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AS THEY ASCENDED, RETREATING FARTHER FROM THE winding trails that es, the world opened to him in its purest form: silent, ancient, mysterious

Deadly

Nicholas had spent the better part of his life on the sea, or close enough to catch its perfuood wind Even now, as they approached the h the heavy cover ofback, futilely searching beyond the towering peaks of the Himalayas for the hazy line where the skyfae disappeared along with his confidence

The trail, a winding series of stairs and dirt, had stretched at first through the pine trees dripping with ed the sheer, vertical cliffs into which the Taktsang Palphug Monastery had sos fluttered overhead in the trees, and the sight eased sohtness in his chest; it reht hiates had been festooned with flags of every make and pattern

He shifted again, a s of the rucksack’s straps digging into his shoulders, without sending hi over the open side of the trail

You’ve clihtened of heights now?

Rigging His hands itched to touch it, to feel the spray of the sea kicked up by wind and his ship charging through the water Nicholas tried to set his shoulders back, toss sand over the burn of resentment in the pit of his stomach before it could catch fire He should have been back by now—he should have been with Hall, with Chase, rolling over the crest of each passing wave Not here in a foreign century—the nineteen hundreds, for goodness’ sake—with an incompetent sop who required Nicholas to help button his new coat, lace his boots, knot his scarf, and position his ridiculous floppy hat, despite having two hands of his own and, to all appearances, a brain in his skull

The leather sack slung around his neck slapped heavily against his side as Nicholas continued his cliainst a nearby stone—his usual pose when he thought ladies were around to adin to fatho to ih the damp forest? Had he always been this way—dramatic, vain, with a complete lack of consideration—and Nicholas so blinded by the wonder of finding a so-called brother, a new life with possibilities of conored it?

“Now, chap, coer’s Nest, you know Damn this infernal mist—”

Nicholas did, in fact, know He made a point to read as much as he could about whatever location the old ure out the best ways to keep the ever-reckless, ever-stubborn Julian alive Nicholas was constantly working fro When he’d realized the family would never truly provide a real education for his traveling, he’d begun to wonder if it was intentional, a way to keep hih to cause hier funds on history books

“Bhutan’s Buddhisend, of course—flew here on the back of a tigress,” Julian continued with a grin that had gotten them out of any number of scrapes and trouble—the smile that had once softened Nicholas’s heart and teiveness “We should pop into one of their meditation caves on the way back Maybe you can have yourself a little think Have a look at that view, and tellHow, in the whole of your small life, would you ever have come here otherwise? Put that foolish notion aill you?”

Rather than throw a punch at his s face, or send the metal tip of the pickax strapped to his back on a siain and tried not to focus on the fact that he was, yet again, being crushed under the weight of Julian and his belongings

“It looks as though there’s a stor in,” Nicholas said, proud of how steady his voice sounded, despite the rattle and hiss of the resentain inside of him “We should make this climb tomorrow”

Julian flicked a bug from the shoulder of his pristine coat “No I had to leave that bearcat back in the speakeasy in Manhattan, and I want to get back for a quick tuhed “With e us out into thethat probably doesn’t even exist at this point Classic”

Nicholas watched as his half brother twirled his walking stick around, and began to wonder what the , ruddy-haired prince in newfor lost treasure, and the dark-skinned youngbehind him like a trapped shadow

This isn’t hoas supposed to be

Why had he left? Why had he signed the contract—why had he ever trusted this family?

This isn’t who I’m supposed to be

“Buck up, old man,” Julian said, with a faint punch to Nicholas’s shoulder “Don’t tell me you’re still sore about the contract”

Nicholas glared at Julian’s back as he turned away He didn’t wish to speak of it, didn’t wish to think of it either—the way Julian had shrugged and uess you should have read the terned it He’d escaped enslavement by this family once, yet, in the end, he had only sold himself back into servitude But the old es, of money beyond his wildest dreams Five years of excitement had hardly seemed like a sacrifice at the time