“This is my Bonded, Rhuyin Katastrofis.”
I saluted the man. War Leader. My Bonded’s brother was the freakin’ War Leader. And a Prince.
What. The. Hell.
Chapter 26
Elex
Watching Luke rush to wrap Erix in a huge hug made me feel like crap. And, even if I only admitted it to myself, a little envious. The impulse to wrap my arms around my twin had rushed through me when I’d first seen him, too, but years of training in the Legion stilled the urge to move. Too many times I had been convinced that something good had happened, only to have it yanked away in the cruelest ways possible. The Alexandrians enjoyed seeing the children of the Legion cry.
Okay, and admittedly, I had some seriously mixed emotions about being reunited with my twin. The way we had parted hadn’t been ideal. Fuck, who was I kidding? He had to hate me for having been too much of a coward to go with him all those years ago, and I could have saved myself so many years of torture at the hands of Maalik and other pricks like him if I’d gone.
Hel’s arm over my shoulder squeezed me tighter. It was a good reminder that if Ihadgone with Erix, a lot of things might be different. Luke might not have survived in the Legion on his own. I might never have met Hel. Since accidentally Bonding with Hel, the Soma had been by my side constantly, and I was coming to… depend on him?Thatwasn’t good.
We’d used the “L” word the other night, but I was coming to regret it. What the hell did I know about loving someone? My whole life I’d belonged to someone else. I barely knew what to do with myself without being given orders every day. How could I come to rely on someone else? I’d learned the hard way that the only person I could depend on in this life was myself.
Unconsciously I found myself stepping away from Hel and putting some distance between us. I saw him look at me out of the corner of his eye, but he didn’t respond, other than moving his arms down to his sides. But Ifelthis hurt.Shit, I hadn’t mean to hurt him,either. This situation was just so damn difficult to navigate. My hand shot out and snagged his and he smiled slightly at me, his blond hair falling over his scarred face. He’d been doing that less since we met, but he seemed to have reverted to some old habits since we arrived in Illyria.
Luke introduced his Bonded, who saluted immediately.
“Dekaneas Katastrofis, reporting for duty, sir!”
“At ease, Corporal,” Erix responded.
Luke saw Rhuyin’s salute, and I could see him stitching together all the clues, but Allard beat him to it.
“Soyou’rethe War Leader everyone’s been talking about?” he asked.
Erix nodded and I saw Allard’s gaze sharpen.
“I suppose I am,” he responded calmly.
“How—how did you end up here? How did you escape? Does Cyrius know?” Luke demanded, questions pouring out of him in a wave.
“Let’s sit down and talk,” Erix said. “We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
He led us to a quiet, well-appointed conference room. Bottles of water were stacked on the table and a small basket of snacks was placed nearby. A large window looked out over the city.
I looked around at the understated luxury that my twin seemed to take in stride. Something about it made me furious. I remembered a time not that long ago when I might have gladly killed for the food in that basket.
He took a moment to gather his thoughts before he began.
“As you know, I was trying to escape Alexandria, but was discovered by an Elusian,” his eyes flitted toward Allard, but he continued. “When my powers were Suppressed for the first time, I almost passed out. Something must have happened, though, because the Suppression cut off.”
I remembered back to the day of seeing Maalik attacking my brother and jumping on his back to stop him. At least it had done some good.
“I washed up downstream, a fisherman found me on the banks of the river. He helped me escape, change my hair, hide mytattoo.” Erix flashed a grin at me. “We look stunning as redheads, just so you know.”
That almost pulled a smile from me, but he continued.
“It was his help that first made me hope that we could someday win against Cyrius. He was human. His wife was Elusian. They had lost two children to the Legion and another to the Shaking Sickness. When he looked at me, he didn’t see a slave, a thing, he saw a scared young boy.
“They helped me, but it cost them in the end.”
Erix was quiet for long moments, lost in the past before he finally began speaking again.
“After they died, I headed for Illyria. I had managed to keep hold of the supplies that Davidus had helped gather. I had a very little bit of money, and that quickly ran out. I was starving. I got sick, some kind of respiratory illness I think. I was too weak to work. I was found by a wandering tradesman. He took me in, him and his family. They nursed me back to health.
