And always reservation in his heart whenever they were alone. It was why his father never called him son.
"You're the one who betrayed us, Acheron. Not me."
"And I think I've paid well for it. After all, I'm the one tied naked to a bed and you're the one wrapped in a gold-trimmed chlamys. You're the one everyone bows before and seeks to please your every whim."
Yes, that was so his life....
Never.
Styxx sighed wearily. No, they'd both paid for it. Dearly. But Acheron would never believe the truth, any more than Ryssa did, and Ryssa had borne witness to some of it. Still, she had it in her mind that he was the one their father favored.
People make their own reality. That was what Praxis had taught him years ago. A hundred people can witness the same exact event, and give two hundred and three different accountings of it.
"Everything is filtered through our emotions that change over time, young prince. As king, your job will be to listen to both sides of every matter and try to find the truth that lies somewhere between the opposing accounts."
He'd seen the veracity of that time and again as he sat with his father and listened to testimony from the nobles and citizens as they brought trial against each other. The subtlest gesture that was misread ...
Tone of voice.
All of it could lead to war.
Even between brothers.
No, especially between brothers.
Styxx looked away as tears choked him. He wanted his twin brother again. The one who'd held his hand and stood with him against the horrors and hatred of their world. The brother who would sneak into his room and lie at his back with his feet pressed against his. The Acheron who'd rolled apples to him through the small hole in the wall that divided their rooms ...
But that brother was gone forever. There was no trace of the Acheron he'd once known. And maybe there was no young Styxx left in him either. War and life had changed him completely. Perhaps Acheron was right to forget how they'd once been. There's no grief over its loss if you don't remember it.
Acheron raked him with a sneer. "So when am I to be dragged back to my shit-hole, Highness?"
"How would I know? I never leave mine."
Styxx was amazed the scathing glare Acheron gave him didn't raise a blister on his skin.
"Now who mocks whose pain?"
"I have never mocked your pain, Acheron. Only your self-pity."
"And what of yours?"
"I suppose we're both selfish bastards. Two pieces of one whole."
"I'm not a part of you. I have no brother and I have no family."
A tic started in Styxx's jaw as those words shredded him worse than any others. "Think well, Acheron, before you draw that battle line."
"I'm not the one who drew it. You did when you allowed me to go back to Atlantis."
You bastard! Acheron would dare throw that in his face?
"I tried to save you," Styxx snarled. "I offered you an escape and you refused to leave with me."
"No. You wanted to play hero. Rescue me like I was some bitch who would be forever grateful to the noble prince for his good deed. Had you really wanted to help me, you would have stood up to your father and not allowed them to take me back to Estes."
Of course. Because his father listened to him so well. Acheron was as bad as Ryssa with his delusions. "Had I stood up for you then, I assure you, I'd have met the same fate you did."
"You should have, you coward."