A single tear slid down his cheek as he truly felt her love for him. Only Bethany had never judged him or caused him harm. In all the world, she alone made him feel human and manly. Normal. She didn't see a prince to be hated or a boy to be scorned. She didn't insert ideas and words into his actions that he never intended.
Bethany accepted him as he was. Scars and all. She didn't use his past against him. She didn't throw his words in his face. All she did was love him with her heart and rare goodness.
"I love you, Beth," he whispered.
She pulled back to lick him then smiled up at his face. "I love you, too."
In that moment, he almost told her the truth of who he was. But the fear in his heart locked his lips together. Being a prince had never served him well. The only happiness and acceptance he had in his miserable existence was found in these afternoons with her. If he were to ever lose them ...
He'd rather be confined in the Dionysion again.
Don't ever leave me, Beth.
Because if she did, he feared what he'd become. But in his heart, he knew this couldn't last. Nothing ever did.
Not the bad ...
And especially not the good.
October 14, 9532 BC
"I know something's on your mind, sweetest. What is it?"
Styxx sighed as he held Bethany's naked body against his. He was so grateful for these preciously few moments with her. She lay facedown with her head resting on his chest while he leaned against an ancient tree where they sometimes left things for each other. The bark bit into his back, but he was so content with her on top of him that he didn't care or protest.
His thoughts sought a way to break his news to her as he toyed with the tiny shell-shaped bells on the silver armbands she wore whenever she danced for him. Just thinking about the sensual Egyptian dances she performed made him hard again.
Closing his eyes, he decided there was no easy way to break it to her. "I have to leave tomorrow, my lady. And I don't know when I'll be back."
Gasping, she shot up instantly and almost kneed his groin as she tried to feel his facial expression.
He placed her palm against his cheek and mouth so that she would know how serious it was.
"Why?"
"Atlantis has attacked a kingdom in the south. King Xerxes is assembling a contingency to render aid and march against them."
"But you're a merchant's son!"
"He's demanding any free man my age and above to go." A partial lie he hoped she didn't call him on. The law stipulated that their army consist of any free man above the age of eight-and-ten, and single noblemen over the age of one-and-twenty. It was unheard of for someone his age to be sent. But, in spite of Galen's defiant protests, his father had insisted Styxx go to fight.
"Not another word, Galen, or I'll have you whipped ... He is going. Perhaps this will finally make a man of him!" Styxx ground his teeth in memory of his father's hate-filled words from the night before.
She shook her head. "No. I won't let you."
"I have no choice."
"Have you any training whatsoever, Hector?"
"Some." Actually, he had a great deal more than many of their men. Most only trained two weeks out of the year. The rest alternated days in the public barracks, and trained with Galen's hand picked instructors a few days each month.
Tears filled her eyes. "War is brutal. It's ... you can't go. You can't! I quite forbid it."
Those words lightened his heart and made it ache simultaneously. "I don't want to leave you, akribos. Believe me. But it's treason for any man to refuse a hoplon and xiphos when he's called. I'd be locked away if I didn't go."
And he hated that. Bethany knew from their time together there was nothing he despised more. He didn't even like for her to playfully tie his hands. Her Hector couldn't stand any kind of bondage game. Not even a frail scarf around his wrist.
To be confined for real would kill him.