How could she have found out about it when Nikias had been completely ignorant?
He had no idea. But he’d have to figure it out later.
Nikias had intercepted another messenger from Areator the day before. Any day now, it wouldn’t be a message begging them to return. It would be one saying they’re too late.
Good.
Nikias looked forward to it.
As much as Nikias tried to focus on the funeral, there was too much swirling about his head. He’d sent out his fake scouts, but he’d gotten a very real message from Konstantin, informing him that they’d gotten more information out of the stone mage. They didn’t have time to wait for a reply from Nikias, much less any support. The clan mages needed to mobilize their troops now if they wanted to stand a chance at cutting the Stonai off.
So even though the stone mages had nothing to do with Aimilia’s tower falling, they were still a problem Nikias had to deal with. Konstantin was asking for him to send support as soon as he could.
But Nikias wasn’t going to be able to mobilize anyone while he was there, dealing with funeral after funeral and watching the woman he loved nearly get killed trying to prove something she didn’t need to prove when she could just marry him.
Why wouldn’t she marry him?
Nikias’ thoughts spun around and around, never finding an answer as the commanders buried Eleni. Nikias watched Ovidius, and it was strange to be a spectator when once he’d been by the casket. It was clear how much the man loved her.
Nikias had a vague recollection of him. He was from House Gelu. A relative of Faustina’s. He was doing his best not to cry, but it was obvious when he failed. It seemed he had a few of hisrelatives there as well. Their features were all familiar to Nikias. He hadn’t interacted much with House Gelu since Faustina’s death, but beforehand, he’d been quite close with them.
Nikias supposed he should probably talk to Ovidius, but all Nikias really wanted was to talk to Aimilia. He knew she and Eleni weren’t close. But still, she’d been at her side after the fight.
His heart twisted. She’d been at Eleni’s side, trying to save her, but when she’d woken up, her first thought had been for Nikias.
How could it not mean something? How could that not be evidence that she loved him? Why couldn’t she just set aside her pride and admit it?
Was it really so terrible to her to love him?
Or was there something else?
Nikias wasn’t sure. But when Eleni was buried, he watched as Aimilia pulled away from the casket. He stepped forward, ready to take his place at her side like he had last time, but his mother’s hand shot out and grabbed his arm.
Aimilia turned in the other direction and she joined her mother and Cyprian off to the side, and within a matter of seconds, Lieutenant Turpis had joined them. Nikias’ blood began boiling and it only doubled when Turpis put his arm around Aimilia’s shoulders and moved his hand up and down.
Nikias was going to kill him. Actually, death seemed a little merciful.
Nikias didn’t care what it took, but the brat was going to pay. But the worst part of it all?
Aimilia didn’t shrug him off. She just stared blankly at the casket.
Why wasn’t she pushing him away? Why was she letting him take Nikias’ spot? What was she doing? What was going on there?
He knew what Turpis wanted, but why was Aimilia allowing it?
Aimilia was smarter than that. She had to know he was only after her to improve his position. It couldn’t be anything more than that. They’d only been at the estate for a few weeks. How could that compete with the months Nikias had had with her beforehand?
Although, they had been the classmates once. Nikias just stared across the way, hoping with each second that would be the one Aimilia would break out of her trance and push Turpis off of her.
She never did.
The reception wasn’t much better.
No matter how close Nikias seemed to get to Aimilia, she always was gone before he got there.
Had she always been this good at slipping away from him?
Each time her red hair vanished from his view, his heart jolted and raced faster. He didn’t understand. Was this really simply because of Turpis’ presence?
