Page 12 of The Duke and the Disciple

He would find a way because he refused to give up. “I will.”

Aesylt was itchingto get out of bed. She felt fine. There was only a dull ache where her ankle had been broken, almost no evidence of the dozens of scratches she’d earned, and the matter of her frostnip was becoming harder to imagine with each passing hour.

Drazhan refused to hear any of it. He’d stationed sentries in the hall to keep her from—what? She couldn’t guess. Did he expect her to fling herself back into the tree for another round?

She’d protested enough about it that he’d broken one of his own rules and allowed both Niklaus and Valerian to keep her company in her apartments while she had pretended she still needed to convalesce.My guards will hear if anything untoward happens inside.

The eyeroll she’d made as he’d left hurt more than the phantom pain in her ankle.

She was old enough to decide who was and wasn’t allowed in her bedchamber, but as long as she stayed at Fanghelm, she was subject to his rules.

Val, lying next to her on the bed, turned toward her with a pensive, faraway look. Niklaus practiced his sword work, sans sword, by jabbing wildly toward the wall.

“You didn’t do it on purpose,” Aesylt whispered, studying the minute tics appearing across Valerian’s face. She whispered because sometimes Nik wasn’t the best person to pour her heart out to. “Val?”

“Doesn’t make it better,” he said, digging his face against a pillow. Still, he wouldn’t look at her. “I couldn’t even climb a fucking tree to save you.”

Aesylt sighed and reluctantly turned toward Nik. “You still haven’t said how the Dyvareh went for you.”

“He caught Emira, but she screamed her head off before he could even come near her. Drew all sorts of exciting attention,” Val said, perking back up. “Impressively subtle, Nik.”

“Emira,” Aesylt said, whistling. “I thought she liked you, Nik?”

Nik took a break from his shadow stabs to shrug and sigh. “Emira is...”

“Aye, well he has a cock between his legs, doesn’t he? Wrong part for her.” Val cupped himself over the covers. A near smile tickled his mouth. “All he did was say, ‘gotcha,’ and she shrieked like a banshee until she had the attention of the entire forest. Even if he had been turned on...” He made a slicing gesture.

“She really wanted that feast,” Aesylt said, laughing.

Nik groaned. “And what do you know about it, other than twisting what I told you? I never would have touched her. She knows it.”

“One word from Emira, and Draz would have freed you of your balls,” Aesylt agreed, thinking of Val’s comment about his parts.

Nik shrugged and struck his invisible opponent. “I only went because my uncle made me.”

Val slithered under the blanket. His long, dark hair pooled around his face. He caught her staring and grinned.

“You never told me how you knew it was me,” she said.

Val’s eyes darkened. He dragged his teeth across the center of his lower lip. “I always know when it’s you, Aessy.”

“Get a hold of yourself,” Nik muttered.

“Nik’s right,” Aesylt said. “I don’t believe you.”

With a laugh, Val inched away. “I paid one of the vedhmas to tell me your color.”

Aesylt was shocked. “Nien, you didnot. Or, I should say,theydid not. They cannot be bought.”

“Not with gold.” He winked.

“Disgusting.”

“What I want to know is what really happened in that tree with the duke?” Val’s focus on her was total.

Nik used his sleeve to wipe his sweat and turned their way. “Yeah... Anything you’re not telling us aboutyouradventure in the forest?”

Aesylt nestled back on the pillow, staring at the candelabra hanging above the end of her bed. There was the accidental face-roll into his groin, which was still horribly mortifying. The familial, brotherly hug after they were rescued... the way he’d held her close yet with distance, worried for her but also for the message he might send.

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