an outline of Artemis in the shadows. She was holding his pearls.
His father's laughter mixed with Styxx's. "You are Artemis's consort?"
Acheron couldn't respond as he saw the look of horror etched on Artemis's face. It faded beneath a look of anger so palpable it singed him.
His father sneered. "Do you really expect me to believe a goddess would have anything to do with you?"
Acheron couldn't speak. He couldn't even deny it. Artemis had frozen his vocal chords.
She thinks I told him . . .
Acheron shook his head at her, trying to make her understand that he hadn't told anyone.
His father seized him by the throat again. "Fine. Let's see what the goddess thinks of you." He turned to the guards. "Take him to Artemis's temple." He sneered at Acheron. "If you mean so much to the goddess, surely she'll come save you. If not, we'll show the world what we do to blasphemous whores. Beat him at the altar until Artemis shows herself."
"No!" Ryssa shrieked.
It was too late. Completely naked, Acheron was dragged unceremoniously out of the palace and through the crowded streets.
His body was bloody before he ever reached the temple. Everyone parted as the guards hauled him to the altar and strung him up between two columns.
"What is this?" the head priest demanded.
"By the king's orders, the blasphemer is to be punished until the goddess is appeased. He's to be beaten on her behalf until she shows herself to stop it."
Acheron met Artemis's gaze and the satisfaction in those green eyes scorched him.
"I told you what would happen if you betrayed me." Her voice whispered through his head.
He choked on his tears as the first lash sliced through his back. "I didn't betray you," he whispered. "I swear it."
Artemis moved forward and struck him across the face with the pearls he'd given her. "Beat him harder," she whispered to his punisher. "Make him feel every lash."
Acheron cried out as the lashes cut ever deeper.
The crowd cheered his beating. Repressed memories tore through him even sharper than the lashes. He was again in Estes's home, surrounded by people, pulling at him, grabbing him, calling for his submission and humiliation. How many times had he been jeered at? Laughed at and mocked?
"Beg me for mercy, whore . . ." His uncle's voice was loud and clear.
Acheron locked gaze with Artemis. How could she do this to him? How?
Artemis inwardly flinched at the torment and pain in those swirling silver eyes. They accused her as if she were in the wrong. She'd warned him what would happen if he told anyone. Did he think for one minute that she'd been joking?
"I gave you everything," she growled at him, making sure that only Acheron could see or hear her. "Everything!"
He lowered his head before he whispered in the lowest of tones. "I loved you."
Artemis shrieked in outrage that he'd dare say that to her after what he'd done this day. If anyone found out that she'd allowed him to touch her, she'd be ruined. Did he think his paltry love would ease her humiliation? Her ruination? Was it love to drag her down to be ridiculed alongside him?
"Hit harder!" she urged the guard. "I want his blood covering the floor of my temple."
That would teach him!
"You are nothing to me, human," she sneered in his ear. "Nothing."
Acheron let his tears flow as Artemis abandoned him. There was no need to beg for her forgiveness or mercy when it was obvious she had none where he was concerned. More than that, he felt her rip away his ability to fight. She took everything from him.
Unable to bear the pain, he surrendered himself to unconsciousness. But it was short-lived as they revived him to beat him more.
One his third session, he opened his eyes to find his father and Styxx standing in front of him. "Where's your goddess, maggot?"
He looked to Ryssa whose face was pale and drawn. He saw the guilt in her gaze as tears streamed down her cheeks.
"I have no goddess." He had no one and he knew it. "Just geld me and get it over with."
But they didn't. Instead they beat him until he lost count of the lashes. Drifting in and out of consciousness, he wasn't sure when the beating finally stopped. He could feel nothing but the searing pain on his back.