But if she never feared him until that awful, fateful day, then he’d never feared her until now. If she knew how wrong she was…
She’d break him in two. And she wouldn’t mean to. Not the way she had when she’d refused him. This would be worse. She’d pity him.
He couldn’t tell her the truth until he had crawled his way into her good graces and her heart. When he was certain he was no longer misreading her, then he could finally tell her. He couldn’t bear what would happen if she didn’t believe him, or worse, thought he was lying to manipulate her.
And he couldn’t deny her statement without her demanding an explanation.
“Thank you,” Nikias said, stepping to the side and leaving a clear path to the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“That’s… all?” Aimilia took a few hesitant steps forward, eyeing him.
“I appreciate your honesty. Even when things are… complicated.”
Aimilia nodded decisively and kept moving.
He watched her go, always watching her go, but this time she paused in the doorway and looked back.
“If you’re being genuine… I suppose, it doesn’t have to be so complicated, does it?”
But she didn’t stick around for an answer either, leaving Nikias standing there this time… A little bit closer than he’d been before. Genuine…
If he could show her and remove all her doubts and fears that he could ever lose his morality and become such a monster ever again, maybe he had a chance.
Chapter 14
AIMILIA
If Nikias wasn’t playing some kind of game in order to get revenge for her rejection… Aimilia couldn’t make heads or tails of any of it anymore.
Their conversation at the end of the first day left Aimilia with no better understanding of what he was doing than before. If he was planning on making an example of her, or humiliating her in return for humiliating him, he would simply get to it. He wouldn’t keep dragging it out. Acting the way he was…
It was confusing. And Aimilia, if she was going to be forced to deal with it, was going to at least understand it.
Aimilia spotted him waiting outside the entrance to the stadium’s boxes for the second day of the entrance exams. Waiting for her?
Probably because he didn’t trust her to find him and join him in the royal box. The whole palace had been whispering afterwards about the king and queen not making the appearance they had been supposed to make.
That, and of course, about Aimilia being seen with Nikias in the box.
At some point she’d be hearing from her uncle about it, probably hoping it meant that she had changed her mind. Not happening.
They exchanged polite greetings before heading up once more.
She went behind him this time. He would glance back at her every so often and start making small talk. She kept her responses clipped.
Whatever he was up to… Aimilia would get to the bottom of it.
He’d never answered her about why he’d been asking all those questions yesterday. Why he’d been determined to reopen the mess she’d thought they’d locked away and washed their hands of the night she’d rejected him, laying out her reasons as to why she despised him. Why did it still matter to him the nuances of her opinion?
Was he trying to get a feel for what future objections there might be should he put forth a suit to another Runai? But asking Aimilia about it was laughable. No other Runai would object the way she had, and especially not with the reasons she had. They couldn’t. No Runai alive knew Nikias and his dark depths the way she did.
The only ones who came close were Gavril and Marcella.
Both of whom had been of no use when she’d finally found them the day before to get their insight on Nikias. They were both far too exhausted from dealing with the children to even form coherent sentences, so she’d simply told them nothing much had happened while she and Nikias had been judging.
Staring at his back as they climbed up to the royal box had provided her no answers. The only possibility she had, and one he hadn’t fully denied, was that he wanted her good opinion. He wanted her to believe he had truly changed. He was fixated onthis idea he had that she didn’t hate him as much as she claimed. But why?
It had never mattered to him before. Why would it matter now, after she’d rejected him?
