Chapter 9
NIKIAS
Nikias was a patient man, but as the hours stretched on and the door to his study remained closed it wore thin.
Dare he send for her directly?
He wanted her to come to him.
Clearly, he was cursed to never get what he wanted.
He was about to get up and track her down himself when a knock sounded on his door and a voice called out, “Your Highness.”
“Come in,” Nikias said, setting aside the report he’d been trying and failing to read for the last several hours.
He brushed his hands over his desk as the door was opened and Aimilia was escorted inside, hands pulled behind her back but not chained together or in limiter cuffs.
She was still doing her best to look like a prisoner.
“Commander Aimilia was caught defying your orders, Your Highness. We brought her directly to you, as per our command.”
Nikias waved them away. “Return to your posts. I will handle this from here.”
Aimilia was glaring at him, nearly vibrating from the effort of holding back the deluge of vitriol she so clearly wanted to spew at him. Now that he was no longer blinded by his affection, he would be able to do this correctly.
As soon as the door shut, she held her wrists out to him. “Well? Aren’t you going to have me officially arrested and condemned for the… How many times are we up to now? I’ve lost count.”
“Don’t be dramatic.” Nikias stayed in his seat, folding his hands on the table. “I’ve only arrested you and had you stand for your case once.”
“Then we’ll add it to the innumerable counts of your abusing your power,” Aimilia sneered. “At least be honest about it.”
He took a deep breath.
“How did you make it out of the palace?” Nikias raised an eyebrow. “Their orders were to stop you should you try.”
“What can I say?” Aimilia shot him a beautiful and vicious smirk as she crossed her arms. “I’m an excellent illusionist and your guards are idiots. If you’re going to make me a prisoner here, you’re going to have to try harder.”
He laughed. “You think you’re a prisoner?”
“What else would you call it when a man in power has decreed I cannot move freely in my own city? That I am to be kept behind his walls so he can soothe his wretched, fragile ego?”
He wouldn’t let her words hurt. She’d made herself clear. He could hardly be worse in her eyes than he already was. The only place to go from here was up.
“If you had asked instead of assumed, you would have found out, it was only for today, and only to ensure you didn’t run away. It was important we have a little discussion.”
“You know what people who aren’t petty little tyrants do when they want to have a discussion?” Aimilia leaned forward, and dropping her voice. “They ask.”
Nikias leaned forward in his seat and matched her tone with a condescending grin. “Those people haven’t met you.”
She huffed, rocking back on her heels. “Just tell me what you had me dragged in here for. What will you do now to make an example of me?”
Nikias didn’t know how he was going to manage this, but he had to try. He wasn’t giving up just yet.
“Make an example of you? For what? I asked a question. You gave a reply. That’s all there is to it.
I care nothing for the mindless, dull chatter of Runai who find entertainment in discussing the lives of their betters.
They would be better off focusing on their own lives, but that would force them to confront the sad reality that they do not have any, otherwise they’d be too busy to be whispering behind their hands in the first place. ”
He could read Aimilia’s struggle in deciding whether to respond acerbically as her wont was in these instances or to let it go given now the gossip involved her.
“I don’t think you’re nearly as unbothered by it as you pretend to be,” Aimilia settled on saying instead.
He gave her a cold smile. “How gracious of you to keep me in your thoughts and concerns today. It’s noted.”
She stepped forward again, glaring at him. “Will you stop toying with me and get on with it?”
He gestured toward the empty seat across from him. “Then I suggest you sit down.”
Aimilia did so, approaching the chair, gaze darting between it and him like they were both snakes lying in wait.
Once she took her seat, he pulled a few pages back, organizing them into a neat stack.
She asked, “If you’re not making an example of me—not that I believe you—what are you going to do with me?
I see now why you haven’t given me an assignment, but now that that’s all taken care of…
Are you going to change the assignments? ”
Nikias set the stack to the side and raised an eyebrow. “Change the assignments?”
“Will you just give me the post near House Mitis and be done with all of this?” Aimilia gripped the arms of her chair.
“It’s the easiest and best solution for both of us.
I’m out of sight and everyone will stop talking about me, forgetting about my existence until my grandfather passes and I become the next Head of House Mitis.
And by that point, I’m sure you’ll already be engaged, if not married, and they’ll all be talking about that. ”
Nikias kept his face impassive. It was far too early to reveal his hand, especially to her. She would not take it well and it would only prolong what was already shaping up to be an intensive and long ordeal.
He did allow himself a soft chuckle and said, “No, I’m not changing the assignments and giving you that post. My reasons for giving it to Commander Prisca and Turpis still stand.”
