Maybe Hypatia was on to something.
Had he been condemned from birth?
No. He could not let her get into his head.
“You should quit while you’re ahead. I have been exceedingly gracious to you.” Nikias stared down at her, leveling her with a dark look. “You should not test my patience.”
But Hypatia had her claws in him now, and she wasn’t letting him go anytime soon.
“Oh, dear Nikias, don’t delude yourself. She didn’t love you last time we met, and she doesn’t now. She never will. Try all you want. You can’t change that fact.”
“You don’t know that.” He would not believe there was any magic that could possibly tell her that. “Maybe you should spend less time worrying about my future marriage and more time worrying about your current one.”
Hypatia might have had him in her claws.
But from the way she was bristling, clearly she wasn’t as unbothered by everything as she pretended to be. “Speaking from experience?”
Nikias could gouge out her eyes, if it would destroy her abominable ability to See. It was unnatural, even for magic.No human should be able to know such intimate details about another.
However, Nikias had hit a nerve, and it was his turn to dig in.
“There’s a reason you didn’t say any of this yesterday. Only when you’re off the leash your husband keeps you on are you so bold. Do you think it makes a difference?” Nikias laughed. “Your husband knows you’re a rabid dog that he can’t afford to put down. He has to hold you back and hope he tames you before you turn on him and kill him.”
“See?” Hypatia gave him a grin with all the brilliance of a blade. “I just knew the two of us would get along so swimmingly. Attack me all you want. It doesn’t change the way the little redhead looks at you. You can blame me all you want for your actions, but I wasn’t in Areator. I wasn’t pulling your strings.” She shifted even closer, lowering her voice to a cooing whisper. “Every wicked thing you’ve done was your own choice. Showing her the monster you are can’t be undone. You dropped the illusion. She will always look at you and see a monster.”
Nikias stayed perfectly still, as solid as marble. “Is that what you tell yourself at night to comfort yourself when your husband looks at you the same way? That is, if he’s even in the same bed as you.”
Hypatia’s expression twisted into a sneer as she lifted her chin. “Distract yourself from the truth with me all you want. It doesn’t change what I saw. Nothing can change it. Struggle in vain all you want, Nikias—it won’t work. Your fate was sealed the moment I saw it.”
Nikias stepped closer, his words coming out a barely restrained snarl, even as her words worked, crawling up his spine and into his throat trying to suffocate him. “We’ll see about that.”
“Hypatia!”
Nikias pulled away right as Hypatia did the same. Hypatia turned on her heel at the sound of her husband’s voice. Konstantin had a dark look in his eye, and it took all the Nikias’ self-control not to grin. Hypatia maintained a calm and collected composure, but she was caught red-handed.
Maybe if she didn’t want Nikias to accuse her of letting her husband control her like a dog, she should act less concerned with her behavior in front of him. Why was she bothered? Nikias couldn’t tell. The only reasonable theory he had was that Konstantin was leveraging some cooperation of his clan that benefited hers based upon her behavior toward Nikias and the rest of his delegation.
For all that Hypatia was a monster, she was at least ruthlessly committed to her people. It had been the only way they’d gotten peace. Albeit she’d still demanded blood to quench her thirst first.
As much as Nikias wanted to stay and try to translate their tongue enough to hear Konstantin get onto Hypatia, he was too jittery to truly enjoy it. He might have gotten some shots in, but he was certain that she’d been the victor once more. One day he’d come out on top. And he knew when that day would be.
Chapter 28
NIKIAS
“If this is what you’ve always been, I wonder how you ever managed to love Faustina at all. Or how she ever loved you in return.”
The fury burning in Aimilia’s eyes cut Nikias to the core.
Why couldn’t she just listen to him for once?
Why was every move he made in her eyes one worthy of condemnation?
Why did she always know exactly what to say to destroy him?
He stepped closer, desperate to reach out and grasp all the hard-won progress he’d made with her the last few months and keep it from slipping away, but then the memory had slipped out of his hands as the scene changed completely.
“If you all want peace so badly, you’re going to have to be willing to suffer for it.”
