Page 25 of The Prince's Mage

Nikias quickly left her doorway, and Gavril shut the door behind him. The second they were gone, she hurried over to the windowsill and held out her hands for the raven to perch on. It jumped into the air and landed on her finger, spreading its wings as the runes on its back lit up.

Marcella,

It’s been months. Hurry up. One of their commanders found a Desero supply cache.

I don’t know how they could have possibly discovered it by accident. Which means the only other option is someone who knew about it told them. It better not have been you.

If it was, you will be forgiven so long as it was part of your plan to win the prince’s trust and capture him. We need a hostage.

And the Heart. Konstantin and I have been making excellent progress with the other clans, despite the mark against me for having lost the Heart in the ambush. My new husband is proving more useful in that area than I anticipated. However, promising the return of the Heart has gone a long way.

I expect you to deliver.

The High Priest is also anxious to get the Heart back before the Inimicus defile it. I care more about getting my coalition and the army that will come with it.

Once I have my army, we will be ready to move against the Inimicus. And it’s going to be bloody—unless we have something to bargain with.

Bring me my hostage. Soon.

Chiefess Hypatia of Desero

Once the message had faded into the air, Marcella carried the raven back over to the window and sent it on its way with shaking hands and a thundering heart instead of a reply.

She was running out of time.

She’d given up her chance to have Gavril essentially at her mercy and she didn’t know why. Either way it was lost. And even if she had taken it, his family would not negotiate for him.

But if she didn’t escape and give Hypatia something, what was her other option?

Stay in Areator where the only person trying to protect her was just as much a prisoner as she was?

And let her people march against the Inimicus without any advantage and shrug the ensuring bloodbath off her shoulders?

Maybe… Maybe if she told Gavril—

But… if he loved her and he discovered she’d only been getting close to him to earn his trust so she could kidnap him and if she told him the only reason she wasn’t was because she realized he was just as worthless to his people as she was to hers…

If he loved her, he wouldn’t when he discovered the truth.

Besides, what could he do? His family would not listen to him. He would be as helpless to stop it as she was. If he even wanted to after she revealed her betrayal.

That ruthlessness she’d seen in him could just as easily be turned on her as it was protecting her.

Marcella had gotten no closer to a solution by the time her tears had run dry again and she’d crawled into her bed. When her door creaked open and a weight shifted the bed, she kept her eyes closed and her breathing even. She forced herself to stay still as a hand brushed over her side and then her hair. She willed her mouth to stay shut when he whispered, “Marcella?”

When he was convinced she was asleep, he just tucked her hair out of her face again and brushed his lips to her temple and murmured something in his tongue.

“—pulchra—uxorem—excrucior.”

His weight left the bed, and when she heard a door creak, she cracked an eye open to see he wasn’t going out of the front door and into the hallway. He was going through the other door into a bedroom connected to hers.

He was close.

At least for tonight she was safe.

Tomorrow…

She did not know.

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