“It would seem so, at least for now.” Fenris shook his head, his smile fading. “I suppose that so long as there is still need of me, it would be a disservice to you and Iannis for me to disappear,” he said. “I will stay then, and help however I can. But if there is any sign that my presence puts either of you at risk, I will leave, and you must promise not to stop me.” Fenris’s eyes darkened as he locked gazes with me. “Promise me, Sunaya Baine.”

“I promise,” I said, trying to sound as normal as possible as the lump in my throat threatened to resurface. But what else could I say? “Now can you get your ass out of bed and help me get this list of suspects? We don’t have all day.”

“Yes, but it would help if you gave me some privacy,” Fenris pointed out. “I am far from decent.”

“What else is new?” I muttered, opening the door and walking out. Shifters didn’t really have a button on nudity, but as Fenris wasn’t born a shifter, I had to forgive him for being a prude. And I didn’t really need the image of his naked ass branded in my mind anyway.

* * *

“By Magorah,” I muttered as Rylan and I trudged back inside. We’d just finished questioning the head gardener, which had turned out to be just as fruitless as all the other interviews. “I’m starting to think you’re wrong, and the spy did flee the Palace.”

“Nobody ever said I was infallible,” Rylan admitted as we turned right, heading to the east wing. Fenris had taken half the suspects, leaving us with around thirty to question—and we’d just finished number eighteen. “It’s always possible the spy did bolt.”

“I really hope not,” I said as we headed for the guest bathing rooms. The next suspect on our list was Harun Zuric, one of the Palace’s handymen, and we’d been informed he was currently fixing a leak in one of the showers. “I’d rather not find out we wasted our entire morning on this.”

“It isn’t a waste,” Rylan pointed out. “Eliminating these suspects is important.”

I growled under my breath, but said nothing. He was right, but I was impatient to find my would-be killer now. I wanted to look him in the eye myself, dammit.

The sound of metal clanging against metal caught my ears as we rounded the corner, followed by the scent of sweaty male human. I pushed open the door to the bathroom to find a balding, heavyset man leaning half-in, half-out of the shower. His belt wasn’t doing a great job of holding up his workpants, and I wrinkled my nose at the sight of his hairy crack peeking out from beneath his powder-blue work shirt.