Page 138 of The Prince's Mage

“Marcella—”

“Why do I feel so sick? She was right. I’ve wanted him to suffer that same agony, but now I just feel hollow. And all I hear are my screams and all I feel is the knife on my skin. I feel my own heart stopping.”

Gavril looked around, but no one was looking their way, much less able to hear Marcella’s low voice. He’d seen that look on Marcella’s face when Aimilia had said Marcella had survived, realizing that she was about to open her mouth in a desperate attempt to stop this and reveal the truth. He thanked Asentai Nikias had spoken up before she had.

“Why won’t they leave me even now? Why do I feel hollow? If this was necessary… why don’t I feel justice? What is that even supposed to feel like? When I touched the Heart, my heart stopped and started again… Why? What has it all been for? Why am I like her?Why am I like her?”

“You are not. Look at me—” Gavril cupped her jaw firmly until her hazy eyes focused on him. “Marcella,deliciae, mea spes, mea uxorem,you are not like her. You are unflinchingly, unfailingly, in every way, her superior. Your character is the only reason either of them breathe. That is the answer to all of this. Your character does not allow you to enjoy the suffering of others, no matter how much you might wish to, it goes against something ingrained in you. If you could not delight in my agony, why would you delight in Nikias’? If you would beg for mercy for Nikias’ life—no matter how undeserving—why would you kill the woman who you were willing to die for in cold blood? Neither of them deserve a second of your thoughts, much less for you to feel any guilt. In you is something beautiful that neither of them could ever understand. You ensured the least damaging outcome leaving her alive, loathe as it may be. This way Nikias lives, the clan coalition remains intact. Take heart in that.”

With each word he spoke, Marcella breathed a little deeper and the haze faded a little more. She nodded.

A shadow appeared out of the corner of his eye, and a new voice joined. “He is right. I am grateful you did not kill her.”

Konstantin.

Gavril’s heart seized in his chest. He should have been paying more attention. Had Konstantin heard them? If anyone found out Marcella was a living miracle—

Or if her new brother found out the truth of what had happened to her, they would take her away from him.

Marcella immediately looked up at him. She said, “How? How can you be grateful for that? If I had, you would be free.”

“But the coalition would fracture. There are several clans who submitted only because of Hypatia. Only because of the favor Asentai showed her when gifting her with Sight. Others joined because of me. But if we were not married, we would not have this coalition or this peace now. Hypatia… is something of a necessary evil.”

But Gavril could not focus on what they were talking about. His grip on Marcella tightened and she turned to him with a question in her eyes. “Gavril?”

Konstantin blinked and spoke barely above a breath. “Breathe, my sister’s promised, we clan mages are not like your people. We are content to let some things be beyond our understanding and have faith. But in the interest of not making my sister a spectacle or a figure to be deified, I will keep the secret.”

Gavril choked on the deep breath he took. Konstantin shook his head, a spark of mirth in his eyes, but the air was too heavy for anything more. Marcella squeezed his arm as he leaned against her, catching his breath. The weight of that secret started to dissipate from his shoulders.

Aimilia finally started to stir, pulling Nikias’ cloak away from her ear and lifting her head from Marcella’s shoulder. She asked in the Inimicus tongue, “Is it over?”

Gavril knew the exact moment someone stepped out of the tent behind him. Only because he was watching Marcella and Marcella spotted it first.

He followed her gaze to see Hypatia coming out of the tent, swaying on her feet slightly. For a moment, no one was really looking at the two of them. Everyone was exhausted or dazed. They’d gone into that tent as dawn had been breaking after a full day and night of negotiating. And dawn was breaking all over again. Hypatia looked around the camp, no one really seeing her, and…

The expression on her face. She was hollow.

Her hands were clean, but that meant nothing.

Hypatia looked at Marcella and Gavril, opening her mouth like she was about to ask a question, but then she blinked and straightened up. She looked around the camp and suddenly it seemed like she appeared out of thin air as everyone saw her.

And she switched in an instant to the commanding chiefess and demon Gavril was familiar with. “The Inimicus prince has upheld his end of the treaty. And so have I. He is alive and has paid for the agony caused and the blood spilt with his own. Now we can have a clean slate. Peace between our people who may not even be two different peoples at all. No more blood.”

She raised her clean hands. The crowd cheered despite having more than a few queasy expressions among them, especially among Clan Montis.

Gavril watched as the demon’s expression faltered while the crowd turned from her and began to pick up in excitement as it hit them that the war was over.

Her lips, so similar to Marcella’s, shifted. And he didn’t hear the words, he only saw her mouth form them. “No more.”

Hypatia’s eyes rolled into the back of her head.

But before she hit the ground, Konstantin caught her.

Maybe he and Marcella hadn’t been the first to notice her then. Or Konstantin just moved incredibly quickly. Gavril hadn’t even noticed when Konstantin had stepped away from him and Marcella. Why the man felt any instinct or desire to keep her from solidly hitting the ground was beyond him.

He could see the commanders congregating, eyeing the tent, and Gavril supposed someone ought to make sure Nikias was actually alive and assess the damage done to him to ensure he stayed alive. He started to push himself off the ground when a clan scout burst through the large crowd, yelling, “More Inimicus are here! The Inimicus king is here!”

He’d known they were on borrowed time the second he’d spotted Aimilia walk into the command tent, but he’d hoped for a little more. Or at least a conscious Nikias to help matters.

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