Styxx (DH #33) (29 page)

But just the thought of Hector made her heart light.

How ridiculous am I?

“Have you ever…” Bethany hesitated, unsure if she wanted to let anyone else know what was on her mind.

“Have I ever what?”

Bethany glanced around the huge, white marble room to make sure no one else could hear them. “Been with a human?” she whispered.

Chara flashed a bright grin. “Many, many times. They can be very entertaining.”

“So it seems.”

That made one of her red brows shoot straight up her forehead. “I take it you found one in particular who pleases you?”

Bethany shrugged with a nonchalance she definitely didn’t feel. “It’s stupid, isn’t it? He’ll be old and dead in no time.…”

“He doesn’t have to be.
You
could spare him that.”

“Why would I? Infatuation never lasts more than a breath or two. I’m sure I’ll be bored with him the next time we meet.
If
we meet again.”

“Don’t let Agapa hear you say that. You’d hurt her feelings.”

Bethany snorted. “The goddess of love can take her seeds and put them in a most uncomfortable place. I don’t want her poison taking root in me. Ever.”

Laughing, Chara wrinkled her nose. “Now that is the Bet’anya I know and love. Ever a pessimist.”

“Ever a realist. You should try it sometime.”

“No, thank you.” Chara rocked up onto her tiptoes. “I prefer to dream and see the beauty in the world and all its possibilities.”

“It shrivels and it dies. All things do.”

“But not us,” Chara reminded her. “We are eternal.”

“Only with limitations.”

Chara held her hands up. “I concede this fight. It’s nice to see Her Holy Crabbiness back. I’ve missed you so.”

Bethany was crabby and cantankerous. She’d always been that way. But for one brief afternoon, she had been lighthearted. And she’d laughed …

“I must be getting sick.”

And she had better things to do than waste time with some mortal nothing. She had a missing god to find before the goddess of destruction was unleashed and destroyed them all. That and that alone was what she needed to be focused on.

June 25, 9532 BC

Styxx held his breath as he made his way back to the small clearing where Bethany had said she’d be. It’d taken him hours to get away from his father and tutors. After yesterday, his father had taken to watching him much more closely and he’d been forced to sneak away.

Had he taken too long? Was she gone already?

Emotionally wrecked at the thought, he broke through the trees and winced as he saw no trace of her. Damn it! He’d missed her because of
them
.

Suddenly, he heard the faint steps of something moving away in the trees.

“Bethany?” he called.

The noise stopped instantly. “Hector?”

Relief flooded him so fast and furiously, he almost lost his balance. He rushed toward her voice and found her just a few feet away, in the dense woods. Dressed in a light green gown, with her hair pulled up into a beautiful cascade of falling curls, she had a basket on one arm and her pole in her other hand.

“I’m here.” He let go of his horse to touch her shoulder so that she could locate his whereabouts.

She smiled instantly. “I thought you’d changed your mind.”

“No. Never. I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t get away any earlier.”

Bethany shivered as he took her hand into his and kissed it. The warm, masculine smell of him filled her head and made her heart pound. A scary, unexpected urge to hug him went through her and she had to force herself to refrain. “I brought you some lamb and cheese with wine.”

“I love cheese. It’s one of my favorites.” After taking the pole from her, he pressed something into her hand. “I brought you flowers.”

She brushed her fingers over the small bouquet. Her smile widened at the softness of the petals. “Poppies?”

“They are, indeed.”

“Thank you.” Rising up, she placed a chaste kiss on his cheek.

Styxx closed his eyes and savored the sensation of her lips on his skin. He ached to sink his hand into her hair and hold her there, against him until time itself stopped moving. “I’m sorry I was so late. If you need to leave…”

“I don’t. Not really.” She started back toward the stream.

“Here, let me carry that for you.” Styxx took the basket from her arm.

As they walked, she pulled a blanket from the basket in his hand. Once they reached her spot, she spread it out on the ground. It amazed him how she moved with such ease and grace when she couldn’t see anything. How she remembered the exact place she’d been in when they’d met.

“May I ask you something personal?”

