Page 16 of The Duke and the Disciple

Val gradually relaxed. His hand clenched in the middle of her back, then softened. “You know I hate it here.”

“You didn’t always.” She craned her head up to smile at him. Tears glossed his eyes. She wished she hadn’t seen them. “You used to beg me to come here. Remember?”

“That was before Drazhan told us you could getstuckhere and never be able to leave.” His brows fused. “You know I’m not much for rules, or your damned brute of a brother, but I have to agree with him on this. Youshouldn’tbe coming here anymore. No one in this village has the magic to come find you if you lose yourself.”

Aesylt made apfftsound and averted her eyes. “Our world is far more treacherous.”

Val shook her once. “Promise me this will be the last time.”

“It would be a lie.” She forced a smile, reaching a hand toward his cheek. Fear bubbled up from her chest, clogging her throat. This was it. In minutes, he would walk away from her, and the odds were she would never, ever see him again alive. Never hear his laugh. See his smirk. Feel his hand on her arm, guiding her both toward and away from trouble. “I could keep you here with me, and we could stay forever. We don’t need sustenance in the celestial realm. We don’t need anything.”

His mouth turned at the corner before spreading into a smile. “You know why I chose you as my witness? I wanted to ask you for something. Two things.”

Aesylt waited for him to tell her.

“A good-bye kiss,” he said, grinning broader. “I wantyouto be the memory I take with me into the forest.”

Her mouth parted in surprise. She nodded, but before she could add voice, Val had both of his hands wrapped along the underside of her face. A gasp was the only sound she made when his tongue slid across hers, their moans colliding. She lifted for more, unsure whether her desperation for his touch came from love, fear, or both.

“Mm.” He nibbled her lip as he drew away. “Aessy, Aessy, Aessy.”

Her mouth tingled, humming. “And the second thing you wanted to ask me?” she asked, breathless.

“No one expects me to come back.” He looked off to the side, scorn scoring his dark expression. “But do you know why they send boys into the woods?”

She shook her head.

“Becausemenhave something to come home to.” He dragged his thumbs along her temples. “If I come home, Aesylt, I want you to be my wife. Don’t worry about your brother. If I win, I’ll be a hero. The village won’t accept his shallow excuses anymore.”

“You’re a man now,” she said distantly. Certainly they’dplayedhappy families as children, the two of them husband and wife, and Niklaus—quite reluctantly—their child. Always fun, always a laugh. Never real. “I don’t even know if I want to marry.”

His touch faltered. “You always said you did.”

She searched for the right words, excruciatingly conscious of the way he was hanging onto her silence. Did she want to marry him? Could she see it as something real, tangible, desirable? Shediddesire him, but was it love? Was how she felt for him the foundation of a marriage?

Moments from him walking away from her, probably forever, didanyof it matter? Were objections the words she was going to leave him with, weakening him before the greatest battle of his entire life?

“Tak,” she blurted. Her heart fluttered in her chest. “When you come home to us, I’ll marry you.”

Aesylt gulped when he suddenly lifted her in his arms and spun her, ending the joyous outburst with a drawn, ardent kiss.

He broke away, trailing his mouth toward her ear. “Volemthe, Aesylt. I always have.”

“You know I love you as well, Valerian,” she answered. Her heart pounded hard enough that if she were in the outside world, it would have rendered her lightheaded. The twisted, well-intentioned lies turned to molasses in her belly. Her justification for them was no relief. She was either saying good-bye to her dearest friend in the world or she was waiting for a husband to return.

Both outcomes hollowed her beyond belief.

“Can we get the fuck out of this creepy place now?” Val’s larger-than-life smile was back. He brushed a band of hair off her face. “Please?”

Aesylt laughed, but the thought of staying there, forever, nagged at her. If it saved him, she could be anything Valerian Barynov needed her to be. Approaching the last moments before his departure, she was desperate enough to say words she knew she didn’t mean. “Stay, V. Stay with me. We can run. It isn’t too late. We can go... anywhere, really. This realm is big. It’s big enough for people to get lost in, if they want, and I have the gold my mother left me?—”

“No.Thisis our home.” He glanced at the doors with a heavy sigh. “And I won’t purposely subject our village to another awful year.”

She wouldn’t have either, in his place. “You can’t fault me for trying.”

His smile brightened the entire barn. “Iloveyou for trying. And I will come back to you. You gave me every reason to return victorious. So I will.”

Aesylt squinted away tears. “That simple, is it?”

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