As soon as Konstantin finished their meeting for the day, Nikias rose from his seat. Three days was plenty of time. She couldn’t avoid him forever.
“What have you done now, Nikias?” Hypatia asked, causing him to stop in his tracks as Konstantin dropped the papers he was collecting.
“Hypatia—” her husband started, but she waved him off.
“It’s a genuine question.” She leaned forward in her seat. “I’ve missed seeing her vibrant hair every day.”
Nikias wasn’t going to dignify anything she said with a response. He just kept heading for the door. Hypatia rose from her chair, bracing herself against the table as she called out, “Well, I do hope the messenger that came for her this morning found her. I had no idea which direction to point him in.”
A messenger had come for Aimilia?
Nikias was out the door right as Hypatia said, “Don’t give me that look. That wasn’t antagonizing him. I was informing him?—”
He stopped a servant, completely butchering their language, but managing to ask where Aimilia’s quarters were, and receiveda stammering reply before he was off again. He swept through the hallways until he reached her door and rapped his knuckles against it.
He heard muttering on the other side. Then Aimilia’s voice from the other side of the door. “I appreciate it, Gavril, but I’m fine. You have plenty to deal with on?—”
Then the door opened and Aimilia gasped, letting go and stepping back to see him.
Nikias pushed down the hot coil in his chest that had flared up when she’d said Gavril’s name and instead said, “Not Gavril. Just me. You keep doing that, by the way, assuming it’s always someone else.”
He looked over her shoulder to see she had her bags out and her belongings half in them, half out. What was she doing?
“Nikias—I was—I was about to come find you.” Aimilia reached for the door again, but before she could step out into the hallway, he put his palm against the door and stepped into her room, taking her in. Her eyes still had a tinge of red to them and her voice had a thick rasp to it. She’d been crying.
There was only one thing Nikias could think of. But it wasn’t possible. The man had been ill, but there was supposed to be more time.
“Your grandfather?” Nikias whispered.
Aimilia’s eyes widened as she let go of the door and her lips parted. She nodded. “I… Word arrived this morning. I… I was going to come find you. He—” Her voice cracked and she turned her head. Her usually immaculate hair was in disarray, falling into her face and obscuring her from view.
“Aimilia, I’m so sorry,” Nikias whispered, stepping closer and catching her arm. But instead of letting him pull her into his embrace, she slid from his grasp, shaking her head as she took deep breaths and tilted her head back, rapidly blinking.
She held her hand out between them, keeping him from getting any closer. “I knew it was coming. I—I didn’t expect—I have to go. If I’m fast, I can make it for the funeral.”
“Of course you have my blessing. This takes precedent.” Nikias glanced around at her things, a disorganized mess that betrayed Aimilia’s true emotional state despite her best attempts to hold herself together. But she was refusing to let him come any closer despite how clearly she needed someone. “We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”
Aimilia kept her hand out, but paused looking back at him. “Huh?”
He took the chance to gently take her hand and lower it so he could step closer, not quite pulling her into his arms just yet. “For the Mitis Estate. I’ll have everything ready for us to leave first thing in the morning. Don’t spend another second worrying about it. I’ll take care of everything.”
Aimilia ripped her hand out of his. “What? No.I’mleaving in the morning. There is noweabout this!”
Her shock and grief had clearly scrambled her mind.
“Aimilia, there is no sense in you running off right now when I’ll have to go with you anyway.”
“What are you talking about? You can’t just leave this because I have to.” Aimilia gestured to the building around them. “Right now, you need to be here working with Konstantin.”
“Gavril and Commander Calix are more than capable of handling this. Aimilia, the Head of House Mitis is dead. The royal family has to attend the funeral.”
“Then let it be your parents. Don’t use my grandfather’s death as an excuse to get away from Hypatia!”
Like he would let his wretched parents go to House Mitis without him where he couldn’t protect Aimilia from them. Nikias would sooner keep Aimilia from going at all.
“Hypatia is the least of my concerns right now. Even if you don’t want me there, I have to attend the funeral as well.”
Aimilia started grabbing her things and shoving them into her bags. “Fine, but you’re not leaving with me. You have to go back to Areator to collect your family.”
