Page 66 of Wild Flame

When my hair was freshly braided, and I wore a burgundy gown in the Halmarish style—I needed all the armor I could manage this morning—I stepped out of the chamber and into the outer rooms.

To my surprise, I found Malik and Leif squaring off. Malik stood behind a beautiful mahogany desk I had failed to notice the night before, while Leif stood before it. Both men were glaring at each other.

Harun and a few warriors stood closer by the door, but I barely glanced at them, too distracted by the confrontation unfolding.

“She is my queen,” Malik was saying. “Her protection is now my responsibility. I choose who will be guarding her from now on. And I have seen nothing but incompetence from her current guards since she arrived here.”

Leif’s jaw hardened and his eyes were like flint. “She is not your queen yet,Your Majesty.” The last words were anything but respectful.

“She is my Hassai,” Malik countered. “It is the same.”

They all noticed me then.

“Leida, come meet your new guards,” Malik said with a smile, ignoring the glare Leif was shooting him. “Now that we are betrothed, you will be protected by my Talonar.”

I eyed him and Leif. But—not wanting to be rude—I turned my attention to the men before me. I was stunned when Harun and the two warriors put their fists to their hearts and bowed their heads to me. “My king’s Hassai,” they all murmured in unison. Harun wore his sandstone riding leathers, while the other two wore the red and black similar to that of the palace guard, but with one distinct difference. Each bore a seal on their right shoulder, depicting the clawed foot of a dragon.

It was only then, as I looked more closely, that I recognized the other two warriors.

Harun gestured to the younger of the two. “My younger brother, Yesh.”

Yesh grinned and bowed his head, a few dark curls falling into his eyes. “Pleased to meet you, Your Highness.”

“And this is Selasi,” Harun went on, “our king’s First Warrior.”

“We’ve met,” I said to Harun.

“Your Highness,” Selasi murmured. The man’s bearing was slightly more reserved than his younger companion, and the old scar on his cheek seemed more prominent today.

I nodded to them. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” I said to Yesh. Then to both of them, “I enjoyed watching you both fight in thegames. Congratulations on making it so far and on becoming Talonar.”

Both men smiled proudly and nodded their thanks.

“Excuse me,” Leif suddenly said. He didn’t look at me or anyone else before striding for the door.

Chapter Twenty-Four

“So let me get this straight,” Rin said as she, Zara, and I sat at a table in the center of the private garden of my new royal apartments. “He gave you no warning that he was going to announce his intention tomarryyou? He hadn’t talked to you about it at all beforehand?” Her expressive face looked incredulous, and some of her white-blonde hair whipped in the breeze as she sat back on her cushion. I had the stray thought that she looked more Halmarish than me.

I shook my head. “None. I was completely blindsided.” I had decided I needed someone to talk to about everything that had happened, and so I had invited both the women to dine with me after my rather eventful morning. I had been delighted when both had accepted.

“Incredible,” she muttered. “I mean, I knew you were overwhelmed, anyone could see that, but I thought that was just because of nerves, not that you hadn’t already agreed to it.”

Zara shook her head and took a piece of fruit from the spread laid out before us. “Malik usually has more sense. What inthe realms possessed him to make the announcement without talking to you first? Did he explain why?”

“He gave me some of it, but still refuses to explain his full reasoning. He claims he did try to talk to me about it beforehand . . . but we got interrupted or were—uh—distracted.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled you are to be my sister,” Zara said. “It’s just . . .” She glanced at me with concern and a hint of worry. “Do you even want to marry him, Leida?”

Caught off guard, though I should have expected the question, I fumbled. “I . . . I . . . It’s complicated.”

Zara considered me. “The way he is with you, I thought—”

A loud crash had us all looking over and mercifully distracted both women from their line of questioning.

Mesmera and Skye, both in their minor forms, were tumbling and playing in the grass beside a fountain and appeared to have knocked over a large potted plant in the process. The earthen pot had shattered on the stone, and now dirt and flowers were scattered everywhere.

Zara and Rin began scolding their dragons, and the guards standing around the perimeter—including Selasi and Yesh—looked on in a kind of wary amusement. Both of the little dragons looked more like kicked puppies than the fearsome beasts they were by the time their riders were done reprimanding them.

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