“You might like her, but do you think she’s going to like you once she finds out about your little interference?”
“She’ll get over it. She loves me.” The words were spilling out before Nikias could think twice about them, his fury loosening his tongue. All that mattered was getting rid of this obstacle. “She will marry me.”
“Not if she wins this competition, she won’t. You can’t truly think she’d win this and choose you? She didn’t want you months ago, and that hasn’t changed. You’ve deluded yourself into thinking she loves you? She doesn’t even like you.”
“You don’t know anything about the last few months. You have no idea how she feels about me.”
“Really? Tell that to all the letters I have that have Aimilia’s name on them.”
Nikias grabbed Turpis by the chiton and slammed him into the wall. His breath was hot, but Turpis didn’t turn his head away. Turpis just grinned wider. “You wouldn’t be this upset if you were winning, Your Highness.”
Nikias snapped, “Stop talking.”
Turpis smiled and stayed silent.
Nikias shoved him back into the wall. “This is an order from your prince: You are going to stay far away from Aimilia. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re after. Everyone who looks at you knows it. Your pathetic, desperate attempts to use her to improve your station in life are obvious to everyone. She won’t fall for it, and I won’t let you even attempt it. If I catch you near her again, I’ll have you stripped of your rank and sent home in disgrace.”
Turpis whispered, “There’s only one desperate man in this hallway, and it’s certainly not me.”
Each true word struck Nikias deep in his chest.
Nikias dropped Turpis and stepped back. “I gave you an order.”
“I hear you, Your Highness. Unfortunately, I don’t think Commander Aimilia will appreciate this.” Turpis pushed off the wall and took a few steps, backwards so he still faced Nikias with a wicked smirk. “I guess I’ll find out when I see her at the west tower tomorrow evening. I’ll be sure to let her know about your orders, so that when I disappear, she knows who to blame for it.”
The west tower?
Why was Aimilia planning to meet him at the west tower?
Nikias lunged to grab him again, but Turpis slipped out of his grip and was dashing down the hallway. He called out, “Don’t worry, Your Highness. I’m sure this time will be the time she says yes to you. Who wouldn’t want to marry a man who’s so pathetic he has to try and intimidate all of his competition just so he can have a chance with his brother’s leftovers?”
Forget the threat he made to strip him of his rank.
Nikias was going to kill him.
Nikias could feel everything slipping through his grasp again. He would not lose her, especially not to that disgusting excuse of a man.
He just had to make her understand. He had to make her admit that she loved him.
No. Nikias didn’t even care about that anymore. He just had to stop Turpis from manipulating her. He had to get ahead of this. He would not have everything he loved ripped away from him again.
Chapter 57
AIMILIA
Aimilia was at the west tower over an hour before Turpis was going to meet her so they could figure out her next steps. At Eleni’s funeral he’d told her that he couldn’t get his hands on the cerberus. The one that killed Eleni had been put down.
She reached up at her eyes and scrubbed at them again.
Nikias’ voice had been ringing in her head for hours, even since she’d overheard him and Eleni’s husband.
“There will never be a woman like her again in my life.”
Of course he still loved Faustina. He was never going to stop loving Faustina.
She’d been foolish to think his attention to her could ever hold a candle to his devotion to Faustina.
She’d been foolish to thinkshecould ever hold a candle to Faustina.
