Page 104 of The Prince's Mage

She snapped, “She might. It’s impossible to know how many successful visions she’s had over the last year while I’ve been gone. Or what they’re about. Until we see her and know otherwise… assume she knows it and plan accordingly.”

“She could know your heart stopped and started again?”

A chill went down Marcella’s back. She spoke slowly, “It is… possible. I have no way of knowing.”

“If she did see that in a vision… if your people know what happened to you… how will they treat you?”

“I…” Marcella dared not speak the most likely answer because it was ridiculous to her. “Miracles are to be celebrated. If my people believed I had touched the Heart and had received this blessing of a second chance, some would see it as Asentai’s favor on me. That is a favor no one else in our history has received. In the eyes of some… I would be more respected and possibly revered than Hypatia is.”

But that was laughable. Marcella had never once been worthy of their respect. And she’d done nothing to earn the miracle.

“You said ‘some,’ what about the others?”

“Holy relics are not to be handled by unclean hands. Any hands that have not gone through a specific process to be purified to ensure nothing corrupts the relics, especially the Heart. Of course, plenty have touched the Heart and nothing happens. But those who would not see this as a miracle from Asentai would see it as corruption from Dhelnir. Destruction. Corruption. Death. They are all his chief end. So the fact that I have been touched by death…” Her voice trailed off. “I have been touched by Dhelnir. Now… if ever there were corruption to be cleansed… that would be it.”

Gavril’s jaw clenched and his grip on the reins was so tight she wouldn’t be surprised if when he finally let go the leather was burned into his hands.

“There would be a split amongst the faithful. Some would put me on a pedestal. Others would want my head. I do not know who would prevail.”

The only sound in the air was their horses’ hooves and their breathing.

“How do you figure out whether or not she knows something that could only come from this Sight of hers?”

“If you want her to know? Ask. If it’s something you don’t want her to know? Keep it a secret until she gives herself away. She usually does. When she…” Marcella sighed. “Hypatia’s behavior is different when she uses her Sight. She’s… erratic. Unbalanced. Crueler. And it drains her. How pathetic I am after casting these days? Using her Sight is the only thing that has ever gotten Hypatia anywhere near my weakness.”

While Marcella wasn’t fishing for anything and was saying all of it because it was true, Gavril’s silence when she spoke of her pathetic, reduced state dug into her chest.

“But the physical toll of her ability has never fazed her. The change in her behavior never stops her. She’s obsessed with her gift. With knowing the future. Nothing matters to her more. So when she has learned something from it, believe me, she won’t be able to contain it for long, especially if the person she knows it about is nearby. If she knows about my short death, she will reveal it within hours.”

“Assuming she doesn’t know it already—and if she does, we are already done for—we must keep that a secret from your people as well as mine. We both must take that to our graves.”

“We have both proven ourselves exceedingly skilled in keeping such important secrets even from the one we are closest to.” Marcella couldn’t help herself. She would do anything to get a reaction from him. To make him look at her.

It failed.

Gavril made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat, but it was strained. “Other than that, what do we need to keep from her, in case she hasn’t already used her Sight to discover it? If she’s so unpredictable and erratic, what will set her off?”

Marcella’s scoffing laugh still didn’t move Gavril’s gaze toward her. Was his neck made of marble?

“Anything could do it.” She saw the thin scars peeking out past the cloak to her wrist as well as the leather band and the black lines marking her skin. “But our marriage bond, my time on the table, my scars… anything that’s happened to me could do it. For the same reason I imagine she would have taken me as a handmaid. The only thing she loves more than the fact that I look like her is her Sight.”

Gavril shook his head. “None of this makes sense. It sounds like you’re making it up.”

“I am not.” If he thought she lied with every word that left her mouth, why had he bothered asking? “I barely understand the seers myself. I certainly am not one. You will see when you meet Hypatia.”

“Fine. What else should I know about her?”

“She is… heir to a clan and she knows it. All her life she has been a weapon in formation. Now she wields herself. I have no doubt she has thought through every way this could go, planned for every surprise, and is already ten steps ahead of the rest of us.”

“Again. Not comforting.”

“Hypatia is not a comforting figure.”

“But she wants peace, right? She wants to avoid bloodshed, right? That’s why she told you to take me hostage in the first place.” Gavril shifted to face Marcella. “She can be reasoned with, right?”

Her breath caught in her throat as he looked directly at her after so long avoiding her.

Marcella nodded. “I believe so.”

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