An unexpected flinch tugged her head back when Akheron mentioned their brother's name. Tension populated her shoulders and multiplied down her spine, a creeping infection that drew her muscles tighter and creased the sides of her mouth. Moros didn't fucking scare her. There was no reason why she should have flinched, and no reason why she should have let Akheron see her doing it.
Only it was a lie. She could taste the bitter copper flavor of it in the back of her throat - a lie. Once, before Moros had done the things he'd done to her, Styx had never feared Doom. Now that he had taken advantage of her promise to him, now that he had used the connected they shared for his own destructive purposes, now that he had destroyed every trace of their unique bond within her mind, now there was a trace of fear for Moros. But that wasn't the lie, not the real one; that was bravado, and anyone with a brain could recognize the two.
It was Akheron, reminding her that the thing Moros had done had not been so secret as she believed. It wasn't a matter between her once-companion and her now-lover; it wasn't quiet, and it wasn't polite. He knew about it. He knew about everything Moros had done. Of course he knew. Thoughts moved too quickly for the words themselves; they came in waves of abstract - and at the end, understanding. He understood her, and that was a rare thing. Her mouth turned wry again. She fancied herself difficult to read, and perhaps at times she was, but it didn't seem to hold true with Akheron. Did that trouble her? It troubled her that it didn't.
He was saying all the right things, and that meant he was dangerous. Because if this were just the moment speaking for him and if she allowed the hope of it to infect her, then it would be worse - far worse - for her when he changed his mind. Like Moros.
Unfair. She saw his grimace and rolled to the side where she let herself drop again to the floor beside him. "I'm not afraid of you," she said to his shoulder, filling the words with disgust and mockery. Again, that coppery flavor coated her tongue and left metal in the back of her throat. So many lies, lately. It sickened her.