Page 110 of The Prince's Captive

“You think being blessed is a corruption? That she is not human? You people… you call us backwards.” As soon as she’d said it, her eyes widened, but Gavril was already laughing.

He was trying not to read too much into her being comfortable enough with him that she was so honest. Marcella had always been honest.

He gestured for her to go on. “No, please, continue.”

She huffed and crossed her arms. “You are the ones who treat my people like rats. You think our faith is an indication of ignorance. Yet you shun the ability—the greatest gift of knowledge Asentai gave us. You call void hearts a sign of our corruption that we must be eradicated and yet you also call our seers the same when they are the very opposite. Hypatia’s birth was a sign of favor from the goddess.”

“Why do you assume such a thing is a gift? Could it not also be a curse?” Gavril’s eyes trailed down her and to the scar on her hip, and he had a sneaking suspicion as to why her people would go to such lengths to make her Hypatia’s perfect replica.

Marcella flushed, wrapping her arms around her stomach and covering the scar. “Hypatia’s sight is what allowed her to escape your ambush.”

“And condemn you in her place.”

“And yet somehow you have kept me alive. You figured out I wasn’t her and kept me alive anyway.” Marcella tilted her head. “Would you have treated someone you call a demon so kindly?”

“No.” Gavril stepped closer. His hand shifted, and he was barely conscious of it reaching forward to brush her arm, the exact place hiding the scar Hypatia had given her.

He whispered, “I would not have treated Hypatia the way I treat you. I would not have treated anyone the way I treat you.”

She raised an eyebrow, shifting back. “By binding me to you and forcing me to fight to earn every breath I breathe that isn’t on your tables?”

“Stubborn girl,” he muttered in his tongue, letting his hand fall. Her eyes narrowed immediately at the term. He switched back to her language. “All I am saying is, how can you stand there and say Hypatia’s vision was for the best when it is the reason you are trapped?”

“Because if it wasn’t for that vision she would be trapped.”

Why was she so convinced of this?

Gavril scoffed. “So your life is worth less than hers?”

She blinked at him. “Of course it is.”

Why did she believe this lie? How could he convince her otherwise?

He moved to take her arm, but she stepped back and shook her head. “For a prince, you have a strange sense of worth.”

“For someone who condemns me and my people for those horrible tables, your people had no qualms putting you on their own.”

The second he made the accusation, he regretted it. Not because it was untrue, but because of the way Marcella’s eyes widened and her breath hitched as she stepped back from him. Like he’d just struck her.

But it was true.

And while Gavril wanted peace with her people, he also didn’t know if he had it in himself to forgive them for scarring her and sending her to die.

“We arenothing—that was not—Hypatia didn’t take any—It was necessary.” Marcella sputtered before shaking her head. “It was foretold. What your people do is sick.” She backed away into the stacks. “I will leave you to your books.”

But when he looked back down, out of the corner of his eye, he could see she didn’t go far. She hovered nearby, watching him.

And he hoped that maybe she was trying to figure out what it was in her that he saw that was of worth. That her life was still worth living.

When he’d found the books he needed, and they were back on his horse to the palace, she did lean back and softly say, “I see why it is your favorite. I also always liked where I was taught more than anywhere else on the estate. Thisacademie… I like it better than your palace at least. Even if your children are unnaturally quiet.”

Gavril let out a soft laugh. The fact that she approved of his favorite place meant more to him than she would probably ever know. As the horse walked, he felt the lilies shift in his pocket. Well… more to him than she would ever know, unless she one day wore them again from his hand.

And then she said, “The rock… I can tell you this much. It is not for Hypatia’s sight. And it is not for you Inimicus. You’ll find no answers in your books about it.”

He wasn’t sure if she meant to be helpful or not, but still… the fact that she’d volunteered any information was enough.

Chapter35

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