Celestials be damned, the explosion had been an attack aimed at him. Why else would the blast have gone off right as he was returning to the palace? He was sure the goal had been to kill him. Too bad for his enemies, he lived. Worse for the bastards, it wouldn’t be only the individuals who schemed against him that paid. Their gall to attack his inner court and his palace had signed the death warrants of their entire bloodlines. He’d wipe out every trace of the polluted families that bore them. Starting with Lady Niyarre and Bloodline Niyarre.
But first, he needed to clear his head.
Kadeesha didn’t disappoint. Instead of quivering, she remained maddeningly collected. She waved off Malachi and the wisps of shadows that now ominously swirled around him. “Save that energy for the ones who deserve it.Iwasn’t the one who detonated the equivalent of a magical blast.Ididn’t place your friend in an infirmary bed.”
“Make no mistake, Princess, those who did will be addressed. Once I am done with them, the devastation the earth tremors wrought will look minor by comparison.”
She nodded curtly. “Good. I’ll be helping.” She stated it coolly, but the thirst for blood was evident in the fury mixed with a particular brand of darkness that Malachi knew well.
He smiled, and for once it was an earnest one. It was also the opposite effect he’d expected her to have on him. He’d been aiming to trade satisfying snipes and snarls with her. But her pragmatism—and shared enthusiasm for bloodshed—was oddly soothing. “Someone of your inner court is lying injured, too,” he said with less bite. “So, I suppose you would be, and you have every right.”
“Do you think Lady Niyarre is responsible for the attack?” Kadeesha inquired.
Malachi clenched his jaw so tight his teeth ached. “I do.”
“So that means the wider Cleric’s Rebellion is also involved, whose remaining members you have not tracked down.” This time, the princess posed no question. Rather, she delivered an observation that let Malachi know she had filed away the pertinent details they’d extracted from the Stone Warden’s sentry.
The shadows grew denser and thickened around him as he said, “I’ll have my hands on all guilty parties soon enough, as well as indisputable proof incriminating everyone involved, including any lord primes who are colluding with Lady Niyarre.”
“I know you’ve set your people to an inquisition among the Stone Warden’s soldiers, but I’d simultaneously go after her daughter,” Kadeesha suggested. “From what I ascertained when I met her, Arrenia seems a weak and easily broken sort. And if you want indisputable evidence,then testimony from a fellow noble always holds greater weight above any other source.”
“I agree,” he said, the shadows about him churning violently, “but on the chance she gives nothing up, or if Lady Niyarre was smart enough to place a charm on her that prevents her from speaking of her deeds, then I’ll have tortured a daughter of a cardinal bloodline, one I’ve slept with, no less, and that will look very, very heinous.”
Kadeesha cocked her head, and the judgment she rendered was clear on her face. He drew himself up tall.
She sighed, started to say something, then stopped and pursed her lips. When she finally spoke, it was to point out, “I am surprised you’re concerned with looking terrible. Isn’t that what you get off on?”
He chuckled. “Usually. But there is that pesky prophecyabout me being too great an ass, so I’ve been trying to play mostly nice with my lord primes in order to prove it has no merit since ascending the throne. I’m sure you overheard how I’ve got to work around that too while hovering in the skies.”
Kadeesha studied Malachi for a time. As she did, it was clear she was weighing something. “It sounds like someone who isn’t you or a part of your Cadre needs to question Arrenia, then,” she said. “If I am your supposed plaything, I’m guessing that leaves me too close to you as well. But I can have Leisha do it. If Lady Niyarre is behind the explosion, then she now owes me twice the blood debt, and Leisha is extraordinarily good at extracting information from those who may be reticent to give it up. If there isn’t a charm in place, she’ll get whatever Arrenia knows.”
Malachi crossed his arms over his chest. “She didn’t manage to break my soldiers that you captured and then killed,” he murmured, although without any real heat. They had been encroaching on and spying within her territory, after all, and if their positions were reversed he would’ve done the same. However, he did enjoy needling Kadeesha, and their back-and-forth was a welcome distraction from Zayvier’s circumstances.
She responded as he expected. “Since we are directly addressing that now, they were a trespassing enemy force. Also, your soldiers were trained well to be loyal to a fault—I don’t know if Arrenia will have had such training.”
Saying yes to turning Arrenia over to Leisha handed a great deal of power to Kadeesha by allowing her, an outsider, to meddle in affairs of his court. But, as she’d stated, the warden did owe her double the blood debt, and if one of her people interrogated Arrenia on that basis, then it wiped his hands clean of the stain while still getting the information he wanted. “I’d like the task performed tonight. She must do it discreetly,” Malachidecided. “I’ll arrange a private space in the palace dungeons and make sure she isn’t disturbed. Jakobi will alert Leisha when everything is in place.”
“I’ll fill her in on the task,” Kadeesha responded with a dark edge that made him recall she was the very same woman who’d burned an encampment of his soldiers to the ground before leaving only a few alive for questioning. He watched after her as she departed. Her hair had changed, he noted, since they’d departed the palace for the keep earlier that day. The numerous waist-length braids she’d woven her hair into had been pragmatically gathered into one thicker braid then. Now, her hair was unbound and the silky braids swayed in sync with her hips as they brushed against them. His eyes dipped down. The way her flying leathers hugged her lush ass made his cock jump, made him want to grip her hair—which was devastating when hanging loose—while he pushed into her from behind.
He scowled, because for once, he could fully admit this wasn’t the proper time. When he got it together and pried his eyes away from her ass, he sighted Kiyun approaching. His tense gait let Malachi know there was more bullshit going on.Fantastic.
“Have the healers said anything different about Zayvier?” Kiyun asked once he stood in front of Malachi.
“No. They’re being useless,” Malachi said.
Kiyun cursed.
“I’ve set Trystin to searching for a rune that may speed up his awakening if it lingers,” Malachi told Kiyun to ease both of their nerves.
“If anyone can unearth something of that manner, Trystin can,” replied Kiyun confidently.
Malachi nodded and then shifted topics, lowering his voiceso that what he spoke was only heard by the two of them. After he passed along the conversation he’d had with Kadeesha about Leisha interrogating the warden’s daughter, he asked Kiyun, “Can you coordinate what’s needed for it to happen so I can remain here?”
“I’m on it,” Kiyun said, his voice as low, “but as for you staying here … we have a problem that needs to be addressed and you can only do it yourself.”
“And that problem is?” Malachi asked tightly.
“I understand you want to remain at Zayvier’s side. We all do. But you can do nothing for him here, and Cassius, at present, is leveraging the explosion to his benefit. He is at the attack site, standing atop the ruins, and he’s pointing your absence out to all who will listen. He has pledged to help with restoration efforts and people whisper that you have done no such thing yet and you disappeared right when it happened.”
