Page 15 of The Prince's Mage

Since she’d arrived, she’d only left the palace grounds once, and the places she’d been to while trapped there had been limited.

When she shifted, he adjusted his grip and murmured in her language, “I am with you. Just stay still and we will be out soon.”

Out where?

She had the feeling he meant a different word but just didn’t know it.

She muttered, “I can walk.”

Gavril let out a soft huff of a laugh. “Not in your state, you can’t. This is faster.”

“Wouldn’t a horse be even faster?”

Gavril’s grip on her legs tightened. “Horse is not an option.”

It wasn’t?

Gavril turned a corner and his brisk jog came to a screeching halt. She grabbed at his back to steady herself even though Gavril’s grip tightened like iron. She shifted up, trying to peer around him to see the obstacle in their path. But she heard it before she could see it.

In the Inimicus tongue, she heard, “Gavril—too intelligent—acting—rashly.”

Prince Nikias.

She stiffened—as much as she could while slung over someone’s shoulder—clenching her hands into Gavril’s chiton. Her bones ached deeper just hearing him.

Gavril responded in a cold, dead voice. “Get out—way—kill you.”

“How—to do—your arms full—lupa?”

The small burns and cuts it seemed Gavril hadn’t had the chance to heal yet burned and almost multiplied hearing Nikias speak.

“—know who she is—kill you—calling her that—did to her the second I wasn’t around—two-faced coward.”

“—predictable—knew exactly the path—run away—did when we were children—broke—your toys.”

Nikias’ voice was just as sharp as the knife that had cut her open for days on end.

“She’s not a toy.”

Gavril’s voice was just as solid as the Heart had been under her fingers.

“Isn’t she?—front of me and Father and Mother—strategy?—care—use her to prove—done for the last few months—”

Gavril’s grip on her tightened. “—mea uxorem—broken the law—cannot leavemea uxorem—my home—safe—own brother—cannot stay—out of my way.”

She should ask him what that phrase,mea uxorem, meant the second they were alone. If they ever got another moment together again.

“—past me—you can’t—think is going—forgotten?—sight, out of mind?”

Before Gavril could respond, light ripped through the air and she was tumbling to the ground while Gavril let out a short, pained yell as he dropped her.

Marcella hissed as she hit the ground, rolling over to now see Nikias standing a few feet away, lowering his hand from the rune he’d cast. Gavril was doubled over, clutching his right hand to his chest.

She blinked. Yes. It was his right hand.

Only it wasn’t clear untouched skin like it had been moments before.

Now it showed lines tattooed across the skin like his left wrist. Apparently the illusion he’d had placed over it was now shattered. There was no leather and metal band, but it was something similar. Something she didn’t understand.

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