Bonds of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 2)

“Come in, come in,” a hurried voice whispers.

She shuts the door before I can float all the way inside, so I’m forced to fly through the wood to make it inside. The high fae woman pulls all the curtains closed, and only after she’s done with that, does she light a single candle.

Her house is small but tidy, and the three big genfins look totally out of place in her sitting room filled with floral prints and short ceilings. She’s older, with yellow skin and puce-colored hair.

She holds her hand out. “An extra gold will do for coming early.”

Evert starts to argue, but Ronak silences him and hands her another coin.

She snatches it up and buries it into the front of her dress between her breasts.

I wrinkle my nose. “I don’t think that’s sanitary.”

“Right,” she says, patting her gold-laden breasts. “Where am I taking you?”

“We paid you very, very well for your discretion,” Ronak reminds her.

She rolls her yellow eyes. “Yes, yes. You were never here, I never saw you, and I definitely don’t open portals since doing so would be breaking the law, as I have no permit. This isn’t my first time. I know the song and dance. Now tell me where you want to go so I can get you overgrown brutes out of my house and forget you ever existed.”

She’s super friendly.

Seemingly satisfied, Ronak tells her where, and she quickly works her magic to open a portal to their home island. Before any of them step through, Ronak hands her another gold piece. “Another gold piece for you to close your eyes and not open them again until I say.”

She rolls her eyes again but snatches up the coin and stuffs it down her bodice. “If you’re planning on trying to sneak your snake under my skirts, just know that I’m not interested,” she says haughtily.

“Our snakes want nothing to do with your fucking skirts,” Evert says dryly. “Now turn around and close your eyes.”

She does as he says with her hands on her hips. “Hurry up, will you? My tea is getting cold.”

The genfins look around the room as if they’re trying to find something. “Oh. Right. Me.”

“What if she can’t…?” Sylred murmurs.

“She will,” Ronak says decisively. “She has to.”

Well, all right then. No pressure.

I focus with all my might on turning visible again. This time, instead of focusing on my body, I focus on the pull I feel from my anchors. Because of whatever magic Plik and Plak used on me, popping into my physical body seems to be easier than forcing myself to return to the Veil. Which is ironic, really, when my problem has always been that I couldn’t leave the Veil.

I feel for those invisible strings that tether me to the guys. I grab hold of them in my mind and tug. Just like that, I’m back. Sylred gives me a relieved wink.

I look over at my right wing to see if I’ve sprouted another black feather, but I haven’t. There’s still just the one on the edge of my wing. Phew.

Then Evert points to my left wing. I turn my head and scowl when I notice the black feather that’s sprouted there, in perfect mirrored placement as the one on the right side.

I open my mouth to say something, but Evert shakes his head. Without a word, he grabs my hand and pulls me through the portal. It’s only my second time going through one, so I’m still not used to it. I immediately feel like I’ve walked under a waterfall, and yet no moisture touches me.

Then there’s the sensation of falling, as vertigo hits me. Luckily, Evert still has hold of me, because in the next instant, gravity hits me again and I’m slamming into his body.

He breaks my fall, somehow managing to stay upright. I blink at our new surroundings and watch as first Sylred, and then Ronak, walk through the portal behind us. After another second, the strange whirlpool disappears.

I stand upright and look around. It’s nearly dawn, but still too dark out to see much of anything except that we’re in the middle of a forest. “Where are we?”

“The Winged Wood,” Ronak answers. “We’re a few hours walk from our capital city, Rochbrook. I didn’t want to bring us too close, in case that high fae could not be trusted.”

“Oh,” I say casually, scratching at my arm. “So we’re just gonna walk? For a few hours? All the way through the forest to the capital? That’s…yeah, that sounds fine,” I say unconvincingly. “Walking is like, refreshing and stuff, right? People swear by it. Not me, but, you know…people. I’m sure walking for hours is gonna be great. My feet aren’t even gonna get sore. Nope. Definitely not. I’ll probably take up walking as a fun hobby after this.”

The guys exchange a look. “Are you done?” Evert asks.

“Yeah.”

He turns and kneels down in front of me so that his back is facing me. “Hop on.”

I don’t hesitate. I jump on his back and curl my arms around his neck. He grabs hold of my thighs and hoists me up.

I sigh contentedly. “You just get me.”

“I just don’t want to hear you complaining about it all morning.”

“I don’t complain,” I retort. “…that much.”

“Sure you don’t, Scratch. You done with that itch, yet?”

I frown down at my hand that’s still scratching the non-existent itch on my arm. It just does it on its own now. Call it self-preservation.

“We know you hate walking,” Sylred says, drawing my attention to him.

“I mean, I don’t hate it. I just find it inconvenient. Gravity and limbs and muscles and balance is all hard to get used to when you keep popping in and out of your body,” I defend.

“If you keep eating ridiculous amounts of food the way you’ve been, and letting Evert carry you around like this, you’re going to grow bigger than your lamassu before you know it,” Ronak says behind us.

“I feel like it’s worth it, though.”

Ronak snorts. “You know I’ll be training you again as soon as we get settled, right?”

I groan against Evert’s back. “Nooooo.”

