“Absolutely.”
That would get the demons in. Urian’s arm was neon now as his heart pounded furiously. He couldn’t stand the thoughts of what they might be doing to Styxx.
Acheron glanced around. “I’m weakened and the weapons Artemis brought might work on Apollo, but they’re shite on the Atlanteans. Who wants to try to go in with me?”
They all stepped forward.
“All right. Here goes nothing.” Closing his eyes, Acheron summoned everything he could and teleported them back to Katateros.
It didn’t work.
Not until Urian closed his eyes and wrapped his arm around Acheron’s waist. He felt the surge through his own body an instant before he shot his own powers into Acheron.
Only then were they able to break through whatever Archon had done to shield the temple.
Unprepared for the sight that awaited them, Urian staggered away from Acheron. Blood was everywhere. It looked like some kind of zombie movie. Yet what terrified him the most was the fact that Styxx’s phoenix shield lay twisted and bent out of shape in the middle of the largest pool of blood. Blood that was smeared to the doors as if a body had been dragged out, through them.
Demonbrean and Ilios lay moaning on the ground near Apollo.
Dikastis, true to Styxx’s prediction, hadn’t joined in with the others. He was standing calmly in the shadows of the hall as if he couldn’t believe what he’d witnessed.
Urian wanted his throat.
He started for him, but Acheron reached him first.
“Where’s my brother?”
Raw anger flared in the old god’s eyes. “They took him to the temple arena.”
Urian curled his lip. “Why aren’t you with them?”
“I’m a god of justice. I will not participate in something that’s so wrong and undeserved.”
That alone saved his ass from Urian’s wrath.
Acheron inclined his head to the god. “Will you fight with us?”
Dikastis nodded without hesitation.
His breathing ragged,Styxx was so battered and bruised at this point, he wasn’t sure why he was still conscious. He’d managed to knock out three of them and weaken the rest, but in the end, he’d been outnumbered and was no match for a dozen gods.
Archon and Asteros had dragged him to the temple Acheron had confined him in years ago … to the arena where they’d once made his life utter hell. Against his best efforts, they’d secured him to the rack they’d used for his beatings and other things he didn’t want to think about.
Damn them.
Laughing, Archon fisted his hand in Styxx’s hair and jerked his head back. “You’re not defeated so soon, are you, Prince?”
“Fuck you.”
“How I wish, but unfortunately, we’re making you a sacrifice.” Archon gagged him, then looked over to Leto. “Summon our lady vengeance.”
Leto laughed as she neared Styxx. “You didn’t really think Epithymia had Bathymaas’s heart, did you? Trust me, I kept that for myself. Now I’m going to finish what I started fourteen thousand years ago.”
And when I’m done destroying what’s left of the Greeks, I’m going to tear apart the Atlanteans as I did the Sumerians and Egyptians.
Styxx’s eyes widened as he heard her thoughts loud and clear.
Leto pulled out a knife and sliced open Styxx’s cheek so that she could fill a vial with his blood. She mumbled words he didn’t understand as she blended his blood with another compound. And as she did so, his head began to spin.
