Page 15 of The Prince's Captive

“Promise, no harm will come to you on my watch.”

Marcella scoffed again.

Commander Gavril just sighed and pushed himself to his feet. He grabbed the lily pins and clasps off the table and took them with him.

Marcella immediately moved, hand starting to reach out for them, and he paused. He eyed her as he held the lily pins, that smug smirk starting to drift over his face again. She hated it. She hated him. Just seeing it made her simultaneously sick and want to scream. He closed his fist around them and lifted them higher, waving them slightly before pocketing them. “Behave, demon, and will see again. Simple.”

She immediately jerked her hands back and turned her head so he couldn’t see the bright red blush on her cheeks. Carrying those around, he either had no idea what that implied or he did and just wanted to humiliate her further.

Oh. Maybe that was the revenge. Instead of any physical torment he just wanted her to be fully aware of how she was completely helpless and humiliated as he disrespected her people’s customs.

As he headed to leave the tent, he said, “Rest. Leave at dawn.”

Marcella watched him go, every muscle tensed all anew for whatever would come next. But the seconds stretched into minutes and no one came in after him to drag her off to wherever she was going to be kept.

They were… just going to leave her in here for the night. She couldn’t do much with her manacled hands, but still…

Their arrogance knew no bounds.

However, when Marcella tried to read their maps and the papers that were in the tent… maybe a little bit of arrogance was warranted.

She couldn’t make sense of any of it. She couldn’t get any useful information, not even about their guard schedules for the camp.

They had the Heart of Asentai, and she hadn’t even seen where they’d put it.

They also had the wrong girl from Clan Desero.

Marcella blew out the candles and curled up on the cushions that hadn’t been soaked when he’d dumped water on her, shivering in the cool night. She felt dirtier now than she had covered in mud.

She’d lived through the last moment anyone saw her alive. And it had only happened because the commander had doubts.

She had to escape before another doubt rose to the surface and they realized who she was. An inconvenience who’d lost them their real prize. A perfect candidate for their heretics’ tables.

No one that anyone would miss.

Chapter6

GAVRIL

Gavril stepped out of the tent, sliding the set of lily adornments into his pocket. The last thing he needed was any of his soldiers seeing him with them and coming up with their own version of events. His ears were still ringing from the demon’s screeching, and from the way some of the soldiers had spoken about her earlier, there would be no avoiding speculation or rumor entirely.

“Commander,” two soldiers said when he passed by them as he wove through the camp.

While he was on a mission, it was commander. He paused long enough to gesture to the command tent and said, “You two, take up watch there and make sure the demon doesn’t try anything, but don’t go inside or you will have me to answer to.”

“Yes, commander,” both soldiers said before moving in the direction of the tent.

He lingered long enough to watch them take up their post, feeling the eyes of the men under his command on him. He should have thought to put up a silencing rune before ever going near her, but silence probably would have only gotten more curiosity and speculation than her demonic shrieking had gotten.

“So I take it that went well.”

Gavril took a deep breath and turned to face Commander Cyprian, who was walking toward him from the fire he’d been at. While they did use light runes some, lighting fires preserved vitae in the event of an attack, especially while they were still in enemy territory with an important hostage… at least Gavril hoped his hostage was important.

He had some doubts.

He wasn’t convinced the girl in the command tent was the Desero demon.

The older commander had a slight smirk to his lips, and Gavril narrowed his eyes at him. “Yes. It did.”

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