She paused. “It depends. How personal are we talking?”

He leaned the pole against a tree. “It’s … never mind. I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”

She arched a brow at him. “Now you have my curiosity fully tweaked. What is it?”

“I … um…” He scratched nervously at his cheek, hoping to the gods he didn’t offend her with his stupidity. “Were you born blind?”

She laughed lightly as she set out her items from the basket. “You and I have completely different definitions for the word ‘personal.’ No, I wasn’t born blind. I had my sight at birth.”

“Is that why you move so easily?”

“No. I move easily because I’m not old.”

It was his turn to laugh. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant and no, it’s because I have overdeveloped senses that allow me to know where things are, and it’s why I tend to hum or make noises as I go. Whenever I get near something, sound will echo back from it, letting me know it’s in my way.”

“Really?”

She nodded as she sank down on the blanket. “What about you? Were you born with your eyesight?”

He laughed again. “I was indeed. Though I have no memory of it. And sometimes it doesn’t work as well as it should.” He set the basket down beside her then took a seat on the opposite side of the blanket so that he could admire the way the light cut across her skin that reminded him of warm, dark honey. “You changed your hair.”

“I curled it.”

“I like it … though it was nice straight, too,” he quickly added.

Her sweet, beautiful smile hardened him instantly. “My poor Hector. You’re really not very comfortable around women, are you?”

“Not even a little, but I have to say that you’re a lot easier to talk to than most.”

“How so?”

You don’t deride me, for one thing.…
“I think it has to do with the fact that I met you at the height of my ineptitude. I have nowhere else to go in your estimation except up.” Cringing over those words, Styxx cleared his throat. He’d said too much about his stupidity and clumsiness. No need in reminding her of it when he didn’t have to. “Nice weather, isn’t it?”

She tsked at him. “You’re changing the subject. It makes me wonder why.”

He sighed wearily before he answered her original question. “Women tend to want to use or judge me.”

“Use you how?”

He plucked a blade of grass and ran it through his fingertips. “They see me as a hefty purse.”

“Are you?”

“No. I’m quite certain I’m human. Most days anyway. Mornings not always withstanding. Instead of a purse, I’m much more of a bear in the early hours of the day.”

Her laughter washed over him like the sweetest wine and had the same intoxicating effect on him. “But do you have money?”

That succeeded in sobering him. Was she like the others, after all? “Why are you asking?”

“Because I don’t like people who are wealthy. They tend to be arrogant and hold the belief that any problem can be solved by applying more funds toward it.”

While that would be true of both his father and uncle, it wasn’t his philosophy. “Honestly, my lady. I have no personal wealth at all.” As his father was so quick to remind him … Everything belonged to his father. Even the horse he rode. “I’m quite worthless.”

“You are definitely not worthless.”

“And to that, I would remind you that you’re blind.” Styxx cringed again as those words left his lips. Oh gods, how could he have been so stupid and insensitive? “Bethany, I didn’t mean—”

“Shh.” She pressed her fingers to his lips. “The truth doesn’t offend me, Hector. I am blind. I can’t deny that. But because of it I see much more clearly than those who have working eyes.”

She picked up the bread and tore a small piece from it that she held out to him. “Here, sweet. Perhaps this will remove the taste of foot from your mouth?”

Smiling, he started to take it from her then before he could stop himself, he leaned forward and ate it from her hand.

Bethany shivered at the sensation of his lips against her fingers as he took the bread in his teeth. She heard him pour and mix the wine into the two goblets she’d packed. With the tenderest of touches, he took her hand and placed it against the cup. Sweeping her finger over the edge, she had to bite back a smile. He’d barely filled it halfway.

“You’re definitely not trying to get me drunk.”

“I don’t believe in taking advantage of others.”

“Then you are a rare man.”

“Just an honest one.”

His sweet humility warmed her. “As I said, you are very rare.”

“Do you really believe that?” he asked in that richly deep voice of his. She could listen to the manly resonance of it all day long.…

“Experience has tutored me well that most will lie or cheat to get the better hand. It’s why I prefer solitude to social interaction.”

