Page 144 of Eryx

“Theon!” Axios yelled again, cutting through one enemy before being stopped by another. He was desperate to reach our friend just like I was. “No!”

We were too late.

Theon was stabbed from behind, the sword going all the way through his small body and protruding from the center of his chest. Shocked, he looked at the blade, lifting a shaking hand to touch the tip. And then a man drove a spear through his stomach.

The breath left my lungs.No.

With a roar, I stabbed one man before using my shield to hit another in the face. Through the blur of bodies and fighting men, I saw Axios run to Theon. He dropped to his knees and held our friend close to him. Completely oblivious to the Theban nearing him with his sword drawn.

Faster than my legs had ever carried me, I ran toward Axios, blood squirting my helmet as I sliced at passing enemies. The soldier raised his sword and brought it down toward Axios’ head just as I reached them.

I stopped the blow with my sword. As the blades clashed in midair, Axios glanced up at me. Theon lay in his arms, blood dripping from his mouth and his eyes glazed over.

He was dead.

My heart thrashed against my ribs and cracked at the sight of my dead brother, a man who always smiled and enjoyed pestering everyone.

There was no time to grieve. Not yet.

“Stand, Ax!” I raised my shield to block another hit while Axios just sat there, staring at me with a distant expression. Losing Theon had put him in a state of shock. “By the gods, do as I say!”

Snapping out of his daze, Axios gently laid Theon on the ground before standing on shaking legs. He struck down a soldier while I defended him. More soldiers approached us, and we faced them while fighting side by side. As Axios fought them, he cried out, releasing his sorrow and rage.

It reminded me of the day when he’d killed Darius in the training arena. The wild look in his eyes and the heart-wrenching way he yelled. It was raw and agonizing, filled with his pain and anger.

“More are leaving us!” he said as more of our men fled the battlefield. “Ery, what should we do?”

My first instinct was to take Axios and flee. To protect him at all costs, my honor be damned. But then I saw many of our men still fighting, Haden and Quill amongst them. I refused to be a coward like my father and abandon my brothers.

Haden appeared to the left of Axios and Quill on the other side of me.

“Where’s Theon?” Quill asked, glancing around. He couldn’t see Theon’s body several feet away, and I dreaded the moment when he did.

Axios and I exchanged a look, and he shook his head. Quill mustn’t know until after the battle. If he learned the truth now, he’d be too devastated to fight, and we’d lose him too.

“Stand back to back!” I said as more hoplites swarmed us.

The four of us then fought together, each facing a different direction and protecting the man to our left with the shield. The formation was successful for a while, but then we were overwhelmed by another onslaught of men and forced to separate. Quill was knocked to one side while Axios was shoved away from me.

Our gazes locked—a single moment suspended in time—and then he was gone.

“Axios!” I broke a man’s nose with my shield and struck another in the gut.

Four men surrounded me, gripping their bloody swords as they moved in closer. Inhale. Exhale. Felix and Gaius had prepared us for when we were outnumbered in battle, and I recalled the training. As the men lunged toward me, I spun on my heels, slashing one across the chest before kicking another and sending him flying backward.

I let my senses guide me and dodged their strikes before landing killing blows to each of them. Their blood splattered on my chest, warm at first before becoming cold. When I washed it off later, I would not spare them a single thought. Years of battle had desensitized me to pitying the dead.

No longer engaged in the fight, I searched for Axios.

He had been searching for me too. Our gazes met from yards away as the battle waged around us. A relieved smile crossed his face.

A soldier charged at him from behind.

“Ax!” I yelled, running toward him.

Axios stared at me in confusion before turning around. And when he did, he was stabbed in the stomach.

“No!” I cried, sprinting faster.