Page 102 of The Prince's Mage

With shaking hands that he could feel the phantom touch of beneath his, she removed the clasp with his name etched into it and pulled his cloak off her shoulders. Her cheeks were red as she flung them into the dirt and snatched up the plain cloak to wrap around herself instead.

Well, she was as childishly stubborn as before, so at least that wasn’t part of her falsities.

And one of the reasons he loved her in the first place.

He stepped forward and bent down, gathering up the cloak and clasp as carefully as he would glass. When he straightened up, he startled back at the wrist shoved right in front of his face. A wrist covered in lines and a leather band with a metal piece that bore his name.

Her whole arm was shaking, but she was staring down at him with the same fury she had the day she’d cursed him to lose everything he ever loved and never attain his desires.

When all he did was stare at it, she shoved it forward again and snapped, “Well? You want to strip me of everything you’ve used to mark me as yours, go ahead. Finish it. If you want just a soldier to lead you to Hypatia, I will be that. Whatever you want me to be, I will be. Take it back.”

He stepped back again, shaking his head. “It’s not that simple.”

“You said there was something you needed to tell me when we had peace. When you would be able to let me go if that’s what I wished. Clearly, there is something amongst your people that would allow you to take this off me if you thought you could let me go. If you want to be done with me, you can be.”

She was calling his bluff.

“What I said we would do after there is peace, we will do. We will discuss the issue then. Right now, our focus is getting me to Hypatia and forcing a negotiation. Your chiefess could very well slit my throat on the spot and all of this talk will be for nothing, soldier.”

Marcella pulled her wrist back, glaring at him. It seemed he had reached the limit of a quiet, mournful Marcella.

Now she was fighting back.

Interesting. Maybe she hadn’t been as much of an illusion as he feared. But he could not and would not let himself fold until he could be certain, and he could not be certain until after they had peace and she had nothing left to gain from him. Not until he knew she wasn’t still pretending she didn’t hate him the way she had for so long.

She dropped to the ground and lay down with a biting, “As you order, my commander.”

But from the slight shake as she did so and the way she hit the ground harder than she should have, he knew it had been partly because she hadn’t been able to keep her strength up a moment longer.

Gavril also settled down for a few hours of rest, arm over his eyes so he would not be tempted to look at her and fuss over her health. He still didn’t understand why she thought of herself as so much less than. She was too clever for his own good.

My commander.

My.

Her name on his wrist dug into his skin the same way her voice echoed in his ears.

Chapter37

MARCELLA

The only thing holding Marcella together was the little leather tie wrapped around her left wrist.

As long as she had that, she was still Gavril’s; whether he seemed to want to have her at the moment wasn’t as certain. But he also wasn’t ready not to have her.

After a few hours of fitful rest, Marcella was being woken up by the gruff bark of “soldier.” She just narrowed her eyes at Gavril even as he moved away to start readying the horses.

She wasn’t sure what he wanted from her. He’d snapped at her when she’d tried again to tell him her love was real, but he hadn’t taken his name off her wrist. She didn’t know what to say or do to prove herself to him, but she wasn’t going to let him go without a fight.

No matter how tired of it she was.

Fighting was not tired of her.

She climbed back onto her horse, trying not to let the way she missed him picking her up settle too deeply into her chest. He was already riding away by the time she gathered up the reins.

When she caught up to him, desperately trying to think of what to say to get through to him, he spoke first, “Soldier, what do you know of Chiefess Hypatia’s forces? What are we walking into?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, but he kept his gaze forward. Ever since he’d broken her out, he’d refused to look at her for any longer than he had to. Fine.

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