Bonds of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 2)

“Good evening,” Chaucel says with a slight tilt of his head.

I plaster on a fake smile. “Good evening.”

“His Royal Highness, Prince Elphar, is requesting your presence at the royal table.”

Sizzling shit on a stick.

He offers me his hand. “If you’d like to come with me?”

Nope. I totally would not like to. “It’d be my pleasure,” I smile.

Giving Okot a glance, I let Chaucel help me to my feet. He tucks my hand in his arm and leads me toward the table where the royals are. My heart is about to dive right out of my chest.

I feel Chaucel looking over at me. “I’ll admit to knowing everyone in this room, apart from you.”

“Oh, yeah? That’s a lot of people to keep straight in your head.”

He narrows his eyes at my evasive answer. “Indeed.”

I really need to get him to stop studying me. Time to turn the tables. “Being in such an important position means everyone knows who you are. You’re very well respected here.”

My ego stroking immediately has the desired effect. Chaucel puffs out his chest and faces forward again. “Yes, well, the prince has always respected loyalty. I have earned my position and esteem.”

“Oh, yeah. You definitely have,” I croon.

We reach the raised dais, and Chaucel turns, releasing my arm. “Here you are. Enjoy your dinner,” he says before walking away.

I’m left standing before the royal table like a sheep waiting for slaughter. I curtsy as best I can but, yeah, I soon learn that I suck at curtseying. I also kind of teeter unsteadily because of my heels.

If my cheeks weren’t already dyed bright-pink, my blush would do the trick.

Prince Elphar looks at me over the rim of his cup. His posture is relaxed, with one arm resting on his chair and the other holding his golden goblet. He’s ridiculously handsome in a formal kind of way, his face perfectly symmetrical. He has his navy blue hair brushed back and clasped at his neck, and his icy-blue skin is flawless.

He gestures with his hand to an empty chair across from him. “Sit.”

I take the seat between two other high fae nobles. Across from me sits Delsheen.

Don’t look at her. Don’t look at her. Don’t look at—

Dammit. I looked.

She’s even more beautiful up close. No wonder the guys wanted to mate with her.

Except her wings, I remind myself. Her wings suck.

Prince Elphar’s bright blue eyes study me. I guess I’m about to see if Duru’s disguise is good enough to fool the prince. My palms start sweating, and the longer he stares at me, the more effort it takes to not visibly squirm.

Finally, he says, “What’s your name?”

“Emelle, Your Highness.” Thank gods my voice doesn’t shake.

His too-perceptive eyes look me up and down. I hide my arm under the table, just in case he notices the ML cupid tattoo on the inside of my wrist. I flick my gaze over to the king, but he’s ignoring us completely. He’s too busy with the two fae females perched on his lap and feeding him.

Princess Soora is to the left, eating in delicate bites and in the middle of conversing with some important noble who has her ear. Her eyes meet mine briefly. I can tell by the thinning of her lips that she isn’t happy with me for drawing attention to myself.

Yeah. Not my best spy moment.

“Emelle,” Prince Elphar says, drawing my attention back to him. “You appear to be high fae.”

I don’t know if he’s trying to trap me with that statement or not, so I just wait.

“You appear to be high fae,” he repeats. “But you are not completely high fae. For one, your eyes are too small. Plus, your height is too short. And you also lack a high fae’s certain…” he pauses, twirling his hand around for dramatic effect. “Grace.”

Delsheen laughs shrilly.

Well, isn’t she sweet.

I look down at my fingernails. Damn. They’re all short and blunt. Note to my stupid cupid self: Grow those suckers out and sharpen them to a point so I can claw her face next time. I guess it takes a lot of planning to have a proper catfight.

He cocks his head. “What are you?”

Although he’s keeping the bored tone of voice and posture, his eyes tell a different story. He’s staring at me like he’s trying to read my mind.

“I’m half high fae, Your Highness.”

This makes him sit up straighter. The fae on either side of me look over. “Half? And what’s the other half?”

Gods, I hope this lie works. “Human.”

Prince Elphar is taken aback. His head swivels to Chaucel, who sits a few seats down, and then returns to me. “You’re a halfling?”

Uhhh… “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Impossible.”

Dammit. Is it? I don’t freaking know!

Princess Soora speaks. “Rare, but not impossible, husband,” she says politely.

He doesn’t even spare her a glance. “Halflings nearly never survive their first year of birth,” he says. “How did you survive?”

