Page 104 of The Prince's Captive

Gavril was pacing across the sparring grounds, running a hand repeatedly through his hair. He turned immediately when she arrived, his expression unreadable to her.

Her guards brought her right up to him and she asked, “What is going on?”

He didn’t answer right away. He stilled in his pacing and just stared at her.

She shifted her weight and before she even knew it, she was holding her left wrist, running her fingers across the lines and her thumb over the rune etched into the metal. Gavril’s eyes landed on the movement.

She’d spent the last few days pacing her cell, scratching at her left wrist to try to get rid of the feeling of Gavril’s warm fingers all over it.

She didn’t succeed.

The only time she wasn’t plagued by the memory of Gavril clutching it to his chest was when she was reliving the leather straps biting into it and the wood table beneath it in her nightmares.

Gavril opened his mouth, snapped it shut, clenched his jaw and looked up for a moment. He closed his eyes, shook his head and then looked back at her and held his hands out. He said, “Today we spar again. Give me your hands.”

She held them out and said, “I thought you were tired of fighting.”

Gavril took her right hand first as he pulled a key out. He looked up at her and gave her the most painful smile she’d ever seen on a man. “But fighting is not tired of me,mea spes.”

He pulled the first limiter off her wrist, and her eyes widened. She said, “We are fighting with magic?”

He started unlocking the limiter on her left wrist. “We are.”

That explained the increased guards and Inimicus.

“Why?” She narrowed her eyes and jerked her left wrist out of his the second the limiter was loose.

Gavril stared at the space her wrist had been in his hand before he closed his hand and then dropped it. He looked up at her as his hand fell to his side. His shoulders dropped, and she could see bags under his eyes. He said, “Because I’m tired of winning. I think you’ve earned a solid hit on me.”

“You think even with my magic I could get anywhere close to hitting you?” Marcella shifted back, keeping an eye on the Inimicus all gathered around them.

Gavril stepped back slowly, reaching up and pressing his left hand to his heart. “Your confidence in me is touching, but I expect you will surprise yourself.”

Marcella stepped back to her side of the rectangle. She looked over at the Inimicus surrounding them. Gavril lifted his hands into the air and said, “Hey! Don’t pay them any mind. Your eyes on me.”

She turned to face him, lifting her hands into the air.

If they were studying her clan’s style of fighting, she should give them nothing. And she knew exactly how to do it in order to get his trust.

Gavril gestured for her to approach. “Fight.”

She just kept her hands in the air. “Your fight. Your move.”

His hands flew through the air and her wrist tingled as she could sense his vitae filling the air as he cast. She watched as he cast what she believed was an illusion rune. It looked similar to one he’d used against Aimilia.

She just stayed perfectly still.

Gavril’s hands moved again as he cast a new rune. She narrowed her eyes.

When the bolt of vitae flew toward her, she fought her natural instincts to get out of the way and the fake bolt fizzled out an inch in front of her. Gavril straightened up and said, “Soldier. Fight.”

“As you order.” Marcella curled her hands into fists and she rushed forward. Gavril’s eyes widened as she swung at him instead of casting. He fumbled to block it, and she kept coming at him.

He quickly dropped his hands into fists and switched to sparring like they had before. She could hear the Inimicus muttering behind them.

It didn’t take long for Gavril to sweep her legs out from under her and pin her to the ground. As she went down, he followed. He threw his hands out to catch himself, bracing himself on either side of her. Her hands were up by her head in the space between his hands and her head. She kept them flat, palms up as Gavril’s legs shifted, bracing on either side of her as well.

He stared down at her. “What are you doing?”

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