Page 67 of The Musician and the Monster

Darkness in the capital, like the rumors said. A shiver racked her. “Surely the king…”

He turned to her, his features grave. “He knows.”

Her legs would no longer hold her. Ceridwen slid to the ground, her back against the stone as his words threatened to drown her, to unseat everything she thought she knew.

The king knew…and did nothing. Bad enough that he taxed the people to death, but to bless the use of darkness and the death of innocents at its hands? Unthinkable.

“Ceridwen!” Drystan crouched before her, his hands on her face. “I’ll take you home. We can discuss the rest another day.”

She placed a palm over his hand, holding it to her cheek and sending a little shudder through him that she couldn’t miss.

“No.” There was no turning back. No running from this. “Tell me now. All of it.”

“Are you sure?” He stroked her cheek again, and despite all that she had learned, her greatest wish at that moment was to continue to feel his skin against her own. His nearness sparked a fire deep within her more terrifying than the truth he shared. It threatened to burn away everything else until only they were left.

“Yes.” Whatever else there was to hear, she needed to know it.

Drystan nodded and withdrew his hand. “If I don’t destroy the one leading the darkness, it will spread. It has too much already. Disappearances. Murders. Victims missing blood. I can’t let that happen. I won’t.”

The cloud of darkness spreading from the capital was a real one, and no one tried to stop it, not even the king. No one, except possibly the city’s very own monster.

“That’s why you’re going to the capital at midwinter.”

“I’m required back anyway. But yes, once I’m there, I’ll end this or die trying.”

Tears burned the corners of her eyes, blurring her vision. “I don’t want you to die.” Her truth. “Stay.”

Hewiped away a tear that slipped free to trickle down her cheek. “Every time I look at you, I want to.” He gave the smallest hint of a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “But the things I’ve done… They’re unforgiveable already. Even more so if I were to run. I couldn’t live with myself.”

What had he—But she didn’t need to ask. She knew. His monster had killed. She’d seen it with her own eyes.

Grief surrounded her, a familiar, if unwanted, companion. Her actions had led to a death, her mother’s, and the guilt of it plagued her every day. How much more did the death he’d caused with fang and claw haunt his steps?

Guilt was a wicked burden on both of their hearts.

“Blood fuels magic. My own”—he lifted his hand, reminding her of the scars that marred it—“and others. And dark magic…” He pulled back from her, sitting on the ground a foot away. “It’s not enough just to wield shape and blood. True dark magic requires something more. The consumption of it.”

His words did not immediately register, the thought so foreign and strange. When they did, bile burned the base of her throat.

This time, he didn’t reach for her, but the feeling of his eyes on her never faltered, despite the panic threatening to rip her apart.

Blood.

He drank blood.

Like some beast or wild animal. No one knew. She’d never heard of such a thing. Or had she? Somewhere in the back of her mind, a song called to her. Familiar, but just out of reach. In her panic, she couldn’t think, couldn’t sort through the memories to find that lyric.

“It’s not wine that you drink in your study, is it? Even this morning, you and Malik…”

He nodded.

“Does he become a monster too?” One monster unnerved her enough. If there were a second… She shivered.

“Not that I have seen. But that doesn’t mean much. I haven’t seen Malik paint or cast a spell in years, but his father… He favors the darkness. It seems likely that influence may have spread to him.”

Ceridwen squeezed her eyes shut. Another wielder of darkness. One who’d set his eyes upon her sister. Just when she thought she couldn’t dislike him more.

The cool stone behind her back gave odd comfort. Of all the men in the kingdom, she’d fallen for one who became a monster, one determined to die for his revenge.

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