She’d seen plenty by now; not even her naivete could blind her to what was staring right at her. She locked eyes with him and whispered, “You haven’t changed at all.”
Nikias’ lips parted, each word seeming to knock the wind out of him. Then she turned and threw the necklace off the tower. Nikias lunged forward, but it was too late.
Aimilia ducked out of his grip and watched as he barely caught himself on the railing, just in time to see the necklace disappear from sight as it plummeted toward the ground.
Nikias stared at the ground, and Aimilia walked back toward the door. She said, “If you wanted to manipulate me again, you should have chosen some better lies. You don’t win this time. And when I win this, you can be certain of one thing. I willnevergive up my position. Certainly not to marry you.”
Nikias’ knuckles were alabaster white as he gripped the railing, not looking up at her. His hair hung in his face, hiding it from view. He didn’t say anything. He was completely still. He might as well have been a marble statue frozen forever in time.
The door shut behind Aimilia and she started down the stairs.
Good.
Let him rot there. Her grip on the railing tightened and her knees buckled.
She took a slow, shuttering breath, but it devolved into a gasp. She reached up and wiped at her eyes as she tried to blink away the water pooling in them.
She’d gotten what she needed. She finally had an answer.
She didn’t have to worry about Hypatia’s warning about his manipulation anymore.
Why did it still hurt?
It had all been an illusion from Nikias. He’d just been trying to manipulate her into having feelings for him in order to win her.
Aimilia leaned against the wall as a sob racked her whole body. Well, it had worked. Why had she let herself love even the illusion of him?
Aimilia didn’t have any answers. She just leaned against the wall, smothering her sobs.
It hadn’t been real.
Chapter 59
AIMILIA
Aimilia found Turpis the next morning.
She waited mostly because after scraping herself off the stairs, she’d had nothing left in her to go try and salvage this. But when dawn broke early in the morning, Aimilia pulled herself together enough to go find him. Hopefully she could explain to him, and he would believe her that it had been all Nikias. Hopefully he hadn’t seen too much.
Turpis had important information on the last trial that Aimilia needed if she was going to win or even just make it out with her life against Queen Clelia. Aimilia knocked on his door and called out, “Turpis? Can we talk? I promise I can explain.”
She heard a shuffling on the other side of the door. Then it swung open, and Turpis stood on the other side, staring at her. His expression was cold and dark. He said, “I don’t know that there’s much explanation needed.”
“It wasn’t what it looked like. I had nothing to do with that. I was there waiting to meet with you, and then Nikias just showed up. He was doing all of that, so you would see it and be scared off.”
“Oh, I’m not surprised he was there after he cornered me the other day. You should have heard what he said trying to scare me off.” Turpis sneered, voice dropping as he imitated Nikias. “‘I don’t care what I have to do or who I have to eliminate. Aimilia will marry me if it’s the last thing I ever do.’”
Nikias had said that?
Aimilia’s shoulders sagged. Turpis believed her? “Then you understand I had nothing to do with that.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” Turpis narrowed his eyes. “That wasn’t what I saw.”
Heat flooded Aimilia’s cheeks. She honestly had no idea what exactly he saw. She said, “This is a misunderstanding.”
“Believe me, I saw plenty. You certainly didn’t seem surprised, nor were you resisting him.”
The heat crawling over her skin increased, and she wrapped her arms around her stomach. Turpis was right. “I was caught off guard?—”
