Then she was the one moving forward. Slowly, she reached out, pushing herself onto her knees, and there was a question in her eyes.
Nikias managed only a brief, breathless nod.
Aimilia, inch by inch, crawled into his lap, wrapping herself around him, burying her head into his neck. She could probably feel his heart jolt and race as he wrapped his arms around her, encasing her in his grip, palm splayed out over her shoulder blades, trying to steady her body as it shook with soft sobs.
He ran his hand up and down her back as he rested his head against hers while she soaked his cloak with her tears. Her fingers clenched into the fabric of his chiton and he tightenedhis grip as her lips brushed his skin with each broken cry that escaped.
The words he’d sworn to himself he could not say until he heard them first from her were rising in his throat. He pushed them back down and instead held her as she mourned, an honor he would not soon forget.
If his dreams of her over the last year had been testing his willpower, having Aimilia clinging to him like… like he was her husband. Like she knew that she could always come to his arms for anything because she could rest in his love for her.
He shifted his hand slowly up and down her back and whispered, “I… If I could do only one thing with my life, Aimilia, I would go back and I would send you here. I’m so sorry I didn’t.”
Aimilia’s soft sobs grew louder. Nikias would hold her as long as it took. He’d stay there for the rest of their lives if he needed to.
However, that wasn’t necessary when Aimilia’s sobs eventually stopped. But she didn’t move from her position, still clinging to him. Nikias was content to have her in his arms as long as she would stay.
He could feel Aimilia’s breathing slow and steady as her grip loosened. Her head stayed nestled against his neck, and Nikias was torn between worry and hope. What did any of this mean?
Was she about to pull away and all this would become yet another moment that meant everything to him and nothing to her?
Her hands shifted and Nikias tried to steel his heart, but Aimilia didn’t pull away. Her hand just brushed over his arm, but her fingertips paused over the scratches his mother had left on his arm, and his heart leapt into his throat.
She murmured, “What’s this?”
“It’s nothing, really,” Nikias said, shifting his arm, trying to dislodge her hand, but it was too late.
Aimilia lifted her head and with her other hand pushed his cloak back so she could look at the scratches. The same white-hot shame started to claw up his throat, and his instincts were screaming at him to push her away, to hide the wound, to convince her nothing happened.
Instead, he stayed where he was and let her stare at the wounds, gently brushing her thumb over the healing scratches. A shiver went down his spine.
“Was this… last night?” Aimilia looked back up at him. “Your mother—I didn’t even think—I just left you alone?—”
He reached over and placed his hand over hers. “No. It was…”
She knew. There was no point in hiding it, and she claimed it didn’t make her respect him any less.
“It was today, at the funeral. My mother was not happy with my behavior.”
Aimilia’s brow furrowed. “But you didn’t do anything. All you did was comfort me, and not even in any noticeable way.”
Nikias sighed. “My mother is… very stressed right now.”
Her voice hardened. “That’s doesn’t make it alright.”
“I didn’t say that.”
Aimilia leaned back into him, curling into the crook of his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I endured it and would again without a second thought if it meant I could make that moment even just a little bit easier.”
Aimilia closed her eyes. “You… When you say things like that…”
But she didn’t finish her sentence. She just leaned against him as the soft breeze wrapped around them. Eventually her breathing evened out, and she dozed off against him.
Nikias gathered her up in his arms and carried her back to the estate. As they got closer, he cast an illusion to hide themfrom the guards. He was not going to have Aimilia be trapped into marrying him in order to save her reputation, especially when he’d done nothing to truly ruin it.
He snuck them back into the main house and found her room. He set her on her bed, removing her sandals and pulling the blanket up over her as she buried her head into the pillow. Nikias knelt by her side, brushing his thumb over her cheek.
