Styxx (DH #33) Read Free Page A

the hall they’d just left. “Then perhaps I should tell Archon about this?”
    “Don’t you dare!” Epithymia grabbed her arm and hauled her to a corner so that they couldn’t be overheard by anyone. “I have to do something I don’t want to do.”
    “Kill a baby?”
    Epithymia scoffed. “I wish. That would be easy.” This from a goddess of light powers? If Epithymia was so quick to kill, it explained so much about Bet’anya’s proclivity for violence.
    “Apollymi has enlisted me in her scheme and I have to do it. If I don’t … I can’t even tell you what she holds over me because I can’t afford for anyone to learn it. That bitch!”
    Bet’anya frowned. “What has she asked you to do?”
    “Birth her child.”
    Bet’anya sucked her breath in sharply at that implication. “He’s not born yet?”
    She shook her head. “And if you tell a soul, I swear I’ll join Apollymi against you.”
    Rage clouded her vision as Bet’anya glared at her. “Do not threaten me. God or not, I will feed on your entrails. But in this, you don’t have to fear. I have no desire to kill a defenseless baby.”
    Epithymia released her. “Good. Because I have a plan. Apollymi wants me to oversee his birth to make sure nothing goes wrong with it, and I intend to deliver him myself.”
    Bet’anya’s stomach clenched at what the goddess was telling her. “You intend to touch a babe who will be born without god powers?”
    She nodded.
    That was so cold.…
    “The humans will tear him apart in their desire to possess him. And they will hate him for it.”
    Epithymia winked at her. “I’m just following my orders from Apollymi. To the letter.”
    “Why not tell Archon—”
    “She’ll rip out my heart and devour it if I do. I wouldn’t cross that bitch for anything. I cannot even hint at where that child is or anything else about his birth. She wrung an oath from me.”
    And Atlantean gods could never breach their oaths. As such, they tried their best to never make any.
    “It would be kinder to kill him on delivery than to leave him with your touch and no protection.”
    Epithymia held up her hands. “Apollymi won’t let me. So I’m doing this her way. And if you breathe a word…”
    “My oath, I will never tell the ones hunting him where he is or what it is you do.” No sooner had those words left her lips than she realized what she’d said. It was just such a slip that had cursed poor Apostolos.
    Epithymia glared at her.
    “I didn’t mean…” There was no need in explaining. “Fine. I can still kill him if I find him.”
    Epithymia relaxed. “Good luck, Agriosa.” She left to go to her own temple down the hill.
    Bet’anya sighed at Epi’s parting shot that referred to the fact that she was also a goddess of the hunt. She absolutely hated the thought of harming a child.
    Any child.
    And yet …
    What she’d said was true. Death would be the kindest act. Otherwise, that child would live a life of absolute agony. No one should be condemned to such a horrific fate.
    “I’m sorry, Apostolos.”
    As in all battles, when a soldier’s wound was mortal, no matter his age, and there was no doubt he would die from it, the kindest thing was to end his suffering with a single fatal blow.
    She would commit this mercy killing and pray that one day Apollymi could understand and forgive her. It was for the good of all.
    Especially the boy.
    Her only hope was that she found the child first. The other gods would not be so merciful to him.

 
    June 23, 9548 BC
    King Xerxes stared down at the infant boy who peacefully slept in his arms. How could his joy have turned so bitter so fast? For a moment, he’d believed himself to be the most blessed of all kings. That the gods had granted him two sons to rule his vast empire.
    Now …
    Did he even have one?
    There was no doubt that the firstborn, Acheron, was born of the gods. That his wife-queen had whored herself to them and birthed it.
    But Styxx …
    The king