Chapter 18
Lyssa
“You can come in, if you like,” Alexios calls from my washroom.
I put my head in my hands. “I’d rather spoon out my own eyeballs with a soup ladle,” I mutter.
Fatigue is rolling over me in waves. The Rage has ebbed, the resignation now fully in charge. There is absolutely nothing I can do about today. And tomorrow, the Trials begin.
I have to sleep. Fighters need rest to be at full strength, and now I apparently need to be a fucking actress too.
I’m exhausted. Physically and emotionally drained. Hercules would end me in a heartbeat right now.
“You know, it was actually my idea for you to pretend to be a couple.” The fox’s voice sounds smug in my head, and I look at him. He’s a mix of white and blue, with big, dark eyes and a really fluffy tail. Bits of his fur shimmer when he moves.
“What are you?” I ask him.
“Hungry,” he answers.
“Huh. And what species are you?”
The fox cocks his head. “I’m a fox.” He says it like I’m stupid, and I heave a sigh.
“A magical, telepathic fox.”
“That has great ideas.”
I narrow my eyes. “And no sense of who they’re speaking to. If he dies, do you die? Are you part of him?”
“Yes.”
“So was everything your idea? Do you want to be immortal too?”
His tail swishes. “We need to be in the Trials. This was the only way, in the end.”
“You tried other ways?”
“Yes.”
Why the Fates didn’t those work? Why did I get lumbered with this infernal fucking prick?
“Much better,” I hear Alexios say, then feel my face heat as he strides into the cabin.
He’s wearing nothing, and I spin on the end of my bunk to face the wall. I’m too slow to avoid seeing his ass, though.
“What the hell is your aversion to clothing?”
“It’s all covered in blood,” he says.
“Epizon!” I mentally call.
“Are you all right?” his worried voice answers immediately.
“Bring Alexios’s clothes to my cabin.”
“Yes, captain. If he even lays a finger on you—”
“I appreciate that, but you know I’d break every single one of them before he got close. Anyway, he’s all show. I don’t think he’s going to physically hurt me.”
“Captain, he’s poisoned you. Caused you agony.” Epizon is furious—I can hear it.
I glance around. Alexios is staring out of a porthole. His back is corded with muscle, and I honestly didn’t know men’s asses could look like that.
“He’s a peacock,” I tell Epizon. “A show-off. A glory hunter. Nothing more. We’ll use what he has, spend all his money, and try to stay alive. The goal remains. Stop Hercules.”
“Yes, captain. I’ll be right there.”
“I like this ship.”
I blink at Alexios’s unexpected statement. He’s running his fingers around the brass porthole.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been on a Crosswind. This one has character.”
“Are you trying to suck up to me?”
He turns his head, and his grin makes me instantly angry. “I don’t think flattery will get me far with you.”
“I suppose it’s currency for you? You’re all the same.”
“Who?”
“Nobles. Aristocracy. You all pay to evade the rules, take what you want, shit on everyone else.”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps every single person is different, and deserves to judged as such.”
I realize I have no good answer for that, but mercifully, there’s a knock on the door.
Epizon hands me a large pile of heavy clothes, and I turn and dump it on the bunk. “Get dressed.” I turn back to Epizon. “Have you got everything?”
“Yes. He didn’t have a longboat on board, though, so we still don’t have a working one.”
“Shit.”
“Did you find the stash of drachma in my chamber chest?” Alexios calls.
“Yes,” Epizon growls back.
“Good, good.”
I speak to Epizon mentally. “I need to sleep a couple hours before tomorrow. Can you and Len take shifts to watch the flame dish for news of the Trial until I wake up?”
“Who will watch him while you sleep?”
“He’s not going to hurt me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He’s bound himself to me, Ep. He did this to be in the Trials—he didn’t go to all this trouble to kill me.”
Epizon looks over my shoulder, and his gaze darkens. “I’d like to break his nose myself.”
I shrug. “He can heal magically. If you get the chance, I say go for it.”
Epizon gives me a dry smile, but it fades quickly. “We need a plan, Lyssa. Hercules is…” He drops my gaze as he casts about for the right words.
“As strong as the rumors say he is?” I offer.
He looks at me. “And as cruel as you have always said.”
“Athena chose us for a reason. An opportunity will present itself. First, I have to learn to live with my new fucking roommate, then we have to survive tomorrow.”
“And after that?”
“After that, we work out how to kill Hercules.”
“It’s a solid plan.” This time his smile is a little warmer. “I’ll wake you if there’s any news,” he says. “And call if you need me.”
“I will.”
I learned long ago that sleep is a warrior’s asset, and also that I am an exceptional case.
I sleep through anything, for as long as my body needs to. It is blessed relief. No dreams, no fear, no anger. Just physical recharging. When I discovered it wasn’t like that for everybody, I assumed it was part of my Rage magic. Which means it’s probably the same for Hercules.
Alexios, now dressed in a shirt for the first time since I met him, watches me as I lie down on top of the covers. “Stop me sleeping, and I’ll find something worse to do than kill you,” I say as I close my eyes.
“Do you have something I can read?” I open my eyes and he shrugs, like a child. “I’m not tired.”
I long to tell him to fuck off, but he can’t leave. A slice of something that might be fear or anger at never being alone, of being trapped with this man constantly, threatens my calm.
One month. And we’ll probably die before then anyway. If we don’t, I’ll kill him myself.
I reach out mentally. “Len?”
“Yes, cap.”
“Please bring something for this asshole to read.”
“Like what?”
“A cookbook, please, Len.”
I close my eyes, and sleep is instant.