Page 137 of The Duke and the Disciple

“Good girl,” he hissed in her ear just before he shoved a hood over her head.

Chapter26

Whatever You need to Believe

Twenty long minutes they trudged through snow and ice. The counting protected Aesylt’s sanity, calmed her mind enough to apportion itself between putting one foot in front of the other and manifesting a way out of an increasingly bleak situation.

Valerian wouldn’t realize she was gone until morning, and by then, there’d be no tracking where she’d gone. Even if he could, she prayed he wouldn’t. Marek wanted his brother dead and was looking for a reason. She felt it in her bones, and her instincts were the only defense she had.

Aesylt felt something falling from her pocket. She couldn’t reach for it without drawing Marek’s notice, but when she realized what it was, she let it fall. Another push from her instincts.

With a hard shove from Marek, she went stumbling forward, out of the cold. The ground was solid but covered in something soft and dry. Hay, perhaps. The nearby bleating of goats gave her guess further credence.

A door slid closed with a rattling thud and a thrown bolt. Her hood was ripped away.

Aesylt squinted to adjust to the addition of light. Five or six lanterns were all there was to brighten the small barn, but it was enough to see they weren’t alone.

There was a woman, young and vibrant, radiating with chilling energy. Behind her were five stoic guards and a man in a minister’s robe.

She met the cold, dead eyes of the woman, who seemed to be the real one in command. “So it’s true,” Aesylt whispered. “All this time you were accusing me, and you had your own koldyna.”

“Feist has been in our family for generations, you dumb bitch. The Wynters aren’t very clever, are they?” Marek tossed the hood into a corner and stepped around until he towered over her. Her hand traveled to her neck in horror.

“Your corruption is not our shortcoming.” Aesylt’s artificial impudence was swiftly outpaced by her instincts, which were screaming at her to act or die. But she wouldn’t get more than a punch in before his guards, or the dark witch, took her down. “Our misplaced trust in your father is a reflection of your poor character, not ours.”

The slap happened so fast, she felt the sting before she saw his hand slice through the darkness. “You know, I dream about that day I almost killed you. Touch myself to it, on chilly nights. Never come harder in my life than when thinking about standing over your dead body, cock in?—”

“You’re a sick, depraved fuck.” Aesylt spat the copper filling her mouth. Her cheek throbbed. “And you should have killed me that day in Val’s room, because you have no idea what I’m capable of.”

He slapped her again, harder, sending her skittering back. “I know what you’re capable of, littlecub.The men you slaughtered in cold blood. Aye, they deserved it, but the entire village knows what’s in the dark little heart of yours.” He poked her chest hard enough to unsteady her footing. “I’m grateful to that insolent little brat, Niklaus. If I’d killed you, Aesylt, I’d never be the steward of Witchwood Cross, would I?”

The revelation was another smack to the chest. The minister. Of course. She looked at the group standing quietly like specters, waiting. “A marriage isn’t valid without consent, and I’ll never sign that paper.” Her windpipe abruptly constricted, her attempts to breathe through both her mouth and nose denied. She clawed at her neck in a panic, catching, briefly, the koldyna’s grin.

Air returned to her lungs just as fast as it had been stolen.

“Say that again, cub?” Marek cupped his ear with a perplexed look.

“All that did was...” She erupted into a coughing fit. “Did was... fortify my preference for death over even a minute with you.”

Marek nodded at Feist.

A quill appeared in Aesylt’s hand. She released it, startled, but another appeared, and then another. Her hand lifted on its own, scrawling phantom words in the air. She tried to pull it back, but it was no longer under her own command at all. “Typical weak man, needs a woman to do what he cannot—” Her words were swiftly killed by a kick, which sent her flying to the barn wall. The sharp pain on impact knocked her breath away again, sending a dark explosion into her vision.

Marek’s stormy footfalls echoed through the barn, nearing. Aesylt squirmed, slapping blindly for purchase and fighting the overwhelming call to close her eyes and drift away.Drazhan,she thought, trying to find the old channel in her mind, the one place she could always reach him. But there was nothing. The path was blocked, and she knew by whom.

“I’m not going to kill you, because I need you. ButallI need is a signature and your cunt. And I will have both, whether you’re conscious... whether you still have all your fingers and toes and limbs and teeth. I’d be content to tie you up and leave you that way the rest of your life, feeding you just enough to keep you alive, visiting only to take what I need, as you grow child after child to strengthenmylegacy.”

Wheezing, Aesylt spat at his feet. More blood. Everything hurt so much, she couldn’t discern what the worst of her injuries were, but there was only one way to heal them, to restore herself to fighting form and turn the situation. That she hadn’t considered it yet was a testament to how much danger she was truly in, but she was Aesylt Wynter, afraid of nothing except losing the people she loved. On the matter of her own fate, she was tragically indifferent.

“You’re such a dumb?—”

“I can’t marry you, Marek, even if I were inclined to subject myself to a lifetime of disgust and shame.” Nauseated and dizzy, she used the wall to slide her feet toward her torso. But she couldn’t shift until she had her wits back. “Because...” She closed her eyes, straining her breath through what she assumed was a punctured lung. Sticky blood coated the front of her. She wasn’t ready to know what it was from. “I’m already married to your brother.”

Aesylt whispered her command and winked from their world into hers. The moment she saw the shift in the air, the muting of colors, she clambered to her feet in relief.

A shrill whoosh sounded. She looked up and sawMarek, standing in the same place he’d been in the real world.

“Surprise,” he said, a macabre grin splitting his face.

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