Page 154 of The Duke and the Disciple

Rahn adjusted his horse’s hood, thanked her once more, and made his final push for Witchwood Cross.

Drazhan tappedthe letter against his knee, watching Imryll dry herself after her bath. The sight of her soft curves, her belly arcing in the early days of pregnancy, sent butterflies rippling across his chest and down his arms.

To worry her or not, that was the debate. Or might have been, if he didn’t know the truth: Imryll worried more when he kept things to himself. It was her judgment he feared, though even that would come sparingly. The lack of it would be more shameful.

He was not a man afraid to be wrong, only the catastrophe of the wrongness. But thedamn letter.He couldn’t help but feel he’d missed something fundamental.

Imryll would know what to say and do. She always did.

“Are you going to tell me what’s on your mind, or shall I fuck it out of you?” Her towel dropped to the stones as she turned toward him wearing a cheeky look he was tempted to fuck out ofher.

Drazhan grunted and thrust the letter out and away from him.

She took it with a littlehmph, sat on the chair across from him, entirely naked, and read. “‘When you asked if I loved you, I have never told such a lie as that one.’” Her startled glance over the top of the page was expected. “Rahn wrote this? To Aesylt?”

Drazhan breathed deep through his nose and nodded.

“Wow.” Imryll crossed her legs and continued. “‘And had I not worked so hard to hide it, to fight it at every step, you’d have seen the lie as clearly as if I’d claimed not to require breathing for survival. You’d have known that only the mind can deny what the heart has decided. I know all this now?—’”

“That’s enough.” Drazhan thumbed the space between his brows. “Please.”

“Where did you get this?” She finished reading and set it on the table between them. “This isn’t the letter he left with Aesylt?”

“No. Found it. Half-burnt in his hearth.”

“She hasn’t seen this?”

He shook his head.

“And the dilemma raging in your head, love?”

“It would be easier to have this conversation if you were not so...”

“Distracting?”

He pursed his mouth, restraining a grin.

Imryll rose and made a show of snatching her robe from the hook. She threw it on, tightened the belt, and flopped back down. “Better?”

“Decidedly so.”

“I think I can guess,” Imryll said, “but you might feel better if you say it.”

Drazhan pitched forward, lowering his fists between his spread legs. “Was I wrong, Imryll?”

He appreciated how she didn’t answer right away, though she’d surely had an opinion ready. “Whether you were or not, he still left, didn’t he?” She lifted in a sigh. “It wasn’t her brother who broke her heart, Draz.”

“You’re being generous.”

“A little.” She fingered the burnt corner of the letter.

“I can be... intimidating. But you want to know what really got my temper flaring?”

“What doesn’t?” She grinned. “Go on.”

“Yeah, well...” He smirked, but it faded fast. “Aesylt is... special. I’ve turned down every proposal not because I’m... notonlybecause I’m difficult, but because I would cut down any man who didn’t see her full worth. Who took advantage of it. The last thing my mother said to Hraz and me was ‘Look after our cub. She’s our resilient one, but strength can be mighty lonely.’ I left the Cross as much for her as father and Hraz. I couldn’t be the brother she deserved. What does it say about a man who would have Aesylt’s heart in his hands, only to choose to crush it?”

“Rahn didn’t leave because he was afraid of you. He left for her. In his own way, he left for the same reasons you did ten years ago.”

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