"I'm so sorry."
Styxx had to bite back bitter laughter. Sorry, Ryssa? Really? The pathetic moron had no idea what Estes was going to do to Acheron on his return. But Styxx knew. His uncle had already shown him.
Acheron was going to wish himself as dead as Styxx did.
His brother shook his head. "I was never to step foot out of my chambers without escort. Never was I to leave the household. Idikos will punish me for leaving. He'll..." Horror filled his eyes as he tightened his grip on himself even more.
Styxx's stomach heaved. He took a step forward then caught himself. If he tried to help Acheron now, they would both pay. Dearly.
The horses were brought forward.
His brother looked at Ryssa. "I wish you'd left me as I was."
She should have. Because this was going to be so much worse on him. The Acheron who'd fought him months ago in Atlantis had been relegated to his fate. The one in front of him now had tasted life without Estes and his perversions.
To send him back to that now ...
His sister was the worst of all. Estes would tighten his grip on Acheron even more. His brother would never know another moment of peace or freedom. Not so long as Estes and their father lived.
Styxx forced himself to stay and say nothing as the guards hauled Acheron into a chariot. His brother never looked back as they drove him away.
"Acheron!" Maia, the cook's young daughter, screamed as she came tearing out of the doorway.
Only then did Acheron look back. His face stoic, tears glistened in his swirling silver eyes.
Styxx panted, knowing better than to let his father see his emotions. The king was too volatile. And the last thing Styxx needed was a beating. Not if he was to do what he planned.
Ryssa fell to her knees and pulled the little girl into her arms. The two of them wailed until his ears rang with it.
"Get up!" his father snarled as he finally joined them. "I will not have you cry for something like him."
"I hate you!" she screamed.
Styxx snatched her back before their father slapped her again or did something worse to her. "Go to your room, Ryssa. Now."
She raked Styxx with the ugliest sneer imaginable. "I wish it was you I'd found tied to that bed! You I would have left there to be used like the worthless whore you are. It's what you deserve the way you use people and discard them!"
For a full minute, Styxx couldn't catch his breath as those brutal words slapped him harder than any blow. In his mind, he saw himself on that bed again being used like he was nothing.
Knowing if he stayed, he'd beat her himself, Styxx left her to their father.
Breathe. Calm down. She doesn't know.
Still, it didn't take the pain away. She truly meant what she'd said. He heard it in her thoughts. She held no love or regard for him whatsoever, and she would gladly condemn him to Estes's custody to be a whore in Acheron's stead.
Her hatred of him was as unreasoning and unfounded as his father's for Acheron.
Styxx pressed his hand to his stomach as grief, shame, and horror racked him. But beneath all that was the bitter agony of Ryssa's rejection of him. Why did she hate him so much? Never in his life had he done anything to her.
"Styxx?"
He flinched at his father's call. Blinking, he took a deep breath and forced his emotions into restraint. Gods help him if his father saw him like this.
Styxx couldn't stand being hurt anymore. He just wanted a modicum of peace for a few minutes.
"Majesty?" he said as he returned to his father's side.
"We'll stay the night and leave at dawn."