Acheron

"I have to find Artemis." There was no one else who could help save Acheron.

Ryssa headed for her door to leave, but before she took three steps, the doors opened to admit the same guards who'd arrested Acheron.

"Your Highness, you're to be taken for questioning."

Her heart chilled at those words. "Questioning? This can't be."

But it was. Surrounding her, they took her to her father's war room where he waited with Styxx.

She gave them both the coldest look she could muster. "What is this, Father?"

He'd never looked older than he did right then. His handsome features were drawn tight with sadness. "Why would you betray me, Daughter?"

"I've never done anything to betray you, Father, ever."

He shook his head. "I have a witness who came forward and said that you were with Acheron last night."

She leveled a killing glare at Styxx. "Then they are lying as they lied about Acheron. I was with Apollo last night. Summon him and see."

Styxx's face went white.

So, he'd thought to rid himself of her too. She couldn't believe her father's stupidity where Styxx was concerned.

Relief etched itself across her father's brow. "I'm glad they're mistaken, kitten." He laid a gentle hand to her face. "The thought of my beloved daughter turning on me… "

What of his beloved son?

She looked past her father to see Styxx staring at the floor. "Acheron is i

"No, child. Not this time. I have too many witnesses who saw him there."

Why couldn't she make him see the truth? "Acheron would never be in a stew."

"Of course he would. He worked in one. Where else would he go?"

Anywhere but there. Acheron had hated every minute of being in those places. "Please, Father. You've done enough to him. Let him be."

He shook his head. "There is a nest of vipers coiled around me and until I uncover the name of everyone he spoke to, I won't stop."

Tears filled her eyes as she considered the nightmare they were going to put Acheron through. Again. "The priests say that Hades reserves a special corner of Tartarus for betrayers. I'm sure the name of your real traitor is being carved there even as we speak."

Styxx refused to meet her gaze.

So she looked back at her father. "In all these years, Acheron has sought nothing but love from you, Father. One moment of your looking at him with something other than hatred burning in your eyes. Nothing more than a kind word and at every turn you've denied him and hurt him. You have shattered the son who only wanted to love you. Let him go before you do irreparable harm, I beg you."

"He's betrayed me for the last time."

"Betrayed you?" she asked, aghast at his reasoning. "Father, you can't believe that? All he's tried to do is stay out of your sight. Away from your notice. He cringes any time your name is brought up. If you'd stop being so blind for one minute, you'd see that he has never mixed with people and he has never betrayed you."

"He was a prostitute!" he roared.

"He was a boy who had to eat, Father. Thrown away by his own family. Betrayed by the ones who should have protected him from harm. I was there when he was born and I remember how all of you turned away from him. Do you? Do you even recall when you broke his arm? He was only two years old and could barely speak. He reached for you to hug you and you knocked him away so forcefully that you broke his arm like a twig. When he cried out, you slapped him for it and walked away."

"And that's why he plots your murder, Father," Styxx spoke up finally. "Don't let a woman sway you from what needs to be done. Women are our greatest weakness. They prey on our guilt and our love of them. How many times have you told me that? You can't listen to them. They think with their hearts and not their minds."

Her father's face turned to stone. "I will not let him get away with it this time."

Tears flowed freely down her face at her father's blindness. "This time? When have you ever let Acheron get away with anything?"

She blinked away the tears in her eyes as she tried to make him see reason. "Beware the viper in your closet. Isn't that another thing you're always saying, Father?" She cut a meaningful glare at Styxx. "Ambition and jealousy are at the heart of all betrayals. Acheron's only ambition is to stay out of your sight and were he to have jealousy, it wouldn't be directed at you. But I do know of another who would gain immensely in his life were you gone."

Her father backhanded her. "How dare you implicate your brother."

"I told you, Father. She hates me. I wouldn't be surprised if she hasn't bedded the whore too."

Ryssa wiped the blood from her lips. "The only person in this family that I know of who sleeps with whores is you, Styxx. I wonder if Acheron was supposedly seen in your favorite stew…" With that she turned and headed out of the room and to the street.

"Leave us!"

Acheron could barely recognize the sound of his father's voice through the throbbing vicious pain. No part of him had been left unviolated or free of abuse. It even hurt to blink.

Once the room was empty, his father approached him where he lay on the stone slab.

To his complete shock, his father brought him a ladle of water to drink.

Acheron cringed, expecting the king to hurt him worse with it.

He didn't. His father actually lifted his head and helped him to drink from it. But for the fact it would kill Styxx, he'd think it poisoned.

"Where were you last night?"

Acheron felt a single tear slide from the corner of his eye at the question that had been asked over and over again. The salt from it, stung the open wounds on his cheek as he drew a ragged, agonized breath. "Just tell me what to say, akri. Tell me what will keep me from being hurt anymore."

His father slammed the ladle down on the stone by Acheron's face. "I want the names of the men you met with."

He didn't know the names of the senators. They'd seldom offered one before they'd screwed him.

Acheron shook his head. "I met with no one."

His father buried his hand in his hair and forced him to look at him. "Give me the truth. Damn you!"

Lost to the pain, Acheron struggled to think of some lie that his father would believe, but as with the interrogator, he came back to the one single truth. "I didn't do it. I wasn't there."

"Then where were you? Have you a single witness to your where-abouts?"

Yes, but she'd never come forward. Maybe if he were Styxx… But Artemis would never stand up for a worthless whore. "I have only my word."

His father roared in anger. He reached for him, but before he could make contact, he froze.

Acheron held his breath as he tried to understand what was happening. An instant later, Artemis appeared beside him.

Stu

"Your sister told me what they'd accused you of. Don't worry, your father will have no memory of this. Nor will your brother."

Acheron swallowed as he tried to understand what she was saying. "You're protecting me?"

She nodded. An instant later, he was back in his room and healed. Acheron lay back on his bed, more grateful than words could express. But even so it didn't erase the pain of what he'd been through. Any more than it concealed the fact that Styxx was pla

What was he going to do?

Artemis materialized beside him. Her expression was sorrowful as she brushed his hair back from his face.

"Will Ryssa remember us?" he asked her.

"No. From this moment forward she won't even remember that you and I know each other. I should have done it sooner perhaps. But she seemed to keep her mouth closed. Now I won't have to worry."

That was for the best.

He stared at Artemis amazed at what she'd done. No, she hadn't stood up for him, but she had saved him. It was a major breakthrough from the last time she'd left him to their "tender" care. "Thank you for coming for me."