The Abyss would take them all before she begged Nikias for a thing.
Aimilia opened her mouth, but Cyprian continued, “Aimilia, you will be apologizing to Prince Nikias and accepting his proposal. You don’t have a say in the matter.”
“Oh? Really? Not to be disrespectful, but… or what?” Aimilia rose from the sofa, grabbing her commander’s cloak beside her and wrapping it around her shoulders.
Her mother and uncle exchanged a look. Her mother nodded, and the stern look in her eyes was cute even if completely ineffectual. Cyprian turned back and said, “Or you will no longer be a mage from House Mitis.”
“Nice try, but only the Head of the House Mitis can disown one of us. Grandfather is the only one with that authority.” Aimilia used her engraved fibulae to clasp her cloak into place.
She was a commander in her own right, even if Nikias was refusing to give her an official post. She wouldn’t let anyone forget it.
“He will when he hears of what you’ve done,” Cyprian said, crossing his arms, staying in her way.
“Then write to him. If he’s even well enough to understand the letter, then we’ll find out if you’re right. Either way, I’d rather have no family name then marry Nikias. There is nothing you can say or do in order to make me marry him.” Aimilia came to a stop in front of her uncle, lifting her chin. “Not that he would still be interested anyway. Even if I were willing to lie and prostrate myself before him—which I’m not—it wouldn’t get you what you want. There is no amount of groveling that would soothe his wounded pride and make him lower himself to marry me after I rejected him. Nikias will be finding a wife elsewhere, and soon enough everyone will forget he ever looked my way. Now, please step aside, I have to go to the Academy.”
Cyprian didn’t move. He just kept staring down at her, jaw clenched.
She didn’t back down.
Finally, he stepped aside, earning a sharp gasp from Aimilia’s mother. Aimilia, however, was out the door before she could bestopped. She heard him mutter as she went out the door, “You know her grandfather would never?—”
Aimilia hurried through the halls, not too quickly to be suspicious, but not lingering long enough to catch the Runai and the Solitus servants that she passed getting out anything more than a whisper of her name. She could handle it. The gossip would pass eventually.
In the meantime…
She just needed to get out of the palace. At least for the day.
She needed to see Gavril and Marcella. At least they wouldn’t try and strong arm her into marrying Nikias or tell her she was insane for refusing him.
Maybe she should see if Marcella and Gavril had a spare room in their quarters at the Academy. Staying in the palace wouldn’t make anything better, and removing herself from it would give Nikias time to forget she existed while he searched for his next unfortunate target.
Although if the man would just assign her a post, then he could send her away and be done with her for good.
So Aimilia made her way through the marble hallways, head held high as the whispers went by wherever she walked until she finally made it out to the courtyard leading to the palace gates. Of course, it was swarming with Runai already.
What was more concerning was the way the guards at the gate also immediately took notice of her, but it wasn’t the way everyone else had immediately taken notice of her. They were eyeing her with an apprehension and awareness that came not from the gossip, but like she was a target.
She took a few steps toward them and they stiffened. She then turned and started in a new direction, and they relaxed. If she tried to leave, would they stop her? Did they have orders regarding her?
“Aimilia!”
Aimilia turned to see Lieutenant Turpis. He seemed to be everywhere the last few days. She held her hand up. “If you try to get anything out of me regarding the unfortunate scene last night, I’ll reenact exactly how I trounced you in the tournament right here for everyone to enjoy.”
Turpis laughed, shaking his head and holding his hands up. Not offended, but also not intimidated by her threat to drag him across the ground with a vitae whip until he passed out. “At the risk of tempting you, all I’ll say is… I’m impressed, and I’m not the only one.”
“You are?” Aimilia raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, well, if I’m being honest—and ratting out everyone in our class—we all sort of thought the reason you attached yourself to Gavril was because you were chasing his status,” Turpis said, the implication hanging in the air between them.
Aimilia rolled her eyes, unsurprised. She’d heard that kind of gossip for years. No one would ever believe her that she’d had little interest in the prince until she’d discovered the truth about his parents’ abuse. Mostly because Aimilia would never betray Gavril and tell anyone about it, so of course it looked like a purely mercenary motive.
She said, “And now that Gavril is married but not to me, I’d jump at a second chance—a better one even—to cement my place in the royal family?”
Turpis nodded and gave her a small shrug.
“Right, well, as you can see, clearly not the case. Gavril always was—and still is—my friend. I am very happy for him and Marcella. My refusal of Nikias has nothing to do with Gavril.”
At least, not in the way Turpis and likely the whole court was assuming. It wasn’t because of any lingering romantic feelings she had for him.
