Page 122 of The Prince's Captive

They were still at war.

She had her orders.

Three days after Gavril had left, Marcella was sitting with that realization, staring at the food she’d been brought and unable to make herself eat it, when she heard footsteps.

She shot to her feet, ignoring the way the fast motion darkened her vision for a moment. Maybe something had changed. Maybe Gavril hadn’t left.

She held her breath, but it wasn’t Gavril. It was two guards.

But she didn’t lose hope. If they were coming for her, maybe Gavril was still there and just waiting for her to be brought so they could spar. Maybe his family had come to their senses and realized how ridiculous it was to send a prince out to find a few chariots. One of them wrinkled his nose and muttered to the other one.

Marcella sank her hands into Gavril’s cloak and pulled it tighter.

They grabbed her arms, pulling them out from under the cloak, and hauled her out of her cell. As they led her down the hall, a new, horrifying thought occurred to her.

Maybe Gavril was actually away.

And because he was away, she was going on the table.

But before she could decide to either put up a fight or a prayer, they turned left.

And hope returned.

She was practically running ahead when they reached the peristyle connected to the training grounds, but the guards didn’t let her go as early as they usually did, so she was jerked back. When her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, she quickly looked over the Inimicus guards and mages gathered, but she saw no Gavril.

What she did see was obnoxious red hair and brown that was dingy and dull compared to Gavril’s gold.

Aimilia. Prince Nikias.

She immediately deflated, stilling in their grip, but they forced her forward anyway. The guards hauled her across the courtyard and up to Prince Nikias and Aimilia, who were speaking to two of the Inimicus with notebooks.

“PrincepsNikias,ImperatorAimilia—”

Marcella couldn’t translate the rest of the words. She just kept looking around, hoping that this time she would see Gavril’s golden blond hair, but she didn’t.

What were they doing? Why was she there when Gavril wasn’t?

Prince Nikias barked a few orders, and then Marcella was being pulled away again. She blinked and then she was landing on her knees as the guards shoved her into the rectangle she and Gavril always used. She wasn’t fast enough to catch herself and she let out a hiss at the rattling pain shooting up her legs. It didn’t matter anyway as the guards grabbed her arms and ripped them out ahead of her. A third guard unlocked the limiter cuffs and jerked them off. Then all three of them hurried away.

Marcella looked up to see vitae glowing in the air, marking the rectangle. Invisible walls. She wasn’t alone inside the rectangle, though. Aimilia stood inside with her, grinning. Prince Nikias stood on the sidelines, just outside the wall with the Inimicus with the notebook. Guards surrounded them on all sides.

Nikias looked… She’d noticed when he’d interrupted her and Gavril the day she’d seen the Heart, he did not look well. He still didn’t.

Prince Nikias took a notebook offered to him, looked down at it, and in an accent worse than Gavril’s, he said something that might have been her language, but she couldn’t understand it.

She stared at him blankly and then he looked down and looked back up and said, “You. Prince’s mage. Fight.”

Is that what they all thought of her? They made it sound like she was Gavril’s pet.

She brushed her fingers against the cloak and then the band on her wrist. Collars.

Maybe they were right.

She looked over at Aimilia, who was shifting from foot to foot, her fingers flexing at her sides. Marcella looked back over at Prince Nikias and said, “Why?”

Prince Nikias’ eye twitched at the sound of her voice and his lip curled up. His eyes narrowed at the cloak on her shoulders, and before he could respond, Marcella slammed into the ground. She blinked and looked up to see Aimilia had her hands in the air, clearly just having cast the rune that had her on her back.

Marcella scrambled to her feet. It seemed she wasn’t going to get to find out the answer to her question. At least, Aimilia wasn’t going to stand around and let Marcella get an answer if Prince Nikias was willing to give her one.

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