Styxx (DH #33) by Sherrilyn Kenyon Read Free Book Online Page B

back, Styxx cried out as blood covered his arm and soaked his sheets.
    “Sweet Hera,” his father breathed. “What have I done?” He clutched at Styxx’s wounded arm, trying to stanch the blood flow. “I’m so sorry, Styxx. Forgive me, child.”
    His hands shaking, his father wrapped Styxx’s arm with cloth he tore from Styxx’s sheets then he pulled him into his arms and rocked him while Styxx silently sobbed. “Shh, little one. It’s all right. It’s all right.…”
    But it wasn’t and Styxx knew it. From the moment of his birth, his father had questioned his parentage. If not in words, then by the unguarded glares Styxx would see whenever they were alone.
    “It’s not your fault, child. It’s that demon bastard. He’s to blame for all of this. He’s the one who makes me doubt you. Every time I see his face … It fills me with such violence.”
    Not just Acheron’s face. It was his face, too.
    His father cupped his head in his large hand and kissed his brow then his cheek. “You are my baby boy. The heir I prayed and sacrificed to the gods for. I know you are. I know it.” Tears filled his eyes as he cast a suspicious glare at Styxx. “Aren’t you?”
    How could he answer a question when he wasn’t sure either? His father sensed the very thing he knew for a fact. That he wasn’t right. He wasn’t normal. While Acheron had the eyes of a god, Styxx was the one who felt phantom pains from wounds given to his brother. He was the one who heard stray thoughts of random people. Heard the voices of gods much louder than Acheron did. He sensed other people’s emotions and intended actions, even when they tried to conceal them, and he knew the weather without fail.
    But the worst were the merciless headaches that plagued him all the time.
    Maybe I’m not human.…
    In all honesty, Acheron seemed to be far more normal than he did.
    “Answer me!” his father growled. “Are you my son?”
    There was only one answer to give. Right or wrong. “Y-y-yes.”
    His father placed Styxx’s head under his chin and wept while he continued to rock him. He didn’t let go again until well after dawn. Then, he laid Styxx down on his bed and tucked him into his bloodstained sheets as if nothing had happened. Kissing Styxx’s brow, he gave his shoulder a light squeeze then left him alone.
    Scared and hurt, Styxx stared at the makeshift bandage his father had wrapped and knotted around his forearm. His hand shaking, he peeled it back to see what he’d suspected … he was already healing from the vicious wound. By the end of the day, it would be almost completely gone, with only a scar to mark its location.
    I’m not human any more than Acheron is.
    And his father would absolutely kill him if he ever learned the truth of it.

 
    August 30, 9541 BC
    Styxx opened his bedroom door to find Acheron on the other side of it. He let out a relieved breath. “Thank the gods it’s you.”
    “Why is your door locked again?”
    He shrugged, not wanting to tell Acheron or anyone else about the midnight visit from the king. Since February, he’d made sure to lock and block his door every night lest he receive another unwelcomed surprise.
    “What are you doing here?” Styxx asked, trying to deflect his brother’s attention away from a question he had no intention of answering.
    “I brought your present to you from Estes. You left it downstairs. After what happened last year, I wanted to make sure you got to keep this one.”
    Styxx took the wooden horse from Acheron’s hand and offered a smile he didn’t feel.
    You deserve nothing until you learn how to conduct yourself civilly and with honor. His father’s cruel words still haunted him.
    “Thank you, Acheron.” Styxx moved to place the horse on the chest by his window where he kept his collection of them. After last year’s nightmare, he hadn’t felt the same about his wooden horses. Instead of being a source of pride and pleasure, all they reminded him of was his