Page 37 of The Musician and the Monster

Then, her features smoothed out all at once, and she lowered her eyes. “Lord…”

She pulled for the rest of his name, a careful brow ached in question like a proper lady, as if her momentary fury had never existed. Impressive.

“Just Malik will do.” He smirked.

“Is that not too intimate for an acquaintance?” she countered.

Far too intimate, though not a surprise where his cousin was concerned. In fact, Drystan wouldn’t be surprised if that, too, was a ploy to get under his skin.

“Then let’s be more than acquaintances.” Malik closed the distance to Ceridwen’s chair once more, trailing his fingers along the back.

Drystan found himself rocking forward on his toes, ready to spring. “Malik…” He ground out.

But his cousin’s grin only widened. “If you’re nothing special to him”—Malik caught a bit of Ceridwen’s hair and pulled it to his lips, even as she leaned away as far as she could—“you could be to me. What do you think?”

A small thread of doubt tugged at something in his chest. What if she said yes? Surely she wouldn’t, but if she did…

“No. Thank you.” Ceridwen managed to lace the polite rejection with venom sharp and piercing.

A sigh of relief crept up his throat, but it was too soon for that.

Malik dropped her hair, and Ceridwen bolted from the chair, accidentally knocking into the table and rattling the dishes in the process. A few glasses tipped, one rolling to shatter on the floor.

Run. Go.Drystan silently pleaded to Ceridwen as he edged around the table to get closer to her. But if she thought to flee, Malik was faster.

His cousin moved with a swiftness only nobles possessed and grabbed Ceridwen’s wrist. “Ah, don’t fly away yet. The fun’s just getting started.”

Ceridwen tried to jerk away from him. “Let me go.”

“Oh, I will, but not yet,” Malik promised.

Ceridwen twisted her head toward him, eyes pleading as she pulled against Malik’s grip. “Drystan,” she whispered. The sight nearly gutted him.

“Let her go, Malik,” Drystan warned.

“Now, now,” Malik crooned as he brushed the back of his other hand along her cheek. “She may come to enjoy my attentions. You never really know until you try, do you?”

Malik leaned in to steal a kiss, and something in Drystan snapped.

Before he could think, Drystan sped across the space between them, jerked Malik back, and hurled him at the wall with such fury that he sent the other man flying.

His cousin smacked against the wall before sliding down its surface, a crack marring the spot where he’d slammed into it. The force of such a hit might have killed a normal man, but only a trickle of blood seeped from Malik’s lips to drip down his chin.

Drystan’s fingers curled and uncurled at his side. His breaths came sharp and quick as he stepped in front of Ceridwen, attempting to block her view of what he’d done—the damage he’d almost brought upon her as well. Malik could have easily grabbed her and pulled her with him. The pain it would have caused her was unthinkable. He shuddered before letting out a cry of anguish that was almost a roar.

The fact that Malik hadn’t grabbed her, had almost seemed to anticipate what he’d do, was the only reason Drystan didn’t stalk across the marble floor and do even worse.

Malik touched his lips, his fingers coming away red. Laughter with a maniacal edge slipped from him as he beheld the blood and then looked at Drystan.

“Well,” Malik began, pushing off the wall and sending a small shower of rubble tumbling to the floor. “I think we’ve established that the girl is not nothing after all.”

Chapter 18

Ceridwen

The steaming water should have soothed her, but no matter how Ceridwen scrubbed, the feeling of Malik’s gaze or his hands on her could not be washed away. Her blood ran cold despite the wet warmth cocooning her in the tub.

Drystan had thrown Malik against the wall with more force than a man should be able to muster. Another reminder that even though they’d shared a kiss, he was a noble, different, and she was just her, a poor commoner living in a city at the edge of the kingdom. There could be nothing between them.

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