Marcella sat up, opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her fingers curled into the blankets as she squeezed her eyes shut and a sob ripped out of her throat. Gavril quickly joined them, pulling Marcella into his arms.
Marcella clutched at his chiton and gasped. “I—I?—”
“Shh.” Gavril ran his hand over her curls before looking over at Aimilia. “We… It’s a bit of a long story. But… I know you’ve noticed we’ve been absent lately.”
Aimilia nodded, breath catching in her throat. “You said you were helping Konstantin.”
There was a dark, uncomfortable twinge in her stomach, and she tried to push it down, but now that the guilt and wrongness of her actions crept up on her, she couldn’t squash it. While he was helping Konstantin, she’d been kissing his brother.
Gavril’s hands were too full to even notice Aimilia’s guilt chewing at her. “Konstantin was helping us.”
“With what?” Aimilia swallowed, an even worse feeling settling into her stomach. “What’s wrong?”
“I am,” Marcella choked out.
Gavril’s arms flexed as he held Marcella tighter. “That’s not true, don’t even think it.”
Aimilia was horribly lost and her terror was only growing by the second. She dug her hands into the sheets, knuckles turning white.
Gavril turned back to Aimilia. “Marcella is the only mage who survived so long on the table.”
Aimilia nodded, hoping to hurry him along.
“There were consequences to that. We…” Gavril’s voice thickened and he paused, blinking to clear the water in his eyes. “We asked Konstantin for help with a healer who would be able to look Marcella over and see what those were. Um, and the biggest that we found out today… We… we can’t conceive.”
Aimilia could only stare at them as the words hovered between them even in the silence.
That…
No. Aimilia turned his words over again in her head, but she had not misunderstood him.
Finally, she whispered, “Ever?”
Gavril nodded as Marcella choked on a bitter laugh. She spat out, her accent thickening as she struggled over each word, “He says we. He meansme.I cannot conceive. I’m the one who’s broken. I came back wrong.”
Aimilia wasn’t sure what Marcella had meant to say with her last sentence, but this was not the time to correct her linguistic skills.
Especially as Gavril gritted his teeth before unclenching his jaw to say, “This isnotyour fault.”
Aimilia bit her tongue as her stomach turned. Her heartbeat slowed and each beat sent a wave of agony through her. Her skin which had been warm and buzzing only minutes before was cold and crawling. The only person to blame was the one she’d been kissing that same night.
Aimilia’s fingers brushed the ring on her finger.
There was nothing Aimilia could say to fix this. There was nothing she could say to make this better. All she could do was move down the bed, closer to her friends, and place her hand on Marcella’s back as she cried into her husband’s chest, gently rubbing her palm up and down.
Aimilia lost track of the time, but at one point, Marcella’s tremors stilled and her sobs turned into slow, steady breathing. Gavril reached up and gently wiped at the tear tracks on her cheek as she burrowed into him. Aimilia stilled her movements, but she didn’t lift her hand.
She looked over at Gavril, his expression a storm that, for the first time in her life, she didn’t want to weather. But she would anyway.
She whispered, “Gavril…”
He glanced down at Marcella, rubbing his thumb over her arm, expression softening as he did so. “She’s my biggest concern right now.”
“I know. But being strong for her doesn’t mean you’re not grieving too.”
He sighed and the bags under his eyes sank in deeper. “I don’t know what to say. I… I’m devastated. I’ve been hoping ever since the treaty Marcella and I would any day be starting our family. All I’ve wanted for so long was to start a new family, but now… Now that’s no longer an option. I’ll be saddled with my current family forever. They always win.” Gavril squeezed his eyes shut, his voice rough and ragged. “How do they always win? They’ve ensured I’ll never be free. Even if I never see their faces again, they get the last word.”
“Nikias—” Aimilia’s voice cracked.
