The strength of him. The passion.

Defiantly, he had stood in her temple and laughed when she threatened to kill him.

There before her statue, he had dared do what no man before or since had ever dared…

She could still taste that kiss.

Unlike other men, he had never feared her.

Now, the heat of his hand on her flesh seared her, but then his touch always had. There was nothing more she craved than the taste of his lips. The fire of his passion.

And with one mistake, she had lost him.

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.”