Styxx (Dark-Hunter 22)

Styxx thought he'd vomit at the sight that reminded him of when he'd been tortured in the Dionysion. He'd made the same pleas, and his father had walked out on him with no compassion or regard.

Just as he did Acheron.

"I am not your father, maggot." He kicked Acheron away then glared at his most beloved Ryssa with venom. "I told you, he doesn't belong with this family. Why would you defy me so?"

"He's your son," she sobbed. "How can you deny him? It's your face he has. Styxx's face. How can you love one and not the other?"

Because he doesn't love me, bitch. Not really.

Their father reached down and gripped Acheron's jaw tightly in his hand. He pulled him roughly to his feet so that Acheron faced Ryssa. "Those are not my eyes. Those are not the eyes of a human!"

Ryssa turned to him then, weeping. "Styxx ... He's your brother. Look at him."

He glanced to his father in panic, unsure of what his father would do if he stood up for Acheron right now. In the mood his father was in, he was as likely to turn on Styxx as he was Acheron.

Better to let the old man calm down than to anger him further.

Sorry, brother. Last time I put my ass on the line for you, you handed me over without a second thought or ounce of remorse.

No ... worse, you helped whore me and branded me as one.

His gut knotting, Styxx shook his head and repeated Acheron's vicious words that he'd said to Estes in a very similar situation. "I have no brother."

His father shoved Acheron back.

Acheron stood there quietly, his eyes dazed by the harsh reality of how their father felt about him. It was something Styxx coped with every single day of his life.

But what hurt was that he knew the exact thoughts in his brother's mind. They were the same ones that haunted him constantly. Acheron was reliving every perversion of Estes's. Every disgusting, humiliating touch ...

His brother dropped his head and wrapped his arms around himself.

"Take him back to Atlantis!" the king ordered the guards.

Styxx cringed at his father's harsh sentence. A sentence the stupid bastard didn't even comprehend. But Styxx knew.

And so did Acheron.

Without a word of protest or fight, Acheron followed them to the front of the palace.

He was again the petrified slave who'd caused Styxx to be captured....

Ryssa glared at their father with hatred burning deep in her eyes. "Estes abuses him, Father. Constantly. He sells Acheron to-"

Their father slapped her.

"That is my brother you speak of. How dare you!"

Stunned, Styxx went bug-eyed. Never had his father laid a hand to her. That alone testified to what Estes had told him. His father would defend Estes to the bitter end.

Even against his own children.

"And that is my brother you cast off. How dare you!" Ryssa snarled before she stormed after Acheron.

"Lying whore! Just like her drunken mother!"

Styxx couldn't breathe as those harsh words slammed into him. His father had never spoken of his beloved kitten like that. If he would turn on his treasured daughter, Styxx didn't have a single hope. "What if she isn't lying, Father?"

The expression on his father's face made him take a step back. "Are you to defame my brother, too?"

Not with that look on your face, old man. I'm not that stupid or drunk. "Forgive me, Father."

Wanting to put distance between them, Styxx hurried after Ryssa.

He found her in the front entranceway of the palace. Acheron held his head even lower than before. His grip on his arms was so tight that his knuckles were white.

"Acheron?" Ryssa breathed.

He refused to look at her while Styxx hovered in the doorway behind them.

She brushed the hair back from Acheron's face with a tenderness she'd never shown Styxx. "Acheron, please. I didn't know they'd come today. I thought we were safe."

"You lied to me," he said simply as he stared blankly at the floor. "You told me my father loved me. That no one was ever going to make me leave here. You swore that to me."

Styxx shook his head as his own anger and pain ripped through him. How could she lie to Acheron like that? Surely she'd asked for Acheron's return as much as he had and had been given the same hate-filled no from their father, who would never acknowledge his other son.

"I know, Acheron," she sobbed.

Acheron turned to her then to glare at her with a hatred that was searing. "You made me trust you."

"I'm so sorry."

Styxx had to bite back bitter laughter. Sorry, Ryssa? Really? The pathetic moron had no idea what Estes was going to do to Acheron on his return. But Styxx knew. His uncle had already shown him.

Acheron was going to wish himself as dead as Styxx did.

His brother shook his head. "I was never to step foot out of my chambers without escort. Never was I to leave the household. Idikos will punish me for leaving. He'll..." Horror filled his eyes as he tightened his grip on himself even more.

Styxx's stomach heaved. He took a step forward then caught himself. If he tried to help Acheron now, they would both pay. Dearly.

The horses were brought forward.