“Yes.” She sighed. “And I miss him.”
“Understandable. He was your second best friend.”
Nikolett snorted out a laugh. “Second best friend?”
“I am your first best friend.”
“Of course. Though I doubt he thought of me as his friend. His project? His job? Those, yes. But not friend.”
“Why are we talking about Vadisk?”
Nikolett tipped sideways, resting against the back of the couch. “He left.”
“He didn’t have a choice,” Nyx countered.
“He did. I know Vadisk. If he’d wanted to remain a member of the Masters’ Admiralty, I think he could have.”
“It was two against one,” Nyx pointed out. “His husband and wife are both part of the Trinity Masters.”
“If being here was important to him, and he explained that, I think his new trinity would have agreed to move here.”
Nyx was quiet for a moment. “You’re hurt that he, maybe, chose to leave.”
“No.” Nikolett shook her head definitively. “No. I want him to have a life, a good life. When they announced the trinity… Yes, I panicked. But Vadisk deserves to be loved. Be happy.”
“A familiar sentiment,” Nyx mused, and Nikolett realized Nyx had said something very similar to her.
They were both quiet for a minute, and Nikolett chose to snatch up her tumbler and take a sip of wine to fight the tight feeling in her throat.
“Part of me wonders if he left because he thought I’m a lost cause.” Nikolett barely got the words out.
“What?” Nyx leaned forward, setting her glass aside. “What do you mean?”
“Vadisk was there. He saw it. He knows, better than anyone, what an idiot I am.”
“When you say he was there, you mean he was there when you were with Eric.”
Nikolett nodded. “Not all the time. Maxim nearly had to knife the entire Spartan Guard to get us out of Triskelion one time, but Vadisk was there every time Eric and I…”
“Every time you had sex?”
Nikolett nodded. “Depending on your definition of sex, we haven’t actually had sex. Not traditional, heterosexual sex.”
“You told me...” Nyx arched a brow. “Do you want me to pretend penis in vagina is the one and only definition of sex, so that we can say you haven’t had sex with Eric?”
“No.” Nikolett slumped. “That’s stupid. We’ve had sex, but I know he would say we haven’t.”
“Bullshit justifications.” Nyx stood and grabbed Nikolett’s glass, popping the lid off. “While I’m glad we’re finally talking about Eric, I want to go back to Vadisk. Why did you mention that he was ‘there’? Why does that matter?”
“What if he left because he, better than anyone, sees how stupid I am when it comes to Eric? He was with me every time I was stupid enough to enter a room with Eric and a bed. Vadisk saw that and realized he didn’t want to be a part of this.” Nikolett gestured around, indicating not just herself, but her home—the headquarters of the territory.
“You think Vadisk left because this is a sinking ship and he wouldn’t go down with it?”
Nikolett nodded once, her throat tight with tears she refused to shed. She felt stupid for everything she’d done, and to have her bodyguard leave as if he knew it was an unwinnable fight hurt more than she’d let herself realize until wine started ripping down her defenses.
Nyx put the lid back on the refilled tumbler with a snap. “Don’t insult me.”
“What?” Nikolett stared at Nyx, bewildered.
