Page 36 of The Duke and the Disciple

Aesylt dug her fingers against the mortar and tried to pull. Her breath was trapped in her throat with her voice, and a terrible thought struck her. Marek had crushed her windpipe. If she couldn’t get more air soon, she was done.

“Ten minutes.” Marek pushed the words through a tight jaw. “I’ll give you a ten-minute head start before I tell the guards she was spotted on our land. If you can’t get her far enough in ten minutes? It’s on you.” He lowered his voice to a sinister pitch. “And I hope you do tell him, Niklaus. Don’t miss a single detail.”

Aesylt’s head came up off the stones, whipping back. Her arms, her legs, and the rest of her followed. Through slow blinks, she saw Nik adjusting her in his arms.

“Let’s hope this hoist can hold two of us, Aes.” He released a shaky breath and set her inside before climbing in behind her. She looked up and saw Marek’s shadowy form holding the rope. “And that no one follows us. I’ve never killed a man before, but I don’t think I’ll hesitate if I need to.”

“Clear a path! Clear a path!”

Rahn started to tell Tasmin to stop screaming, until he realized it was himselfgiving the orders. He was the one racing in the blind dark through a row of trees, with Aesylt bouncing in his arms, his pulse thundering between his ears like a sea of endless waves.

“The barn... The barn is just there,” cried Niklaus, panting and pushing his pace. “Tasmin, find a vedhma!”

Tasmin looked at Rahn for direction.

Rahn tightened his hold on Aesylt when she slid from his arms. His gaze flitted between Aesylt’s restless stirring and the sincere worry on Tasmin’s face. Once Drazhan was involved, there’d be no containing the situation, but he needed to know the Barynovs had attacked his sister. He deserved to decide what happened next. “Go find Drazhan and the first vedhma you see.”

Tasmin nodded and disappeared into the night.

Niklaus waved both arms, running sideways toward the barn. Rahn lowered his head to protect against the chill wind and pushed the rest of the way.

One door was already open. Rahn kicked the other one, turning to take the brunt of the backswing, to keep it from hitting Aesylt. He quickly assessed the options available, deciding on a loose stack of hay to the right.

Rahn nestled Aesylt onto the hay. One of her arms was still hooked around his shoulder, her lips moving in wordless murmurs. “Shh, it’s all right, Aesylt. I have you. You’re all right now. You’re safe. Help is coming.” Reluctantly, he peeled away and stood with a measured sigh, but he didn’t move from the spot. His chest clenched when she whimpered. Tears choked his throat. “I’m not leaving you. I promise.”

He turned toward Niklaus, who paced in a semicircle, swaddling himself. “I need you to tell me who did this to her and why.”

Niklaus stared at him with a disorganized frown. He looked dazed, lost. “I told you, it was the Barynovs. It was... It was—” He bowled over and breathed in.

“Specificallywhich one?” Rahn inhaled through his nose, digging deep for patience. “Which.”Fucking.“Barynov.”

Niklaus looked up, his expression breaking, a sob bubbling on the end of his words. “Marek. Val’s brother.”

“Marek.” Rahn only knew the man by reputation. He was renowned as a brute, the family muscle. The Barynovs never had to shake down their tenants because none wanted to tangle with their ox of a son.

And thatoxhad put his hands on Aesylt’sneck.

Rahn pressed a hand to the wall to fend off a white wall of rage.Breathe,he reminded himself, but the available air was inadequate to meet his demand.

He released the wall, flexed his hands until he felt the blood return, and knelt by the hay. Aesylt’s breathing had steadied, but she was no longer conscious. The deep-purple scores on her neck had him clenching hard enough to scrape his teeth together. There was blood on the back of her head too.Gods give me strength.“Niklaus,” he said, aware of hownotcalm he sounded. “Walk me through what happened. All of it.”

“Shouldn’t I... I wait for Drazhan?” Niklaus’s teeth clacked.

“You’ll only get two words out before he takes over.” With a shaky inhale, Rahn smoothed a sticky band of hair from Aesylt’s eyes with his thumb. He fought the innate urge to plant a soft kiss on the spot. “Start from the beginning.”

Chapter8

The Flesh Remembers

For the first time in her marriage, Imryll had no idea what her husband was thinking.

The composed calm Drazhan had shown when Niklaus Petrovash had run through everything that had happened at Hoarfrost might have convinced others, but a wife saw things others overlooked. The additional blinks. The cords in his neck, ready to snap. No one else understood the tempest building inside of him, the danger it posed to anyone foolish enough to step in its path.

Drazhan kept the audience small. It was only the two of them, Rahn, and Drazhan’s closest advisers, Fezzan Castel and Brita Voronov.

Imryll passed an uneasy glance at Rahn, who wore the pall of a man who’d made peace with the gallows.

Drazhan tented his hands under his chin. His gaze pointed at the fire.

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