Aimilia’s lip started to curl up as her gaze darkened. “You can claim otherwise until you’re blue in the face, but you’re just making it obvious to everyone you’re punishing me because I embarrassed you. Or more accurately, you’re punishing me because you embarrassed yourself.”
Brat. He often wondered how he had ended up here. Painfully, silently in love with her even when she was making it very hard to be. Even when he wanted not to be.
“You were never getting that post; outside events are irrelevant. You’re needed here. Your life is here. You might be Mitis, but Areator is where you belong.” Nikias shifted back and added, “In order to best serve your country.”
She scoffed. “From where I’m sitting, I’ve got nothing here but two friends and a prince I’ve made an enemy of more times than I can count controlling my every move.”
She was a test of patience, but Nikias was determined to pass.
“Maybe if you saw that I’m not your enemy, I could tell you what assignment I have for you instead,” Nikias said.
Finally, ever so slowly and only ever so slightly, he watched her guard lower.
She let go of the arms of the chair and leaned forward, raising an eyebrow.
“If you insist on keeping me in Areator, aren’t you just going to put me back on the regular patrols like I have been on for the last few months? ”
“Your talent is wasted riding around the immediate vicinity when we have no fear of the clan mages trying to sneak in and attack Areator.”
“My talent?”
“Don’t be obtuse. As frustrating an acquaintance as you’ve been for most of our lives, I have always given you the credit you’re due in your skill level. Don’t pretend I haven’t.”
There.
Her cheeks started to turn a slight pink and now she wouldn’t look him in the eyes.
She was not nearly as unaffected as she might pretend to be.
“Fine. If you do still think so highly of my skills, what will I be doing?” Aimilia asked, but her gaze was still on the table. “If I’m not your hostage.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out already.
” That got her to look up again, narrowing her eyes at him, clearly wracking her brain, but he was happy to put her out of her misery.
“The entrance exams are almost here. Commander Scipio’s wife went into labor a month early, so I need you now to join the commanders judging the novices competing. ”
Her eyes doubled in size. “You want me to judge the little brats?”
“I can think of no better judge of them than the woman who was the best of them.”
She stared at him, and he couldn’t help his lips from twitching up, giving away his subtle teasing insult.
Aimilia rolled her eyes at him, sitting back and crossing her arms. “That will only occupy me for about a week at best.”
“And as a commander, your only concern is to obey the orders you’re given, whether they take a week or not.
Once you’re done, you await further orders.
These are your orders: you are to stay in Areator until the entrance exams, judge the exams and help place the novices on their tracks, and upon completion, await further orders in Areator. ”
As much trouble as she might give him, she was a good commander at the end of the day. She inclined her head. “As you command, Your Highness.”
It was almost suspicious, her acquiescence.
It was why Nikias had gotten to the point of embarrassing himself so publicly.
Especially these last few months, there had been something different about Aimilia.
He couldn’t exactly define it or describe it, but she was less acerbic toward him.
Their interactions were not as biting on her end.
She would watch him with a careful, analytical glint in her gaze.
She didn’t fight him tooth and nail on every little thing.
He’d thought that after negotiating with Hypatia, and how Aimilia had sobbed over what had happened to him, it meant she cared for him even a fraction of the way he loved her. Clearly, he’d been wrong.
Which left him with no explanation for her recent change in behavior. In the way she would look over her shoulder at him, the way her eyes would always find his at a banquet.
But he still hoped. He could do no less.
“Is there… anything else?” Aimilia asked, looking up.
“That was all, thank you, Commander.” He rose from his seat, and Aimilia did the same. She even managed to give him a respectful bow before heading for the door.
He made sure he reached it first, bracing one hand against the frame as Aimilia reached for the doorknob. She startled back a step before looking up at him. He leaned in, not touching her but close enough any slight shift would brush them together.
“One last thing. Call me Nikias. Don’t make me keep asking.”
“If you insist, Nikias. Now can I go?”
He pulled his hand back and opened the door for her. She passed through, throwing one last look at him before disappearing down the hallway, cloak fluttering in the air before she was gone completely.
Nikias leaned against the frame and stared at the empty white marble.
He wasn’t giving up yet.
He curled his fingers into his cloak and ignored the burning ache of the scar on his chest, each warring with the other.
She’d knelt by his bedside, sobbing over what had been done to him in the name of peace. She could pretend she hated him and would never care for him with her words as much as she wanted, but her actions already proved on some level she did.
And if she cared for him even a little, it meant she could fall in love with him.
It had to.
Nikias would not break his vow.