Aimilia fell asleep, still facing the window and wishing the blankets around her were a pair of strong, solid arms. Her dreams were full of green eyes and what it might sound like if a certain voice called her hisamata.
Chapter 31
AIMILIA
The next week Aimilia settled into a rhythm. She still only saw Marcella and Gavril in passing, often with Konstantin when they weren’t in their meetings.
Gavril occasionally appeared in some of the meetings, but Marcella never did.
Hypatia also wasn’t in all of them, but they never had one without Konstantin, thankfully.
Gavril and Marcella were completely occupied with whatever was keeping them busy—the one chance Aimilia had gotten to ask what they were up to, Gavril had only said that it was a project for Konstantin, the details involving family, so Gavril wasn’t at liberty to discuss it openly.
Aimilia supposed it might have something to do with Konstantin’s own ill family member, his father, who had been ill for a long time before his death. Aimilia trusted Gavril not to divulge anything that connected her to the king’s ailment, or the fact that it wasn’t caused completely by natural disease.
It made sense for Konstantin to ask, given the similarities, and Gavril, while not a healer in the sense of being fully trained as a healer at the academy, was still rather skilled at it. ToImperia’s credit and shame, their healing techniques were far more advanced than the clan mages. While Konstantin may not want to consult a ‘heretic’ as the clan mages called them, consulting a mage like Gavril, a trustworthy friend, an ally, and even family, made perfect sense.
But why now?
Aimilia wasn’t sure. Didn’t they have bigger problems with Stonai? Although, she supposed if she were the one at risk of a genetic disease, she would rather begin the process of finding answers while she had the opportunity.
When Aimilia spotted Marcella coming from the healer’s wing of the main house, she finally got the chance to ask what was occupying Marcella’s time, since Gavril was caught up with Konstantin’s project.
Marcella had told her that she’d been busy mostly entertaining the children who lived on the estate. They often captured her and broke her into playing games, to entertain them, or having her recount pieces of the story. It wasn’t a surprise the children were fascinated with her.
She might have been a worthless soldier to sacrifice on the altar of saving the heiress when she left, but she’d returned as the reason for their peace. Every parent who feared a little less now for their children to become soldiers, for their blood to water the ground or their bodies to litter the heretics’ tables, had Marcella to thank. She was a hero to them, and rightly so.
Still, it made for a lonely week.
Aimilia was happy for Marcella. She was happy for Gavril. She was happy for them both.
But she missed them.
She was stuck shadowing Nikias in these meetings.
She was stuck trying to decipher the minutia of Hypatia’s expressions as she stared Aimilia down every day without a word.
At first, Aimilia had been grateful for Hypatia’s silence, but now she was just suspicious.
Hypatia looked at her almost like the two of them were in on some grand joke together. Nikias looked at Hypatia like he was going to crush her throat beneath his heel. Konstantin looked at both of them like they were rabid wolves held back only by thin fraying rope, ready to rip each other’s throats out.
Aimilia almost missed Areator.
The clan mages weren’t her people. The estate wasn’t her home. As much as she’d been wanting to escape Areator, now that she had, she was forced to admit that she missed it. It had been more of her home than the Mitis estate ever had been. And she was beginning to fear that there was no place that could ever feel like home.
Two weeks into the ordeal, and once more Konstantin had cut their work day short, this time at noon. Aimilia had spent hours drifting aimlessly through the estate, debating whether she wanted to attempt to ride outside the grounds for the first time, but not wanting to get lost and cause any trouble, she had to ride with someone who knew the terrain. Since it had been so long since she’d exchanged more than three sentences at a time with Gavril or Marcella, she’d been hopeful she might be able to catch one or both and guilt them into going with her.
When she caught Gavril all he had in response to her was an apology that he couldn’t that evening, but maybe another time. And then she watched as he joined Konstantin, who was waiting for him at one of the doors to the main house, and the two of them disappeared inside together.
Aimilia was left standing there alone.
Maybe this was all she had to look forward to. Marcella and Gavril having their own lives that didn’t include her anymore. If theirs ever really had, other than out of necessity in the firstplace. What was it going to be like when Marcella and Gavril did have children?
What would it be like if Gavril and Marcella never came back to Areator? If they couldn’t?
Nikias hadn’t budged when his father had insisted on him fulfilling his end of their bargain with another woman.
Nor had he said anything on their trip about marrying her or anyone else. They would eventually return to Areator—it was the only way for Gavril to be able to return, at least while Nero lived. Given how much time Marcella and Gavril were spending with Konstantin, they were almost as close as if they had been family all along.
