Chapter 33
NIKIAS
Nikias had known his actions would have consequences, but he never would have thought Aimilia would go to such lengths to avoid seeing him after their kiss.
The first day, he’d expected she’d try to avoid him, and wasn’t surprised when Commander Calix was the one to join him in his meeting with Konstantin and Hypatia. Hypatia had been behaving, but even if she’d tried to get under his skin, she wouldn’t succeed.
Aimilia had kissed him back.
So much for the demon’s cursed Sight.
Konstantin, on the other hand, had bags under his eyes and looked dead tired the whole time.
Nikias didn’t go searching for Aimilia the first day.
He wasn’t worried. He wasn’t.
She’d kissed him back.
Soon enough she wouldn’t be able to deny she cared for him and shortly after that she’d be confessing she loved him, and he’d be able to tell her of his affections and finally, she’d accept his proposal.
He’d had a few bumps on the road, but things were finally back on track and going his way. He could be patient.
His parents, on the other hand… If Nikias came back unengaged…
He could take it.
So Nikias wasn’t worried when he didn’t see Aimilia the second day after their kiss.
Aimilia was stubborn. She was having to confront the fact that what she claimed to feel toward him clearly wasn’t what she actually felt for him.
It was good to know she wasn’t repulsed or immune to his charms. He certainly wasn’t immune to hers.
On the third day he didn’t see her… he was a little nervous.
What was she doing?
As soon as Konstantin finished their meeting for the day, Nikias rose from his seat. Three days was plenty of time. She couldn’t avoid him forever.
“What have you done now, Nikias?” Hypatia asked, causing him to stop in his tracks as Konstantin dropped the papers he was collecting.
“Hypatia—” her husband started, but she waved him off.
“It’s a genuine question.” She leaned forward in her seat. “I’ve missed seeing her vibrant hair every day.”
Nikias wasn’t going to dignify anything she said with a response.
He just kept heading for the door. Hypatia rose from her chair, bracing herself against the table as she called out, “Well, I do hope the messenger that came for her this morning found her. I had no idea which direction to point him in.”
A messenger had come for Aimilia?
Nikias was out the door right as Hypatia said, “Don’t give me that look. That wasn’t antagonizing him. I was informing him—”
He stopped a servant, completely butchering their language, but managing to ask where Aimilia’s quarters were, and received a stammering reply before he was off again. He swept through the hallways until he reached her door and rapped his knuckles against it.
He heard muttering on the other side. Then Aimilia’s voice from the other side of the door. “I appreciate it, Gavril, but I’m fine. You have plenty to deal with on—”
Then the door opened and Aimilia gasped, letting go and stepping back to see him.
Nikias pushed down the hot coil in his chest that had flared up when she’d said Gavril’s name and instead said, “Not Gavril. Just me. You keep doing that, by the way, assuming it’s always someone else.”
He looked over her shoulder to see she had her bags out and her belongings half in them, half out. What was she doing?
“Nikias—I was—I was about to come find you.” Aimilia reached for the door again, but before she could step out into the hallway, he put his palm against the door and stepped into her room, taking her in.
Her eyes still had a tinge of red to them and her voice had a thick rasp to it. She’d been crying.
There was only one thing Nikias could think of. But it wasn’t possible. The man had been ill, but there was supposed to be more time.
“Your grandfather?” Nikias whispered.
Aimilia’s eyes widened as she let go of the door and her lips parted. She nodded. “I… Word arrived this morning. I… I was going to come find you. He—” Her voice cracked and she turned her head. Her usually immaculate hair was in disarray, falling into her face and obscuring her from view.
“Aimilia, I’m so sorry,” Nikias whispered, stepping closer and catching her arm. But instead of letting him pull her into his embrace, she slid from his grasp, shaking her head as she took deep breaths and tilted her head back, rapidly blinking.
She held her hand out between them, keeping him from getting any closer. “I knew it was coming. I—I didn’t expect—I have to go. If I’m fast, I can make it for the funeral.”
“Of course you have my blessing. This takes precedent.” Nikias glanced around at her things, a disorganized mess that betrayed Aimilia’s true emotional state despite her best attempts to hold herself together.
