Page 23 of The Prince's Mage

“Aimilia said Nikias approached her, asking her to spar with you while I was gone to continue—” Gavril shifted back, but Marcella just grabbed onto him tighter and he stilled. “And she agreed. She was happy to get a chance to have it out with you, but she didn’t know what Nikias actually wanted. He knew she would be vicious. Aimilia is always vicious. He expected her to injure you badly enough to need magical healing, an excuse to get you into the operating room. When Aimilia wasn’t meeting expectations, and he knew time was running out before I got back, he stepped in and broke your wrist. His plan was to have you questioned about the rock and information gathered until the day before I returned, when he would have the healer manipulate your mind so all you would remember was being healed. That’s what the original plan was according to the healer when Iasked.”

The way Gavril said it didn’t sound like he’d simply asked.

He continued, “Nikias changed his mind in the middle of it to kill you instead. I do not know why. I have not seen him since I spared his life. If I do, I might change my mind about it.”

“Aimilia was not aware?” Marcella muttered. “I would think she would want me gone most of all.”

“When Aimilia realized what Nikias was up to, she rode out to meet me and get me back even faster. That is why I entrusted you to her if I were to lose against Nikias. She would get you out of the city and back to your people.” Gavril let out a huff. “Well, until she decided to drag you out and make you intervene in the challenge.”

Marcella still didn’t understand why Aimilia had ridden out to get him, but from the disbelief in Gavril’s voice she thought maybe he didn’t either.

He just sighed and pulled her closer. “Why did you?”

“Why did I what?” Marcella looked up at him.

“Why did you ask for mercy for my brother?” Gavril cradled her cheek with one hand, the other still tracing a rune over her spine. “Why did you tell me to stay when I tried to run away?”

Marcella shivered as his fingertip stuttered over her spine before continuing on. Her mouth was dry. She had to say something, so she gave him nothing of use. “Nikias was right there. We would not have gotten past him. It was not worth the fight.”

Gavril made a noise in the back of his throat. “I may be weak and worthless, but you saw I had him. I beat him in my challenge. He could not bring himself to fight back. I could have gotten us past him.”

Marcella reached up and ran her hand over his right arm, the lines currently hidden under another illusion. She tightened her grip on it and said, “And you would practically be a Solitus. You would still have had your magic bound by your father.”

“So?” Gavril stopped tracing the rune and just splayed his hand out across the small of her back.

She’d been held by him before but only just now it was occurring to her how close they were. Aimilia’s words—or at least what Marcella thought Aimilia had been saying—came rushing back. Her heart started pounding and heat flooded her cheeks.

Gavril whispered, “For so long, all you have wanted is freedom, death, or my suffering. Why would you turn down the chance to have your freedom and my suffering? Why would you sacrifice your freedom so that I would keep my magic?”

If Marcella had an answer, she could not hear it over her pounding heart.

Love.

Was Aimilia right? Did Gavril love her? Was that why he’d done this? All of this? From trying to let her go on the road up to almost killing his brother for what he’d done to her?

What else could it be?

And what else could he be looking for as he held her in his arms and begged her for an answer she did not know she could give?

“I don’t know.”

If she did know, she didn’t want to know.

So she didn’t know. She’d just done it. And now she was going to have to live with it.

“You called for me, the healer said.” He reached one hand into his pocket and started fiddling with something in it. “While you were… Do you remember that?”

Marcella just swallowed thickly.

Gavril’s expression fell, but he pressed on. “You said you were safe with me. You forgave my failures. You told me to be with you. You commanded me to live for you. Why?”

“I—” Marcella’s tongue was heavy. Her mind was blank as all she could feel was his arms around her and his front pressed to hers. Her heart was beating so fast she kept expecting to feel it just burst into pieces. “I don’t know. I—I cannot explain my mind in such a fragile state. I just did. That’s all.”

Gavril’s eyes darted down to her lips as she finished speaking, and he stared at them for a moment while all she could hear was her blood thundering in her ears. His grip on her tightened, digging into her skin, not painfully—desperately.

His head shifted a hair closer before he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and pulled back. He slowly let go of her, shifting her off his lap and back onto the bed as he moved back. He didn’t leave entirely, just put distance between them, and he said, “Of course. I understand.”

She was glad he did because she didn’t.

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