Frustrated, Dionysus flung his hands out and sent a blast through him. Styxx dropped the electrified spear as he was lifted off his feet and thrown against the ground so hard it jarred every bone in his body.
His ears rang to the point of pain.
"Now can you comprehend what I'm saying?" the god growled.
"I hear you."
Dionysus closed the distance between them.
"Don't come near me!" Styxx snarled, shooting away from him. He was done with all of them.
Dionysus's eyes turned a dark, sinister red. "I'm trying to help you."
Styxx snorted. "No god has ever helped me. Go fuck yourself."
He arched an arrogant brow at that. "Wow ... that's mighty brave of you. But you know, rather than fuck myself, I could tell Apollo where you are. He thinks you're long dead. After all this time, you'd be like a new toy to him again. And I'm sure he'd love that loincloth look on you, especially combined with those incredibly defined muscles. Damn, you were hot before. Now..." He bit his lip as he raked a lecherous smile over Styxx's body. "You grew up well, boy."
Styxx's blood ran cold at the threat.
"Or," Dionysus continued, "you could hear me out, and put an end to your hell completely. Which would you rather?"
"I'm listening."
Dionysus folded his arms over his chest. "The world has changed a great deal since you were last in it. One of the things that peeves me most is that the Greek pantheon has basically fallen into absolute obscurity. We're such a joke that even Disney makes cartoons about us. We have a few believers left, but by and large, we are forgotten. And I'm a bit nostalgic for the old days when people made sacrifices and fed my powers.... A little over a month from now, the portal between the human world and Kalosis will be thin enough to breach."
Styxx was well aware of a prophecy he'd been hoping would come to pass. It was the only hope he had of ever leaving this repulsive prison. "The Destroyer can be freed from captivity."
If Apollymi was free again, she'd end the world and Styxx with it. Or better yet, he could drive his Atlantean dagger straight into that bitch's black heart for what she'd done to his wife and child. He always knew there'd been a reason he'd hung on to the one he'd taken during his war there. As a human, it'd been his paranoia of Archon or one of the others coming after him that had prompted him to keep it.
Now it was the promise of revenge. An Atlantean dagger was the only weapon he knew that could kill one of their gods.
But he didn't understand why Dionysus was here. For him. "What's that got to do with me?"
"To open the portal, we need the blood of a true Atlantean. Not an Apollite, but one born of Apollymi's people and her blood. And there's only one left on the planet."
"Acheron." It was the only explanation.
Dionysus inclined his head to him. "See why I need you?"
Yeah, no one else could fight or defeat Acheron. Only his twin had that ability.
"I still don't see how any of this helps me."
"What's the one thing you want more than any other, prince?"
"My wife."
Dionysus rolled his eyes. "Okay, what's the second thing you want?"
"My son."
This time the god expelled a long exasperated breath. "Third? And if you name another family member, I will leave you here with Apollo, so help me, Zeus."
Sadly, Styxx had no other family to name and only one other thing he craved. "To die."
"Ah, you can be taught. Yah! And yeah, death. You kill Acheron and you die. I get to rule the world of man and everyone's happy." Hands on hips, Dionysus arched a brow. "So what do you say?"
"I say get me the fuck out of here."
Styxx flinched as Dionysus wrenched him from his island to a ... room of some kind. One that held chairs and tables unlike any he'd ever seen before. There were numerous other items in it he couldn't even begin to identify or name.
"And before you do something stupid and embarrass us all with your backward, barbarian ways..." Dionysus placed his hand on Styxx's shoulder.
Pain exploded through his skull as the god planted eleven thousand years of history into his head. It was so foul, his nose bled for everything it was worth.
Dionysus pulled away from him as Styxx pressed his hand to his nostrils. And the gods wondered why he hated them.
Great to be back in the mortal world. Bastards.
"Bathroom?" he asked Dionysus.
"Door behind you."
Styxx went to it and grabbed a handful of toilet paper. As he held it to his nose, he frowned at all the new things around him that he'd never even dreamed of. He closed the lid on the toilet and sat down as his head reeled from sensory overload. Sounds, sights, smells ...
Those damned voices that screamed in his head.
It was so overwhelming.
While he'd known he'd been isolated for a long time, he'd never have guessed this many centuries had passed.
Eleven thousand years.
It was mind-boggling. But what really, really hurt was the fact that Acheron had known he was alive, and had completely ignored him the entire time.
His brother had walked away from him and never looked back.
Not once.
Don't I feel like the complete asshole? Styxx had never fully abandoned his brother. As a boy, he'd risked everything to help him. Meanwhile, Acheron had gone on with his life and with Artemis, and acted as if Styxx was dead and buried.
Out of sight. Out of mind.
Why was he even surprised?
So what if Styxx had put his ass on the line for Acheron when Acheron had been imprisoned in Atlantis and Didymos? I at least brought you fresh food and wine, brother. Even when Acheron had chosen a slow starvation suicide, Styxx had given him something to eat.
And unlike him, Acheron wasn't a mortal boy who had to jockey around a father who hated and threatened him. One who would have beaten the shit out of him if he'd learned what Styxx was doing behind his back. Acheron had enough powers that even their old gods had feared his brother's wrath.
He looked down at his scarred hands. Artemis had left him on that island without so much as a single spoon. Everything he'd had over these countless centuries, he'd been forced to make or find.
How could his twin brother leave him to suffer like this?
I hate you, Acheron.
Styxx brushed aside the leopard skin he wore to see the whore mark Acheron had helped brand on him.
Yeah ...
There was no love lost between them.
He had no reason to be surprised by his brother's total lack of regard where he was concerned. Still, Acheron's neglect and utter absence of humanity for him burned deep in a place that should be used to being kicked by now.
So much for being twins.
But that wasn't true and he knew it. They might share the same features, but Acheron had been shoved into Aara's womb long after Styxx had been conceived. Apollymi had forced her bastard into his life and screwed him over royally in the process.