Styxx (DH #33) by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page A

him hate every single member of his family. And every god who lived on Olympus.
    The door behind him opened.
    Tears filled his eyes as he waited for them to drag him back to the room he’d learned to despise with every part of his being. “Come, Highness. You have a visitor.”
    Visitor? Could his father have finally come to get him?
    Styxx tried to stand, but his legs were too weak to support his weight. The priest moved forward and covered his naked body with a rough cloak then pulled him up by his arm. Styxx let out a groan as his blistered side contacted with the priest’s scratchy stola. Ignoring it, the priest helped him walk down the hall to the last room on the left. The priest opened the door then pushed him through it.
    His legs buckled as the door was shut behind him.
    “Styxx?”
    He lifted his head to find his uncle moving closer.
    “Dear Zeus, what have they done to you?”
    Styxx couldn’t answer. His throat was too raw from the screams his treatments had wrung from him.
    Estes cradled him in his arms like an infant. “Can you speak?”
    Styxx shook his head, wincing as more pain went through him.
    “Here.” Estes pulled a small skin of wine from his belt and held it for him to sip.
    It burned, but tasted wonderful. He hadn’t had anything but spoiled milk, fouled water, and other disgusting things that were designed to drive the demons from his body. Swallowing hard, he licked his dry, cracked lips. “P-p-please, Uncle,” he whispered. “Take me home.”
    Estes ground his teeth as his eyes flared with anger. “I can’t, little squirrel. Xerxes said that you have to stay here until you’re healed. He would be furious if I took you home without his consent.”
    A tear slid down Styxx’s cheek at those words, burning the wounds that were left from blows he no longer felt when they were given. So much for Estes’s boasts of bravery in battle. In the end, he, who lived in a foreign country, was as scared of his father as everyone else.
    Fucking coward.
    “I’ll speak to your father on your behalf. Has he been here to see you?”
    Styxx shook his head.
    “I will get you out of here, I promise. Gods, I can’t believe Xerxes has condoned this.” Estes laid him back on the floor. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
    Don’t leave me. Please, Uncle. I can’t take any more. I can’t.
    I’m just a boy.…
    But his uncle was gone before he could get one word out.
    His breathing labored and pain-filled, Styxx realized that for the first time in months he wasn’t locked up. If he could get to the door Estes had used, he might be able to escape. Seizing that hope, he forced himself to ignore the agony of his bleeding burns and wounds to crawl across the ragged cobblestone floor. It took several minutes, but he finally reached the door.
    Joy spread through him as he rose to his knees and touched the latch.
    Almost there …
    Styxx was so close to freedom now that he could taste it on his parched tongue.
    He’d just freed the latch when the door behind him opened. Terrified, he shoved against the wood and forced himself to stand. As he tried to run, someone slammed into him, knocking him to the ground.
    No!
    Roughly, a priest rolled him over and crashed Styxx’s bruised body against the stone. “Where do you think you’re going, Highness?”
    Back to Tartarus.
    Styxx turned his head so that he saw rays of sunlight through an open window in the temple hall. He hadn’t seen the sun since his father had dumped him here. Without a word, he reached for it, wanting to feel it just one more time. But the priest seized him and dragged him back to his dark cell where he left him alone.
    Closing his eyes, Styxx did his best to remember what the sun had felt like on his skin as he heard the door lock him in his misery. He hadn’t been crazy when they’d put him here, but with every passing day, he felt his sanity slipping. He did his best to hold on to it, yet what was the use?
    “Why? Why can’t you