Page 143 of The Duke and the Disciple

Rahn leaned over the cliff and waved the dagger, his voice a trembling, scratchy mess. “Don’t come any closer.”

“He’s here.” Rahn closed his eyes, and Aesylt filled the space of his mind. A soft peace cut through the tension, and an involuntary smile spread across his face.East.“This way.”

“Adrahn, look at me. I’m your oldest mate. Get me up, and we’ll fix this!”

“But I don’t see any red fabric.”

“You called her mama. You called her mama and then kicked her into the sea and killed her.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Rahn said and started down the east path, one hand clenched over his bulging pocket.

“Nearly everyone is dead, look around!”

“How do you know this is the right path?” Valerian sprinted to catch up.

He was right, but most of them hadn’t been murdered. Rahn pointed the dagger downward. “I mean it. Not another inch.”

“I need to know you won’t hesitate.”

“Hesitate?” Valerian cackled in frustration. “Scholar, I’m fucking lost.”

“Where the devil am I supposed to go?” Calder snorted with a tentative look over his shoulder before hoisting himself up with more strength than his brother had shown. Both of his hands gripped the cliff. Rahn’s heart raced as he stared, contemplating his own worth, his own capabilities.

Rahn felt the dagger from that night with the same tangibility of the squirrel in his pocket. Both were equally real. Both opened a door into who he truly was. “Your sword. I know you know how to use it. But will you hesitate to take it to Marek?”

“Almost. There.” Calder grunted, and Rahn decided those were to be his last words. He saw his sister’s face, felt his mother’s arms, and heard his father’s raucous laugh, and they gave him the last bit of courage to drive the dagger straight into the center of Calder Rhiagain’s scrawny neck.

Valerian slowed. “Wouldn’t even have to think about it.”

The boy’s eyes widened, in fear... in shock, but he had nothing left to do except fall.

Rahn saw again Aesylt’s pale face, flushed from excitement. She nibbled the corner of her mouth and flitted her eyes upward as she laughed at something he’d said that wasn’t funny to anyone but her. She’d always given his words more weight than they deserved.

Rahn, shaking, released the dagger, and it disappeared into the abyss with his old friend.

“How did you know this was the way?” Valerian asked.

He fell himself, but soft arms enclosed him from behind.

“Magic brought us to the village.”You are as imitable as the stars in our interminable sky.“Aesylt will take us the rest of the way.”

Weeping, he looked up and saw the young Duchess Farrestell, seventeen and fresh off her own grief.

“You poor dear,” she whispered.

Aesylt didn’t giveherself time to register the pain, already sliding forward and gurgling through the extraction of the thick tine. The koldyna noticed first and narrowed her expression, staring through her beady eyes as Aesylt wavered to her feet.

Marek snapped into the real world. He charged, but Aesylt rolled out of the way, and his fist crashed to the wall, rattling the wood.

“No! I can handle her!” Marek screeched when his guards moved to alert. He squared up, swaying his balance from one foot to the other. “You must really,reallylike pain.”

“You know, I really do,” Aesylt replied, grinning through the blood filling her mouth. “But you refuse to give it to me.”

Marek snarled, his focus whipping to the gaping puncture in her abdomen that would probably kill her soon. She might have stood a chance if she’d left the tine stuck into her, but it was too late for that. It was too late for anything.

“You’re a sick little bitch, aren’t you?” He rushed her again.

She had nowhere to go, so she dropped to her hands and knees, crawled through his legs, and dove for the shaft of the pitchfork. Her fingers wrapped around the splintered wood just as she landed on her back, which was a mistake, for it felt so good to lie there, to let the world slip away.

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