Page 26 of The Duke and the Disciple

Rahn gave her a light squeeze and stared into the crackling hearth. “I’m not worried about our research right now.”

“You should be. The support from our Vjestik elders is just as critical as the Reliquary’s endorsement. If we fall behind, they’ll pull their sons and daughters from the cohorts. When the village turns on something, their shunning is total.”

With one researcher near death and another being accused of dark magic, their studies were the last thing on his mind, but if talking about it kept Aesylt grounded, he’d listen. “What’s your idea then?”

Aesylt sat up and met his eyes. She reached for one of his hands, breathed in, and whispered, “And another with me.”

Rahn gasped at the startlingly abrupt change in his surroundings. His rich furnishings blended with everything else into a dull sepia. A violet settee had become a muted lavender. The gold tapestry on the wall was a haze of soft bronze and blurred design. And there was a shimmer in the air, one that inexplicably made him think of stars and sky. Everything was like that, everything except?—

Except him and her.

“Is this...” He turned his hands over before his eyes, but they were the same as they’d always been.

Aesylt nodded. She pivoted until she was facing him head-on. “Welcome to the celestial realm, Scholar.”

Rahn ran his hands through the air in wonder. He couldn’t decide what to focus on. His thoughts were a blur. “I’ve never been confronted with so much I can’t explain.”

“I can bring you here whenever you want.” She glanced to the side. “As I told you last night, nothing anyone does here has consequence in the real world.”

Rahn shook his head, struggling to catch up as he tried to confront what had happened, whatwashappening.

“If you and Tasmin need a place to conduct your practical experimentation for the upcoming curricula...” Her throat bobbed with a brief glance away. “I can bring you both here. Give you a safe place without worrying about anyone crying indecency. You can do everything here that you can do out there, but nothing you do here follows you into the real world.”

“Tasmin and me?” Rahn’s head spun between the surrealness of sitting in a world not his own and Aesylt’s stunning offer. “No, no that’s not... Besides, she’s leaving for Whitechurch soon. I’ll find another way.”

Aesylt moved to her knees and lifted up until they were eye level. Without warning, she kissed him. Her smooth lips brushed softly over his with a gentle whimper that lighted something in him long dormant. Something dangerous. “You see? That didn’t happen.”

Rahn, breathing hard, backed away. “How can you say it didn’t happen?” His hand traveled to his mouth, his disbelief still forming.

“Because it only happened here.”

“Are you saying my memory won’t return with me to the real world?”

“You’ll remember, but it won’t matter. It happened in a place where nothing matters.” She lowered onto her heels. “Youmustcontinue the work, Scholar. Drazhan is going to pull me away from the cohort—I know it in my soul—and I need to knowyouwill continue. This is a dark moment. That’s all. It will pass, and when it does, we still have important work to do.”

Rahn stood and paced toward the window. The sepia land beyond was devoid of people, unlike the one they’d left behind. They had the entire world to themselves. His lips buzzed, still drawn to the recent past, the warmth of a young woman who had left an indelible mark on him the moment he’d met her. But it was wrong to feel that way. Wrong to desire what could never be his. To even think of Aesylt in those terms, to have or not to have, was wrong.

Shewas wrong as well. It mattered.

“Scholar?”

“You’re upset. You have every reason to be. Every damned right to be.” He dragged his hands against his mouth to erase the imprint of her. “But that can’t happen again. In here or out there.”

Her laugh was short, humorless. “But it didn’t happen. That’s my point.”

“This isn’t the way,” he said, tossing his head. He reached for the windowsill and saw his hand was trembling. The taste of her lingered despite his efforts.

“Have I crossed a line?”

“No. No, you were... You were making a point. But the point has been made, and we need to?—”

“And now we return.”

Rahn pitched forward when the world shifted again. The color and vibrancy returned, sending his mind reeling and fighting to catch up.

“I wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling,” she muttered.

Soon enough, he understood why she’d brought them back so abruptly.

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