My mother rushed up to join her husband. “But we were hoping to spend some time together,” she said in a low, graceful voice. But her eyes slid side to side, as if assessing who was watching and listening in to our first family dispute.
Cypress squeezed my hand harder, making both my parents glare at where our skin touched. “If you wanted to spend time with your daughter, you would have greeted her when she arrived. And you sure as hell wouldn’t have been sending suitors her way when she’s just gotten here.”
I cleared my throat. “I’d like to see you in the morning. Alone. I’m not much for parties, it would seem. This is my first one, and I didn’t like it at all.”
Cypress tugged me along, and finally we were alone in a hallway. “They may or may not send someone to remove me from you tonight. I don’t have the slightest intention of being gotten rid of. So that means that I may have to fight. If that happens, stay out of the way. I won’t let you be hurt.”
That was very sweet, for Cypress anyway, but I had plenty of power to defend myself now. I could at least shoot off some vines. That wouldn’t stop everyone, but I could certainly help. And I doubted that anyone my parents sent after Cypress would hurt me since I was their baby-making princess. It would be more like I was helping to defend him.
“They won’t make a scene tonight.”
He nodded. “You’re probably right.”
As we walked, I tried to look around. Aside from my bedroom suite and the ballroom, I hadn’t seen much of my new home. My parents didn’t even bother giving me a tour. Cypress slowed his walking to observe me. “Are you looking for something?” he asked.
I shook my head. I couldn’t even really put my finger on what I was looking for. “I never even got a tour. My cage here might be prettier, but it still feels like a cage. I don’t think they want a daughter. They wanted someone to continue their lineage.”
Cypress gave me a sympathetic look; the expression seemed odd on his gruff face. It was like he wasn’t used to feeling compassion for anyone but himself. “You want to see the castle, Princess?” he asked in a mischievous tone. I nodded in response, already feeling lighter. “Then I’ll show it to you through the eyes of an assassin.”
Chapter Fourteen
Cypress led me up to the roof through a series of tunnels and servants’ quarters. He even led me through a bustling kitchen so we could grab some croissants dripping with jelly and butter. I moaned as we ate it in a supply closet. It was oddly romantic, seeing how he saw the world. He lived in the shadows and only stepped out of them to conduct business. The fact that I was his current job wasn’t lost on me, particularly because he kept reminding me. But I was going to hold onto these memories as the first real fun I’d ever had.
He held my hand when we ran through an arboretum filled with the most beautiful plants I’d ever seen. I wanted to stop and touch all of them, but we didn’t stop for me to do that. Instead, we rushed through the basement of the castle. I gasped when I saw there were dungeons down there. They weren’t currently occupied, but they were there. Had Cypress just wanted me to know they existed? I didn’t stop to ask him. The second I spoke, we’d be back in the real world and this lovely adventure through my new home would be over.
Who knew if I’d ever get to see these things again?
My parents kept separate rooms. I saw both of them, and Cypress stole a brush off my mother’s dresser and a tie from my father’s closet. Why? Just to prove he could? To fuck with them a little bit?
The servants’ quarters were empty. We didn’t take anything from them. The washrooms were deserted but organized and functional. Room after room, we rushed. By the time we reached the roof, I was breathless. The moon wasn’t full, but it was glorious, and it bathed me in its splendor, filling my soul, letting me breathe.
How did my parents exist in that gold castle when the moon was up here? Why imprison themselves when they had a choice?
“Would I be just like them if I’d been raised here? Would I care about balls and parties?”
Cypress climbed on top of the wall and stared down at the ground below. He wasn’t going to jump was he? “You ask an important question about life. Who are we? Are we how we were raised to be or what we became based on circumstances? Actually, you’re quite the conundrum.”
I stepped toward him, and he held out his hand so I could climb up with him. Looking down, I got dizzy, but the sensation passed. “How so?”
“You should be mean, hardened. But you’re so kind I worry the world will break you. Makes no sense to me, and it…”
He didn’t finish, so I prompted him. “And it?”
“It makes me want to beat anyone that tries to screw that up. Did you like the Fae? Jack? Did you like dancing with him?”
I stared at the line of Cypress’s jaw, tracing it with my gaze instead of my fingers. “I did like him. He spoke truth to me even in the riddles. But I’d rather have been dancing or talking to you. Why didn’t you ask me to dance?”
If I were being honest with myself, that was a question that had been bugging me all night.
Cypress pursed his lips and cupped my cheeks. “Princess, I’ve been trying to tell you, we can’t be together. It’s why I tried to stop this...thing between us. This inevitable thing.”
“I don’t want this life. What if we just
