Page 125 of Axios

“Very much,” he answered with a smug smile.

“What is it with you and throwing me into bodies of water?” I asked, both annoyed and amused. Water sloshed against me as I stood in place. “And the current could have dragged me away, Ery. To my death.”

“You are being dramatic.” He scoffed and stepped into the water, pulling me against him moments later. “No it couldn’t. You are too heavy.”

I slapped his chest before grabbing his head and dunking it under the stream. When he came back up, his hair slung water and smacked me in the face.

The water was too shallow to wrestle in like we had done in the river, but we still managed to push each other around a little and have a dunking competition.

After we’d grown tired, we left the water and laid on the grass to dry, laying on our backs and gazing up at the slow-moving clouds. It was a thing we had done countless times in that very spot.

And just like all the times before, I turned my head and looked at him—memorizing every detail of his face.

His long, dark eyelashes cast a small shadow beneath his eyes as he shut them. Light freckles kissed the area around his nose and his cheeks. His softly parted mouth emphasized the plumpness of his bottom lip.

The passage of time had touched many things, but it had not changed his beauty. If anything, it had only enhanced it.

“I can feel your eyes on me,” he said before a smile lifted the corner of his mouth.

“Ery, may I ask you a question?”

The middle of his forehead scrunched, and he opened his stunning, green eyes to regard me. “Of course.”

My throat felt suddenly dry.

“Now that we are men and have chosen our path… do you ever regret it?” I asked, not looking away from him. At his confusion, I knew my question had been too vague. “Do you wish you would’ve married and had children?”

Do you regret choosing me?

“No,” he answered without a moment’s contemplation, staring back at me with the kindest expression gleaming in his eyes and touching his hand to mine. “To wish such a thing would mean I regret my years with you, and that is a thing I willneverdo, Axios. There is no greater happiness than having you by my side.” Then, his face fell and he looked down at our joined hands. “Do you regret it?”

“Gods, no!” I responded, tightening my hold on him. “I only asked because of the chat we had with Haden earlier. How he and Leanna may be having another baby. It occurred to me that it might be something you yearned for. A son to carry on your name and to make you proud as Leo does for Haden.”

Eryx cupped the side of my neck and rubbed his thumb in small circles on my jaw. Just staring at me without saying a word. But he didn’t have to.

I saw the love in his eyes, and all worries about what he desired faded from my mind, because I knew he wanted me. That I was enough.

We were happy—as happy as we possibly could’ve been with the life we’d been given.

As weeks shifted to months, Leanna’s belly grew larger, and it was apparent that she was, undeniably, with child. Eryx and I spent as much time as possible visiting with her and Haden, and I felt closer to my sister than I’d ever been.

No longer had we reminisced about olden days, for we’d made new memories.

I did not waste time worrying about the future. As each day came, I welcomed it and appreciated it for what it was: a fleeting moment of happiness that must not be taken for granted.

Chapter Thirty-Three

372 BC- Two Years Later

“Who are they?” I asked, staring at the men making their way into Sparta.

Each group marching into our territory had a higher ranking man in the middle and about fifteen or more escorts surrounding him.

Eryx stared at them with a narrowed gaze. When he had his meetings with the other army officers, he never told me what they discussed, and I never asked. I had little interest in knowing the politics of war.

If it was serious, he would tell me.

“Representatives from Macedonia, Syracuse, and Persia,” he answered, pointing them out. “Another from Thebes is supposed to be arriving soon as well, and one from Athens.”