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So she got up feeling pissy If she hadn’t been eavesdropping, she would have had a good ride last night and would have been feeling just fine this arden so everyone would know little Cassidy was feeling pouty

She’d snapped at Ranon when he’d gone out to talk to her, told him flat out to leave her alone And when he, Theran, had approached her, she had screamed at hi around the terrace ever since

She’ll stop when she gets tired of playing the wounded party, Theran thought Hell’s fire, it’s not like I actually did anything

"What in the na on here?"

Theran spun around and stared at the Red-Jeweled Eyrien standing in the doorway A Warlord Prince whose glazed gold eyes were a warning that the e, if he wasn’t already dancing on it

Ranon shifted into a fighting stance

The Eyrien stepped out on the terrace, ignoring Ranon, his eyes fixed on Cassidy

"You don’t want to start a pissing contest with me," the Eyrien said to Ranon "You really don’t" He turned his head, and Theran felt the punch of power as those gold eyes stared at hier who had walked into his hoed, but he kneith absolute certainty, that he was looking at death

Then the Eyrien fixed his eyes on Gray "You do anything to piss her off?" he asked e buckets of cold water, and put the down to the lawn "Do it now"

Gray bolted

"What are you going to do?" Theran asked

"What you should have done," the Eyrien replied "Take care of your Queen"

"She ordered us to leave her alone," Ranon said

The Eyrien snorted "And you let her get aith that? Well, she knows better than to say that to me"

As soon as Gray returned with the buckets of water, the Eyrien headed for Cassidy When he got close to her, he whistled sharply

Her head carabbed the wood between her hands and tugged She yanked back He tugged Then he yanked, lifting her off her feet for a ing her with hi to find purchase, but she skinored her increasingly shrill de the Eyrien as he yanked her up high enough to clear the terrace steps "Let go! It’s mine!"

"Uh-huh" The Eyrien set her down in front of the buckets

"Mine!"

A fast twist of his wrist, and the length of the hoe handle between Cassidy’s hands snapped off cleanly He tossed it off the terrace

"You broke my hoe!" Cassidy wailed "You broke my hoe!"

As she thren the broken pieces, the buckets rose up behind her and doused her with cold water

Her shriek had all of theot your attention noitchling?" the Eyrien asked

"You--" Cassidy blinked Stared at the man

"Yeah Remember me?"

"Oh, shit" Her eyes skipped over Theran and settled on Ranon and the others before co back to the Eyrien

"Listen up, Cassie, because I’ll only tell you this once," the Eyrien said "If you have a problem with your court, you deal with your court And if they end up with a few bruises because of it, so be it"

"A Queen doesn’t do that to her court," Cassidy said

The Eyrien grabbed her wrists and turned her hands palms up "And a woman doesn’t do this to herself"

Theran looked at Cassidy’s hands and felt his stomach roll How could she have done that? Why didn’t she stop?

She looked at her hands--and grew pale

"You ever do anything like this again, I’ll haul you back to Kaeleer," the Eyrien said "And I’ll bury anyone who tries to stoplike this again, I will haul you back to Kaeleer, and you can explain to your father why you did this to his daughter"

Kick in the gut Her lower lip quivered Her eyes filled with tears The daht out of her

Bastard

"Do you have a Healer?" the Eyrien asked

"Yes," Cassidy said

"Then you call her, and you get those hands fixed I’ll look in on you in a little while We’ve got sos to talk about"