Well, shit. It’s not like I sat around and invented a whole fake back story on the off-chance that I’d be an idiot and draw attention to myself from the one freaking person I was trying to hide from.

I guess I’ll just open my mouth and hope it comes up with something good. “I’m not sure how I survived, but here I am,” I laugh nervously.

Yep. Brilliant as always.

His eyes narrow on me, and because they’re so large, the effect is pretty freaky. “Who are your parents?”

“Dead. They’re dead.” Nice, Emelle. Really smooth. I clear my throat. “I’m not sure who they are, to be honest.”

Ha! That’s actually the first honest thing I’ve said.

“I’m assuming your mother was high fae? She took a portal to earth, mated with a human, and returned here?”

Wow, that’s actually a pretty good story. I’ll stick with that.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“If she died, who raised you?”

Gods, it’s like he’s trying to catch me out in a lie. Oh, right. He is.

I say the first thing that pops into my head. “Brownies.”

This seems to surprise him, too. “Brownies?”

“Mmmhmm. Yep, brownies. You can’t imagine the amount of tidying that went on in my childhood. They really take the ‘clean your room’ rule to a whole new level. I’ll admit, I’m a complete slob now. Just the thought of sweeping the floor sends me over the edge.”

I’m getting so good at this lying stuff. I’m gonna be such a good spy.

Prince Elphar cocks an amused brow, but Delsheen sneers at me. “You’re actually bragging about living like a pig? You really are half human,” she snickers.

“At least I don’t have wings that look like hairy flapjacks.”

She bristles. ‘At least I’m not bare-back and useless,” she fires back. “Only the lowliest of fae have no wings.”

“You didn’t always have wings,” I remind her. “Who agreed to shack up with you for life, anyway? I’d like to offer my condolences.”

Furious, she tosses her napkin down on her plate. “Why you little—”

“Ladies, ladies,” Prince Elphar interjects. “Play nice.”

I snatch the cup in front of me and down the entire contents in one gulp. The fairy wine immediately travels to my head. I really shouldn’t have done that, but fuck it. I need alcohol to deal with these two.

I badly want to steal a look at the guys, but I can’t. I don’t dare let the prince see me. Besides, I probably don’t want to see the look on their faces as they watch me sit here being interrogated by the prince. Evert is probably losing his mind right now.

Prince Elphar takes a sip from his own cup before setting it down in front of him. A servant immediately comes to fill it, and my eyes widen when I realize that it’s Mossie. She’s giving me a what-the-fuck-are-you-doing-dressed-like-a-noble-and-sitting-at-the-royal-table look.

I shake my head in tiny little spurts, hoping she’ll catch the hint, and luckily, she turns and walks away without a word.

“So,” Prince Elphar says, bringing my attention back to him again. He seems irritated that I keep looking away. “You are a halfling who was raised by brownies, and now you are here with one of my wife’s personal guards,” he says, tilting his head in Okot’s direction.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

He chews on a piece of fruit and takes another swig of wine, all while eyeing me. “Curious company.”

“I’m his mate.”

It seems I’m not done surprising him. He turns to Princess Soora for the first time. “Is this true?”

I don’t know if Okot has even talked to her about it, but either he has, or Duru told her, because she says, “It is true, husband. They only just met, and I was informed of their bond.”

“I have never heard of a lamassu having a mate outside of their own kind.”

Princess Soora nods. “It is rare, to be sure.”

Prince Elphar taps the arm of his chair. “That makes two rare occurrences in Emelle’s life. Three, if you count her being taken in by brownies. They aren’t naturally inclined towards outsiders.”

“I’m just super likeable,’ I joke.

His face stays expressionless. “Is that so.” It isn’t a question. He lifts his goblet to take another drink. “So then, perhaps it is your orphan status, along with having been raised as an outsider that has fueled your misconstrued sense to sympathize with outcasts. Is that the reason why you felt the need to embarrass yourself and give food to the contestants? Food, might I add, that is not yours to give away?”

His reprimand is as clear as the crystal goblet in front of me. This is what all the small talk has led up to. And this guy has been known to kill people for much, much less.

I have two choices. Stand up for the guys and myself and most definitely be punished for it, or buckle and maybe get out of this punish-free.

Well cinch me tight and call me a belt, because buckle it is.

I let my eyes fill with moisture. Yeah, I’m that good of a crier that I can do it on demand. Let the supplication begin.

“I’m so sorry, Your Highness,” I say with a sniffle. “I don’t know what came over me. I’m totally embarrassed by my behavior,” Sniffle, sniffle.