He took a sip then set his cup aside. “And I hate to be alone, yet it seems to be forever forced upon me.”

She frowned at the pain she heard in his tone. “Why do you hate being alone?”

“It’s lonely.”

“You can be surrounded by people and still be alone.”

“And that is a lesson I’ve learned well. Still, it’s better to be distracted by the crowd than to be left with memories that serve no purpose other than to torture the conscience and flog the heart.”

His wisdom surprised her. He seemed a lot older than his years.

“You aren’t old enough to have such regrets.”

“Pain doesn’t respect age, my lady. Sometimes I think the Algea rather enjoy going after younger victims just for spite.” Styxx hesitated as a stricken look went across her brow. “Forgive me, my lady. I didn’t mean to be so maudlin. I’ve tainted your beautiful smile, and that was definitely not my intent. As I said, I spend far too much time alone. It leaves me lacking in all social graces.”

She shook her head. “I find your sincere conversation and heartfelt comments refreshing. I have no patience for guile and even less for artful wordsmiths who mask their claws behind double entendres and cleverly practiced lines. So give me your honesty, Hector. That is why I waited for you today when I never wait for anyone.”

How did she do it? She made him feel so …

Human. Worthy. And it was so effortless for her. While others degraded him, she made him feel like he could fly.

“You are not like anyone I’ve ever met before, Bethany.”

She tucked her chin in, in the cutest manner he’d ever seen. “I should hope not. I pride myself on being unique in this world.”

He hardened even more and wished he had the courage to steal a kiss from her. “And well you should.”

She swallowed her bit of bread. “What about you?”

“What about me, what?”

She leaned forward and wrinkled her nose. “On what do you pride yourself?”

Stupidity. It was what he seemed to possess an abundance of, but he had no wish to out himself so soon to her. “Nothing.”

“I’m serious, Hector.”

He glanced away from her. “As am I.”

She scooted closer to him until her scent made his head reel again. “There’s nothing you excel at? Honestly?”

Before he could stop himself, the truth poured out. “Angering my father, and definitely my sister. I can turn her from a smiling beauty to a vengeful shrew by merely walking into a room. My powers in that regard are truly awe-inspiring. But I take no pride in either. And as you’ve seen firsthand, my skill with horses is even more lacking than my social graces.”

“There has to be something you’re good at. Surely you can name me one thing besides angering your family.”

“The only other thing I’m accomplished at is hiding pain behind the guise of stoicism.”

Bethany froze as she heard the torment inside him. Her heart breaking for him, she reached to touch his hand, but couldn’t find it.

“I’m sorry, my lady. I didn’t mean to … I should be going.” He was moving away, she could hear his retreat.

“Hector? Please, don’t go. Stay with me.”

Styxx savored words no one had ever said to him before. Never once. Rather, people were forever sending him away. Before he could stop himself, he headed back to her side.

She held her hands up to feel for him. “Are you still here?”

He placed his hand into hers and allowed her to pull him down next to her. The urge to cup her hand to his cheek was so strong, he wasn’t sure how he kept from complying. “I am here.”

The smile on her face slammed into him. “Should we just speak of the weather?”

“Whatever topic pleases you.”

She reached up to finger his jaw and lips. “The one thing that is hard without sight is judging moods at times. Since I can’t see your expression, I can’t tell yours right now. You
are
good at hiding it.”

“My mood is that I am happy and content just to sit with you, Bethany.” He brushed a stray piece of hair back from her cheek. “You don’t even have to speak to me at all.”

“But I would like to know you.”

Those words tore through him. “There’s nothing really to know. I work. I study and I sometimes sleep.”

“What do you do for pleasure?”

Not a damn thing.
Except for one …

“I ride to this stream where there is an amazing girl who plies me with beautiful smiles and wine and bread so that I can remove the taste of foot from my mouth.”

She shook her head at him. “And before me?”

“There was no before you, Bethany. I had no pleasure whatsoever.”

Bethany hesitated at those words. She heard the sincerity in his voice. But was he serious? “None?”