Page 79 of The Prince's Mage

Aimilia huffed from where she sat and said, “I imagine she’d get closer if she wasn’t killing herself every day.”

“Keep going,” Marcella muttered even though her head was on his shoulder and she was only half supporting her own weight.

“You heard her. She can keep going,” Nikias said from where he was half-sitting on the table. He nodded, the motion jostling the arm in the sling. “She can do the motions of the rune correctly. She should be able to get this.”

When Marcella winced slightly at Nikias’ words, Gavril snapped, “She is exhausted. She needs rest.”

“She needs to stop wasting time and cast this rune correctly,” Nikias said, pushing off the table. Gavril clenched his teeth.

Nikias was right.

They were running out of time.

Every day the Sordes army was getting a little bit closer, and any day now his parents were going to have to address it. The secret preparations of their army couldn’t be a secret forever. The rumors had already started. They were going to have to start marching soon in order to stop the Sordes army before they crossed the border.

“Wasting time?” Aimilia sat up straighter and narrowed her eyes at Nikias.

Gavril just started leading Marella out of the library and threw over his shoulder, “You have to meet with our parents in half an hour anyway. I’m taking Marcella back to rest.”

Aimilia groaned, “Oh, I almost forgot.”

“It’s too late to back out. My mother won’t stop nagging me about having more of your tea, and I need something to distract them from asking about Gavril’s progress,” Nikias said, but his voice faded away as Gavril and Marcella left the library.

Lately, their parents had grown increasingly impatient with Gavril delivering on his promise, so in the interest of helping keep them placated, Nikias had badgered Aimilia into joining him.

It was buying them time.

Of which they really didn’t have any left.

When Marcella’s knees buckled halfway back to her room, he swept them out from under her and picked her up. Marcella winced and whispered, “Sorry. So sorry.”

“You are tired. It is my privilege to take care of you,” Gavril said.

Marcella looped her arms around his neck as she peered up at him through half-lidded eyes. “Privilege?”

At Marcella’s insistence, he only spoke in his language with her while she was trying to learn.

He said, “Gift. An honor. It is an honor to take care of you.”

She shook her head even as she rested it against his shoulder. “Tired will not matter. Not if I fail. Keep failing.”

He turned down the next hallway, sighing. “You are not failing. You just… haven’t succeeded yet. You will. I know you will.”

“Not enough.” Marcella’s eyes fluttered shut as she settled into a light doze.

Gavril kept walking, unsure what exactly she’d been trying to say. His belief in her wasn’t enough? Or she wasn’t enough?

She was enough. She was always enough.

But… Gavril’s throat tightened as he shifted his grip on her so he could open the door to her room.

He didn’t know if she could do this in time.

She was so close, but something still wasn’t working. It almost made him fear the whole theory he was trying to prove was wrong.

Maybe Runai could cast Sordes runes but Sordes could not cast Runai because of some difference in their vitae. Some… corruption.

Or worse, he feared that when her heart had started beating again on that table, the consequences of that were causing her not to be able to do this. Which meant if they had another Sordes, he could prove his theory. But he could not reveal that without revealing she’d died. And if he revealed she’d died and come back to life, if she did manage to pull this off, his people would use that as an excuse not to believe it was true of all Sordes. And if she didn’t pull it off, there would be nothing he could do to stop his father from having her be studied so they could reduce the miracle down to replicable knowledge.

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