Page 70 of Wild Flame

I wasn’t sure how long I had been staring at it before something warm and smooth carefully nudged me. I glanced over to find Azrun staring back at me. I had been so out of it that I hadn’t even noticed him shifting down to his minor form. Sitting as I was, his head reached higher than mine.

I was surprised, because Azrun had never approached me before. I couldn’t truly read his expression, but I thought I sensed his concern.

He sniffed faintly at the wound on my face and made a soft noise in his chest.

I hesitated only a moment before I cautiously lifted my hand and stroked along his broad snout. I figured Malik wouldn’t mind, considering the circumstances.

“I’m all right.” I assured him, giving the dragon a faint smile. “Thank you for hunting down my attacker for me.”

He snorted a huff as if to say,That was nothing.

And I smiled.

“I do not like seeing you in pain,” Malik said as the healer—the same healer who had seen to my injured hand—took his leave. He had given me a potion for the pain, telling me my bruised jaw would be sore for several days, along with a chilled water skin to help with the swelling.

I pressed it gingerly against my cheek now as I replied, “Not all of us have the luxury of dragon rider healing. I’m only human.”

His jaw ticked. “I wish you would not say that as if it were a bad thing.”

“It usually is.”

“You defended yourself well. Those men were highly trained, and you not only survived, but killed one as well.”

I snorted. “I wouldn’t have survived if you hadn’t shown up when you did.”

He didn’t reply as he began pacing before the bed. I sat leaning back against an obscene number of pillows that Astrid had fussed over after my bath. Azrun lay sprawled on the floor beforethe unlit hearth on cushions of his own. His eyes watched his rider, moving back and forth with him as he paced.

“First Zara and now you,” Malik muttered, his tone laced with rage.

Thankfully, Zara had been unharmed and blissfully unaware that anything was amiss until Malik’s men had charged in to check on her. Malik had already had men guarding her, but they had still done a thorough sweep of her room before reporting back that all was well.

“Someone targeted you both, likely because of me,” Malik continued, “though Taj’s spies still have no idea who it might be or why. The only thing connecting the attempts is the poison.” I didn’t need to ask him how he knew that it was the same poison. Taj had had it tested against the poison on the blade the assassin from the Healing Pools used and it was a match.

Guilt ate away at me as I sat there. I had the answers he needed, but couldn't bring myself to reveal them. Because then I would have to tell him everything, and I couldn’t do that.Wouldn’tdo that.

I also couldn’t get it out of my head that Silvanus had actually sent someone to kill me. I knew Silvanus didn’t care about me. I was just a tool to him. A weapon for his use, but a tiny, tiny part of me was still hurt that he wanted me dead. A member of his own Order—and his princess. But none of that seemed to matter to him at all.

My eyelids began to droop, the hit to the head and the lateness of the hour suddenly catching up to me. When I blinked them open, Malik had moved to my side of the bed and was smiling down at me.

“I’m awake,” I mumbled. “Keep talking. I’m . . . listening.”

But my eyes still felt heavy, and the next thing I knew, Malik was climbing into bed beside me and pulling me against his chest. My back to his front, his big arms encasing me. We fittogether perfectly, as if our bodies were made to hold each other this way. I instantly relaxed.

“Sleep now,isholet,” Malik murmured.

And so I did.

Chapter Twenty-Six

When I woke the next morning, I was alone. Malik apparently had already gotten up and started his day, and I was grateful. If he was here, I wouldn’t have known how to act. After last night, I could feel myself softening toward him. Most of my anger had fled. All that remained were delicate, vulnerable feelings that I didn’t know how to deal with and that were somehow more terrifying.

My body was sore from the fight, and my cheek still ached when I touched it or moved my jaw. A glance in the mirror told me I had a lovely bruise on the side of my face, but I supposed it could have been worse.

Something moved in the mirror behind me, and I spun around, preparing to face another assassin, when I was relieved to see it was just Azrun. He was in his minor form, his red scales and black horns gleaming in the morning sun that peeked through the open window and onto the floor around him.

“You scared me,” I gasped, putting a hand to my rapidly beating heart. The dragon didn’t move, save to sit back on hishaunches and curl his long tail around his feet. I could have sworn there was a bit of humor in those slitted eyes.

“What are you doing here?” I put my hands on my hips. “Let me guess . . . he left you to guard me while he’s away?”

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