Page 135 of Eryx

Haden, running too fast to stop in time, tripped and piled on top of them.

Axios pushed Haden’s large body off and rolled to his back to stare up at the blue sky. And then he laughed. The sound was broken at first, as he hadn’t laughed so hard in a while, but then it reached my ears, light and carefree.

I stopped when I reached him, looking down into his smiling face. He tilted his head to me as I offered a hand to help him stand. He accepted it, and once he was to his feet, I pressed our lips together. He grinned against my mouth.

“So, can we play?” Haden asked, grabbing the ball from the grass and standing. “Eryx is on my team.”

Axios narrowed his eyes at me.

“Remember that I adore you,” I said, my hand sliding from his as I stepped away from him to stand beside Haden. “Especially when my team beats yours.”

“So confident you are,” Axios retorted, taking his place beside Theon and Quill. “Let us see how long that confidence lasts.”

Spending the afternoon playing ball was the distraction we all needed. My team won, but Axios and the others put up a good fight. As we headed toward the dining hall that evening, the five of us discussed the game and laughed as we recalled the times Theon had tripped over nothing and lost the ball.

The laughter died away, though, once we sat at the table to eat and Quill asked the question that had been on all our minds.

“When do you believe we’ll be sent back to battle?”

Oursyssitionhad only been tasked with returning the king’s body to Sparta. The rest of the army we had left with on campaign continued to fight in Olynthus and secure the city of Torone.

My brothers were quiet after that.

“When we are asked to return, we shall,” I said, before grabbing my goblet and lifting it in the air. “For now, let us drink and enjoy each day as it comes.”

The men raised their glasses, and we drank.

Axios placed a hand on my thigh, and I scooted closer to him. No words were spoken between us, but they didn’t need to be. I saw everything I needed to know in his eyes: joy and love. And that was enough.

Chapter Thirty

The heat of summer faded as the humid air turned crisp and cool. Bursts of color painted Sparta’s landscape as leaves transitioned from green to an assortment of yellows and oranges. Autumn then shifted to winter as the colorful leaves turned brown and fell to the ground, leaving the branches bare. The nights grew colder and the days shorter.

Months had passed since our return from Aphytis. Each day we anticipated news that we were being sent back to battle, but it never came.

Then, on one cold winter’s day, it did.

An envoy arrived while Axios and I strolled through theagora.

The sight of the men stopped us in our tracks, and we stared in silence as their horses rode past us. Their arrival was the sign we’d been awaiting; the moment when we’d have to once again leave our home. There was a light pressure on my hand, and I looked at Axios with a tight smile. His fingers were entwined with mine as we continued through the market and up the hill that led to the soldiers’ housing.

Word did not reach us that night. We made love in the stables before returning to the barracks and falling asleep shortly thereafter. At dawn, we woke and readied ourselves for the day. Soldiers stood in the square, speaking in loud voices.

“Olynthus has fallen!” one told me. “And has sworn to become our ally.”

But like everything else in life, there was a balance of good and bad. Fortune was in our favor with Olynthus, but on the other side of the coin lay the news we’d been expecting. Tensions with Thebes had risen once more.

Years earlier when Sparta had sent an army north to aid the Macedonian king, the army had become involved with Theban politics while in Boeotia and had taken the citadel. The city had been placed under Spartan control and given a new government. A Theban general called Pelopidas had been exiled at the time, along with dozens of others. It was the reason why a second army had to be sent to aid Macedonia.

Gaius approached, a scowl on his weathered face. Apart from streaks of gray in his dark hair and beard, he appeared as he always had. Time had barely touched him. He then explained what had happened.

The exiled general Pelopidas had gathered the other exiles and returned to the Cadmea with the aid of Theban loyalists. They had assassinated the Theban oligarchs and attacked the Spartan garrison, retaking the citadel. Pelopidas was promoted toboeotarchand now held the highest position in the government as he worked to expand the territory of the Boeotian League.

“Thebes has incited war.” Gaius spit on the ground and snarled. “And it is a war they shall get.”

We were then told we’d be leaving in two days to invade Boeotia.

Axios, Haden, and I visited Leanna for a while, and Axios held his nephew close to his chest, placing feather light kisses to the child’s dark hair. Leo giggled and spoke all the words he knew—most of them obscenities he’d learned from his father. Each time he spoke them, Leanna glared at Haden and lightly punched his arm.