Sam Breton asked Sherrilyn Kenyon:

Sherri, This is something that has been bothering me.. A lot of people after reading Styxx are very angry with Ash, and don't like him anymore at all. I have seen a lot of negative comments towards Ash lately. What would you say to those people to help remind them that Ash isn't a bad guy? He made mistakes, but he was hurting too, and didn't know what was going on with his brother. I'm hurting for Ash! Thanks.

Sherrilyn Kenyon It's not a "lot." But a few. Going into his novel, everyone hated Styxx. HATED him. With a fiery passion. That was the point of the two books. To show that you never know what is going on in someone's heart or life. No one is above heartache and tragedy. Or as Hestia Waring-Dane says in Born of Legend: Pain baptizes us all without prejudice or mercy.

All you have to do is read Acheron again and you remember why you hated Styxx. Ash had no way of knowing what was going on with him. He was well within his rights to react to his brother the way he did. I think Nykyrian says it best in Born of Betryal: "No matter how much we lie to ourselves about what a good person we are inside, sooner or later, we are all someone else's nightmare. Let us hope for all our sakes that history judges us with far kinder labels than what we've used to judge each other." Or as Ushara puts it: "You don't know the 'truth' until you've seen inside that person's heart. What is bravely shown to the world in an effort to protect a shattered dignity may not be the truth of a battered soul."

Acheron is a battered soul, too. Every bit as battered as Styxx. It wasn't a contest. There was no winner. They both deserve love and understanding. Most of all, they deserve compassion. It's why they're learning to trust each other now and are building their families together as brothers. Forgiveness is hard and trust is even harder. But they're working on it. They're not perfect, but they're perfectly ours :) Hugs!

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