Styxx (Dark-Hunter 22)

Persephone nodded. "Well, sweetie, my advice to you is if you can't defeat it, befriend it."

"Befriend it how?" As the god of the dead, he wasn't exactly sociable.

Persephone smiled at her husband. Tall and muscular with black hair and eyes, he was gorgeous, even when befuddled and angry. "Wait here." She opened the door to the cell and made her way slowly to the unknown god.

The closer she moved toward him, the more she understood Hades's concern. There was so much power emanating from the god that the air was rife with it. She'd been around the gods her whole life, but this one was different. His marbled blue skin was strangely attractive as it covered a body of perfect proportions. Long black hair fanned out. He had two black horns on top of his head and black lips and claws.

But more frightening than his appearance, he wasn't a god of creation. He was one of ultimate destruction.

Seph, get out of there.

She held her hand up to signal her husband that she was fine. Her legs trembling in trepidation, she reached out to touch the god.

He opened his eyes, which were a yellow-orange encircled by red. They flashed from that to a swirling silver color. And they were filled with raw anguish.

"Am I dead?" he asked, his voice demonic.

"You want to be dead?" She actually dreaded his answer, because if he didn't desire his current location, there could be serious consequences.

"Please tell me I've finally made it. That you're not going to send me back."

Those desperate words tugged at her heart. Reaching out to comfort him, she brushed the black hair back from his blue cheek. "You're dead, but as a god you live."

"I don't understand. I don't want to be any different than anyone else. I just want to be left alone."

Persephone smiled at him. "You can stay here as long as you want." She summoned a pillow for him and tucked it under his head then she covered him with a warm, thick blanket.

"Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Because you seem to need it." She patted him on the arm before she got up. "If you need anything else, I'm Persephone. My husband, Hades, is the one in charge here. You call for us and we'll come."

He gave a subtle nod before he closed his eyes and returned to lying quietly in the darkness.

Mystified by him, she returned to her husband. "He's harmless."

"Harmless, my ass. Seph? Are you insane? Can you not feel the powers he holds?"

"Oh, I feel them. Go near him and you'll have nightmares. But he doesn't desire anything. He's hurt, Hades. Badly. All he wants is to be left alone."

"Yeah, right. Left alone here in my Underworld? Another god whose powers rival mine? How stupid would I have to be? You know there's a reason pantheons don't mix."

"You can ally him," she said, trying to calm him down. "Having a friend is never a bad thing."

"Until the friend takes your hand off."

She shook her head. "Hades..."

"I'm a lot older than you, Seph. I've seen what can happen when one god turns on another."

"And I think he poses no harm to either of us." She lifted herself up on her toes to kiss his cheek. "I have to go before my mother finds me missing. You know how she gets when I see you during her time with me."

"Yeah, and a pox on the-"

She playfully pinched his lips together before he could let fly the insult. "I love you both. Now behave and take care of your guest."

Only his wife could get away with treating him like this and being so cavalier with his body. But then she held his heart and he'd give her anything.

He kissed her finger. "I miss you."

"I miss you, too. I'll be home soon."

Soon. Yeah, right ...

But there was nothing to be done about that.

Hades nodded glumly then cursed as she faded away from him. Damn the bitch, Demeter, for cursing them to live apart half the year. But right now he had bigger problems than his wife's mother.

And at about six foot eight, that god-killer in his cell was definitely a big problem.

* * *

Apollymi gasped as she felt the weight in her chest lift. Without being told, she knew that she now had the ability to leave Kalosis.

Leave ...

"No!" she screamed as she realized the significance of that. There was only one way for her to gain her release.

Apostolos is dead.

Those three words chased themselves around in her head until she was nauseated by them.

Unwilling to believe it, she ran to her pond and summoned the universal eye. There in the water, she saw Xiamara, her best friend and protector, lying dead on the palace floor, and Apostolos ...

"No!"

From the deepest part of her being, a scream of rage and grief swelled, and when she gave vent to it, it shattered the pool and rocked the garden around her.

"I am Apollymia Thanata Deia Fonia!" she screamed until her throat was raw.

She was the ultimate destruction.

And she was going to bring her son home.

May the gods have mercy on each other because she was going to have none for them. Every single member of her pantheon would pay for this!

Once she finished, none would be left standing.