"Did you offend Apollo, boy?"
No, the bastard offends me.
"Nay, Father." The steadiness of his voice had surprised him.
His eyes darkening with rage, the king had closed the distance between them so he could snarl privately at Styxx. "You do anything to screw this up for me, and I swear I will see you disowned and on the street with your whore brother. You think you know what tragedy is, boy ... you can't imagine. And don't you believe for one minute that Kreon or any of the other kings would welcome you to their kingdoms. If I threw you out, none of them would dare speak to you. Ever."
His father's jealousy had stunned him. Not that it mattered. He really couldn't care less at this point. "I promise you, Father, Apollo isn't angry at me."
Then the part of him that wanted to lash out at his father and hurt him couldn't resist adding, "He was embracing me. That's what you saw. He was merely telling me how much he looked forward to spending more time with me in the future."
"Good. See to it, it stays that way."
Tears had pricked the backs of his eyes as his father had stormed off. But what hurt most wasn't that his father was selling his son and daughter to Apollo for the benefit of his people or for peace.
He was doing it for bragging rights with the other kings so that he could claim Didymos was the city-state most favored by the gods.
Unable to deal with it anymore, Styxx headed for the small corner apothecary that specialized in herbs and medicines from Atlantis. Even though he hated what the herbs did to him and had sworn he wouldn't touch them again, he needed something to get everything out of his head. Just for a little while.
I can't believe I killed my uncle for this shit.
But then maybe that was why the gods had done this to him. It was recompense for his actions. All the things he'd killed Estes to prevent had happened anyway, only now they were so much worse. Ryssa was still being whored, and instead of Styxx being held and raped for one week out of the year, he was now at Apollo's mercy anytime the god had a hard-on.
Only Acheron's situation had improved.
His head throbbing, Styxx walked through the marketplace, toward the shop.
Right now, all he really wanted was to be with Bethany. She would ease the pain in his heart and make him forget for a few minutes how much he hated every part of royal life. But she wouldn't be back for a week. Her family was traveling and she'd left him bereft without the brightness of her smile. Honestly, he couldn't stand not being with her.
But at least she took Dynatos with her everywhere she went. She kept the massive dog close to her so that Styxx could breathe, knowing Dynatos would always protect her.
"Please, sir ... can I not buy half the loaf?"
Styxx paused at a girl's voice as he passed the baker's stand.
"Get on with you! I don't want a beggar here. Coin or nothing. I don't sell half loaves."
"But I don't have enough. Please. It's for my mother. She's sick and starving...."
The lecherous look on the man's face as he swept the young teen's body made Styxx's stomach turn. "If you want to pay with something other than coin, we might have a deal, girl."
Horrified, she stumbled away and started to turn then she closed her eyes.
Rage darkened Styxx's gaze as he saw what she was about to do to feed her family.
As she stepped back toward the stand, Styxx cut her off. He knelt on one knee in front of her so that she could look him in the eyes. "Get what you need and I will pay for it."
The suspicion in those young, brown eyes shredded his heart. "And what do you want me to pay you with, my lord?"
Those words and what she was really asking thoroughly pissed him off at the Fates who would do this to a child so young. "Nothing. I swear." He handed her a basket. "Get whatever you need to feed your family."
When she started away, Styxx caught a flash of gold around her neck. Stopping her, he pulled a tattered string to find a large gold ring tied at the end of it.
A soldier's ring.
"Please don't take that," she whispered. "It's all I have left of my father."
Recognition slammed into his gut like a fist as he saw the markings he knew as well as his own. They had adorned a shield that had stood at his side and back in many a battle. "Gaius? Son of Philoctes? Was he your father?"