She was stunning.
She was alive. She was safe.
Nikias’ knees slammed into the dirt and she looked up at him, lips parting, but he could not hold himself back now. He slid his arm around her waist, pulling her in while his other hand held the back of her head as he turned his face into her neck, on her good side, and clutched her to him.
He didn’t care that everyone was watching. He didn’t care this would be all they would talk about for the next month. He didn’t even care that he only had about half a minute before she pushed him away and said something to rip him in half again.
All he cared about was the fact that she was safe and in his arms.
But Aimilia didn’t push him away. She didn’t even try. Although that probably had to do with her injuries that he was taking care to avoid as he breathed in the rancid sweat and overwhelming smell of the earth.
Instead, she just said, “Careful, Nikias, they’re all going to think you actually care about me.”
“Let them,” he whispered.
Aimilia stiffened in his arms, and her breathing against him stuttered. “And what if I start to think that?”
“Good.”
Aimilia jerked back and Nikias was forced to look up. She was being pulled out of his arms by Gavril as he said, “Come on, you need a healer or you’re going to pass out from blood loss.”
Gavril shot Nikias a glare as he hurried her away, which Nikias returned as Aimilia shook her head and let Gavril escort her away. Nikias stayed where he was, watching as the healers helped her find a place to sit as they began unwrapping her shoulder and Gavril knelt beside them, turned away but sitting in a way to block Aimilia from sight. Most of her anyway. Her head came to rest on Gavril’s shoulder while the healers worked.
A soft, gentle hand on his shoulder turned his gaze toward Marcella, who knelt beside him. She gave him a smile and said, “I am rooting for you.”
She couldn’t have said that. He was hallucinating. Or she was butchering their language again. But…
He whispered, “You are?”
“Gavril… will get there eventually. Give him time. She is good for you, and I think you her.” Marcella looked at the hole again, then at all fifty novices. “She is… a force.”
Nikias’ lips twitched up as it all washed over him again. “That she is.”
He ran a hand through his hair as Marcella whispered, “And Gavril is right about one thing. She is not your Faustina.”
He ran a hand through his hair, taking another look at the top of Aimilia’s head, eyes closed as she started to doze on Gavril’s shoulder while the healers worked. He whispered, “I know.”
Aimilia wasn’t Faustina. That was the only hope he had.
Chapter 20
AIMILIA
Aimilia woke up when the healers moved onto her burnt hand, hissing in pain and grabbing at Gavril’s shoulder. She crushed it in her grip, causing him to wince as the healers cleaned the wound that was practically infected already from the way she’d been crawling around in the dirt with it. It was agonizing.
Gavril’s back was mostly toward her, and she appreciated the thoughtfulness, given the massive crowd around of people working to get the stadium and ground stabilized.
They’d had to remove what was left of her peplos to heal her shoulder and her strophion was filthy. It certainly was not appropriate attire to be left in in front a group of fifty children, even if most of them weren’t paying attention to her. Not that there was anything really to see on her other than blood and dirt.
As the healers crested over the worst part of healing her arm and the pain began to ebb, Aimilia muttered, “Thank you for sending Marcella after me.”
Gavril didn’t look back, only inclined his head toward her. “She didn’t go down there after you because of me.”
“Then I take back my thanks,” Aimilia said, pausing to let out a sharp hiss as another wave ripped through her while the red began to fade. “Here, have this instead: thanks for nothing.”
“You could thank me for being your pillow and rescuing you from Nikias.”
Aimilia squeezed her eyes shut, hoping everyone took the red tinging her cheeks as coming from pain at the healers’ work. His arms around her had been wholly unexpected. What had he been thinking?