“Yep,” he counters jovially, as if my dread for exercising amuses him. “If you’re going to insist on being an ‘awesome super spy,’ as you put it, then you have to do things like…walk. My training will ensure you can take care of yourself.”

“You’re just using that as an excuse because you like torturing me. Also so I don’t get fat.”

I feel him swat me on the ass. “Enjoy your break, little demon.”

“Ugh. You’re mean.”

“So, you have another black feather,” Sylred notes, breaking up our griping.

I look over my shoulder. “Yeah. Are my eyes the same?”

Sylred studies them and nods. “Still multihued.”

I shake my head in exasperation. “I don’t get it.”

“Something seems to change every time you return from the Veil,” Sylred points out.

“Maybe Plik and Plak did something to me?”

Beside us, Ronak’s face darkens. “If they did, I will make them regret the day they were ever born.”

My eyes widen at his deadly tone. “Calm down, you crazy alpha. It was just a thought. I don’t actually think they did some sneaky evil magic on me. But if they did, I’ll be the first to cheer you on while you do your super scary genfin stuff.”

He tosses me a look. “When you say things like ‘super scary genfin stuff,’ it doesn’t’ actually sound scary.”

Personally, when I look at his muscles now, I don’t think of how he can use them to hurt me anymore. I think of how they might bunch up under my touch. How they strain sexily when he’s lifting stuff. How they’ll feel without the barrier of clothes between him and my hands…

“What the fuck?”

Evert jolts to a stop so violently that I nearly tumble to the ground, but Ronak’s strong arms catch me before I can fall.

Ronak sets me down and shoots him a pissed off look. “What the hell was that? You could have hurt her.”

Evert whirls around and points at me. “I couldn’t help it! She fucking Lusted the hell out of me just now. I could feel that shit under my skin.”

I notice that his face is flushed and his pupils are dilated with hungry arousal. I lift my nose in the air, sniffing. Yep. He’s super turned on. I’d be able to smell that a mile away. But wait…

“I did not!” I argue.

He gestures to the front of his pants. “Yes, you clearly fucking did!”

I prop my hands on my hips. “I did not,” I repeat. “Don’t blame me for your dirty thoughts.”

He opens his mouth to argue some more, but Sylred stops him, stepping between us. “Wait. Look.”

All three genfins stare at me and I huff out a breath, feeling self-conscious under their scrutiny. “What?” I demand.

“You’re…leaking.”

I blanche and blush at the same time. Leaking? I look down between my legs. I don’t know why. It seems weird in hindsight that it would be the first place I’d check for leakage.

I look back up at him. “What are you talking about?”

Sylred snaps and points at my face. “There! Did you see it?”

The other guys nod, still staring.

I run my hands over my chin to see if I’m drooling. I’m not. I check my nose, eyes, and my ears next. No leakage anywhere. Now I’m getting irritated. “Leaking, what? Stop looking at me like that!”

“Sorry,” Sylred says quickly. “You’re leaking Lust out.”

I blink at him. “Umm…no I’m not.”

“You just did it again.”

I sigh in frustration, and that’s when I see it. Pink tendrils sift out of my mouth. It dissipates quickly, but it was there. “Oh. I am leaking.”

“Why would she be leaking Lust without knowing?” Ronak asks.

Sylred frowns, staring at my mouth. “Maybe it has something to do with the black feathers and her eyes changing. It seems like something happens to her every time she gets back from the Veil.”

This is just way too freaking weird. I’m leaking Lust? That can’t be good. My cupid powers have never, ever gone haywire before. They’ve always worked exactly as they were meant to. And Sylred’s right. It does seem like the only correlation is when I return to my physical body. I pinch my bottom lip in thought.

“Can you…turn it off?” Sylred suggests.

“I’ll try.”

I close my eyes to see if I can feel my cupid powers at all. They’ve always just sort of been there. It was never something I needed to focus on. But now that I concentrate, I can feel the Lust-Breath inside me, waiting to be used. I pull it back deep into my chest, envisioning it being stoppered with a plug.

I open my eyes. “Did it work?” I ask, blowing breath out.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“I’m malfunctioning,” I grumble, looking down at my feet and kicking at the grass.

Sylred lifts my chin with his finger. “Hey. It’s okay.”

“I’m sprouting black like an emo teenager and leaking Lust out of my mouth. It’s definitely not okay. I’m broken.”

His brown eyes soften and he rubs my jaw lightly. “You’re not broken. Just changing. We’ll figure it out. But none of these things are causing any real harm.”

I guess that’s true. No harm except freaking me out and giving Evert unintentional hard-ons.

I raise my arms. “Who’s gonna carry me now?”

Evert shakes his head. “Nope. I’m tapping out. If you hit me with another wave of that shit, It’ll be an embarrassing walk back into town.”

My lips twitch with a smile, which I know was his intention. He always knows just how to lighten the mood.

Ronak lifts me up and swings me over his back like I’m light as a black feather. I wrap my legs around his waist, but his body is so broad that I have a hard time getting a good grip without my hips pinching in protest. “You’re too big,” I grumble.

I can feel his chuckle against my chest. “You’ll appreciate that later.”

“You guys are so dirty.”

“This coming from the girl who propositioned us almost as soon as she met us.”

I shrug. “I was excited to have a real vagina,” I deadpan.

Ronak nearly trips.

I win.