Bonds of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 2)

“You are sooooo pretty,” Mossie, my favorite earth sprite croons.

I lean forward to pet her vine hair, but I miss and hit her in the eye instead. Aside from her eye getting red and teary, she doesn’t seem to really notice. “Stop it. You are pretty. You have flowers growing from your head. I freaking love flowers.”

“Me too!” Mossie says, taking another drink. “What’s your favorite flower?”

“Pink,” I answer without hesitation.

She nods solemnly and passes me the bottle so I can take another swig.

Fairy wine is so much better than that mead fermented crap that the guys made back on the island. Like, way, way better.

“I want to drink this forever. We should make a fairy wine pool and just float in it with a straw.”

I look over at the huge bonfire that’s glowing in the middle of the field. I have no idea what’s fueling the thing, since nothing is technically burning. But the colors keep changing, so no matter what kind of magic is it, it earns pretty points.

There are wooden benches and tables set up all around the field, but it’s late now. The bonfire celebration started hours ago, so fae are mostly dancing and screwing by now. This population sure isn’t suffering from losing me as their resident cupid.

Mossie picks up the bottle of wine and starts pouring it over her head to water her flowers with it.

They start swaying, which sends me into a fit of laughter. A burp erupts from my mouth, cutting it short. “Your flowers are drunk.”

She tilts her head back to try and look at them, but of course that doesn’t work and only makes me laugh harder.

“I have buzzed blooms,” she supplies.

I purse my lips in thought. “Plastered plants.”

“Sloshed shoots.”

“Say that ten times fast,” I challenge.

Mossie taps her nose in challenge accepted. “Sloshed shoots, shloshed shootsh, slosheds shootses…shit.”

I cackle delightedly.

Several fae get up from the wooden benches beside us and move away.

I stick my tongue out at their retreating backs. “Party poopers.”

“They should’ve had more wine,” Mossie says, leaning fully into my side to stay propped up.

“You took their bottle,” I remind her.

“Oh, yeah.”

The bonfire is still in full effect, but none of the royals ever made an appearance. “Fricken royals,” I slur.

“You said it,” she says with a nod. “Wait. What about the royals?”

Gods, my head feels spinny. “Have you ever counted your blinks? I think we must blink, like, a bazillion times.”

Mossie starts blinking excessively, making her whole face wrinkle up as she does it. “I can’t stop thinking about blinking now. Am I blinking weird?”

I stare at her as she blinks with the force of a full facial spasm. “Yeah, tone it down a notch or twenty.”

She starts fluttering her eyes instead, like a bug just got trapped in her cornea.

I nod. “Way better.”

“Phew. Blinking is tricky.”

I catch a glimpse of a particular water sprite across the way and quickly sit up. “Hey, isn’t that your guard sprite super crush from the prison tower?” I ask, pointing across the bonfire.

Or at least, I try to point at him. My aim is off by a few feet. ‘You looooove him,’ I singsong.

Mossie pushes off me with a squeal, making me topple off the bench and fall onto the ground.

“Hey, bitch,” I snap. “That was not cool. Anti-cool. Uncool.”

“Shh!” she hisses, slapping her green hand over my mouth. “He’ll hear us!”

I lick her hand until she squeals and rips it away. Planting my hands on the bench, I try to pull myself up. It takes me three tries.

“Go pinch his butt,” I giggle.

She blushes dark green. “No!”

I frown. “Why not? Does he have a gross butt?”

Mossie frowns, tossing a hair-vine over her shoulder. “I don’t know. I didn’t look. Should I have looked?”

“Umm, duh. What if he has a bad one?”

She claps a hand over her mouth, horrified. “I never even thought of that!”

“Mmmhmm. I know. That’s why you have me.”

“You are so smart.”

I try to take another drink of wine, but when I tip it all the way back, I discover that the bottle is empty. I look down into the neck of it just to make sure, then I start swinging it around like it’s a monocular. Wine drips into my eye and I drop it to the ground with a yelp.

“The bottle pretended to be empty,” I grumble, wiping my eye. “Lying liar fairy wine. It tried to blind me.”

Mossie isn’t listening. She’s too busy trying to stand. She falls and stumbles several times before she gets it. “Okay,” she pants, wiping the dirt from her dress. “I’m gonna do it.”

“Okay, good,” I nod. “Do what?”

“His butt. Gonna pinch it.”

“Whose butt?”

Instead of answering, she reaches in her dress and props up her boobs so they sit higher up in her dress. She runs a hand through her flowers, too, just for good measure.

A thought pops into my head and I point at her crotch. “Hey! Do you have flowers down in your lady garden, too?”

She quickly covers her crotch with her hands like I can suddenly see through her clothes. “That is a private garden,” she says haughtily.

“Oh my gods, you do! You have vagina vines! Or, I guess it would be vulva vines? Or labia lilies? Whatever. Can I see?”

She sends me a scathing look. “No, you can’t see,” she retorts snootily. “Now. How do I look?”

I lift my hands to give her two thumbs-up, but they kind of flop back down before I can get my fingers to cooperate. Oh well. I’m sure she gets it.

“I’m gonna pinch his butt so good,” she says with a smile.

“Yeah you are! Get it girl.”

“I am. I’m gonna pinch his butt and then invite him to tend to my private lady garden,” she waggles her brows.

“That’s the spirit. Fingers crossed he’s a good plougher. Or sower. Or whatever other garden term that also fits as a sexual innuendo.”

