Page 23 of The Prince's Captive

Marcella supposed she didn’t have much of a choice. Getting drenched wasn’t a particularly appealing option to her.

She reached out and took his hand with one of hers, letting him pull her to her feet, and he started leading her through the camp and to one of the tents. The second they started walking, every eye in the camp was on them, but there were no whispers. The commander still shot a fierce glare at the men regardless. When they reached an empty tent, he lifted the flap for her, and she started to crawl inside. Once she’d ducked inside, she saw a bed roll and a blanket. Commander Gavril crouched at the entrance and looked inside at her.

Her muscles tensed, but he made no other move, staying outside the small tent. The light runes were fainter, but there was just enough glow highlighting his features for her to see.

“Hypatia…”

Marcella made sure she shifted and appeared more attentive at the name. His eyes traced all over her, and there was a slight nod.

He spoke softly, taking more care with the words in his sharp accent, “Believe or not, promise, no harm to you on my watch. What I want most… peace.”

He lowered the tent flap, and she was left in the darkness of the tent.

Marcella immediately sank to the ground, clutching her chest and feeling her racing heart. Marcella thanked Asentai silently. She was being paranoid. He’d seen the scar for himself. He was convinced she was Hypatia. He had to be. Otherwise, she would be dead.

Still… she needed to escape before he got anywhere close to not being convinced.

He was right about one thing.

She didn’t believe him for a second.

Chapter9

MARCELLA

The next morning, Marcella woke up on her own. She decided to at least see if she could peek out of her tent to observe the early morning camp routine and hopefully catalogue more information to decide whether her best chance of escape would be in the night or early morning.

But before she could even attempt to locate the Inimicus patrolling the camp, the first thing she saw when she lifted the tent flap with her manacled hands was the figure sleeping on the ground. He was only half sheltered under the canvas protecting her tent.

Commander Gavril.

He had… slept in front of her tent… in the rain no less… all night?

She supposed that was one way to ensure she didn’t escape. Now she knew she had to account for this in her plans.

The slight rustling sound of her just lifting the flap had him turning from his side to his back and blinking his eyes open in the early dawn.

Apparently Asentai’s blessing was not on her that morning.

Her blessing also hadn’t been on the commander the night before as his clothes and hair were obviously damp and sticking to him, showing he’d been rained on despite huddling under the tiny section of canvas that extended past her tent.

Maybe the Inimicus weren’t as superior and advanced as they espoused if they didn’t even have a rune that could provide shelter in the rain.

He blinked at her, his green eyes hazy for just a moment, and he muttered something, “Pulchra…”

That was a new one, like what he’d called her last night. Likely swearing at her for waking him up in a way that wouldn’t damage the trust he thought he was building with her as he tried to pry her for information.

He shook his head, blinked and his gaze on her cleared as he sat up slightly and coughed. He switched to her tongue and said, “Wake early, Hypatia?”

Marcella had resolved to give him nothing. She simply wasn’t going to say anything so she didn’t so much as give him a word of her language he didn’t know.

She pulled her manacled hands back and let the tent flap fall. His laugh from the other side only infuriated her further.

It wasn’t long before the flap the tent was lifted from the outside and the commander was gesturing for her to come out. She reluctantly did so to see the camp being broken down again and the Inimicus loading back up for another day of riding.

The older commander whose name she still didn’t know—Gavril’s was the only one she did—passed by, shaking his head at Gavril. The younger commander paid him no mind. Their dynamic was interesting. She would have thought the older commander would be the one in charge of this mission, but it seemed like Gavril was and he was just there assisting Gavril as opposed to the other way around.

Why would they give such an important mission to a clearly younger and less-experienced commander instead of giving it to the older, more experienced commander and having the younger one as his second?

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