Page 64 of Axios

I quickly lost interest and continued on my way. The path curved through the courtyard outside of my barracks, but instead of following it, I made my own to avoid detection, keeping to the darker areas beside the high shrubs.

The hit came out of nowhere, hitting me from my left side and sending me plummeting to the grass.

After hitting the ground, I swung at the body on top of me, but stopped when Eryx’s scent enveloped my senses.

“Where have you been?” he practically roared, glaring at me. The downward angle of his head made his hair swoop over one eye, and his mouth was set into a grim line.

Even when enraged, he was beautiful.

“I do not have to answer to you, and I’mnota piece of property for you to do with what you wish.” I shoved against him, but he grabbed my forearms, pinning me down. “By the gods, release me, Eryx!”

“Do you realize how crazed I’ve been at not knowing where you were?” he asked, his voice cracking.

When I pushed against him again, his hold loosened and I broke free. I rolled out from under him and sat up, meeting his anxious eyes with a scowl. I had been prepared to have a calm discussion with him about the topic from earlier, but his barbaric ways of tackling me had ignited my anger once more.

“You truly wish to know where I’ve been all day?”

He nodded, no longer consumed with a possessive wrath.

“With the king,” I said, getting to my feet and peering down at him. “He watched me train and asked me to accompany him for a walk. I accepted.”

Eryx stood as well, closing the distance between us and pushing me against the column. The same one we’d been pressed against before. We’d been in the midst of an argument then as well, and it had been resolved by making love.

That will not happen this time.

“With the king,” he repeated with the fire ablaze once more in his eyes, along with suspicion. “What transpired between you?”

I knew what he was asking, and a part of me wanted to hurt him just as he’d hurt me. To make him feel small and insignificant.

Before he’d told me about his decision to do as Sparta requested of him, I had agonized over it. Yet, even while consumed with the cloud of doubt, I had truly believed he would choose me. The possibility was in the back of my mind that he’d wish for a family, but I’d held onto hope thatI’dbe his family. That he would not wish for more.

His confession had thrown my sense of trust and security off balance, and I didn’t know what to believe anymore.

The future I’d imagined for myself was gone.

“Tell me!” Eryx demanded, gripping my upper arms. Then, he leaned his cheek against mine before speaking in a much softer manner, “Please, Ax. You cannot even begin to fathom the atrocious thoughts in my mind. Speak the truth so that I may lay them to rest.”

His pain-laced tone sliced into my chest, and I yearned to take away his sorrow. To comfort him as he’d done to me so many instances before.

“There are times when a lie is more forgiving than a truth,” I said, echoing his same words from earlier.

He lifted his head and looked at me.

“You lay with him,” he spoke calmly, his face devoid of all emotion.

Stoicism was his defense when he was hurting. It always had been. When he was uncertain, upset, or struggling with any situation, he turned to indifference to make himself seem above it. As if his nonchalance attitude would soften the blow of any approaching trouble.

He might fool others, but I knew him, and he could not hide the grief reflecting in his eyes. Not from me.

“No, I did not lay with him,” I answered, seeing the immediate shift in his expression from indifference to relief. My next words were on the tip of my tongue, and I almost didn’t utter them, but I needed him to know. “Though, I considered it. He kissed me, and I let him. And when he suggested that we go to his chambers, I nearly said yes, if only to spite you.”

Eryx looked as if I’d plunged a dagger into his heart. He opened his mouth, but no words escaped. He could only stare at me with betrayal gleaming in his green eyes.

“You wounded me deeply,” I continued, attempting to justify my actions. The ache in my chest returned. “You confessed that you would toss me away without a moment’s hesitation. For marriage. For the profession you love more than me!” Angry tears dripped down my cheeks, and I wiped them away, loathing the display of weakness. “Gods be damned, Ery, you aremineand I am yours. I have been since the day, so long ago, when you stood in line with the other boys and encouraged me to stand and fight.”

“A lot has changed since that day,” he spoke, finally finding his voice.

“But that never will,” I said, my throat tightening with the intensity of my feelings for him. “Our lives may take us to unexpected places and it might alter many a things, but I will forever be yours.”