Page 105 of Wild Flame

I shook my head. “He won’t tell you.”

He stared down at me. “He will.”

At his words, I sat up, taking part of the sheet with me to cover my chest. “Malik, you can’t force him to tell you. And he won’t.”

His lips pursed, obviously not liking that I had moved away. “I can and he will.”

“You can’t torture and interrogate a High Priest of Halmar. I thought you wanted to avoid war? And The Assassin will not take kindly to you harming him, either.”

He folded a single muscled arm behind his head and shrugged as if angering the gods was not something to worry over. “No one will know it was I who questioned him. Your priest will not be alive to tell anyone. Furthermore, I sincerely doubt The Assassin will mind. He is a god of death. It will be a fitting end for one of his priests, no?”

I sputtered. “You plan to kill him?”

Malik’s brow furrowed and the look he gave me said that should be obvious. “He took out a contract on my sister. And I’m guessing those men who tried to kill you were his as well. No doubt sent here when you failed to complete your mission?” He didn’t have to see the look in my eyes to know he was right.“Then he attempted to murder Zehvi’s queen—my wife—and its princess. So yes, I plan to kill him.”

“But you—” I floundered. “You can’t—” I was still protesting when Malik changed the subject.

“One more thing,” he said. “What were you doing in the city tonight if you weren’t killing anyone?”

His question completely diverted my train of thought. Which was no doubt his intent.Oh, realms!I had hoped after all the revelations tonight that he had forgotten about that. I yawned. “Sleepy,” I tried in a small voice, snuggling back into him.

He shook me slightly, not having it. “Leida . . .”

I sighed, but still refused to look at him as I answered honestly, telling him about the conversation I had overheard. “I wanted to see what he was up to, so I went toThe Red Scaleand waited to see if he would show.”

He stared down at me, some of his earlier anger rekindling in his eyes. “You snuck away from my warriors and went out into the city alone—”

“I have training, and I’ve done it before, as you well know.”

Malik reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, his other arm still around me. “Leida, you put yourself at risk for nothing. Why would you—"

“It wasn’t for nothing,” I insisted. “Don’t you want to hear what I found out?”

His dark eyebrows rose.

“Nilfren was meeting with Leif.”

He stilled and lowered his hand. “What do you mean?”

He listened intently as I explained what I’d overheard—about the Fleshfire and it being the cause of the attack on the city, how Nilfren had mentioned someone else powerful being involved. All of it.

When I was finished, he frowned. “And where were you that you could overhear this conversation so clearly without them knowing?”

“I was—ah—on the roof?” Somehow, my hesitant response came out sounding more like a question.

His eyes narrowed. “You were on the roof?”

“I listened through a window. My suit . . . it’s made of selkie skin and can blend into shadow. And I took a canceling potion that made my scent nonexistent. Undetectable.”

“That is why Azrun could not tell it was you earlier,” he realized, and I nodded. He sighed. “At least you weren’t found out.”

I stared guiltily at him. “Well—”

“Curse the Nine, Leida! You were caught?”

“Leif confronted me afterward,” I confessed in a rush.

He glared at me. “Explain.”

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