But… if Nikias was orchestrating this trap, it might not be up to her.
Aimilia had no choice but to fight.
If she succeeded and discovered Nikias actually… It was unfathomable to her, the idea that Nikias could ever love a woman who wasn’t Faustina, especially her, but she had no other word for it.
If she succeeded and discovered Nikias truly loved her, could she give up being Head of House Mitis to marry him? Would it be enough to cover her treason if she confessed it?
Could she live with being his second wife? Would she still be second best to Faustina if she did?
If he could love her, could he ever love her as much as he loved Faustina?
Could she love him even half as much as Faustina had loved him?
She couldn’t trust herself around Nikias right now. So when Nikias came by later that morning, Aimilia kept her hand on the door and politely thanked him for ensuring she made it back toher room and explained that she had a lot to do to prepare for the tournament.
Nikias’ expression had fallen, but he hadn’t pushed and had left her to her solitude, especially since he also had much to do to prepare for it as well.
In the days following she hardly saw Nikias at all in the whirlwind of her preparations. Every time they crossed paths, he gave her that look, the one she couldn’t name. The same one he’d been giving her last year. She did her best each time to come up with a plausible excuse, and often she got lucky in someone else demanding Nikias’ attention, one of the other commanders in charge of organizing the upcoming trials.
Aimilia spent that week going over her notes on her competition. She’d tried to numb herself to her grief and turmoil so she could focus only on her competition as they’d been casting and carrying the casket, but it had only worked so much.
There were seven total commanders that would be competing, including Aimilia. All of them a distant cousin in some way, but if Aimilia broke out the family trees, the actual blood relation was slight. Cyprian was one of them. They shared a great-great-great-great-grandfather, but she had classmates from other houses at the Academy she shared more blood with.
When Aimilia wasn’t turning over every interaction she’d ever had with Nikias, Hypatia’s warning hovering over her like a second skin, she went over all the information she had on her cousins, but Cyprian was the only one that mattered.
Not that she was underestimating the others. They’d all earned their position as commanders, but they’d all graduated toward the bottom of their respective classes, and their record ever since didn’t show any improvement. Not that it would be easy, but Aimilia was confident in her abilities she could take them.
Cyprian…
That was a question she was going to find out the answer to very soon.
Chapter 49
AIMILIA
The day of the first trial arrived, and Aimilia stood in the shadows of the hall built on the sides of the amphitheater built on the edge of the estate grounds into a rocky, sloping hill. There were two small buildings, one on each side of the stage that housed the commanders as they waited for the spectators to fill out the sloped seats. She could see Cyprian glaring at her from the other side. Aimilia was bracketed by two of the other commanders, the ones she was worried least about.
If she leaned forward and craned her head, she could see Nikias and his mother in the amphitheater stands.
A little wave of guilt rolled in her stomach and she hoped her distance from him over the last week spared him from his mother’s displeasure. If it hadn’t…
She did lean forward, sneaking a look at his cold marble façade. What was he hiding under there?
Commander Prisca came down from the stands, having been chosen by Nikias to conduct the trials, and Aimilia leaned back, taking a deep breath and steeling herself. She needed to worry about herself right now and Nikias later.
“House Mitis, Runai, I give you—your commanders,” Commander Prisca called out, silencing the whispering crowd.
They went from oldest to youngest, so Cyprian stepped out first and Aimilia last.
The dirt kicked up with her sandals as she took her place in the line-up and faced the crowd fully. She lifted her chin as they cheered, keeping her hands clasped behind her back.
Her eyes caught Turpis’ gaze where he sat in the crowd and his lips lifted into a smirk and a wink.
Aimilia kept her expression impassive, hoping it would go unnoticed, but she could see Nikias pulling his gaze away from Turpis, hands clenching over the arms of his seat.
She focused instead on Commander Prisca as she spoke to them about the first challenge. It wasn’t anything Aimilia wasn’t prepared for. She’d spent a good amount of time reading up on the past trials used to determine the next Head of House Mitis.
The first one always involved a magical creature.
