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Kyros entered his house, his hands still shaking He couldn&039;t believe what he&039;d seen tonight What he&039;d heard Marco had been slain

And Ias was alive

Ias had been alive for all these centuries

Rage and grief battled relief and happiness He was so confused by his emotions that he didn&039;t knohat to feel or think Part of him wanted to embrace his old friend

As men, they had been closer than mere brothers There was a special bond that ca your life to anotheryou with his It was communal and unbreakable They had shared that

Howmarches to and from battle? When one had fallen from wounds, the other had stood over hiht ended Then the one standing had rendered ht countless ti one another safe

He owed Ias more than could ever be repaid by coin or by deed It was that part of himself that was ecstatic that Ias was alive

But the other part of him was so betrayed, so hurt How could Ias have survived and not told him?

How?

Why hadn&039;t Acheron ever mentioned it? He more than any other knew just how , the loss of Ias had been more than he could bear He&039;d felt so responsible If he had told Ias about his wife, then his friend wouldn&039;t haveshe loved hie would have destroyed Ias, who loved Lioraelse

Even his own life had been forfeit because he&039;d kept silent He&039;d died protecting Ias from Lycantes, who&039;d been Liora&039;s lover, the first tione for Ias

Why didn&039;t I ever tell hiuessing on his shoulders like Atlas There had been very few nights over the last nine thousand years when renawed at him

Every ti free, of having a lover drop the medallion that contained their soul before it was returned to them, he&039;d remembered his friend

More than that, Ias had been the one who had given all the Dark-Hunters their out clause Without Ias, Artemis or Acheron or whoever had coain their souls or go free Ever

But in spite of it all, Kyros knew one thing, Ias wouldn&039;t lie to hi His friend had never been anything but honorable:

But was this Ias the sa?"

Kyros looked to see Stryker standing just inside the doorway of his office where he was headed With a nonchalance he didn&039;t feel, Kyros pushed past hiundy leather chair "I&039; what?"

He pinned the Dailare "Did you know the destroyer was once my best friend?"

Stryker paused as those words hit hi he hadn&039;t seen co He&039;d alondered where the Alexion had come from

But let&039;s face it, Acheron wasn&039;t really into sharing any kind of inforht be able to use against hiht-lipped

But his e So the Alexion had once been human And he had known Kyros

Good He could ith this

"You ht now," Stryker said in a calculatedly sy to you?"

"He said he ca you"

Stryker kept his face blank He had to play this carefully if he were going to pull it back froulf it and ruin all his plans

"Interesting"

So, the Alexion wanted to save Stryker&039;s pawn from death This could be extremely beneficial The Alexion would think twice before he daive Stryker a pawn to use against him Surely the Alexion wouldn&039;t kill the very ood news indeed "You do know he&039;s lying to you, correct?"

Kyros shook his head as he leaned back in his chair "I don&039;t think so"

"Don&039;t you?" Stryker asked as he moved forward to push aside the black leather pencil cup He sat on a corner of the desk "Use your head, Kyros He claims to be your friend, but where has he been all these centuries?"

"He said he couldn&039;t make contact"

"Couldn&039;t or wouldn&039;t?"

Kyros&039;s eyes narrowed on hi to say, Stryker I&039;ht now"

"Fine," he said, leaning forward to aze levelly "What I have to say is this If he really is your friend, where has he been all this ti in the backwoods of hell? How many times have you requested Acheron move you frooing on other than a keg party? And how one unanswered?"

Kyros looked away from him "Ash had his reasons"

The poor pathetic little fool He had no idea what he was dealing hen it came to either Acheron or himself

"Did he?" Stryker asked "Or was it your friend who refused your request? Think about it, Kyros Acheron is a busy man who doesn&039;t have time to oversee all the thousands of Dark-Hunters out there that he has created to destroy us Who would he defer to in such ive hiical arguht hand, that&039;s who The one he trusts above all others to carry out his orders"

He tsked "Hell, the Alexion even has the ability to command part of my brother&039;s powers There are some of us who believe that your friend, the Alexion, even shares the blood of Acheron So you know it&039;s your so-called friend who has been responsible for your assignments He was the one who didn&039;t think you deserved to be aroundthe decision, surely such a friend would have the ability to sway Acheron&039;sbefore now Wouldn&039;t he?"

He saw the uncertainty in Kyros&039;s eyes and forced hi you, Kyros Think about it This is just another ht now This instant Both of them The Alexion is here to kill you all, not save you If he&039;d really wanted to save you, he would have given you a decent assigno But he didn&039;t, did he?"

Stryker tried to look syle Dark-Hunter left alive in this area once he returns to Acheron unless you kill the Alexion first"

Stryker slid off the desk,closer to him "Already you&039;ve seen his work Wasn&039;t Marco where I told you he would be?"

"Yes"

Good, his Daimons had done what they were supposed to "Was he not killed how I told you?"

"Yes"

"And was the Alexion not there?"

Kyros nodded "Everything you&039;ve toldto you?"

His ansas auto "They&039;re lying and so what are we going to do about it?"

Kyros gave hier watched Alexion as he sat at the s completely defeated For a man who clai them now

At his insistence that they not return to her house where they could be found again by the de for theer was a little nervous about staying here She didn&039;t like feeling this exposed If the ht in

Alexion, according to his own admission, wouldn&039;t explode into dust, but she would And no offense, being roasted wasn&039;t so she wanted to experience unless it involved one of her friends telling e stories about her

But Alexion had assured her that he wouldn&039;t let any harm befall her

I suppose this is the test then

If she survived the day, he was honest If she didn&039;t she would be seriously pissed

And dead

In the meantime, it was just the two of them in the small hotel room And to be honest, Alexion looked weary and beat by what had happened with Kyros The poor man had been so upset that he hadn&039;t even touched his dinner

"He&039;ll come around," she said as she pulled her boots and socks off

He looked up at her "I wish I had your faith"

"Then have faith in Acheron That&039;s what you keep telling me to do Would he have sent you here to fail?"

"Yes," he said, his voice tired and yet strangely determined

His answer surprised her "No he wouldn&039;t That would be cruel"

"Yes," he insisted "He would have As Acheron would say, sometimes you have to fail in order to succeed Whether ant it or not, there is an order in the universe It&039;s hard to understand and many, many times it&039;s hard to s, but it&039;s there and our choices are our own Failure is part of life and no one can succeed every ti"

She huffed at that "Well, that sucks"

He nodded in agree free will"

"Maybe ould be better off without it then"

He gave a short laugh "That&039;s what Acheron thinks most of the time He really hates free will, but he will never interfere with it"

"How could he?"