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Eryx put his arm around me and laid his head on my shoulder. “Do not worry your mind so much. We will be together, and I will not allow any harm to come to you.”
He may be strong and seemingly emotionless around everyone, but at night or in early morning when it was just us two, he loved to hold me and be held in return. I always welcomed it, allowing it to bring me comfort.
Little did he know that he was the only one I cared to gawk at. He was too beautiful for the harsh life we were forced to live. I told Eryx everything without a moment’s hesitation, but I kept those thoughts to myself. Part of me feared that the depth of my feelings for him wouldn’t be returned.
I could endure lashings, beatings, starvation, and extreme weather, but losing him would be the one thing to destroy me.
“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you,” he whispered, pressing his forehead to mine. “I would kill any man, go any distance, and burn the whole world down if it meant keeping you safe.”
I might not have known if I’d die for Sparta, but I knew for certain I’d lay down my life for his.
“Not even death could keep me from you. My soul will forever find yours. In this life and the next.”
Where he was leading me, I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t question him. I would follow Eryx anywhere.
I was his. I had been since the very first day I laid eyes on him. The golden-haired boy who had watched me with concerned, green eyes and beckoned me to stand and fight had come to mean more to me than my own life.
I knew better than to carry hope, but I did so anyway.
“I crave a life where we can live in peace.” My voice was thick with emotion, and I forced myself to speak through the tightness in my throat. “Where love is seen as a strength and where our days are spent lounging by our stream, lost in conversation for hours on end. There’d be no sorrow, pain, and no darkness. Nothing but happiness and light. Love. However, I’ve come to the realization that dream will never be.”
He was the very air I breathed and the water that sustained me. A life without him was a life not worth living.
“I do not fear death because I’m afraid of dying, Ery… I fear it because it would take me from you.”
“You are my heart,” he said unexpectedly. The amount of care in his voice settled over my chest like a warm cloak. “I do not easily confess emotions in the way you do, but know I feel the same. The words I once spoke to you hold true: I will kill any man and turn the whole world to ash for you, my warrior. I fear neither battle nor death, but I fear the day you are not by my side. Never question where my heart lies, because it is forever yours. In this life and the next.”
“I do not favor having my life decided for me.”
As I came apart in his strong arms, he tenderly kissed my neck and held me close, forever anchoring me to him. My warrior. My lover. My heart.
Yes, I’d thought it on countless occasions—when he’d tell me his stories and I’d see the excitement light his eyes, when our lips touched in the midst of our passion, and when I’d lay in his arms while we slept—but I’d never expressed it aloud, knowing how out of place it was in a world such as ours.
“I will never be able to call him my husband, but I do not need the title for me to know it in my heart. He is mine, and I am his. Always.”
“A man without fear is not brave. Bravery comes from being afraid, but doing a thing anyway. To be courageous is to fear death, and yet, charge at the enemy anyhow. Fear does not make you a coward. But overcoming it makes you a man.”
“Even in dark days, we must always seek the light. Once we surrender to darkness, we lose hope, and without hope… we have already lost.”
You and I will never part, my warrior. In this life and the next, we will be just as we have forever been: side by side. There is not a thing that can take me from you, neither the slashing of a sword nor the impalement from a spear, for I will always find you.”
Somehow, he had mended the broken fragments of my mind with one gentle embrace.
“We never see ourselves how others see us,” he responded. “But that does not make them wrong.”
He kissed my forehead, such a simple action, but one that made me feel cherished. Beloved and treasured in a life that called for brutality.
“For as long as there is breath in my lungs, I will love you. Only you. And even when I leave this world, I will still belong to you, for my soul will forever seek yours. In both this life and the next. Remember?”
“Do not ever leave me, Ax,” he said, gripping the side of my neck and pressing his forehead to mine, still moving inside of me. “By the gods, I could not bear it. My whole world is right here in my hands. Without you, I am nothing.”
“Remember that I adore you,” Eryx said to me, taking several steps back to stand beside Haden. “Especially when my team beats yours.”
“What do you believe in then, if not war?” “You,” I answered, turning my head to gaze at him. His hair was in disarray from me entwining my fingers in it while we’d made love, and I reached to brush aside one of the golden strands from his face. “Us.”
“Do not leave my side,” Eryx spoke, unable to hide the concern in his eyes as he looked at me. And I wondered if he, too, was memorizing the details of my face like I was doing to his. Even though he wore a helmet, I saw all the features of his beauty: the shape of his eyes, the perfect slope of his nose, and his flawless lips. He touched his hand to mine. “No matter what happens… stay with me.”
“When you are near, it’s as if my soul reaches out to touch yours,” he spoke, moving his fingers along my jaw and staring at me with a look that made my stomach flutter. “To reconnect with a missing piece. And when we part, I leave that piece with you.”
“This is our home.” “No,” he said, taking my hand from his cheek and interweaving our fingers. “Sparta is not my home. You are.”
“I knew that would make you smile,” Eryx spoke, looking over at me with a grin of his own. “You know me better than anyone,” I said, feeling the weight lift from my chest.
“No. I will not leave you,” I spoke, shaking my head. “If we are to die, we do so together. You have always been by my side, and that is how it will forever be.” Until the end.
“Ax,” he whispered, meeting my eyes once more. It was a wonder I even heard him through all the surrounding noise, but I had. “In all the ages, there has never been a love like ours. No one has ever loved another as I have loved you. If we fall today, my soul will find yours. For I am eternally yours… in this life and the next.”
