Шеррилин Кеньон - The beginning

Artemis wanted to weep with the hopelessness of it all. She’d tried once, long ago, to turn back the hands of time and redo that morning.

To win back Acheron’s love and trust.

The Fates had punished her severely for the audacity.

For the last two thousand years, she had tried everything to bring him back to her side.

Nothing had worked. Nothing had ever come close to making him forgive her or to journey back to her temple.

Not until she thought of the one thing he could never say no to— a mortal soul in jeopardy.

Acheron would do anything to save the humans.

Her plan to make him responsible for more Dark-Hunters had worked and now he was back.

If she could just keep him.

“You want me to release them?” she asked.

For him, she would do anything.

“Yes.”

For her, he would do nothing.

Not unless she forced him to it.

“What will you do for me, Acheron? You know the rules. A favor requires a favor.”

He released her with an angry curse and stepped back from her. “I’ve learned better than to play this game with you.”

Artemis shrugged with a nonchalance she didn’t feel. At this moment everything she cared about was on the line.

If he said no, it would destroy her.

“Fine, they will continue on as Dark-Hunters then. Alone with no one to teach them what they need to know. No one to care what becomes of them.”

He released a long, tired breath.

She wanted to comfort him, but knew he would reject her touch. He’d always rejected comfort or solace.

He was stronger than anyone had a right to be.

When he met her gaze, it sent a raw, sensual shiver over her.

“If they are to serve you and the gods, Artemis, they have things they need.”

“Such as?”

“Armor for one. You can’t send them out to fight without weapons. They need money to procure food, clothes, horses and even servants to watch over them in the daylight while they rest.”

“You ask too much for them.”

“I ask only for what they need to survive.”

“You never asked any of that for yourself.” She was hurt now at that fact.

He never asked for anything.

“I don’t need food and my powers allow me to procure everything else I need. As for protection, I have Simi. They won’t last alone.”

No one lasts alone, Acheron.

No one.

Not even you.

And especially not me.

Artemis lifted her chin, determined to have him by her side no matter the consequences. “And again I say to you, what will you give me for what they need?”

Acheron looked away, his gut tight. He knew what she wanted and the last thing he wanted was to give it to her. “This is for them, not me.”

She shrugged. “Fine then, they can do without since they have nothing to barter with.”

His fury ignited deep at her casual dismissal of their lives and well-being.

She hadn’t changed at all.

“Damn you, Artemis.”

She approached him slowly. “I want you, Acheron. I want you back like you were before.”

He inwardly cringed as she cupped his face in her hand. They could never go back as they had been. He’d learned too much about her since then.

He had been betrayed one time too many.

He would say he was a slow learner, but that wasn’t true. What he’d been was so desperate for someone to care about him that he had ignored the darker side of her nature.

Ignored it until she’d had turned her back on him and left him to die.

Some crimes were even above his ability to forgive.

His thoughts turned from himself, to the innocent men who were living in a cave. Men who knew nothing of their new existence or enemies. He couldn’t leave them there like that.

He had cost enough people their lives, their futures.

There was no way he could let them lose their souls and life too.

“All right, Artemis. I will give you what you want, if you give them what they need to survive.”

She beamed.

“But,” he continued, “my terms are this: you are going to pay them every month a wage that will allow them to buy whatever they need or desire. As stated earlier, they will need shield-bearers to care for them personally so that they won’t have to worry about scrounging for food, clothes or arms. I don’t want them to be distracted from their work.”

“Fine, I will find humans who will serve them.”

“Living humans, Artemis. I want them to serve of their own free will. No more Dark-Hunters.”

“Four of you are not enough. We need more to keep the Daimons in check.”

Acheron closed his eyes as he felt the endlessness of this relationship. All too easily he could see into the future and where this was headed.

The more Dark-Hunters, the more he would be locked to her. There was no way to keep her from tying him to her forever.

Or was there?

“All right,” he said. “I’ll give on this, if you will agree to provide them a way out of your service.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want you to establish a way for the Dark-Hunters to regain their souls so that they are no longer bound to you if they so choose it.”

Artemis stepped back. This wasn’t something she had foreseen. If she gave him this, then even he would be bound by it.

He could leave her.

She’d forgotten just how devious Acheron could be. How well he knew the rules of the game and how to manipulate them and her.

He was truly her equal.

And yet if she failed to give him this, then he would leave her anyway. She had no choice and well he knew it.

However, there were still things that could keep him by her side.

One way she knew that would ensure his presence in her life for all eternity.

“Very well. Let us make the rules to govern them, then.” She felt his thoughts drift back toward Ias.

He pitied the poor Greek soldier who loved his wife.

Pity, mercy and compassion would always be his downfall.

“Number one, is that they must die to reclaim their souls.”

“Why?” he asked.

“A soul can only be released from a body at the moment of death. Likewise, it can only return to a body that is no longer functioning. So long as they ‘live’ as a Dark-Hunter, they can never have their souls again. That’s not my rule, Acheron, that is simply the nature of souls.”

He frowned at that. “How do you kill an immortal Dark-Hunter?”

“Well, we could cut off their heads or expose them to daylight, but since that damages their body beyond repair, it rather defeats the purpose.”

“You’re not funny.”

And neither was he. She didn’t want to release them from her service.

Most of all, she didn’t want to release him.

“You have to drain out their Dark-Hunter powers,” she told him. “Make their immortal bodies vulnerable to attack, then stop their hearts from beating. Only then do they die in a manner that will enable them to return to life.”

“Fine, I can do that.”

“Actually, you can’t.”

“What do you mean?”

She fought the urge to smile. Here was where she had him.

“There are a few laws you need to know about souls, Acheron. One is the owner must freely give it up. Since I own their souls…”

Acheron cursed. “I will have to barter with you for every soul.”

She nodded.

He looked less than pleased by the knowledge. But he would come around in time.

Yes, he would definitely come around…

“What else?” he asked.

Now for her one rule that would bind him to her forever. “Only a true, pure heart can release the soul back into a body. The one who returns the soul must be the one person who loves them above all others. A person they love and trust in return.”

“Why?”