Once there, Simi understood the ugly wind. It had pinned down all the gods. No one was standing.
No other than Styxx. He was held up while a ghosty woman dressed in red wrapped around him and held a dagger over his heart.
She sort of looked like Bethany, and yet Simi wasn’t sure.
Set moved forward, through their group. “Bathymaas! No!”
Without the slightest hesitation, she sank the dagger deep into Styxx’s chest, all the way to the hilt, then threw her head back and roared in satisfaction.
When she finally spoke, she used Atlantean only. “Take your bastard back, Apollymi. Now come and face me, you wretched dog, so that I can bathe in your putrid blood! Taste my vengeance and choke on it!”
Simi couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Akri-Styxx’s love was stabbing him?
How was this possible?
But Bethany didn’t see Styxx. She only saw akri.
And for once, Apollymi answered Bethany’s summoning. In the same ethereal shade form she used whenever she visited akri or Simi, she stood over Bethany. “What have you done?”
Bethany ran at her, and then through her. “Are you afraid to face me?”
Her expression one of deep sadness, Apollymi shook her head. “You did not kill my precious Apostolos.” Tears filled her eyes as she looked at Styxx’s body. “I am still trapped in Kalosis. The man you killed is Styxx of Didymos.”
Recognition darkened Bethany’s eyes. She turned back toward Styxx’s body and paled. “You lie!”
Blood dripped from the wound she’d given him and, as it did so, it drained the powers Styxx had borrowed from Apollymi. His hair returned to blond, his skin darkened, and the scars that had been hidden, reappeared on his body.
There was no denying the fact that Bethany had killed Styxx.
Leto’s laughter filled the room. “Poor Bathymaas … you are damned again by your own hand.”
The angry Greek goddess materialized behind Bethany and ripped a necklace from her neck.
Set ran for them, but before he could close the distance, Leto joined the necklace with another piece she had.
Cocking her head, Simi tried to understand what the goddess was trying to do.
“Now I will be the soul of justice, and you’ll … You’ll…” Leto frowned as the two pieces fought against each other like two magnets that were repelling. “What? Why isn’t this working?”
Akri met Urian’s gaze and jerked his chin toward the pinned gods.
Urian nodded in understanding and made his way toward them.
Akri had just started for Styxx when all of a sudden, Styxx gasped and arched his back as if something possessed him.
The knife Bethany had buried in his chest shot through the air and landed harmlessly on the ground near Leto’s feet. Light streamed out of the wound, sealing it closed.
In the next heartbeat, a shockwave went through the room, knocking everyone off their feet, except akri.
Gaping, Simi hovered over the floor as she realized that this was just like the time in New Orleans when Styxx had tried to kill her akri. Only then, Simi had wrapped around her akri to protect him.
This was what happened when a god tried to kill a Chthonian. It was a freaky rebirth they had that would bring them back from death.
The chains that held Styxx in place shattered, sending shrapnel in all directions. Simi ducked, grateful they missed her as they struck the wall right beside her and shattered glass.
Styxx rose to hover over the floor.
“What’s happening?” Archon roared.
