Page 142 of The Duke and the Disciple

She spat another wad of blood into the hay beside her and winked herself back to the real world.

“Scholar, you really look green.”Valerian skip-jogged to match his pace. “Like you haven’t slept in a quarter century.”

Rahn swatted him away. The memories were coming fast now, and he’d stopped fighting them. Since he’d given in, they had at least still been gracious enough to let him think, to keep his senses tuned enough to recognize the trail Drazhan had left for others to follow.

When he reached the cliff’s edge, he clambered down as far as he could without slipping into the sea. Calder and Dacian hollered for him to hurry, that their makeshift boat was sinking. His vision doubled, blurring and spotting, his thoughts torn between a dozen perfect memories from his childhood and the horrors tearing the lives of everyone he’d ever known asunder.

“No, that way,” Rahn muttered. A hazy film came over his eyes. His nose filled with brine.

Dacian’s hand appeared on top of the cliff. Rahn looked at it as fresh rain and wind whipped him sideways. He peered over the edge and found Calder not far behind, scaling the serrated wall with his fingertips.

“Grab my hand, you imbecile!” Dacian cried, his other hand reaching over and slapping but sliding away from the stone.

“Red cloth. Another one,” Valerian said, excited and catching on to Rahn’s observations.

“You killed them,” Rahn said. Saying it aloud gave it the sharpest teeth, and he couldn’t believe the words. He couldn’t believe Dacian and Calder had done it.

“It was them or us, and you know...” Dacian grunted when his hand slipped again. “You know why it had to be us, so give me your cursed hand!”

Rahn shook his head, though no one could see him. He shook it and shook it, still staring at Dacian’s straining hand. Lightning split the sky. Everything was muddled. Nothing was right anymore.

Nothing would ever be right again.

Rahn stepped on a misshapen rock and almost continued on, but instinct had him kneeling to check anyway. His hand jerked, and the wooden squirrel landed back in the dirt. With a ragged inhale, he reached for it again. Turned it over.Squish.

Was it murder on his mind when he inched closer to the edge... when he toed Dacian’s hand with his boot and then... and then stomped on it, hard enough that the boy released his grip and went hurtling into the darkness below?

“What is it? Some child’s toy?” Valerian asked.

“Adrahn!” Calder bellowed. “What have you done?”

Rahn squeezed the statue in his fist before slipping it into his pocket. “No, it’s Aesylt.”

“Don’t climb any higher, Calder.” Rahn unsheathed the dagger and held it out in his shaking hand. His tears blended with the rain. The screams with the roar of the unrelenting sea.

“You know she loves you... Don’t you?”

“Maybe he’s all right. We just need to?—”

“Calder. Stop. You can’t come up here.”

“Gods! What’s wrong with you? Help me!”

Rahn squinted against the moonlight at the split in the path. Had they gone east or west?

“You killed my family.” Rahn shoved the words from his chest. “You killed them. All of them.”

“I’m the future king, Rahn. I can’t die. You would have done the same thing if you were me.”

“Scholar? What’s happening with you?”

“Can’t?” Rahn knelt and watched Calder struggle against the slimy stone wall. “Go back, Calder. Please, I don’t want to do this.”

“Valerian, are you prepared to kill your brother tonight?”

“Don’t want to do what?” Calder screamed and tugged himself up onto the final shelf. “Give me a hand, you dolt.”

“We don’t even know if he’s here?—”

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