Still, as the novices aiming to live boring, dull lives surrounded by books on rune theory came out to demonstrate their skills, she focused on them instead.
Every time she or Nikias leaned over to share an observation, the queen made a soft noise in the back of her throat. Aimilia would have thought she was imagining it, if she didn’t see Nikias wince or hear his breath hitch mid-sentence every time.
Strange. She hadn’t realized how attuned he was to his mother’s displeasure. Which, if his mother didn’t approve of him continuing to pursue her, why was he? He was his parents’ favorite, so maybe that made him feel more secure in not kowtowing to their every wish and whim.
After the first two rounds, they paused for an intermission and Aimilia and Nikias were furiously exchanging their notes over the two mages they had in the recent group, debating whether the girl’s illusion had even been worthy of the title given how poor it was. Well, Aimilia thought it had been poor. Nikias was being surprisingly generous.
She was about to respond when Queen Clelia cleared her throat, and Nikias snapped his mouth shut and stiffened.
“Son, would you locate a guard or servant and send them for some water before they start back up again? I forgot how parched these events always make me.”
She couldn’t make it more obvious she wanted to corner Aimilia?
“Mother, I—” Nikias looked between the two of them, and his guarded expression was hard to read except for the worry in his eyes.
But they were in a box and the crowd of thousands below had nothing to entertain them but to watch the boxes above. Aimilia didn’twantto be left alone with her, but considering the audience they had…
Better here and now than in the palace behind closed doors later.
“That would be so kind of you, Nikias. You are such a doting son,” Aimilia said, rising from her seat and reaching out to place her hands on the railing while looking back at them.
Nikias snapped his mouth shut, glaring at Aimilia, but he got her message clearly as he headed for the door. “I’ll be right back.”
His cold look toward his mother had no effect on the queen as she gave him a soft smile and said, “Thank you.”
Nikias hurried out the door as Clelia approached the railing, coming to stand beside Aimilia. Aimilia stared down at the stands of Runai and Solitus stretching their legs while the arena was readied for the next set of novices.
Clelia’s voice came out frigid and clipped as she said, “I used to like you.”
Years of dinners and banquets playing the perfect girl in order to try to endear their own son to them still didn’t make it any easier for Aimilia to hold her tongue. But she could not shed the act even if she wished to.
“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Aimilia said, gripping the railing and focusing on a pair of Runai below, the woman gesturing wildly as she spoke to the man.
“What was it?” Clelia put on a smile and waved to some of the Runai who’d spotted them. Her voice, however, remained dark and cold, completely measured. “My son has been tight-lippedabout the whole event, but I will know what cause you gave to refuse him.”
Well, Aimilia could hardly repeat all the things she’d said to Nikias. Or tell Queen Clelia the additional reason being her treason.
She caught Cyprian’s eye where he stood at his own railing, watching her like a hawk. Maybe she’d have to do some groveling after all.
Aimilia took a deep breath. She could do this.
“Your Majesty, I… I wish most desperately things had not transpired the way they did.” She turned her head just enough to watch Clelia’s expression. “The last thing I ever expected was a proposal from His Highness. Ineverwanted to make a spectacle of him or myself.”
Clelia scoffed. “None of that justifies your refusal of the next king of Imperia who more than made his pursuit of you evident for months now.”
Aimilia didn’t dare contradict her. There would be no point. Nikias and his mother seemed to have much different ideas about what an evident pursuit was than she did.
“Your Majesty, as honored as I am that Nikias would ever consider me, I’m afraid I could not accept.” The act was one Aimilia wore as a second skin, but there was nothing natural about it. “Your Majesty, I had the privilege of watching with my own eyes Nikias and Faustina fall in love deeper day by day up until her horrific end. I saw the agony Nikias was in following her death, and knowing his promise that he would mourn her the rest of his life. I cannot marry him when I know it would only be a further cause of agony for him. He would be in utter misery married to me and mourning Faustina. How could I in good conscience be responsible for his pain?”
Clelia eyed her and Aimilia resisted the urge to hold her breath as she waited to see if the queen believed her.
“What of yours?”
“Pardon? I don’t understand, Your Majesty.”
“Do you plan to never marry? Now that the she-wolf has her claws in my second-born permanently, would that not be the case for you should you ever marry? Why not marry the one Runai who might actually understand and accept a purely practical arrangement? Nikias’ grief is irrelevant to the fact that he must marry again. If not you, it will be some other girl that would be the cause of his ‘misery’ as you put it. Which, I highly doubt my son would be miserable, especially once his wife provides him with the heirs Faustina didn’t. Even so, would you rather a girl who does not understand my son and care for him the way you do have to endure such circumstances?”
Aimilia’s grip on the railing tightened as she was backed into a corner. “I… I hadn’t thought of it like that, Your Majesty.”
