Artemis shook her head. "Can't or won't?"
"Can't. If I take it back, it will kill me and undo the entire creation of the world. I can't fix this."
Artemis let out a long sigh before she raked him with a repugnant sneer. "You're pathetic, Apollo. Pathetic." She turned and left him alone in his temple where he stared into an orb similar to the one in Sam's palm.
Apollo's hand shook as he conjured an image of Stryker in his orb. His eyes swam with tears. "You were ever disappointing to me, but I never meant to hurt you. I was trying to make you strong." He choked on a sob. "If I could undo this, Strykerius, I would. I would.... I am so sorry for what I've done...."
Sam pulled back from the scene as her head whirled with everything she'd learned.
Especially about Acheron. Was that what had made him the first Dark-Hunter?
He'd been Artemis's lover?
A whore...
Surely Apollo hadn't meant that Acheron was really a whore, whore. Had he? Or was it just his anger at Acheron that caused him to say that?
"Well?" Stryker prompted. "How do I kill Apollo?"
She blinked at Stryker's impatient tone as her mind replayed everything in sequence.
Zephyra sat forward on her throne. "What did you see? Can we break the curse?"
Sam shook her head. "It can't be undone."
Rage contorted Stryker's handsome features. "You lie!"
"No, I swear. There is no way. Apollo would have undone it in the beginning had he been able to."
Stryker cursed. "And his weakness? What will bring him to his knees?"
Oh he wasn't going to like the answer to that question. She knew it. "The same thing that caused him to curse the Apollites to begin with."
"His whore, Ryssa?" Stryker asked.
She shook her head. "The death of the son he loves more than anything."
Scowling at her, Stryker sat back. "I don't understand. What son?"
She licked her dry lips and braced herself for his wrath. "You, Stryker. You're his weakness. You're what he loves above everything else.... You're the only thing he loves."
Zephyra put her hand on his shoulder as Stryker sat there completely stone-faced. "She's telling the truth."
Stryker grabbed Sam by the arm and jerked her to him. "Are you playing with me?"
"Why would I?"
Snarling, he threw her away from him. One minute she was in the center of the hall and in the next, she was being sucked back into the vortex.
Sam fought against it with everything she had. Stryker had lied, there was no Dev. He was sending her back empty-handed.
Screaming, she tried to stop falling. Tried to get back to Kalosis so that she could hunt for him.
It was no use.
She found herself on the street just a few feet from where she'd gone into the vortex earlier.
"No!" she screamed as it closed right behind her and left her alone. She got up and ran around trying to find another opening.