"Cute."
Smirking, Styxx tucked the gun into the holster at his back and returned the knife to the sheath on his forearm. "Whatever it is you want, it has nothing to do with me."
"Some of the Atlantean gods have returned."
"As I said, it has nothing to do with me."
"They want vengeance."
Styxx bent down to pull his water out from under his aba. "So?"
"On Acheron."
Styxx took a swig of his bottled water before he capped it. "Nothing to do with me."
"So that's it then? You're just going to let your brother die? And he will.... There's no way for him to survive this."
Styxx swallowed the pain inside him. "Are you deaf? The gods know, Acheron has said it enough. I don't have a brother."
"The world as you know it will end."
He laughed bitterly at that. "The world as I knew it ended the moment my wife was killed. And anything remotely related to the life I once lived ended while I was held in solitary confinement for over eleven thousand years. I know nothing of this place and I have no dog in this fight. It has nothing to do with me," he repeated. He headed toward his horse and camel.
"Tory's pregnant again."
Styxx froze as those words cut him to the quick. "Good for her ... and Acheron."
"Are you really going to condemn an innocent woman and her two children to live without their husband and father?"
"That's not fair!" he growled, glowering at the Chthonian he wanted to shoot.
"Life, like war, isn't fair. It just is. Isn't that what Galen taught you?"
Styxx winced at the reminder of all he'd lost ... because of his brother and the gods he'd hated since the moment of his birth. "You're not helping your case by reminding me of Apollo's treachery, Chthonian."
"Fine then. Stay here in your desert. At least you'll have the comfort of knowing Acheron's widow and fatherless children will be able to commiserate with your pain."
Whirling about in fury, Styxx threw the water bottle at him.
Savitar ducked. Had that hit him, it would have counted.
"I hate all of you!" Styxx growled deep in his throat. A throat that was still damaged because of Acheron and the gods who could never leave him alone.
Damn it all ...
No, damn them all.
None of them had ever taken pity on him. He was thrown aside and forgotten like garbage.
Until they needed him.
All he'd ever wanted was a family. One person who treated him like he mattered to them. And all he'd gotten was disappointment.
Slapped in the face and stabbed in the heart.
By all of them. It'd taken him centuries to come to terms with the one single fact that no one could or would ever love him.
What the fuck does it matter? Really? He didn't have a life. He never had.
And he damn sure didn't have a wife or a child....
Never mind two kids.
Go ahead and die already. There was no one to mourn his passing.
Angry, hurt, and aching over a fact he'd never been able to change, Styxx pulled his aba on then jerked his backpack up from the ground. His breathing ragged, he glared his hatred at Savitar. "Can you make sure my animals and gear go to someone who needs them and that my dog doesn't get eaten by his new caretaker?"
Savitar was stunned. "You agree?"
Styxx averted his gaze as a thousand emotions pile-drived him to the point he didn't really know what he felt. Other than hurt and alone.
But that was nothing new for him.
He met Savitar's stoic lavender gaze. "I've never been quite the bastard all of you labeled me. You knew I couldn't let him die, otherwise you wouldn't have come here."
"Thank you, Styxx."
"For what?"
"Being the man I knew you were."
"Go fuck yourself, Savitar. Just take me wherever I need to go and stop with the sentimental bullshit you don't mean before I give in to my desire to punch the shit out of you."
* * *
Tory wanted to beat her husband into the ground. "I would give anything to have enough god powers for five minutes to Force choke you with. You can't do this."
"Sota-"
A bright flash in the corner cut his words off.
Tory sucked her breath in sharply as Savitar and Styxx appeared in the room on Savitar's island home where he'd taken them for safety until this latest threat was resolved. Alexion and Danger were in the back of the house, tending Sebastos while she'd tried to argue sanity with her obstinate husband.
Her jaw went slack as the two men joined them. The last time she'd seen Styxx had been very brief on the night he'd saved her from Satara. Then he'd been identical to Acheron.
Now ...
Dressed all in black Bedouin clothing, he looked like something out of a Mummy movie. His wavy, short blond hair was faded by sunlight and his skin a deep, dark olive. While Acheron had never been pale, he appeared so in comparison to his twin. And with Styxx's eyes ringed in kohl, they were a vibrant, haunting blue like the deepest part of the Aegean. Shirtless beneath the aba, he was covered by horrifying scars that testified to how brutal a past he'd survived. The sight of them made her stomach clench in sympathy.
Ash growled at their unexpected appearance. "This has nothing to do with him."
Savitar snorted. "Ye gods, I don't know why you two fight all the time. You're just alike and not only in looks. You know what it tells me? You can't stand yourself and you both know what an asshole you are to deal with ... that's why you don't get along."
Simultaneously, they gave him a matching droll stare that caused her to laugh.
Until they turned it to her.
That made her laugh harder. "They are like matching, moving bookends, aren't they?"
A tic started in Acheron's jaw. "You're not funny, Sota."
"I'm pleading Savitar on this."