Page 24 of The Prince's Mage

“Explain to me,” Marcella said, the words falling out of her mouth now that she could think again. His eyes widened, and she gestured to his right arm. “The promise you made to your father. That if you abandon it, you will be unable to access your magic.”

Gavril nodded, the shock in his gaze fading, and he held his right arm in front of him, the skin deceptively bare, but she could sense his vitae hovering in the invisible runes on his skin. He shifted his fingers and the illusion faded, revealing the lines marking his arm.

“I—when I brought you back, after you were pulled away, I argued. I thought that even if they did not respect me, they respected the law at least not to—I—Then I found out Nikias had—After that I…” Gavril shook his head and lowered his arm. “I have made such a mess of this all. These runes bind me to my word, and my father to his. My father’s word was that you would not be put back on that table on his orders as long as I made sufficient progress and delivered to him what I promised.”

She frowned. “Then you should be able to take his magic, shouldn’t you? He broke his word.”

Gavril looked up at her and sighed.“The bond is between me and my father. Nikias acted without my father’s knowledge, so that protects him.”

She reached forward, stopping short of touching his arm, drawing back and just brushing her fingers over the lines on her left wrist. She frowned. “These are promises? And if they are broken—You can take my magic from me?”

Gavril’s eyes widened and he leaned forward. “No! No. Not at all.” He lifted his right arm. “This is different. They are different types of bonds. Ours is different. I cannot keep you from your magic nor you mine. You have nothing to fear from ours.”

She still eyed her wrist for a moment before looking back to his right arm. “But, on the road, I asked you if you could use it to track me.”

Gavril nodded. “Ours means that I can sort of sense the direction you’re in if I focus. Now that you do not have the cuffs on, you can do the same to me. You can find me and I can find you. So that we can keep each other safe.”

He had that look in his eyes again, so she quickly lowered her left arm and said, “What did you promise your father that you would fail if we’d left?”

Gavril opened his mouth, closed it, and then pushed himself off the bed and started pacing the room. He wouldn’t look her way.

She followed his path with her eyes. What could he have possibly promised that would have him so agitated and afraid to speak?

Before she could ask, a bird landed on the windowsill and her blood ran cold.

A silver-backed raven. It had to be from Hypatia. She couldn’t let Gavril see it. She shifted on the bed, leaning forwardtotry to force his gaze on her and where it wouldn’t land on the window, and she said, “Gavril—”

But then the door flew open, drawing her gaze. For a split second, she didn’t recognize him. She’d never seen him in anything but black, but when she did, she couldn’t stop her short scream at who it was.

Gavril immediately stopped pacing and she was pulled up to her feet and swept behind him as he faced who was in her doorway.

Nikias.

His arm was in a sling and he was covered in bruises. His lip was split and he favored one side. Instead of the black chiton and black and gold cloak she’d always seen him in, he was wearing a white chiton and a red commander’s cloak. Marcella was still shaking as she clutched the back of Gavril’s chiton.

Nikias opened his mouth, but paused before speaking, looked at Gavril’s black eye, and winced. In their language, he said, “Again?”

Marcella was most surprised to find obvious softness and care in his voice when he asked. She didn’t think he was capable of it.

It still didn’t mean he hadn’t had her tortured and experimented on.

Gavril’s lip curled up in a sneer as he spoke in his language. “Get out. Now.”

“Gavril—talk?”

Marcella could see the raven shifting from foot to foot out of the corner of her eye. She pushed herself onto her toes and whispered in her language, “Go. I’ll be fine.”

Gavril muttered in her language, “He has nothing to say to me that I want to hear. I would rather be with you.”

She pushed at his shoulders slightly. “There will be time enough for that. Go. Get it over with.”

He groaned and turned back to face her, and she managed to shift in just enough time to block the raven with her hair. He leaned down and her breath caught in her throat as he brushed his lips over her temple and said, “As you command. I will be back, but you will stay in this room from now on. Go ahead and sleep if you are tired. You do not have to wait for me.”

She told herself she was struggling to think straight and breathe right because if he looked a little bit too far behind her he would see the raven.

He then turned back to his brother and any softness that had been in his expression before was gone. He lifted his hands and cast as he walked toward the door, the lines on his right arm and his black eye disappearing beneath illusions.

He snapped at Nikias in their tongue, “Move.”

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