Axios: A Spartan Tale (Axios Series)

by Jaclyn Osborn

I’d been questioning my place in the world, knowing I lacked certain qualities to be a true warrior and ashamed of the fact. I hadn’t wished for Eryx to touch me because I hadn’t deserved the comfort of his embrace. I wondered if he felt the same. Or perhaps, he blamed me for the incident that night and was angry. Whatever the reason, he needed space and I provided it for him. When I closed my eyes, the dead boy stared back at me. Forgive me, I told him, wishing he could hear me. He opened his mouth, blood gushing from his lips, and screamed. The echoes of his cries filled my head, and I startled awake, the traces of sleep I’d had vanished and left me alert and cold. I hadn’t held the blade that ended his life, but it was my fault he was dead. Blue eyes were added to the brown pair that appeared in my dreams—eyes that I’d closed forever. Eternally frozen with the terror of their final moments.