I have the perfect pretty-cry going on right now. Prince Elphar wouldn’t be impressed with real, ugly crying. I’d lose my head for sure.

“I know that the contestants only live by your mercy and I am ashamed to have overstepped. Please forgive me.” Tear, sniffle, sniffle.

Would it be too much to cover my face with my hands? Or to fling myself at his feet? Personally, I think it’d be a nice touch. Real theater material.

I steal a look at him through my lashes to gauge his reaction. He looks adequately mollified. Good, because these forced sniffles are really drying out my nostrils.

Prince Elphar looks like he’s still debating whether or not he wants to publicly punish me, so I use the other thing in my arsenal. Well, two things to be exact.

I lean forward on the table and prop my boobs up, giving him a nice little peep show of my cleavage. Delsheen looks like she wants to stab me in the throat, so I know my girls must look pretty good.

Prince Elphar’s eyes flick down and linger. It makes my skin crawl, but it beats getting beheaded. I sit back when I can’t stand it any longer by using the excuse of wiping my eyes on a napkin.

He sits back too, ready to give me his ruling. “See that your misguided notions do not displease me again.”

Phew.

I smile sweetly. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

He motions to someone behind me, and I hear the musicians begin to play. “Come, Lady Delsheen,” he says, getting to his feet. “I believe the contestants are growing restless. We should entertain them with a dance.”

Delsheen shoots me a victorious sneer as she gets to her feet. She hangs off the prince’s arm as he guides her to the dance floor.

Of course, they purposely dance right in front of the cage. Another show of the prince getting back at Ronak and the others. I’m learning what a master game player the prince is. He’s all about the power plays.

Now that the prince is no longer at the table talking to me, I’m completely shunned by the high fae around me. That’s fine with me. I shoot Princess Soora an apologetic look and then carefully make my way back to Okot.

When I get there, his hand clamps down on my thigh as if he wants to make sure I can’t go anywhere else. He’s talking to the fae beside him, but I can tell that his attention is completely on me.

When it’s polite for him to leave the conversation, he turns to me and leans in close to my ear. “Are you alright?”

Nope. I’m freaking out, and I kinda want to puke. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He sees right through my spoken words. In the sweetest gesture ever, he tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear. “We will leave as soon as it’s appropriate to do so.”

I nod. My nerves are completely frazzled. The last thing I want to do is hang out some more, but Okot is right. If the prince saw me bail right now, he’d be suspicious.

I finally allow myself to look over at the cage. Just seeing the iron bars fortified with magic makes me want to ugly-cry. I swallow the lump in my throat.

Ronak is standing with his arms crossed, glaring at the crowd. Evert is lying down on his back with his hands propped underneath his head and his eyes closed like he doesn’t give a shit about the prince’s little game. And Sylred is busy talking to the other three fae in the cage. Always so friendly, that one. They’re careful not to look at me, and I know it’s smart, and it’s deliberate, but I still can’t help but wish they’d spare me a glance anyway.

“Let’s dance, my beloved. It will help to pass the time.”

“I don’t know how.”

He tucks my hand in his arm and helps me to my feet. “I’ve got you.”

He leads us to the back of the dance floor where we won’t have so many observers. Faes glide around us with regal movements reminiscent of ballroom dancing.

Okot clasps my hand and my waist. He starts to move, guiding me as best he can, but I keep faltering and stepping on his feet.

When I hear snickering from other dancers, my cheeks burn with embarrassment and tears prick my eyes.

Okot brings a finger to my chin and lifts my face up. “Ignore them. They don’t matter.”

My chin wobbles, but I nod, trying like hell not to cry. This whole evening sucks big sweaty man balls.

I fumble the steps some more, and I’m about ready to scream when the bitch next to us laughs out loud at me.

I try to wrench away from Okot, but he grabs my waist, lifts me up, and sets me down again so that my feet rest on top of his. He starts to dance again, and all I have to do is hold on and let his feet move me. His grip on my waist and hand is sure and steady, and now my eyes are prickling with tears for a very different reason.

“First you flew me to the stars, and now you’re holding me through a dance. I don’t deserve you, Okot.”

He looks down at me with the softest expression on his face and kisses the top of my head before tucking it beneath his chin. “It isn’t that you do not deserve me. It is that you do not yet see your own worth. I see it. Those genfins of yours see it, too, even if they have not yet admitted it.”

I think my heart just crawled out of my chest to go cuddle with him.