Page 84 of Lady Knight and the Thief

“What is it, Princeling? I can feel you thinking even over here,” Cypress asked with an exasperated expression gracing her beautiful face.

“You can notfeelme thinking,” Torren scoffed, then checked behind him for a moment to verify all the horses were still trotting behind.

“Oh, but I can. Out with it.”

"Why did you sign with your mother’s name? Was it a statement or just meant to rile Caelith?" Torren blurted, halting his horse and caravan.

Cypress whirled her horse around in an expertly trained maneuver. “A statement. A declaration,” she said, the words sharp and angry, her chest rising and falling with shaky, heaved breaths.

"I am not something the Crown canuse,chew up, and spit out. I built my whole life protecting Cade and the kingdom, and this is my reward?

I don’t give a flyingfuckabout the title that comes with that name, by the way. If Aithlin really was my mother, if she protected me even in death, thenthat’s thelegacy I want to claim.

“So, if this place washerhome, then it’sminetoo.

“Regardless ofall that,” Cypress said. Her hand cut through the air like a blade, and her mismatched eyes burned in a way Torren had never witnessed.

“Regardless of all that,” Cypress began again, much softer this time. “No one deserves to be hunted for sport. No one deserves to be seen aslesserjust because of their differences. I will not help protect a kingdom that is an aggressor. I willnotstand by and do nothing while people are run down in the middle of the night because of some superiority complex.”

By the time Cypress had finished speaking, Torren thought she would make a fine ruler. The people of Eobbaara would be lucky to have her.

Hell,hewould be lucky to have her on his side.

“Well, Duchess,” Torren said and leaned on his pommel. “Welcome to the cause.”

Cypress snorted. “Didn’t Ijusttell you I didn’t care about the title?”

“Yep. But if you’re declaring yourself an Ilirona, then you’re a Duchess. Facts are facts.”

She heaved a great sigh and rolled those amber and verdant eyes. “If you makeanyone elsecall me Duchess, I’ll remind you I know where you sleep."

Torren waggled his eyebrows, pushing his horse ahead. "And what will you do when you find me, Duchess?"

“You’ll die a slow, painful death, Princeling.”

Torren laughed with his head back. “Sure, Lass. Keep telling yourself that.”

"Must you be so—" Cypress said and waved her hand in his general direction.

“Charming? Handsome? Irresistible?”

“Annoying.”

Again, Torren laughed. “You are charmed by me, Lass. You don’t have to lie to yourself, you know.”

“I really am going to kill you one day, you know?” Cypress mused, then pulled her hair from the braid it had been in.

This morning, the plait had been tight to her scalp. The fight had mussed the lengths.

“What if I kill you first, Lass?” Torren asked, trying not to stare at the way her hair fell around her face. He wished she would wear it that way more often.

This time, Cypress chuffed a laugh, looking over her shoulder at him. “Oh, I’d like to see you try, Torren.”

The look in her mismatched green and brown eyes had blood rushing straight to his cock, his pulse jumping.

1.I have wandered too far from my home, but I am not lost. Forest Help Me.

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