Make Acheron beneath Apollo's desire.
"He's a worthless slave who used to be a tsoulus." Styxx cringed as Apollo appeared intrigued and he remembered that he bore the brand that Acheron didn't. A brand Apollo had already seen and bitten on many occasions.
"Um, unfortunately his life is tied to mine so we have to keep him healthy. Although I feel fine so I'm sure he's only doing this for attention. May the gods forbid we ever be allowed to forget his presence here for one single day." Styxx clamped his mouth shut as Apollo frowned at him as if he'd lost his mind.
Fuck, what did I just say?
Did any of that even make sense?
Whether it did or not, it succeeded in causing Ryssa to give Styxx a vicious sneer.
I'll pay for that later. But so long as he paid for it alone, it was fine by him. He just didn't want a menage a trois with his brother and Apollo. His menage a deux was miserable enough.
His father threw open the doors to Acheron's room and stormed inside with Ryssa right behind him, while Apollo returned to grabbing at Styxx.
His temper snapping, he glared at Apollo. "Stop!" he said in a fierce whisper.
Apollo flashed his fangs at him then licked his lips. "You know you're going to pay for this later," he whispered.
"Fine," Styxx said under his breath.
"I told you he couldn't be trusted." Furious, his father turned on Ryssa, who ignored him as she ran to the balcony.
The Olympian finally left Styxx alone as he went to investigate what had everyone so distraught.
Unsure of what was about to explode all over him and Acheron, Styxx edged closer to the commotion.
Lightning flashed as rain poured down outside. Acheron sat on the balcony with his knees bent and his arms folded over them. Completely naked, he stared into space as if unaware of the rain and frigid cold. His hair was plastered to his head and at least two days' growth of beard dusted his cheeks.
Ryssa approached him slowly while taking care to remain under the awning that shielded her from the rain. "Acheron?"
He didn't respond. At least not verbally. But mentally, he was as far gone as Styxx was.
Styxx scowled as he tried to understand what thoughts were his and which were Acheron's. Ironically, they overlapped, and if he didn't know better, he'd swear his brother was heartbroken, too. That a woman had left Acheron the way Bethany had abandoned him. But that couldn't be. Acheron didn't have a woman.
Those are my thoughts.
Aren't they?
Damn, I'm seriously fucked up tonight....
Worse, Styxx's shredded emotions were tangling with Acheron's to a dangerous level.
Ryssa knelt beside Acheron. "Little brother?" The tenderness in her voice enraged Styxx and it made him more volatile as it brought home the fact that without Bethany, no one loved him.
Not like that.
No one ever cared when he was hurting and in pain. If he were the one on the balcony, there wasn't one person here who would get wet to help him. No one who would ever check to see if he was all right.
Acheron turned a hate-filled glare toward her. "Leave me," he growled.
You ungrateful kopros....
His father had the same reaction. "Don't you dare speak to her that way!"
Acheron met Styxx's gaze. He raked him with a sneer. "Fuck you, you bastard."
Something inside Styxx snapped at that. The whole family had come to check on Acheron and who had bothered to come to him these last few days while he'd been pawed and chewed on by Apollo?
No one ...
Not a soul gave a single shit about him and Styxx was their "beloved" heir.
Growling low in his throat, he rushed Acheron. His brother came to his feet and ran at Styxx with the same fury.
Styxx caught him by the waist and slammed him back on the floor. Ignoring the pain it caused him, he went after Acheron with everything he had.
"I hate you!" Acheron snarled in his ear as he rolled and punched him in the jaw.
Styxx flipped him over his head and rose to his feet. He kicked Acheron in the ribs and gasped as the pain hit him, too. "You're pathetic."
Rolling away from him, Acheron pushed himself up. Rain dripped off both of them as they faced off with mutual disdain and hatred. As Acheron went for him again, Styxx knocked him back.
Rain ran down his face, mixing with the blood that poured from his eye, nose, and mouth. And still Acheron came at him, over and over again.
"Guards, take him," the king ordered.
They started for Styxx, but his father cut them off and pointed to Acheron.
His brother tried to fight them, but he was too weakened by their fight. They hauled him back into his room.
Styxx wiped the blood from his own face as their father buried his hand in Acheron's wet hair and snatched his head so that Acheron could see the full contempt of the king's expression. "Beat him until there's no skin left on his back. If he passes out, wake him and beat him again."
Styxx winced at an all too familiar order. He had those same scars courtesy of his own stupidity.
Acheron laughed coldly. "I love you too, Father."
The bastard backhanded him. "Take him out of here."
"Father?" Apollo asked with an arch stare.
The king scoffed. "He calls me that, but he's no son of mine. My former queen whored herself and begat that abomination."
Tears fell down Ryssa's face. "He's just a boy, Father."
The king laughed at something Styxx didn't find particularly amusing.