Page 136 of Eryx
Afterward, we visited Paris. He and Galen would be marching with us to Boeotia. Rhea clutched my hand and smiled, telling me to watch over her men and bring them home safely. Their son, Acamas, threw his arms around my right leg and refused to let go. When I walked, he came with me.
“I never thought the boy I’d handed a blade to all those years ago at the dining mess would come to mean as much to me as you do,” Paris said, as we stood back a bit from Axios and Galen, who were playing with Acamas while Rhea and her daughter tended to the garden. “Back then, you had such a defiant look in your eyes. You still do.”
“Our paths crossed for a reason,” I said. “I have learned much from you and your family. You gave me hope when I thought it to be lost.”
Paris moved his gaze to Axios. I did too. His black hair was tousled from him rolling on the ground, pretending to be wounded as Acamas held a stick and swatted at him. It was so rare that I said I loved him, but I thought the words every time I looked at him.
My raven. My heart.
As night descended on us, we built a fire outside of the courtyard and sat with our companions. Nikias joined us, as did Demetrius and Cassius. Quill had stolen bread and cheese for us, and we ate it as the logs crackled in the pit.
“Remember the story I once told you about the three hundred Spartans who fought and died at Thermopylae?” Nikias asked, breaking the long silence. “It was a night much like this one when we all sat around the fire, staring into the burning embers.”
Haden nodded. Theon and Quill glanced at each other and shifted closer together. Axios looked at me and grabbed my hand.
“I said you’d one day leave boyhood behind and grow into men,” he continued, gently running his fingers over the deep scar on his face. “Sacrificing yourself for your home is something that had to be instilled in each of you.” His blue eyes lifted and studied each of our faces. “As you prepare for the battles ahead, remember your brotherhood. Your loyalty. Nothing can break you.”
“Do you wish you were going with them?” Demetrius asked, earning an elbow in the gut from Cassius.
“Yes.” Nikias stared at his hands before dropping one to his injured leg. “The gods have chosen me to live out my days this way. Since I can no longer fight, it’s my duty to teach the men who can.”
As they talked, Axios and I snuck away. We were no strangers to leaving for campaign; therefore, we knew our time to enjoy each other was limited. Apart from sleeping in each other’s arms and sharing the occasional kiss, there was neither the time nor the privacy to do anything more. After marching all day and wielding a shield and javelin, there wasn’t the energy either.
So we slipped inside the barracks and came together in a tangle of limbs and heated kisses. Hands stroked hard muscle and mouths trailed along sensitive flesh, biting, licking, and sucking. It was aggressive and passionate all at once.
Afterward, he lay at my side with disheveled hair and flushed cheeks.
“Are you nervous?” I asked.
“No,” Axios answered, knowing my meaning. “I am only saddened for now we have to leave home again. Leave our life here while we go fight a war I do not believe in.”
I glided my fingers along his bare chest, thinking on his statement. Thebes had challenged Sparta by attacking its men. It was the best reason for war. Yet, Axios believed differently. As always.
“What do you believe in then, if not war?”
“You,” he answered, gazing at me with a tender expression as he brushed aside a strand of my hair. “Us.”
“I believe in us as well,” I said, leaning into his hand. “And that is why we must go. If we do not, our enemies will think us weak and the fighting will never come to a close. The home you wish for us to share someday—the one near a stream and surrounded by fruit trees—will never be unless we win the war. Only then will we find the peace we seek.”
We were twenty-six years of age now, but in four years we’d be able to leave the barracks and have our own home. Once he’d realized he could never have his home by the sea, Axios had said he wanted a simple one there in Sparta.
“As long as you’re by my side, we can live in a tree for all I care,”Axios had said when we’d discussed it days ago.
“How about a house with an orchard of trees?”I had then suggested.“Trees and a garden.”
“And a stream?”
“If you wish it.”
But if we did not fight this war with Thebes, the life we desired would be threatened. Mad men such as Pelopidas were driven by the need for power, and he would never stop until he expanded his territory as far as he could.
“Let us speak of something else,” Axios said with a sigh, cuddling against my chest.
“What do you wish to discuss?” I put an arm around him, finding comfort in his warm skin and earthy scent.
“Tell me a story?” he asked, peering up at me with eager eyes. “It’s been too long, and I miss them.”
I saw not how he had so much energy after the sex we’d just had. My eyelids weighed heavily, and my voice had started to rasp from being so tired. But I would not deny his request.
