Page 9 of Axios
He had placed his bed beside mine the first night we had talked, and he’d been by my side every night since. His hand gently gripped my wrist, and I knew he was attempting to comfort me. Due to the mess of my back, there wasn’t much unmarred flesh there, so he couldn’t embrace me like he preferred.
It hurt to move, even to breathe too heavily, so I remained still. Said nothing.
“You do not know how much it ails me to see you this way, my friend.” His smooth voice rang with beauty even though his tone ached with the sadness of his words.
A tear escaped my eye against my will, and I stopped the rest from following, gritting my teeth and fighting the wave of sorrow and pain.
“Leave me be, Ery.”
Silence followed my request. The night creatures sang their songs from outside the walls of the barracks, and if I closed my eyes, I could even imagine the tall grass gently blowing and rustling in the warm breeze.
“As you wish,” he answered, and I did not hear another word from him.
Chapter Three
“You lie,” I accused Eryx with a scoff. “That did not happen.”
“It did so. The boy’s name was Adonis.”
Shaking my head at his myths, I kept walking.
The sun’s heat was relentless as it beat down on my skin, and I wandered off the path to stand beneath a shaded tree. Eryx followed me and leaned against the trunk.
We’d been training all morning and had just finished, so we were sore, but unlike many other times, I was growing accustomed to the feeling. My muscles didn’t hurt as bad as before, and I actually enjoyed the burn coursing through them. A burn that told of me growing stronger and becoming a better warrior.
“Tell me again,” I said, resting my head back on a low hanging branch and looking at my friend. “I will keep an open mind this time.”
Eryx grabbed the branch I leaned against and swung up in the tree, letting his legs dangle down by my face. Always trying to one-up me.
I snatched the branch opposite him and did the same so we were of equal height.
“Years ago, there was a young Spartan boy called Adonis.” Eryx rested his back against the trunk of the tree and continued to slowly swing his feet. “He was twelve years of age, perhaps thirteen, and he stole a fox with the intent to kill and eat it. But he then noticed Spartan soldiers approaching him and he knew that if he was caught with the fox, he would be punished severely for stealing. So, he hid the animal beneath his tunic. It clawed and bit at his flesh, and still, he made not a sound. When the men confronted him, Adonis allowed the fox to chew through his stomach rather than confess his crime. Legend has it that he stood there and did not allow his face to express the pain of it.”
I grinned at him.
“It is just as absurd upon the second hearing as it was the first.”
“Only because you whine when you scuff your knee,” Eryx countered with an equally taunting tone. “You cannot fathom having so much self-control.”
“Is that so?”
After jumping down from the branch, I grabbed his swinging leg and pulled him out of the tree. He crashed into me, and I lost my footing and fell backward, both of us hitting the grass with anoof.
Eryx laughed and peered down at me. “Your impulse control is low as well, dear friend. You get annoyed and act first without thinking.”
I met his amused stare. “And why is this a flaw? It is to my advantage to be of quick mind.”
“But you see…” He pressed his weight more into me, pinning me down. “Your action was poorly executed for now I have the upper hand.”
I wasn’t sure why, but my heart raced fiercely in my chest as I gazed up into his green eyes.
In past weeks, I’d grown used to being in the nude and hardly paid it much attention those days, but in that moment, I was acutely aware of every place Eryx and I touched. Every glide of his soft skin against mine. My blood rushed through my veins, and warmth spread down my spine and gathered in my groin.
The grin faded from Eryx’s face as he looked at me, his gaze flickering to my mouth and back up again to meet my eyes. His face inched closer to mine—so close that his breath touched my lips.
I couldn’t move, and it seemed like all time slowed around me. A strange sensation fluttered in my chest and ran rampant through the rest of my body. There was excitement, but also a sense of feeling ill.
Suddenly, Eryx moved off me and stood. “We should get back. The sun will be setting soon.”
