Page 38 of The Prince's Mage

Darling.

And she woke up shaking, but not screaming.

Chapter14

MARCELLA

Afew days later, nothing much had changed in Marcella’s sessions with Aimilia and Gavril, at least not that she could tell.

Other than the fact that Gavril started sitting on her left while Aimilia sat on her right. Gavril and Aimilia talked over her head as they scribbled notes. He seemed to always have an eye on her, and she would have found his obvious coddling grating if he wasn’t also right most of the time. She didn’t have the strength to fight him on it when he fussed over her.

She shouldn’t need to be fussed over. She needed her strength back and her mind clear so she could figure out how she was going to kidnap Nikias and escape with the Heart.

But she barely had the strength to cast the runes Gavril and Aimilia needed her to in order to make progress on… whatever their plan was to prove Gavril’s theory.

However, there was something about the awe and wonder in his eyes whenever she cast two runes at the same time that had her heart stuttering. Even though she’d explained to him a thousand times at that point that even the weakest of clan mages could do it, evidenced by the fact that she could. She was one of the weakest mages in her clan even before her current devastated state. But even Aimilia would look at her with a little bit of respect in her eyes when Marcella would sustain two runes at the same time.

Aimilia wasn’t what Marcella had imagined. She was diligent and sharp, even if a little brutal in her honesty. While Marcella couldn’t truly rate her efficacy since she didn’t really know how well their progress was going, Aimilia at least appeared to be working hard and seemed to be smart.

There were a few occasions Gavril would cast Inimicus runes and Aimilia would record notes about him like she did Marcella.

How this was supposed to prove his theory that they weren’t really all that different, Marcella wasn’t sure. She wasn’t really convinced his theory was right in the first place. The Inimicus believed her people were also Asentai’s children, but their vitae had been corrupted, which was why they cast singlehandedly. She didn’t know how her casting two runes at the same time proved otherwise. How being able to balance vitae was proof their corruption was made up. Her people believed their vitae was wholly uncorrupted thanks to their persevering faith in Asentai and that the Inimicus had strayed too far in their pursuit of knowledge. They still had different languages, different runes, different values.

They couldn’t cast each other’s runes.

That made them as different from each other as the Stonai Elemens and the Embrai Elemens were different.

Besides, the Inimicus’ belief that her people’s vitae was corrupted was just an excuse. Even if Gavril succeeded in disproving it and convincing anyone, it wouldn’t really matter. Had he not told her that his people hadn’t believed the first man who tried to present such evidence?

The only way to get real peace would be through force. Through kidnapping Nikias.

It was slow and hard, but Marcella took heart in the fact that she was recovering. Infinitesimally, which made her fear she would never even reach her previous pathetic, weak peak, but enough that she had faith. She didn’t need to be as strong as she used to be, which had been mediocre at best. She just needed to be strong enough to grab Nikias and the Heart, escape, and make the journey to Hypatia.

The little bit of strength she was getting back, she hid from Gavril and Aimilia. The weaker they thought her, the better. She knew Gavril had to be communicating his progress and her status to his parents, which meant Nikias would be hearing about how she was utterly destroyed by what he'd put her through.

She supposed that was the real reason she stopped putting up the silencing rune over herself after Gavril discovered her nightmares hadn’t gone away. Of course it meant Gavril would come rushing in to stop her from accidentally hurting herself, but it also meant he was reporting to his family how weak and broken she was.

It had to be. Because she was void. Empty. She was not going to let him destroy her when she had no choice but to destroy him.

Most nights he would just hold her until she crawled out of the depths of her memories and she found the strength to lie and tell him she was going to be fine and he could go. If she did. Sometimes she didn’t.

The times she didn’t, giving in to her weakness and letting him hold her, he would tell her things. Little things.

“At—academie—Aimilia and I were in the same class. First time we ever really interacted, we sparred, she broke my arm. You know she respects you when she won’t go easy on you. That’s why she was so hard on you when you sparred.”

Marcella murmured in response, “And still she became your girl after that?”

She felt Gavril’s huff. “Not exactly. She became my closest—only friend though.”

“Is she still? Even after everything?”

“Surprisingly… I think so. As long as she continues to treat you respectfully.”

It was a disconcerting thing. To have so much power over someone’s life and have asked for none of it.

Another night, two weeks after he’d first discovered her nightmares, as her head was buried in the crook of his neck, he said, “Happiest day of my life was when I started the command track at theacademie—not because I even wanted to be a commander but because it meant I would have to live in theacademiequarters and not the palace. At least most of the time.”

Her fingers sank into the back of his chiton as she whispered, “I remember moving into the clan barracks. I don’t know if it was the happiest day of my life, but I had finally passed the tests and received my rank as a soldier. I got a trunk. It was so big. I was awestruck and overwhelmed. How was I ever going to be able to fill it? I never did. When I left, it was a quarter full at best.”

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