Page 75 of The Prince's Captive

If it were anyone else, Gavril could have them executed.

“That is precisely what I was hoping to discuss, Father,” Nikias said, reaching forward and taking sip of wine before continuing, “Fortunately, before the interruption, I was able to ascertain the depth of the she-wolf’s knowledge—”

“Marcella.”

Gavril didn’t touch his plate. He didn’t even look at his glass. Everyone turned to him.

Mother snapped, “What was that?”

“Marcella. My wife. That’s her name. It’s respectful to refer to people by their names.” Gavril turned to his oldest friend. “Don’t you think so, Aimilia?”

She narrowed her eyes and he instantly read the look in them. She’d given him that look before.

“Pick your battles, Gavril. You cannot win them all.”

She’d told that to him countless times before. It was true. But he was picking this fight. It was one worth fighting.

“Of course I think so. I find it always makes it clear who is being referred to then,” Aimilia said, giving his father a winning smile. “Leaves no room for confusion.”

Father nodded and turned back to Nikias.

Gavril had long since numbed himself to the sting of his parents liking Aimilia more than they’d ever liked him.

Nikias barely hid the roll of his eyes as he continued, “I retrieved any useful information she might have had, and she didn’t have any. She seemed to have very little idea what the rock is for or why her people were giving it to Clan Montis. She is a low-level soldier of no worth to her people. The most useful information I got from her was about the demon she resembles.”

Nikias’ voice darkened as he spoke about Hypatia. Aimilia’s eyes widened. The servants attending the dinner stilled.

This…

This was a battle Gavril would not pick despite the fact he was grinding his teeth to hear Nikias degrade Marcella. Not when he was speaking now of the Desero demon.

Nikias, in a move so fast no one would have caught it unless they’d been watching, tugged at the long black sleeve on his left wrist until it covered the scar completely. He looked up with a glint in his eyes. “She has some Abyss-tainted ability to see the future. It explains how they knew about the ambush. I also asked about their leeches. They give them to the temple to handle instead of exterminating them and cleansing their bloodlines, and the rock has nothing to do with them and the abominable ability to absorb vitae. I’m done with her.”

“Then hopefully our healers will be able to further develop their knowledge by—”

Gavril cleared his throat, cutting his father off and saying, “Your Majesty, what Nikias didn’t mention was the fact the healer couldn’t remove the marriage band. You can ask the healers who examined me—it’s her vitae under my skin, and my vitae is perfectly normal. It is no illusion of mine. She is my wife, and it is against the law for a healer to take a knife to a Runai or a Runai’s spouse.”

Father immediately narrowed his eyes. “Boy, I am the king. I decide what is law. And if I want to defy the law, it is my right. Mind yourself.”

“I was getting there,” Nikias said, shooting Gavril his own tense look. Gavril just glared back at him while Aimilia sighed, abandoning the pretense of eating to just outright watch them. “Now that I am done, I’ve heard Gavril’s alternate proposal for another way to make use of her that will avoid the public scrutiny of disobeying the laws we are supposed to create and uphold. I think it would be wise for you to consider it, Father.”

“And this is?”

Nikias gave Gavril a short nod, and Gavril sat up straighter. “I believe if you’ll just give me enough time and promise to uphold the law and not hand her over to the healers to be studied, I can get more information about the Sordes magic than our healers ever could.”

“How do you expect to accomplish that?” Father let out a sharp, scoffing laugh. “You think you can get more out of a worthless soldier than one of our healers who has studied countless of her kind to understand the corruption of their vitae?”

Gavril’s tongue felt like lead but he forced himself to say the words anyway. He had run out of options. The truth didn’t matter.

“Do you think I married that worthless soldier for any reason but this?” Gavril matched his father’s flippant tone. “I think putting her on the table is a mistake. She won’t last more than a day, but I’m her husband who made a vow to protect her. She knows this and she knows that I’ve been protecting her and defending her. I’ve been winning her trust and gratitude. I’ll have to find a way to convince her I had nothing to do with Nikias’ interrogation since I promised to protect her from that, but I’m also the one she remembers getting her off it, which will work in my favor. If she trusts me, I can get her to use her magic without it being a risk. You can put all of them on a table and cut them open to try to understand the corruption in their vitae all you want, but where has it gotten us? Isn’t it time we observe the Sordes magic in action to be able to understand how this corruption truly works?”

He dug his nails into the arms of his chair and willed himself not to throw up.

Liar. Illusionist. They were the same.

He’d been a liar all his life.

Sometimes he had a hard time figuring out where the separation was between his illusions and reality.

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