If she was right, and Aimilia could never love him, could he finally give up?
Or would he keep running after her until one day she too viewed her death as the chance to finally be free of him?
Chapter 51
NIKIAS
Nikias woke up.
He startled straight up, hissing at the pain flaring in his neck from the awkward position he’d been in. He reached up and rubbed his palm against it as his vision cleared.
Dawn was breaking outside the window. Aimilia was still fast asleep in the cot set up in the infirmary room.
Nikias sat back in his chair, shifting to try and ease the stiffness that had accumulated from falling asleep in it, sitting beside Aimilia’s bed. Her arm was wrapped in a few bandages, but the biggest problem, according to the healers Nikias had hounded the night before, was that she’d exhausted her reservoir on top of the blood loss. She was going to be fine, they had said, but she needed rest.
He hadn’t meant to fall asleep and spend the night in the room, but since no one had caught him, Nikias supposed no one needed to know. If anyone asked, he’d left and returned. If he was honest, the number of times they’d been alone together scandalously late would condemn Aimilia forever.
He tried to push the nightmare from his mind, but the weight of it lingered.
Thankfully they weren’t supposed to receive a messenger today, so Nikias didn’t have to worry about catching the rider before they reached his mother. Most of the letters he’d been able to pass on without issue, but the last one had included an urging for one or both of them to return to Areator because of Nero’s condition.
Nikias had used a little bit of magic to recreate the letter and remove that line. If his mother got word of it, she’d try sending him back, and if Nikias wasn’t around to stand between his mother and Aimilia…
Besides, if his father was finally going to die, Nikias certainly didn’t care to be at his bedside. The sooner the better, if anyone asked him.
Aimilia stirred, shifting from her back to her side, tucking her good arm under her head and burying her head deeper into the pillow. Her bad arm shifted, and Nikias started to rise from his seat, but he was too late as she jostled it and woke up with a wince on her face.
She blinked her eyes open, immediately seeing him and asking, “Nikias?”
He sat back in his chair, pulling it ever so slightly closer to the cot. “How do you feel?”
She grunted and started to sit up, but before she could, Nikias was already there, helping her up and adjusting the pillow to prop her up fully. She said, “Sore, tired, hungry, nothing awful.”
The winding tension in his shoulders eased slightly hearing her voice and seeing that she wasn’t lying. She looked fine, just tired.
She looked up at him and asked, “Commander Eleni? How long have I been out? Is she alive?”
Nikias blanched, turning his attention to the blankets and pretending to fix them just to stay a little bit closer and not thinkabout the far too familiar scene he’d seen the day before. “I don’t know. I was focused on you the whole time.”
When he looked up, Aimilia’s cheeks were pink and she was staring out the window while her fingers twisted the edge of the blanket. Dare Nikias take that as a sign?
Did she truly not want him at all?
“Right,” Aimilia whispered. Then she looked back at him. “What did they say about my arm?”
Nikias sat back down. “No lasting damage.”
She grinned for a moment, starting to sit back, but then her eyes widened and she sat back up. “Wait, who was eliminated?”
He was a little surprised it had taken her this long to ask. Maybe she was growing as a person too.
Although it might be easier for him if this weren’t the case, he smiled and said, “Commander Eleni and the last one of your cousins to finish. You easily passed with the most points, Commander.”
His heart had been in his throat and his mother’s bruising grip on him had been the only thing keeping him from making a fool of himself running in there to save her. Every time those fangs or claws had gotten too close, Nikias had almost shouted. At one point, he was certain he’d called out her name.
Aimilia ran her hands over her face and into her hair, beaming, and the warm pride in Nikias’ heart swelled more than the anxiety he’d felt watching her in danger. He said, “You didn’t hear it from me, but the judges were quite impressed with your paralysis rune.”
Aimilia shook her hair out and smirked at him. “I knew they would be.”
