The musty scent of sex hung heavy in the room and I tried not to look at the freshly made bed. I closed my eyes as I thought of Styxx and the way he lived his life in comfort and peace while Acheron was forced to this.
I couldn't imagine the degradation that Acheron must suffer every day. The pain.
He entered the room completely naked, toweling his hair dry. He pulled up short as he caught sight of me standing just inside the threshold.
"Forgive me, my lady," he said in that sultry, smooth voice of his that held just a hint of an Atlantean accent. I was grateful that at least the balls were no longer lining his tongue. "I thought I was through for the night."
I lowered my cowl.
Recognizing me instantly, he narrowed his gaze. "Well, if it isn't Sister Ryssa. Tell me, are you here to save me or to fuck me? Oh wait, I forgot. When you save me, you do fuck me, don't you?"
Tears pricked my eyes at his hostile disdain. But then who could blame him for it? "You don't have to be so crude."
"You'll excuse me if my manners are lacking. Being a whore, I'm not very well versed in how decent people speak. The only time any of them converse with me is to give me instruction on how to better screw them." He dropped the towel on the bed and moved to a chair by the window.
Ignoring me, he sat down and opened a box on the table. I watched in silence as he placed several strange weeds and flowers in a flagon. He lit them, then closed the lid. Picking up a small clay bowl, he held it to his face, covering his mouth and nose, and inhaled it.
"What are you doing?"
He took several breaths before he pulled the clay bowl away from his mouth. "I'm using Xechnobia." At my frown, he explained it to me. "It's a drug, Ryssa."
"Are you sick?"
He laughed at that, then inhaled more of it. "That's a matter of opinion," he said after a small pause. A tic started in his jaw as he watched me closely. "I use it so that I can forget how many pairs of hands I've had on me in one day. It allows me to sleep in peace."
I'd heard of such things, but in my world they didn't exist. No doubt it was Estes who'd shown him the drug. I wanted to weep at what had become of the Acheron who used to bake bread and play games with Maia.
"So why are you here, Princess?" he asked.
"I wanted to see you."
"Why?"
"I was worried about you. I saw you today in the market and wanted to see how you were doing."
Acheron added more herbs to the pot, then blew on them to stir the embers around them. "I'm well. Now you can go home and sleep in wealth and good conscience." The mocking sarcasm of his tone stung me soul-deep.
I shook my head as tears gathered in my eyes. "How can you do this to yourself?"
He arched a mocking brow. "I'm a trained dog, Ryssa. I'm only doing what I was well taught to do."
"This is so demeaning. How could you have gone back to this?"
His eyes stormy, I saw the rage he bore me. "Gone back to this? Why, big sister, you speak as if this is a bad thing. For me it's paradise. I only have to fuck ten to twelve people a night, generally only one at a time. I'm finally allowed to eat at a table, not off the floor or someone's lap. No one makes me beg for food or punishes me the few days a year when I'm sick and can't screw. If anyone hurts or beats me, Catera bans them from her stew. She even pays me for my work and I get a day off once a week. Best of all, when I go to sleep, I go to bed alone. I've never had it so good."
I wanted to scream at the horror he described. The fact that I knew it was the truth only hurt me more. "And so you're content to live like this?"
He set the clay pot down on the table and pierced me with his mercurial gaze. "What do you honestly think, Princess?"
"I think you're worth more than this."
"Well, aren't you special to be able to see me as something more than a whore? Let me educate you on what the rest of the world sees. I left Atlantis and was sick for weeks from the drugs Estes had forced down my throat."
I remembered well how ill he'd been when I had rescued him.
"I had nothing but the himation you gave me. No money, no clothes. Nothing."
"So you went back to whoring?"