Page 141 of The Duke and the Disciple

“Not here.” Valerian plopped back on his heels. “Why... Why are you asking me where Marek is?”

“Because heishere, Valerian, and you and I both know why.”

“But...” Valerian’s head shook and shook. Dread spread over his expression, down his cheeks. “No.Noone followed me here, and there’s no one who could read the letter she sent me. It was written in Old Ilynglass, and who knows that except her and me and Niklaus and you? And I suppose Duchess Teleria, but why would she?—”

“She wrote you a letter in the old language?” The inky White Sea hit him with a wallop of seasickness, but he stopped fighting it. Too much of his focus had been consumed with stopping it, and it was just as Aesylt had said. There could be no light without dark. No love without hate.

“It’s like I told you; she sent for me, and so I came, and we were married, and?—”

“Married?” A flame ignited deep within Rahn, in a part of himself he’d believed long dead.That rogue Pieter was right. He was fucking right.“Don’t murder him, Adrahn. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t?—”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Cut the ropes for the rowboats!” he’d cried, folding his dagger into Rahn’s hand before disappearing into the desperate throngs.

There hadn’t been time to cut anything. A few had been launched by the time Rahn arrived on the starboard deck, but most had sunk with the ship. Everyone grabbed hold of what they could and then the cold had come.

Rahn saw more people he knew, prostrate and howling for the lost, but he was still thinking about the dagger. His father was a soothsayer—hadbeen a soothsayer, but he was gone, gone... they all were—and liked to say he didn’t always know why he did what he did, but a part of him knew.

Maybe Esteban Tindahl had known Rahn would need the steel for something else.

“We don’t have time for this. Come with me,” Rahn commanded, shoving Valerian into motion. “Now.”

Aesylt wantedto close her eyes and drift off somewhere the pain couldn’t reach her. The fear she loathed more, because it reminded her she was a fraud, weak and powerless, just like others always suspected.

Choking on a whimper, she looked up and straight into the eyes of her father.

She could withstand any physical torture Marek had planned, but gazing into the past was paralyzing.

“You’re not Ezra Wynter.” She folded an arm over her face, only for it to be ripped away by some foul magic. “Ezra Wynter would never act like an alleyway thug.”

“Ezra Wynter was as much a pretender as his ancestor Darek.” Marek was again himself. “But heshouldbe here tonight, don’t you think, Aesylt? To watch his little girl get married? Hraz could come in for a minute or two from time to time, I think.” He swayed with a cheeky grin. “Only one missing is Drazhan. I could be him too, but then I’d deny myself seeinghisface after the way he led my father on.”

“He didn’t lead anyone on. He’s just as impossible as you all think he is.” Aesylt’s vision doubled again as fresh nausea rocked her. She averted her eyes, in case he tried to get into her head again with painful images. He already knew the tactic worked. She hadn’t had a chance to hide her shock. “He was nevergoing to agree to Val and I marrying because he was never going to let me marry anyoneto begin with.”

“Didn’t stop you, did it?” Marek crouched before her, smirking at her flinch. “I don’t care that you’re not a virgin. I’d just as soon piss on you as fuck you. But I won’t be touching you at all until we’ve returned and given you the tea, be sure anything that crawls out of you later is mine and only mine, so you can save the terrified-damsel act for our honeymoon.”

No one is coming.The revelation crashed into her like a barrel of flour. She hadn’t been expecting help, but until the words raced across her frantic consciousness, she’d been unaware of the part of herself dreaming that some villager had seen her being hauled away and had run for help.

But Voyager’s Rest wasn’t that kind of village. Even the pubkeep had paid no mind when she’d left in the middle of the night, alone.

There was nothing in the celestial version of the barn with which to defend herself. She had no control there, not anymore. For the first time in her life, it wasn’t an escape but a prison.

The door wasn’t far, but even if she weren’t so injured, there was little chance she’d make it there and clear of danger before Marek or one of his entourage stopped her.

But little chance was still better than no chance.

Aesylt shivered as her head came up. One of her lungs seemed to whistle. Something thick and warm spread along her left gut and back, and a dark flash of her landing on a dull tine when she’d hit the wall the second time popped into her head.Not a knife, not a sword, not?—

A pitchfork.

Not everything traveled from world to world. But ithadbeen there in the real one. And if she’dlandedthat way and had not moved before shifting, it meant when she returned, she’d end up exactly where she’d left herself... impaled.

This world isn’t mine anymore. It never was.

But if tonight is the night I greet the Ancestors, I go where my family can get closure. Justice.

I’ll be with you soon Hraz. Ota. Oma.

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