“They’re not going to wait all day,” Savitar warned akri. “We need to get moving.”
“I know, but as I was reviewing the situation with everyone and trying to come up with an alternate plan that didn’t leave Styxx hacked into little bloody pieces, Urian reminded me that we were missing a most vital member of the team.” Akri pinned his gaze on Styxx. “The quarterback who actually went up against the Atlantean gods centuries ago and beat the shit out of them.”
Styxx shrugged at the group. “Since no one has bothered to tell me what I’m heading into, I’ve got nothing. I still don’t know why I’m here.”
Akri looked at Simi who blushed and grinned sheepishly. Poor Styxx had no idea what she’d done. Or that she’d done it while trying to make him happy.
Pursing her lips, Simi tried to explain everything. “Well, see, akri-Styxx, it all started when the Simi decided she was gonna give you the promise for your birthday for Christmas. See?”
He scowled. “Clear as a two-hundred-mile-an-hour sandstorm.”
Akri gave a low, sinister laugh. “Simi decided to wake up the Atlantean gods for you.”
Styxx’s jaw fell open. “Wait … what? Why?”
Simi sighed heavily as she still regretted everything that had happened. Nothing had worked out the way she intended. “Well see, it wasn’t supposed to be all them gods who woke up. It was only supposed to be the one. But she won’t get up. Lots of them others got up and got ugly, fast, and the Simi still don’t know why the only one I tried to wake keeps sleeping when it’s so important she get up and talk. It’s all so confusing.”
Before Styxx could comment, Sin turned toward Savitar. “I have two gods and a demigod requesting permission to enter your home and join our planning session. Can I let them in?”
Savitar gave him a look that questioned his sanity. “Who?”
“My brother, Seth, and your least favorite god of all time.”
Savitar arched a brow. “Noir?”
“Second least favorite,” Sin quickly amended.
Savitar made a sound of supreme disgust. “I thought that bastard was dead.”
“Apparently not.”
A tic started in Savitar’s jaw. “Why?”
Sin shrugged. “I have no idea why he’s not dead. But they say they can help with this.”
Hands on his hips, Savitar glared at akri and then Kat. “Apollymi owes me. Big. And so do you.” He looked back at Sin and gave a curt nod. “Tell them fine. They can enter, even if it chafes me to my soul.”
Simi wasn’t exactly sure what was going on as the god Set appeared beside akri with a man identical in looks to Sin—only with longer black hair. Oh! She’d had no idea Sin was a twin like her akri.
Those two also had a third man with them with curly, red hair. His features were very similar to Set’s. So much so that she wondered if he wasn’t the son who’d been held in Azmodea long ago. The one akri-Jaden still had guilt over.
The Sin twin laughed and nudged Set to look at akri-Styxx. “Now there’s a photo op expression if ever there was one.”
With a wry grin, the god Set transformed into the form of another man. One akri-Styxx seemed to know. “Over four thousand years ago, Apollo and his whore mother used my son Seth,” he indicated the red-haired man with them, “to trap me in the desert without his knowledge of what was being done to him and why and restricted my powers so that the Greeks could take over my pantheon and hand my son over to my bitterest enemy. But for you, Styxx, I’d still be there, chained in the desert, fighting off vultures—human and animal.” He glanced to his son and his gaze softened instantly. “And my son would still be hating me for something I tried my best to spare him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me it was you when I freed you?” akri-Styxx asked.
“You were in enough anguish over Bethany. I didn’t want to make it worse when I didn’t think I could do anything to fix it or help you. Especially after you did me such a massive favor by setting me free.”
Set inclined his head to Sin’s brother. “Zakar and I were allies back in the day, which was why I had you take me to his place to recuperate after you found me in the desert. Since you left, we’ve been trying to find a way to revive my daughter without awakening the other Atlanteans.”
Oh …
Simi cringed as she realized that they would have done what she tried to do. Only they would have probably succeeded and not bungled it so badly.
Styxx scowled at them. “But Bethany was Egyptian, not Atlantean.”
“From me, yes. Her mother is Symfora.”
