“I don’t even know what you’re talking about that I’m supposed to know.” Nikias gestured to his name around her neck. “Was this your uncle’s doing?”
Aimilia huffed, reaching up and grasping the necklace. “Why were you dragging your feet out there? This is what you wanted!”
“Aimilia, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen you since your uncle beat you senseless because you hate me so much you refused to let me be your champion.” Nikiascouldn’t deny he wasn’t still smarting from that. Every single scratch Aimilia had ever clawed into him still burned.
She laughed. “Exactly. I saw through your lies and finally stopped falling for your manipulation, so you made sure that if I wouldn’t agree to be yours because of a lie, you would force me to be yours. Did you think I wouldn’t find Turpis after you tried to scare him off? As brilliant a strategist as you are, you miscalculated by revealing your true intentions to Turpis. ‘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.’ My fate was already sealed when Cyprian challenged me, but you revealed your hand by offering to be my champion. No matter what I did, I was going to end up here with your name on my neck.”
“I didn’t say that—I mean, I said something similar, but that wasn’t—I shouldn’t have even said what I did.” Nikias winced as she threw his jealous, petty behavior back in his face. “I understand why you think that, but that wasn’t my intention. All I cared about was the fact that you were injured and Cyprian was trying to take the one thing you wanted from you. I couldn’t bear to see you get hurt. I wanted to give you what you wanted.”
Aimilia’s sneer cut through him. “Here you go again. You think I’m going to fall for that line like I did the last time you used it? When are you ever going to drop the mask?”
“It’s not a mask, Aimilia. I’m not trying to manipulate you! All I have ever tried to do is give you what you wanted!” Nikias couldn’t stop his voice from rising. How could he ever get her to believe him? “Whether it was me or not!”
“You’re usually a better liar than that.” Aimilia pressed her lips into a thin line, refusing to look at him.
“I’m not lying!” Nikias knelt in front of her, grabbing the fountain edge and staring up at her, trying to catch her gaze. “I was a jealous idiot, that’s why I said all those things I never should have to Turpis. I was losing you; I could feel you slippingaway from me. There was a brief moment I believed what you wanted could be me, and you know better than anyone I’m a desperate, pathetic man. I was willing to do whatever it took not to lose you. And in doing so, I ensured exactly what I feared most came to pass.”
Aimilia clenched her hands into fists as she squeezed her eyes shut, softly shaking her head. “No—No. I won’t fall for it again. Iwon’t.”
Nikias reached up, catching her jaw in his hands. “I’m sorry. Aimilia, please, I’m so sorry. I’ve made such a mess of everything, but I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to force you into this.”
Aimilia stilled, but she didn’t open her eyes. She just let out a soft, broken whisper. “Stop. Please, just stop.”
“I made a mistake—I’ve mademanymistakes, but I meant what I said. I love?—”
“Enough!” Aimilia ripped her head back, and she shoved him away with a surprising amount of force, given how she was still pale and shaking.
Nikias landed back on his heels in the grass, looking up at her as her hands hovered in the air.
“Nikias, juststop.” Aimilia’s eyes were full of water. “You’re getting what you want. You win. Let that be enough for you for once in your miserable life. Be happy. It’s over. I’m yours. Leave it at that.”
The words were ash on his lips as he stared up at her.
“Please, Aimilia, I love you. Tell me it’s not hopeless. You must.”
She wouldn’t believe him. There was nothing he could say to make her believe him.
She had convinced herself every word out of his mouth was a lie meant to bend her to his will.
Aimilia was never going to believe that he loved her.
Aimilia was never going to love him.
But there his name still sat on her chest.
At his silence, Aimilia reached into her pocket and pulled out the other necklace, her name he had carefully etched into it by runelight months before. She tossed it at him and he barely caught it, holding it against his heart, right over his scar.
Aimilia reached up and wiped at her eyes. “There.”
Nikias curled his fist around it. He wanted to speak, but his tongue was marble in his mouth. There was nothing he could say. She wouldn’t hear a word of it.
“Can you stop looking at me like that too?” Aimilia turned her head away and stared at the water falling behind her.
“Exactly how am I looking at you?” Nikias whispered, and how exactly was he supposed to stop?
Aimilia’s jaw clenched. “Just put it on and leave me be until the wedding.”
Maybe… Maybe there wasn’t anything he could say, but…
