Styxx (Dark-Hunter 22)

Bethany wanted to scream. She'd been waiting here for hours, hoping Hector would come. Given the vicious attack Apollo had led against his own people and blamed the Atlanteans for, she knew they'd be sending Hector to war again and she wanted to see him before he left.

This time, she was going to mark him so that she'd know which soldier he was.

Frustrated, she lay down and flung her hand over her head. She grimaced as it slammed into the tree behind her. Then it brushed against something with a sharp edge. Frowning, she turned over and patted the small knothole in the tree where Hector would occasionally leave something for her.

No ...

Tears filled her eyes as she realized he'd come here and she'd missed him. Aching, she pulled the small box into her hands and opened it to find a ring inside.

Desperate to know for certain if it was from him, she took it to her temple on Katateros. Biting her lip, she pulled it from the box to see a beautiful gold ring that was impressed with a winged horse-something she'd told him she fancied without telling him she actually owned one. And on the inside of the band was stamped the words ??I?????? ??????. Faithfully yours.

He had been there and she'd missed him. Pain shredded her as she realized she might never see him again. Please remember to carry my necklace with you. Please.

What if he didn't?

No, she wouldn't think about that. She couldn't. If anything happened to him ...

She would rain Kalosis itself down on every Greek. Archon would never again have to fear Apollymi's child. She would be the one to tear this world apart.

But how would she find him?

Because it was open war, the Greek troops would be combined and split. Some of the Didymosian regiments could be in the southern part. Some in the north. Or if enough men were lost in Hector's regiment, he could be assigned to one from another city-state. There was no way for her to know which regiment he'd be assigned to.

"I will find you, Hector."

She had no idea how, but she wouldn't rest until she was sure he was safe and whole.

Most of all, protected.

May 23, 9531 BC

Hephaestion, the Atlantean messenger god, shoved open the doors of the gods' main hall on Katateros. "The Stygian Omada is on our beaches!"

Bethany looked up from the precious letter Hector had paid a messenger to hide in the tree at their meeting spot while the gods around her scrambled to action. She grabbed Hephaestion's arm as he started past her to notify the gods who weren't in attendance, and pulled him to a stop. "What has happened?"

"They just landed on the beach at Ena. If we don't stop them now and turn them back to Greece, they could make it to the mainland and take the city."

She saw red at the mere thought of a Greek in her beloved country. How dare they! "Who leads their forces?"

"Styxx of Didymos."

Oh, it figured ...

Athena's dog they'd named the ????ύ?æ?oς o??ά?H?-Stygian Omada-after. Fury blinding her, Bethany manifested her armor and summoned her horse and bow. This time, she was going to teach that bastard a lesson. In Greece, her powers were limited even when she rode with the Atlantean army, but here in her own lands ...

Prince Styxx would feel her full bite this day and wish to the gods he worshiped that he'd stayed home.

* * *

Exhausted from battle, Styxx wiped the blood from his face as he watched his army move inward from the beach where they'd landed. Though it'd been a fierce fight, they'd overtaken the Atlantean guard who'd been charged with the safety of their outermost island. Most of the Atlantean guard lay slaughtered on the beach. But a small contingency had escaped inland to warn their people.

"Fortify!" he called to his commanders. They'd need to be ready when the next onslaught came. There was no way the Atlanteans would leave them to advance without a staunch, brutal fight every step of the way.

Styxx winced as his side started bleeding again. Damn it ... Bethany's token only protected him from weapons. Not from broken wood poles and blatant stupidity. During the fighting yesterday, he'd stumbled against one. Somehow, it'd gone between the laces of his cuirass to slice and stab him across his ribs.

And it burned like Greek fire.

Trying to ignore the pain, he went to retrieve his horse then paused as he saw fires off to the north, not that far away, in one of the villages. At first, he thought the people there might be signaling the mainland. Until he saw the Greek banners that had been placed in the sand in front of it.

Shit ...

Against orders, his men were raiding.

"Galen!" he shouted to his second-in-command. "I need my dekarmatoli. Fast." The dekarmatoli were the ten men his former tutor had hand-selected and charged with making sure Styxx was safe at all times. After what had happened at Halicarnassus with Apollo, Galen had guarded him like a psychotic mother hen.

But right now, Styxx was going to need loyal men to quell this rebellion before it started.

He swung up onto Troian's back and spurred his horse to the site as fast as he could.

* * *

Bethany was furious as she flashed into the small Enean village where their followers had been desperately imploring the Atlantean gods for rescue. While the rest of the gods had gone to render aid to the bulk of their forces, she'd agreed to come and check on the inhabitants here.

The village had taken in wounded Atlantean soldiers ... wounded men who had been slaughtered by Greeks at the foot of her great-grandfather's statue in the center of their small hamlet.

She raised her hand to blast them all straight to their beloved Hades.

"Halt!"

That deep, fierce, commanding tone froze them all. Even her.

Curious, she frowned at the sight of the Didymosian prince as he leapt from the back of his ebony horse and strode angrily through the fallen bodies and looting Greeks without any backup whatsoever.

Was he insane?

The Greeks here weren't from Didymos. And they would have no love or respect for the young prince. Something evidenced by the derision on their faces.

His blue eyes full of angry verve, Styxx headed straight for two soldiers who had hauled a beautiful young girl from her home and into the street. It was obvious by her torn gown what they intended.

"Release her!" Styxx demanded.