His hands trembling, Styxx pulled the covers back and saw the blood that was still on her white gown from where Apollymi had taken their baby from the goddess’s belly all those centuries ago.
Throwing his head back, he howled in pain, then gathered her body into his arms. “Beth?” he breathed against her cheek as he cradled her head to his shoulder. “Please come back to me. Please. I need you so …”
The goddess didn’t move or breathe and that made Simi ache for both of them. How terrible to need someone so much and not be able to have them. She couldn’t imagine anything worse.
Tears choked Simi. Why were those other monster gods up and around and not her? It didn’t make sense.
And it wasn’t right.
Why couldn’t she wake the goddess for akri-Styxx? He was a good man who deserved to be happy. Simi didn’t like the rules of this game.
It should be fair and it wasn’t.
Her heart breaking, she sniffed as akri joined them.
Without a word, he went to his brother and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
Kat took her hand and led her from the room so that akri and Styxx could be alone.
She didn’t really want to leave, but Katra was right. Styxx needed his brother and akri needed his. This was a time for them to come together again and be a family.
Katra returned to her husband while Simi stayed out in the hallway. She wanted to help but didn’t know how.
Especially when she heard Styxx’s angry bellow. “I hate you.”
Akri answered those words with a heartfelt sorrow that made her tears fall down her cheeks. “I know, brother … I know. I wish more than anything that I could take it all back. Everything. That I’d listened to and followed the advice I gave to others. I hurt you and I abandoned you and it was wrong. I was wrong and I am so incredibly sorry for everything I’ve done.”
“Why can’t I just hate you?”
“Because you’re a better man than I am. You always were.”
But that wasn’t true, and Simi knew it. They were family. Even in pain and grief. Even when the world did its best to break them, they were brothers.
Family stuck together. Through thick and thin. Just like her and her siblings. Sure, they fought. Sometimes they were really nasty to each other.
But in the end, they knew that they’d fight and bleed for one another.
Forever.
That was family, and that was the most important thing in all the world.
And akri confirmed that. “I will never turn my back on you again, brother. I?—”
“Don’t make a promise you might not keep.”
It would kill akri if he did. As an Atlantean god, he had to keep all his promise.
She heard Styxx’s low laugh through the door. “But at least you finally got a decent haircut.”
Simi shook her head. While Styxx might like akri’s shorter hair, she didn’t. He’d worn his hair long for centuries.
Even though he’d done it for charity to celebrate Bas’s first birthday, it was still strange-looking on him.
The two of them kept talking to the point that Simi felt awkward standing alone in the hallway. Maybe she shouldn’t be eavesdropping.
Just as she started away, she heard a peculiar crackling sound as if someone else had teleported into the room.
“I think we startled her more than she startled us,” Styxx said in his deeper tone.