But she was refusing to let him come any closer despite how clearly she needed someone.
“We’ll leave first thing in the morning. ”
Aimilia kept her hand out, but paused looking back at him. “Huh?”
He took the chance to gently take her hand and lower it so he could step closer, not quite pulling her into his arms just yet. “For the Mitis Estate. I’ll have everything ready for us to leave first thing in the morning. Don’t spend another second worrying about it. I’ll take care of everything.”
Aimilia ripped her hand out of his. “What? No. I’m leaving in the morning. There is no we about this!”
Her shock and grief had clearly scrambled her mind.
“Aimilia, there is no sense in you running off right now when I’ll have to go with you anyway.”
“What are you talking about? You can’t just leave this because I have to.” Aimilia gestured to the building around them. “Right now, you need to be here working with Konstantin.”
“Gavril and Commander Calix are more than capable of handling this. Aimilia, the Head of House Mitis is dead. The royal family has to attend the funeral.”
“Then let it be your parents. Don’t use my grandfather’s death as an excuse to get away from Hypatia!”
Like he would let his wretched parents go to House Mitis without him where he couldn’t protect Aimilia from them. Nikias would sooner keep Aimilia from going at all.
“Hypatia is the least of my concerns right now. Even if you don’t want me there, I have to attend the funeral as well.”
Aimilia started grabbing her things and shoving them into her bags. “Fine, but you’re not leaving with me. You have to go back to Areator to collect your family.”
“My parents are perfectly capable of arranging their own travel, and doing so would only slow us down when it will already take us too long to reach Mitis for the funeral. I’d never arrive in time for the funeral if I went to Areator.”
The bag fell from Aimilia’s hands and she whipped around to glare at him. “Stop saying us!”
Nikias watched her for a moment as she took slow, heaving breaths, hands curled into fists at her sides. He knelt down and began gently repacking the bag that was spilling out onto the floor. When he was done, he pushed himself back to his feet and held it out to her. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
She didn’t take the bag, so he set it at her feet and turned on his heel and left even though everything in him wanted to stay. Staying would do more harm than good. Aimilia wanted a fight, and he wasn’t going to give her one.
If she wouldn’t let him comfort her, then he needed to give her space. But he certainly wasn’t going to let her grief turn her irrational and have her doing something reckless like traveling alone when she was in such a state.
The next few hours passed by in a whirlwind as Nikias hunted down everyone he needed to in order to get his affairs in order.
Finding and explaining to Gavril everything took far longer than it should have, Gavril only half-listening and when he was, outright glaring at Nikias.
Nikias, however, didn’t have the time to waste figuring out what had Gavril in such a mood.
He especially didn’t want to find out if it was because Aimilia had told him about their kiss, mostly because he didn’t want to imagine what she would have said to Gavril in that instance.
He didn’t think he’d ever have Gavril’s approval of his pursuit, but Nikias didn’t really care. Gavril hadn’t wanted her; he forfeited any right he had to an opinion on Aimilia’s love life when he chose another woman.
Konstantin was understanding about it all, and more than happy to work with Gavril while Nikias was gone. Nikias didn’t see Hypatia, thankfully. The last thing Nikias wanted was to get into it with her when he wanted to be able to give Aimilia his whole focus.
The sun had long since set by the time he had everything arranged for their departure in the morning and he was back at her door again, softly rapping his knuckles against the wood.
No response.
“Aimilia?”
Still nothing.
“I know you’re not happy with this, but you must see this is the only practical way to go about this. We both have to go, so we have to travel together.”
Nikias fell silent and pressed his ear to the door. He couldn’t hear any movement on the other side.
He was going to kill her.
Nikias tried the doorknob and it was locked. His fingers flew into a rune and the metal pieces hit the floor with a clatter. He’d apologize to Konstantin for destroying the doorknob later.
He pushed the door open to see Aimilia’s completely empty room.
The window was, of course, open.
Nikias swore under his breath and turned on his heel.
If he didn’t love her half as much as he did, he’d have long since given up.