A few minutes later, I limped beside Patro, holding on to his shoulder for support. I couldn’t feel anything, but my body wasn’t cooperating—I was walking through molasses.
“Thank you,” I whispered as he led me through the underground tunnels, my voice hoarse from screaming.
Silence stretched.
“I miss … our friendship.” Patro spoke so quietly I almost missed it.
I leaned against him. “Me too.”
“Forgive me,” he said, his voice trembling. “She was ours first … ours to mentor. We were trying— Wedocare for her … We were trying to do what was right for—”
“Stop,” I said softly. “Don’t.”
Patro halted, and I fell against him.
He turned, holding me up, torchlight illuminating his handsome face. “Why?” he asked. “Why can’t you let it go and—”
“Because—” I coughed violently. “I …loveher.”
Patro’s face fell with devastation.
“She cares … about you,” I whispered. “She’d want me … to forgive you.” I tried to open my eyes wider, to see him more clearly, but I couldn’t. “And I care about you—so much.” Tongue heavy and dry, I forced out, “Icare about you. I miss you … but I can’t do this right now.”
Patro squeezed me tighter as he held me up, embracing. I rested my head on his shoulder, gasping for air.
Finally, we pulled apart and resumed staggering down the cavernous hall.
Two reluctant brothers, not of blood, but of heart.
What felt like hours later, we made it back to our individually assigned prisons. Guards were waiting for us in front of our doors.
Patro touched his forehead against mine.
We went our separate ways.
Our doors slammed shut.
“Honeys—” I coughed “—I’m home.”
I stumbled in the dark, pulling off my ruined clothes. I had a faint memory of an Olympian doctor wrapping bandages around my wounds, giving me a shot, and telling me to sleep it off.
No one answered.
Rubbing at my swollen eyes, it took a second to focus on the bed: Augustus was in the fetal position, his body blocking Alexis’s. The air smelled like sweat, like pain.
Shit, he could feel everything.
I gingerly lowered myself onto the edge of the bed. The mattress jostled and Augustus sat up, but Alexis remained sleeping.
“What?” I rasped out, not liking the expression on his face.
“Alexis—” Augustus dragged his hands over his face, twitching with the aftershocks of my pain.
“What?” I repeated, too exhausted to do anything else as I lay beside him.
“She … she … she …” Augustus was unable to finish his sentence as he stared down at her.
“She—what?”
