What good was it to be a god when she couldn't have the only wish that had ever burned inside her?
This day was the most painful of all days. For this was the very day when she had given birth to her beautiful, perfect son.
And this had been the day they had taken him from her forever.
Tears glittered in her eyes as she lifted the small black pillow from her lap to her face and inhaled the spicy scent of it. Her son's scent. Closing her eyes, she summoned an image of his precious, most beloved face in her mind. Heard the sound of his commanding voice.
"I need you back, Apostolos." But her whisper went unheard and she knew it.
"He is here, Benevolent One."
Apollymi paused as she heard Sabine's voice from behind her. Sabine was her most trusted Charonte servant, since Xedrix had vanished on the night the Greek god Dionysus and the Celtic god Camulus had sought to free her from her prison in Kalosis.
Apollymi returned the pillow to her lap as she dismissed the orange-fleshed, winged demon.
"You summoned me, Mother?" Stryker asked as he came toward her.
She forced herself not to betray the fact that she knew he had turned on her. He thought himself clever.
It was enough to make her laugh.
No one could ever defeat the Destroyer. It was why she was imprisoned. She could be contained, but never annihilated. It was a lesson Stryker would learn one day all too soon.
But not today. Today, she still needed him.
"It is time, m'gios." The Atlantean term for "my son" was bitter as always on her tongue. He was a very poor substitute for the male child she had birthed. "Tonight will be the perfect time to strike. It is a full moon in New Orleans and the Dark-Hunters will be distracted."
And she wanted that human child! It was time to put an end to her captivity once and for all.
Marissa Hunter was a mild sacrifice she needed to return her son to his real, living state. And by all the power of Atlantis, she would restore her son.
No other life, not even her own, was worth one tiny part of his.
Stryker inclined his head. "Indeed, Mother. I've already set loose my Daimons to wreak carnage. Desiderius will return with the child at midnight and when they leave tonight, there won't be a single Dark-Hunter left breathing."
"Good. I don't care how many Spathi die or anyone else. I must have that child!"
She felt Stryker starting to leave.
"Strykerius?" she called.
"Yes, Mother?"
"Serve me well and you will be rewarded beyond measure. Betray me and there is nothing that can save you from my wrath."
Stryker narrowed his eyes on the goddess, who refused to even look at him. "I would never dream of betraying you, Mother," he said, masking the rancor of his tone.
No, he wasn't going to betray her tonight.
He was going to kill her.
After leaving her temple, Stryker summoned his Illuminati together before he opened the bolt-hole that would take his men to New Orleans. There they would do his will while he stayed safely tucked away from the Destroyer's notice. It was time he stopped the age-old conflict between human and Apollite.
A new era was dawning, and mankind...
It was time they learned their inferior place.
As for Acheron, now that he knew what the man really was, he knew how to neutralize him.