"Give you my heart, my loyalty, and my service. No one will ever divide us again. I swear it on all that I am."
Zephyra raked her nails lightly over his chest. "The only one who ever divided us was you."
"And your angry stubbornness. I left, but you wounded me deep on my way out the door. You brutalized my dignity and my manhood. Had you not gone on the attack, I might have stood up to my father. But it was hard to rationalize staying with you when you said the very things to me that he did."
She frowned as she tried to remember their fight. His words still rang in her mind, but hers . . . those were hazy or missing. "What did I say?"
His features were shocked. "Don't you remember?"
"Not really."
Stryker reached up and placed his fingers against her temples. With his god's powers, he replayed that night for her. It was something he'd never done. He preferred to remember her holding him in her arms. But it was time she remembered exactly what she'd done to him.
He and his father were alone in the cottage that Stryker had called home with Zephyra.
Almost fifteen years old, he was gangly and lean. Not quite at home in his body, he'd been clumsy. Apollo had grabbed him by the hair, his face contorted by rage. "Do you really think I would tolerate you and that whore to breed? You will do as you're told, boy, or I'll rain down the wrath of the gods in a way that will make all past punishments look like paradise."
He'd tried to fight, but his powers were nothing in comparison to his father's. "She's all I've ever wanted, Father. Please don't ask me to do this."
Apollo had yanked harshly on his hair before he released him. "I'm not asking you anything. I'm telling you. If you're not gone from here by dawn, I will have her raped and beaten until you can't even recognize her."
Stryker had been horrified by the threat. "She carries your grandchild."
Apollo had seized him by the throat and shoved him back against the wall. "You test me again, boy, and I'll have you womanized and serving in Artemis's temple alongside Satara and the rest of her pasty maids." He'd flung Stryker into the opposite wall. "Come dawn if you're still here, you will watch her brutalized until she dies."
Tears had filled his eyes as he looked up at his father, his heart breaking. "Why would you do this to me?"
"You are my legacy. Through you, I will overthrow Zeus and rule this putrid world. It's time you grew up and were the man you were supposed to be. Disappoint me in this and, so help me, I really will turn you into a woman, and you can share in your little wife's fate if you disobey me again."
Apollo vanished.
Stryker slid to the floor as he looked around the room where, for the briefest of times, he'd been truly happy. It was the only time in his life that he'd felt loved or wanted. Not as someone else's destiny, but for himself.
He sobbed like he'd never done before. He knew he had no choice but to obey. How could anyone run from a god? Apollo wouldn't be denied, and he would take plea sure in making them suffer for defying him.
"I won't let them hurt you, Phyra," Stryker whispered as he forced himself to stand. His heart breaking, he gathered a few items. The green hair ribbon she'd worn at their wedding. The tile of her in her wedding dress and a small vial of her perfume. He paused at her vanity table where she sat every night and morning, preparing herself for bed and for the day.
All he'd wanted was to put his head in her lap and have her brush her fingers through his hair and tell him everything would be all right. That she would be safe.
But it wasn't meant to be.
Tonight he was going to ruin her and he knew it.
Wanting to die over it, he placed his items in a small purse that he secured to his belt. I should leave before she returns.
No, he couldn't do that to her. In spite of what his father thought, he wasn't a coward. He couldn't leave her without some explanation. Leave her to wonder why he hadn't come home or where he'd gone. To think him dead or worse, to watch for his return while he knew she'd never see him again. She deserved to hear the truth from him.
Drawing a ragged breath, he sat down and waited for her to return.
The moment she did, she took his breath away. Frail and petite, she was more beautiful than even Aphrodite. Her green eyes had flashed in the dim light while she moved to light more lamps.
Her smile bright, it had made him instantly sad at the knowledge that he would never again see anything so spectacular. "Why are you sitting here in the darkness?"
He'd cleared his throat, but the hard lump in his stomach had merely drawn tighter. "I have something I need to speak to you about."
She set her parcels on the table. "As do I. I-"
"No, please, let me speak."