"Don't panic," Acheron said, laying him down on the floor before his hearth. "I've got you."
Acheron reached up and pulled Liora down by his side. He took the dark blue stone medallion that contained Ias's soul from his satchel. "You have to take this into your hand when he dies and release his soul back into his body."
"How?" she asked.
"Press the stone over the bow-and-arrow brand mark on his shoulder."
Acheron waited until the moment right before Ias died. He handed the medallion to Liora.
She screamed as soon as it touched her hand, then dropped it to the floor.
"It's on fire!" she shrieked.
Ias gasped as he struggled to live.
"Pick it up," Acheron ordered Liora.
She blew cool air across her palm as she shook her head no.
"What is wrong with you, woman?" Acheron asked. "He's going to die if you don't save him. Pick up his soul."
"No."
He was stupefied by her refusal to save her husband. "No? How can you not? He'll die if you don't save him. I heard you praying for him to return to you. You said you would give anything for your beloved to return, that you couldn't live without him."
She dropped her hand and eyed him coldly. "Ias is not my beloved. Lycantes is. It was he whom I prayed for and he is dead now. I was told the ghost of Ias murdered him because he killed Ias in battle so that the two of us could be together to raise our children, that Ias believed to be his."
Acheron was dumbstruck by her words.
He looked at Ias and saw the pain in the man's eyes before they turned blank and Ias died.
His heart hammering, Acheron picked up the medallion and tried to release the soul himself.
It didn't work.
Furious, he froze Liora into place before he killed her for her actions.
"Artemis!" he shouted at the ceiling.
The goddess flashed into the hut.
Guilt and anger mixed inside him, dulling his vision. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't have made so grave a mistake. He gestured to the dead man on the floor. "Please, Artemis, save him."
She shrugged nonchalantly, completely unconcerned about the man's fate. "I can't change the rules, Acheron. I told you the conditions and you agreed to them."
He motioned to the woman who was now a human statue. "Why didn't you tell me she didn't love him?"
"I had no way of knowing that any more than you did." Her eyes turned dull. "Even gods can make mistakes."
"Then why didn't you at least tell me the medallion would burn her?"
"That I didn't know. It doesn't burn me and it didn't burn you. I've never had a human hold one before."
Acheron's head buzzed with guilt and grief. With hatred for both himself and Artemis. Most of all he hated Liora for her lies. "What happens to him now?"
"He's a Shade. Without a body or soul, his essence is trapped in the netherworld to wander."
Acheron roared with the pain of what she was telling him. He had just killed a man and sentenced him to a fate far worse than death.
And for what?
For love?
For mercy?
Gods, he was such a fool.
Better than anyone, he should have known to ask the right questions. He should have known better than to trust in the love of another person.
Damn it, when would he learn?
Artemis reached down to him and lifted his chin with her hand until he looked up at her. "Tell me, Acheron, is there anyone you will ever trust enough to release you?"