Page 96 of Lady Knight and the Thief

“Fine.” Torren rubbed his stomach. “I wanted to show you what we have on Eobbaara. The lands.”

“Thank you. Where is it?” Cypress asked with a saccharine smile. Her eyes barely lingered on Torren before they darted over to the rolled parchment and bound books on the shelves.

Torren scanned the bookshelf index for the code linked to Eobbaara's records.

E09CR… E09CR, where are you E09CR?

Finally, when he located it at the end of the shelf, Torren selected the appropriate parchments and books. “Here they are.”

Cypress hesitated for barely a heartbeat before she accepted a few of the books from him to carry with trembling hands. “Can we read them now?”

Torren smiled. "There’s a table just over here." He gestured, then led her through the stacks again. The table had an incredibly smooth top, worn down by centuries of use and loving hands.

Without another word to him, Cypress dove into the documents Torren had found. First, the rolled parchments which held maps of the land she’d inherited.

From what he remembered, Eobbaara was wet, but beautiful. Cypress trees grew thick in the marshland, forming groves. The castle of Eobbaara grew in a circle, completely surrounded by those Cypress trees.

Torren presumed the ring was the lass’s namesake.

Cypress did not utter a single word as she absorbed the details of the map, though she did press her hand to her mouth at one point.

Torren sat quietly as he watched her devour the information—like a madwoman. Cypress examined every page with a fine-toothed comb. Those mismatched eyes never missed a detail.

He did not know how long they stayed down in the depths of the library while she read everything he’d pulled. It didn’t matter, though. The rest could wait, just a little while longer.

Torren woke with a jump; eyes snapping to Cypress's hand on the cover of a closed book. He found Cypress's enchanting eyes on him when he woke. She wore a bemused smile, and was framed by a soft golden halo of sunlight. The effect was entirely hypnotic.

Again, Torren wondered how he hadn’t seen the Pixie blood in her when they first met. She was enchanting—more so, even, than any Fair Folk in his court.

He had no doubt that her ability to slip into the mannerisms of the Grethnah nobility was due to her Fair Folk blood. Like some sort of innate Glamour she could trigger at will.

Cypress blinked, and Torren’s attention snagged on the fan of her lashes against her cheekbone. The way her pupil dilated when she focused on him.

“All done?” Torren shifted in the chair to stretch.

“Yes. Thank you for showing me these.” Cypress’s tone surprised Torren, and he had to hold back a belt of startled laughter.

He’d never heard her say the words so…genuinelybefore. He almost didn’t know what to do with himself.

“As you wish,” Torren mumbled.

“What did you say?”

“I said, ' Are you ready to go? But, I suppose if there is something within the stacks to your interests, I’ll do my best to find it for you.”

Torren stood and cursed his nerves.

Cypress shrugged and joined him on his side of the research table. “I’m done for now. Can we take the long way out?”

“Out of the library?”

“Yeah. Show me more of the palace, Thief,” Cypress ordered softly, and tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow.

The action sent a rush of blood straight to his cock.

Torren painted a genteel smile on his face and said, “Oh, right this way, Duchess.”

She smelled like the forest, of wildflowers and petrichor. Torren almost felt like he was going mad on Pixie wine with the way Cypress tormented him, without doing anything.