Then Gavril and Marcella were gone.
Out of the corner of her eye she watched Nikias’ hands flex as they departed.
And here she’d almost believed he cared.
Then Nikias was kneeling beside her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Aimilia turned her head, shifting the cloak to start to wrap it around her better, hoping the motion hid her wiping at her eyes.
“It’s mostly true.”
“But that doesn’t mean I needed to say it.”
“Strategically, yes, you did.” Aimilia kept fussing with the cloak so she didn’t have to look at him. “Given Gavril was my last prospect for marriage and the facts surrounding it, reminding me of it, and showing you’re actually the only man who does want to marry me for some bizarre reason, should benefit your case in convincing me to agree.”
But then his hands were on hers, and she looked up into his eyes. His eyes stayed locked on hers as he began adjusting the cloak to adequately cover her when she stood up. He took his clasp with his name etched onto it and pinned it securely over her heart.
“If you think I’d purposefully hurt you so I could take advantage of it in order to get you to accept my hand, then I clearly have a long way to go.” Then he reached up and brushed the hair in her face back. “That’s alright. I don’t mind the distance.”
Her heart slammed against her ribs. Why was he looking at her like that?
Aimilia shook her head and whispered slowly, “You are making a very bad bet.”
“See, bet implies chance. I’m not a betting man.” Nikias’ eyes sharpened. “And I don’t need any Abyss-tainted Sight to know how this turns out, you and I. Now, let’s go home.”
“To the palace,” Aimilia corrected, voice still coming out soft and weaker than it should have.
She was just tired. That was all. It had nothing to do with Nikias being so close and saying… the strange things he’d been saying.
Nikias’ hands brushed over her shoulders as he pulled her up to her feet with him. “Yet.”
She rolled her eyes and swatted his hands away. “That doesn’t even make sense.”
“But it made you smile. And you think you stand a chance against me?” Nikias pulled back with a smirk before moving for the exit, leaving her to hurry after him, wrapped up in his cloak. She clutched the red fabric as the sun set below the horizon, casting them all in a golden glow.
Oh, if he thought she’d eviscerated him the first time she rejected him, he was going to be in for it now. She was going to relish wiping that smug smirk off his face.
Chapter 21
AIMILIA
Aimilia had never been happier to be clean. Although she could do without her uncle.
The second she’d made it back to her room in the palace, the sky dark as night washed over them, she’d taken advantage of the basin and washcloth in her room to clean herself up as much as possible before falling asleep the second she’d hit her bed. She was awoken to furious knocking at daybreak, and she opened the door and was embraced by her uncle. The first words out of his mouth were, “You’re lucky your mother isn’t here.”
Aimilia winced as the full force of the aches and bruises she’d been ignoring hit her from her uncle squeezing her. “I take it everyone knows it was me?”
Somehow when Nikias had held her after coming out of the tunnels it hadn’t hurt. She hadn’t known he could be that gentle.
“Yes. It’s all anyone is talking about. That and…” Uncle Cyprian pulled back, releasing her. His eyes landed on Nikias’ cloak, filthy now from having covered her on the way back to the palace. It sat on the floor next to her dirtied clothes.
“I don’t want to hear it.” Aimilia abandoned the doorway to step back into her room. “I’m a hero, can’t you just give me one day to bask in it?”
“You know His Highness ordered you were to be left alone until morning. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have waited this long,” Cyprian said.
Aimilia refused to look at him as she walked over to her curtains and drew them back. “I wasn’t good company last night.”
“This isn’t the time for jokes, Aimilia. Clearly, even though you might act it to aggravate me, you are smart enough not to make an enemy of him. Whatever apology you gave him seems to have worked, and you’ve come to your senses, so now we just have to hope he will?—”
