Page 60 of The Prince's Captive

The older commander narrowed his eyes at Gavril. “—knew—not the whole time—escape—kill yourself—cannot be possible—”

The crown prince snapped, “—your tongue, commander!”

“Princeps Nikias—” the commander stuttered, but was cut off as Gavril spoke.

Gavril shook his head. “—blame him—knew—mea sponsaanyway—her vitae—not dead—proves—if it didn’t—doesn’t make it—under my protection—unless you—yours as well.”

Nikias. That was the crown prince’s name. Wait…

The king was silent as the crown prince stepped toward them. Gavril immediately shifted, placing himself in front of her as the crown prince said, “—have known—killed yourself—corrupted—reckless—do something so stupid—aprinceps—not think?”

Princeps.

She couldn’t stop herself from whispering, “Princeps Gavril?”

At the sound of her voice, he turned on his heel toward her.

Prince Gavril.

Not just a commander.

A prince.

She hadn’t been the only one pretending to be someone else.

“Marcella—”

Her hands were at the clasp again, slipping and sliding off it as she kept trying to unclasp it. Off. It had to get off her.

“—her away—deal with this—”

She kept trying to unclasp the cloak. She didn’t want it.

The only thing she could think about was getting the liar’s cloak off her shoulders.

Hands were grabbing hers. She pulled hers away from them and started pulling at the fabric, trying to get the cloak off her.

“Marcella—Nikias—off me!—cannot do this—”

She looked up to see Gavril being dragged away from her by the crown prince—his brother. Hands were grabbing her arms and wrenching them behind her, forcing her to abandon her efforts to remove Gavril’s cloak.

Gavril was fighting his brother the whole way as Marcella was dragged across the marble floor.

Then in her tongue, he yelled across the room as she was dragged away, “Trust me! I will fix this! Keep my promise!”

Marcella jerked back to life.

He still expected her to believe that when she was being dragged away and given over to their heretics?

She wrenched herself forward a step and she screamed at him, “Liar! May you and all your line and everything you have ever loved rot in the Abyss!”

She was lifted off the ground, and she kicked at the air as two Inimicus brutes started carrying her toward the throne room doors. When her foot smacked one of their arms, one of them swore and she was thrown to the ground. Her head slammed into the marble floor with a sickening crack, causing her vision to darken.

The last thing she saw clearly was Gavril’s horrified face as his brother held him back.

Chapter20

MARCELLA

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