Like her mother, she refused to touch him. She stepped down and raked him with her disdain. "What have you done? Drank and whored every day Father's been gone? Your condition is execrable."
I should let you be gang-raped, bitch, and throw it in your face. See then how you'd take being bridled and ridden like a horse.
Ryssa headed for the stairs.
Styxx pulled her to a stop. "We need to talk."
She jerked her arm out of his grasp. "In spite of what you think, you're not king yet. You do not command me."
"Ryssa-"
"Go back to your whore and wine, brother. Or better yet, for the sake of the gods, get some sleep and sober up before your father sees you and learns what a pathetic waste stands to inherit his throne."
Unlike their mother, Ryssa ignored Estes and continued on into the palace.
Laughing, Estes moved to clap Styxx on the back. "That was certainly rude of them, wasn't it?" He leaned in to whisper to Styxx. "So tell me, nephew. Are you ready to pay me to watch your sister be violated and put in her place?"
A part of him wanted to see it so badly that it frightened him. He was so tired of Ryssa's and his mother's criticisms when he'd done nothing to deserve them.
It would serve Ryssa right to taste the degradation he knew so intimately. But as his gaze fell to Xan and he saw the giant size of the Atlantean, he knew that bastard would tear his sister apart. Just as he'd done Styxx.
No matter how much he hated her, he couldn't allow that to happen. He had to stop this.
But how?
September 19, 9532 BC
Since the queen's return, Estes hadn't dared to keep Styxx as drugged as before. It was both a curse and a blessing. And right now, Styxx didn't want to remember any of the past few horrific hours he'd spent while he occasionally heard his mother and Ryssa laughing together as he'd been kept against his will in Estes's rooms, next to his sister's.
With any luck, he'd never have to be so debased again.
Styxx finally got the rope free from his bruised, bleeding wrist. It'd taken him hours to work it through.
His hand burned from the strain of contorting it so that he could tug at the rough, thick strands. As quickly as he could, he untied his other one. Normally Estes chained him or tied his hands apart from each other. Tonight, for reasons he didn't want to think about, Estes had tied them together and stretched them over Styxx's head to secure him to the bed.
Then the bastard had passed out before he had a chance to part them.
Grimacing, Styxx snatched the gag from his mouth while Estes slept soundly by his side. With a deep sigh, Estes rolled over and threw his thigh over Styxx's. His hand quested a part of Styxx's body that revolted him. Careful, lest he wake his uncle, he disentangled himself enough so that he could free his ankles and slide off the bed.
His heart pounded as he considered his options. There was no way to get word to his father in time. Even if he did, he fully believed that Estes would be able to twist it so that his father would never believe him. His mother would be worthless. Ryssa was stupid to a supreme level.
If he tried to arrest Estes, everything would come out. And he had no doubt that his uncle would have him committed again and then taken to Atlantis to be bought and sold.
The only real option he had left him sick to his stomach.
But it was the only way to make all of this stop. The only way to protect his brother and sister.
Himself.
You're a pathetic coward. His own disdain rose up to silence the voices of the gods in his head. A real man would have already done it.
Yet it wasn't that easy. He'd never hurt anyone before. Not intentionally.
I have to do this. His uncle had left him with no choice. If he didn't, Ryssa would be raped, too.
If I let that happen, how would I ever be able to live with myself?
The same way he'd been living with his conscience and the humiliation Estes and the others had given him.