Page 66 of The Prince's Mage

The Inimicus seemed to make magical promises with a high frequency, but what did the leather bands have to do with them? Gavril didn’t have one from his promise to his father or Nikias.

Maybe she’d drag it out of Nikias the way he’d dragged information out of her when she brought him to Hypatia.

Marcella caught Aimilia’s eye, and she raised her glass with a wide smile and winked. Probably the only Inimicus who looked happy at the moment.

Chapter23

MARCELLA

The three of them ducked out of the courtyard and into the peristyle. Marcella threw one last look over her shoulder, but the king and queen were already gone in the crowd of perfectly polished Inimicus. She might hate them more than she hated Nikias.

Before they slipped back into the palace proper, Gavril grabbed Nikias by the shoulder and said in their tongue, “We’re not going back inside.”

Nikias looked over his shoulder and sighed. “Don’t tell me—a fight with our parents just so you could grab me?”

Gavril let go of Marcella so he could start pulling Nikias in the direction of the garden courtyard, saying, “Trust me, that was not planned. Seeing them is never part of my plans.”

“Then what do you want and why aren’t you—being within ten feet of your—”

“Call her that and I will gut you.”

“Fine. Your—what is hernomenagain? Marcella?” Nikias butchered the ‘sel’ sound, turning it into a ‘ch’ but not in the endearing way Gavril did where afterwards he emphasized the ‘l’s. Nikias just said it like an idiot.

Gavril cuffed him in the back of the head and shoved him forward.

Nikias hissed and said, “Is that not hernomen?”

Name, Marcella assumed was the translation.

“You do not get the honor of addressing her at all. Walk. You owe her.”

Nikias threw up his good arm helplessly but did as he was told and walked out into the garden. Gavril still kept himself between Marcella and Nikias as they stepped into the garden as well. Marcella had to push herself onto her toes or shift to the side to see the older prince around Gavril.

Nikias turned around and then he narrowed his eyes. “Don’t tell me this is about the insanity from the other day?”

“I’m proving it. Now, you might want to step away from the fountain.” Gavril looked over his shoulder at Marcella and spoke in her tongue, “Ready?”

She pulled her left hand out from under the cloak and nodded.

He turned back to Nikias, lifted both hands and then pointedly clenched his left hand into a fist and lowered it to hang by his side where Nikias could still see it. He then took a deep breath and moved the fingers of his right hand. His vitae lit up the air as the lines formed her people’s rune for a basic ball of vitae. This time his rune was cleaner and his ball more of a sphere than mush.

It still made Marella’s heart pound and her breath catch in her throat at just how unstoppable the Inimicus would be if they could cast multiple runes at once. Which was why she had to do this.

All she had to do was incapacitate Gavril without hurting him too badly, wrap a vitae whip around Nikias’ good arm. Drag him behind her. Grab the Heart from the library. Escape the palace. Escape the city.

Easy.

For anyone who wasn’t Marcella. She would need a miracle to pull this off.

But there was no other option.

Nikias’ eyes widened as he watched Gavril cast with one hand, but he didn’t speak. He just gaped at the little ball for a moment. Then he blinked and shook his head. “Just because you’re clever with illusions doesn’t make me a fool.”

Gavril rolled his eyes despite the sweat forming on his brow. He flung the rune and the ball of vitae out toward the fountain beside Nikias. It hit the stone and burst, leaving behind a scorch mark on it. He lowered his hand and turned to Marcella and said, “Go.”

Marella hurried forward and she knelt in front of the scorch mark and touched her left hand and wrist to it. She looked up at Nikias as the lines on her wrist didn’t glow, proving there was no active illusion from Gavril. The lines on her wrist would glow at any contact with his magic. Nikias narrowed his eyes as Gavril spoke, “See? It’s not an illusion. It was real. I was right.”

Nikias blinked, frowned, and then shook his head. “No. I know you. No mage is better at illusions than you and no one more desperate for peace than you. You cast illusions to cover up the other bonds on your arms. Her arm—illusioned as well so it’s hiding—glow at your vitae.”

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