Page 43 of Eryx

I closed my eyes and smiled, taking pleasure in his impatience. When I said nothing further, he shoved me.

“Okay, I shall tell you,” I said with a laugh. “Apollo sent his sister, Artemis, to kill Coronis, while he killed Prince Ischys. The princess was slain with deadly arrows then thrown upon a pyre to be burnt. But as the flames began consuming her flesh, Apollo removed his son that was growing in her womb. That son was called Asclepius, who became the god of healing.”

“With death comes life,” Axios whispered.

Was that the lesson he learned from the story? A baby saved from the fire grew up to heal others. Whereas, I’d always focused on the betrayal in the tale and how one must not anger the gods. Axios shifted my perception and made me see things I never had before.

Staring at him, I grabbed his hand and interlaced our fingers. “Not even death could keep me from you. My soul will forever find yours. In this life and the next.”

They were the truest words I’d ever spoken. I felt them in my core, just as I felt Axios in my very soul.

Our lips touched then. I was unsure if he kissed me or I him, but our mouths pressed gently together. Joined in this way, I found a rare peace. His soft lips made me vulnerable, made my body heat and my breaths sharpen. Each time our kisses had started to shift to something more over the years, hands slipping beneath tunics and touching hard abdomens, I’d pulled away as I hadn’t known how to please him.

I do now.

An ache traveled through my body, as did a spark of desire. Yes, Axios made me vulnerable, but I cared not. He awoke a deep-seated need within me that I could no longer ignore.

I shifted my weight to where I lay on top of him, our lips still moving together. Axios moaned and wrapped his arms around me. A sweet sound with an even sweeter kiss. Once we’d turned sixteen, we’d been provided tunics again. But we didn’t have to be in the nude for me to feel the wild beating of his heart, for mine was beating too.

Tearing away from his mouth, I kissed down his neck.

“Ery,” he said breathlessly. “I… I need to feel you.”

Feel me. I knew his meaning, and gods, I needed it too.

As our gazes met, his eyes darkened a shade. His lips parted and his nails dug into my back. I’d never been able to deny him a thing, and this was no different. I would give him the moon on a string if he asked it of me. Giving him my body, giving him the last sliver of innocence I still possessed after all these years in theagoge, would be an honor.

Harder and more feverish than earlier, I captured his lips once more. The desire was too great, and we were both prisoners to it.

Axios panted between our kisses, and when my hands roamed down his sides and slipped beneath his tunic, he emitted a small whimper.

“Axios? Eryx?”

Haden.

My hand stilled, and I growled low in my throat. I’d been so close to touching Axios where he wanted me most.

None of our friends knew the location of our secret place. The vines, undergrowth, trees, and shrubs with thorns blocked the path. One of them was bound to stumble upon it if they tried hard enough, but so far none of them had. They knew we wandered off somewhere in our spare time, though.

“Eryx?” Haden called again, his heavy footsteps echoing through the trees. “Axios?”

He was as clumsy as he was big. Axios liked to call him abig, clumsy oaf, which I thought suited him well.

“I’m going to kill him,” I whispered and rolled off Axios. Our oaf of a friend had horrible timing. “Perhaps slit his throat in his sleep. Or bind his arms and legs and throw him into the river. Both options would suffice.”

Axios laughed and sat up, brushing his fingers through his hair and ridding it of grass. My cock ached and my pulse raced through my veins like fire scorching dead grass in the heat of summer. By the way his chest rose and fell, I suspected he felt the same. I helped him to his feet before we found the path out of the small clearing and back into the density of the forest.

“There you two are,” Haden said, spotting us. He leaned against a tree and had his foot propped against the trunk, flashing a silly grin.

“Yes. Here we are,” I dryly said, stopping in front of him. “What is it you want?”

“What would you do if I said I only wanted to pester you like the nuisance I am?” Haden answered, smirking.

“Probably strangle you,” I said, but I couldn’t stop the smile that touched my lips. Though irritating and sometimes dimwitted, he was my brother and I’d kill for him. Even if he was the one I wanted to kill at times. “We were… occupied. The interruption best be of dire importance.”

A twig jutted from Axios’ hair, and I pulled it away.

“I would not quite call it dire,” Haden spoke, pushing away from the tree. “But it is a thing you will wish to see.”