She smiles and stumbles off, disappearing around the bonfire and away from my view. I’m envious of her butt pinching. I wish I could pinch some fine genfin butts right about now.

I realize when I face forward that I can see the sky. When did I lay down? Or maybe someone tricked me and put up some sort of sky-star wall in front of my face? Dicks.

“Who’s a dick?”

I pop my eyes open to see an upside down Okot standing over me. “You have two nose rings. And noses. And heads.”

He grins. “And you have double-vision.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Uh uh. That’s not one of my cupid powers. Have you even been paying attention? You’re supposed to be getting to know me,” I whine.

His grin just grows, and then I feel my body rise off the ground. “Ohmygods I’m flying!”

“I’m carrying you.”

“Oh. Good. Cuz I’m supposed to be hiding my wings. Besides, flying is hard. Drinking fairy wine is so much easier. I’m good at drinking wine. I could be a professional wine drinker. I like it. A lot.”

I frown at the sound of that word in my mouth. “A lot. Alot, alotta, alots lot lot lot lot.” I scrunch up my nose in dislike. “That word is weird. It’s like it doesn’t even mean anything anymore. Anyway, the point is, I like fairy wine.”

He chuckles in a low, sexy sound. “I noticed.”

“Nuh uh. No, you didn’t. You’ve been gone for hours,” I say, flopping a hand around.

“Do you think I’d let my mate drink herself into a stupor and not be nearby to watch over her?”

I stare at him. He has pretty red-rimmed eyes. They’re all…red and black and stuff. Wait, did he ask me a question? I can’t remember. I wanna tug on his nose ring. Would that hurt?

“Yes,” he says.

I gasp. “You can read minds?”

“No. You said that out loud.”

“Oh, well then that’s not nearly as impressive.”

That rumbly laugh of his comes back, making me shiver against him. “Are you cold?”

I squeeze my eyes closed tight so I can think. “No, I don’t think so. I wanna sing. I bet I’m awesome at singing.”

“You did sing. Many songs that no one recognized. Although your sprite friend tried to sing along with you, anyway. Then you danced. Or at least, I think it was dancing. There was a lot of jumping involved. You had quite the audience.”

Did I? Now that he’s mentioned it, I can remember some spinning and leaping. I think I might’ve even done the chicken dance. Classic.

“Yeah, everyone thought I was awesome.”

When I open my eyes again, I see that we’re already back at the cabin. He sets me on the bed, takes off my shoes, and starts rubbing my sore feet. I plant my face into the pillow. “Ommgomdonsop.”

He pauses and leans down to my face to better hear me. “What?”

I turn my head to the side so that I’m not speaking into the pillow. “I said, oh my gods don’t stop.”

He grins and starts moving his magical bull hands to massage my very aching feet again.

“You’re, like, such a good mate,” I slur.

His red-rimmed eyes light up in amusement. “I’m glad you think so.”

After a few minutes of the awesomely epic foot rub that I’m definitely going to tell Evert about because I want to guilt him into one, Okot stops and tucks me into bed. He gently extracts the empty wine bottle that I’m still somehow clutching in my hand.

“I wanna buy more of that stuff. Like cases of it. Does the fae realm sell it in cases?” I ask with a frown. “I don’t know your measuring system. Bushels? Bales? Baker’s dozen? They don’t teach fae math in cupid school. Actually, there is no cupid school. I probably would’ve failed if there had been. Stupid cupid.”

I lower my voice to a very loud whisper. “Don’t tell my superiors, but I’m a terrible cupid. Well…I wasn’t in the beginning. At first, I was awesome. I’m awesome at a lot of stuff, you know.”

I think I hear a laugh, but I can’t open my eyes to check because they’re too heavy. “Like singing and dancing?”

“Exactly,” I mumble. “Anyway, I was an awesome cupid in the human realm. For like the first two decades.”

I stop and think. “Okay, maybe just the first decade? Fine, the first seven years at the very least. Anyway, it got tough, you know? Spreading all that love around, watching people get all their romance and sexy times. I got too jealous. I was lonely. Couldn’t be heard or felt or seen. Then I got sent to this realm, and I was gonna try to be a good cupid again, but then the stupid prince with his stupid black heart ruined all my plans for royal married bliss. He’s stupid.”

I feel Okot brush some of the hair off my face as I snuggle deeper into the pillow. “Let your wings out to breathe, my beloved.”

He’s somehow loosened my dress enough for me to do so without ripping anything, because he thinks of everything. The second they’re free, the relief is almost instant.

I flex them out, letting my feathers ruffle before settling back. “You are so smart.” He breathes a laugh out and I realize that there’s a huge chasm inside of me brought on by talking about my invisible years spent utterly alone.

“Okot?” I say quietly.

“Yes?”

“Would you lay with me? I don’t want to be alone.”

I hear some rustling, then the covers are pulled back, and Okot settles in next to me. Careful of my wings, he draws me close to his body, pulling me right up against him.

I’m immediately engulfed in his warmth. The feel of him like this, holding me like I’m cherished, is enough to bridge the dark chasm of my soul. I snuggle closer to him, using his arm as a pillow as I press my face into the crook of his shoulder.

“I don’t want to disappear again,” I whisper.

“If you do, I’ll find you.”

I feel his lips on my forehead just as sleep comes for me, lulling me under like rocking waves.