Clearly, she hadn’t humiliated him enough.
Chapter 17
NIKIAS
Nikias didn’t get much sleep. He mostly stared at the ceiling above him, trying to ignore the ache burning through his chest. He’d made the right decision.
Aimilia had figured out he wasn’t giving up yet, so it was better to go ahead and make himself clear on his intentions. That way she couldn’t accuse him of being manipulative or lying.
Not that he’d be telling hereverything.
That would come with time.
When he had finally beaten the demon at her own game. When Aimilia had fallen in love with him. Then he would hold nothing back.
Especially how much he loved her.
The image of her coming out of the bathhouse haunted him. Her hair down, damp on her shoulders in the brilliant orange glow of the sunset, had almost broken his restraint. He’d had to fight tooth and nail as he’d been so close to her not to close the distance between them and finally sink his hands into her hair or waist and kiss her. If he’d tried… No. He could be patient. No matter how hard she made it some days.
Nikias dozed intermittently, the fragments of his dreams a mix between the usual ones that haunted him. If he couldn’t escape Aimilia at night, then she would not be able to escape him during the day. The sun finally broke the horizon and light came in through the windows, causing him to give up trying to sleep. It was the last day of the entrance exams. His mother and father were going to be there.
Aimilia knew what he was up to.
It was shaping up to be a big day. If he wanted it to go somewhat smoothly, he needed to get started now.
While Aimilia had told him nothing other than a few words had happened with his mother, he wasn’t going to risk anything worse than that. He had to do whatever it took to keep his parents from cornering her.
He arrived at the stadium as the sunrise was ending and immediately began making the arrangements.
There were going to be several commanders upset with him, but he didn’t care. He’d shove all twenty of the other commanders judging the exams into one tiny box if he had to in order to keep Aimilia away from his parents.
When Aimilia approached later that morning, she was already glaring at him. He bit back a grin. She didn’t slow down as she came closer. All she did was wave her hand at him and say, “I have about had it with you, so can we just agree to do our jobs and leave it at that?”
“If that’s what you want,” Nikias said, letting her go in first. He lowered his voice as she passed. “But if that’s the case, why are you dressed like you have someone to impress?”
“Is that your way of trying to flatter me or annoy me?” Aimilia brushed past him, but he caught a glimpse of her cheeks reddening.
“You can’t fault me for attempting both.”
“You might have forgotten already, but the fact is we will have thousands of eyes on us, when they’re not on the children. You’re the absolute last person I’m dressing to impress right now.”
“Well, I have good news. Those thousands of eyes will have their focus split, if not diverted away from us completely.”
Aimilia paused on the first step and looked back. Her expression was cold and neutral, but there was something beneath the surface he couldn’t quite identify in the dim light. “So the rumors are true then?”
“They are.” Nikias caught up to her, overtaking her with one stride. “Which is why we will be in the box below them.”
“That box was already occupied with four judges.”
“Now it’ll hold just two.”
He looked back to see Aimilia gathering her wits again to start to catch up. “I’m not afraid of your parents.”
Nikias looked over the railing down at her. “Aimilia, you’re too smart not to be. I know you’re brave. You don’t have to lie, or worse, become a fool to prove it.”
She fell strangely silent at that, instead of facing him, looking down at her sandals before shaking her head and continuing to climb after him.
Had that been too forward? Or maybe too honest, given the circumstances.
