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 I had gone 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? That wasn'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 I felt his 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.

"So you're the 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 my tattoo." 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.

"I traveled with him for several years. He made many circuits on his trade routes, and I traveled with them, learning his business, but eventually he began planning a trip that would take him much farther away than I had any desire to go, so I made my way to Illyria."

He grinned at us.

"Somas at that point were even more desperate. I was an unmatched Mageia in a country of thousands of unbonded Somas. You've all experienced it now, but you should have seen it back then. There were no Touchpoints, no organization, no plans. I could have asked for the moon and they or their families would have tried to give it to me, just for a chance at becoming Bonded.

"Then I came into contact with a less scrupulous element of the country that was kidnapping Mageia and forcing them to Bond with Somas."

"Forcing? I thought it was Mageia choice?" Luke asked, curiously.

"It's supposed to be," Hel said through gritted teeth. "Desperation makes people do horrible things. I remember hearing about this. It was out of Cyprus, wasn't it?"

Erix nodded, and Hel whistled low.

"It was you that brought that down?"

Another short nod from Erix and Hel leaned back in his chair, watching my brother with new respect.

"That brought me to the attention of the Illyrian military, then the President, which eventually brought me here."

I had watched Erix closely throughout his story. With this many Somas in the room, I figured he couldn't be lying about any of it, but I also knew my twin. If there was something he didn't want to share, he'd find a way to avoid it.

Rhuyin stood at attention, his salute unfailing.

"At ease, Dekaneas," Erix said. "Please take a seat, everyone."

"We've been here for weeks. Why summon us now?" I demanded when everyone finally sat down.

"I can't just want to catch up and find out what's happened in the last ten years?" he asked, but I waited. I knew there was more coming. "Fine. I do. But we also need to talk next steps for the Mageia you brought from Heraklion, as well as next steps in this war."

Of course. This wasn't just a family reunion. We were here as weapons, after all.

"Why should we trust you?" I demanded. "You're just going to use us."

I knew I sounded more bitter than I intended from the way Hel reached under the table to take my hand.

"Hey!" Rhu and Luke both exclaimed, and one of the Soma guards tensed at her station by the door. Hel squeezed my hand gently, but I kept my gaze locked on my twin.

Erix halted their exclamation with a single raised finger.

"It's a fair question," Erix said, glancing around the room. "None of this comes cheap, after all. And you don't really have any reason to trust me. You barely know me."

He stood and walked over to the windows that looked out over the city. He paused with his back to us before speaking.

"Aíma, idróta kai dákrya."

"Blood, sweat, and tears," he translated. "I won't lie to you. We desperately need your help. I need your help. I will use you. I will send you into dangerous situations. I will risk your lives, maybe even your sanity. I can't promise that you and your friends will all survive. In fact, I can almost guarantee some of you won't."

He turned around and faced us then, leaning back, his hands braced against the windowsill as he looked at each of us. He was silhouetted from behind, his hair a nimbus of white around his head, his eyes full of power. In that moment, I saw echoes of the boy I'd known, but had an even better view of the man he'd become. There was pain in his eyes, but also a fiery passion.

"What I can promise you is that I will make the Alexandrians pay ten times over for every drop of blood, sweat and tears you shed. Just like I've been making them pay for every Illyrian they have murdered, every person they have raped, every child they have kidnapped. They will pay, and pay, and pay and they will keep on paying until the bill is paid in full, or until the Elusians are no longer in power. I have made it part of my oath as War Leader."

"Aíma, idrótas kai dákrya. Eínai dikó mas í dikó tous.Blood, sweat and tears. It's ours, or theirs."

I looked at my brother, this man about whom I now knew so little, and began to feel, at least a little, some of our old kinship rekindle.

"I pick theirs."