Page 87 of The Prince's Captive

Aimilia rolled her eyes, and Gavril turned back to Marcella. Well, there were no runes etched into the cup like she’d always been warned to watch out for from the Inimicus. He held the cup out again and she could see a little bit of steam rising from the liquid.

A hot drink?

He then commanded her, “Drink, soldier. No drug. Just strength.”

Marcella took it, the heat from the drink seeping out of the cup and into her palms. She lifted it and took a sip, and the warm liquid slid down her throat. It wasn’t… terrible. She took another sip.

Aimilia seemed to preen a little and lightly smacked the back of her hand against Gavril’s shoulder. “—even—Sordes—like my family’s—”

He shook his head at her as Marcella kept sipping the strange drink. As she drank more, the warmth spread through her and the exhaustion and dizziness that had been weighing on her became a little lighter.

Aimilia then gestured with her head toward the rectangle and said, “—drinking—getting her—come on—with me—like old times.”

Gavril pulled his gaze from where he was watching Marcella like a hawk and eyed Aimilia for a moment. He narrowed his eyes.

“—up to?”

“—up to? Nothing but—no one here—worth—sharp—knows when I’ll be sent—please?”

Whatever Aimilia’s request was, Gavril paused for a moment before nodding.

Aimilia immediately beamed and laughed brightly.

Marcella’s grip on the cup tightened so much she almost cracked the fragile material. She was forced to admit Aimilia had a nice laugh. It was still too sharp for Marcella’s taste, but she knew the Inimicus thought her language too guttural and harsh, so it wasn’t like she had a beautiful laugh to them. Not that she imagined she would be laughing much in front of them to test that theory.

Still, the sound made her set the cup down on the tray.

Gavril just ran a hand through his hair and pushed himself off the bench, walking back to the sparring mat. But Marcella caught his expression and there was a little bit of light in his eyes she hadn’t seen since they’d gotten to the capital.

Marcella didn’t like Aimilia because she was Inimicus and Marcella despised all the Inimicus, but she seemed to be good for Gavril.

That was why Marcella didn’t like her specifically.

She didn’t want Gavril to have even a moment of happiness. Especially not with his girl.

Gavril took his usual side of the rectangle while Aimilia took Marcella’s place. Were they going to spar?

But before they started, Gavril looked over at her, and when she wasn’t fast enough to pretend like she wasn’t looking right at him, he brightened further. Then he saw the bowl and cup she’d set to the side and his eyes narrowed. He yelled out in her tongue, “Soldier. Eat. Drink.”

She narrowed her eyes right back and picked up the bowl. Once she had, he nodded and turned back to Aimilia. When his eyes weren’t on her anymore, she set the bowl back down and crossed her arms.

Aimilia said something, but Gavril just lifted his hands like usual, but this time not into fists. She did likewise.

For the first time, Gavril moved first. His fingers flew through the air, and Marcella sucked in a sharp breath. They were going to spar with magic.

Aimilia’s fingers also flew through the air. Their vitae filled their runes and sent them glowing into the air.

Marcella couldn’t stop herself from leaning forward to get as good of a look as she could without getting up. It felt like years since she’d last used her vitae properly. She was a little desperate to drink in magic again. Even Inimicus magic.

But as Gavril and Aimilia threw rune after rune at each other—most of the time the runes fell flat thanks to a shield—Marcella only felt the weight of the limiters on her wrists even heavier.

She’d gotten so used to the muffled feeling she didn’t really notice it most days, but now she felt it all over again. Her chest ached deeply as she could not reach the vitae resting there with her heart. It was there. The weight of it was still present, but it was out of reach.

She just watched the Inimicus use their vitae and seethed in her envy.

As she watched their match, she saw Gavril favored illusions above anything else. Completely unsurprising. They were often small, just tricking everyone about where he actually was, causing Aimilia’s runes to miss.

Both of them used complex runes. Complex to Marcella at least. Her clan generally favored simplicity when it came to the use of their magic. One of the reasons the Inimicus saw them as corrupted. While the Inimicus favored complex runes, they could use simpler runes.

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