Crimes of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 3)

When I catch up to the prisoners, Princess Soora is in the process of letting a handful of them leave at a time. We’re hiding out in the kitchens at the doorway to the outside, and she’s carefully directing them where to escape without being detected from the other guards.

Belren looks nearly ready to pass out, since he apparently made something huge move on the east side to draw the patrolling guards away.

It takes forever.

I bite my nails the whole time, anxiety clawing at me. Slowly, painfully slowly, the number of prisoners dwindles until it’s the very last group. When Soora gives them the go ahead, they sprint out, the servant girl with them. “Thank you!” she says to me and Belren. “Thank you so much!”

She squeezes my hand and gives Belren a kiss on the cheek before nodding and rushing out into the night.

I elbow him. “See? You know that felt nice to help an innocent prisoner escape.”

He rolls his eyes, managing to look impertinent even though he seems like he’s about to lose his lunch. “I felt nothing.”

“Sure you didn’t.”

“Alright. The guards just passed over the wall,” Princess Soora says. “It’s our turn. Ready? You’ll need to make the imposter king walk, Belren. Can you do it?”

He gives a terse nod.

Princess Soora leads the way outside, and we quickly cross the grounds to the stables, where everything is bathed in shadow. I can hear guards talking from above on the wall, and my heart pounds in my ears as I beg the fates that they don’t spot us.

Darkness is quickly leaving with the coming dawn, and I know we have to get as far away from the palace as possible. When we don’t come upon any guards in the stables, we stop near the end, where she shows us a hidden door in the floor, behind some moved hay bales.

“You can let him go now, Belren,” Princess Soora says softly.

He takes a shaky breath, and the worm-king’s body falls to the ground at our feet, among the hay and dirt. He starts full-body wriggling like…well, a worm.

Belren reels on his feet, nearly falling to the ground, too, but I quickly shove my shoulder against his chest to catch his weight. “No you don’t,” I grit out, barely managing to keep him upright.

In a flash of shimmering blue magic, the king disappears, and all that’s left on the ground is a writhing, glowing blue parodworm. “Thanks little fella,” I tell it, because that worm was super impressive after all.

“She’s thanking the worm,” Belren huffs under his breath.

I pinch him on the side, making him jump. “Do you mind?” he snaps. “I’m magically depleted here.”

“It’s no excuse to be a butthead. That worm kicked major ass. It saved like, a hundred prisoners!”

“I saved a hundred prisoners,” he pants.

“Sure. Take all the credit. I helped too. I totally defeated the fire fae back there. You’re welcome.”

Belren just rolls his eyes, and the princess starts climbing down the ladder to get to the cellar below.

The trip from the cellar passage to the palace walls on the west side is agonizingly slow, but we finally get to the concealed door in the wall and manage to slip out into the outside grounds. Belren grunts something and manages to point a heavy finger in the direction of the forest, so the princess and I turn in that direction and make our way over. But as soon as we hit the tree line, Belren collapses, taking me with him to the ground.

I squeak in surprise as he lands out on top of me, crushed into the grass by his dead weight. “Oof. This guy is heavier than he looks.”

Between Princess Soora and I, we manage to yank him off of me, and I sit up on my elbows and blow out a breath. “That was…exhausting.”

Princess Soora checks over Belren and then sits down with her back against a tree to rest. The three of us look haggard, tired, and dirty.

“You think the prisoners all got out okay?”

“Let’s hope so,” the princess says.

She leans her head against the tree and closes her eyes. “We’ll rest for a few minutes, then we’ll have to get out of here. They patrol this area heavily, and we aren’t far enough away from the castle walls.”

I look over at the passed-out Belren dubiously. “How are we gonna move with him?”

The princess picks up her head and looks around. “Belren wanted us to come this way for a reason. I wonder…”

Her words cut off when a fae suddenly appears out of a portal in front of us.

I jump to my feet in front of the princess to block her from view, my heart racing. “Umm…who are you?”

The fae has antlers on his head and hair in dreadlocks all the way down to his groin. He whips his head in my direction and sniffs the air. When he spots Belren on the floor, he gives a nod. “I’m here to portal for Horned Hook,” he says in a heavily-accented voice.

“Oh,” I say, brightening up. The fae bends down and picks up Belren, putting him over his shoulder and grunting back to his feet. He mumbles something in a different language as he makes his way back to the portal, but stops when he sees that we haven’t followed him. “Come,” he says gruffly. “Horned Hook.”

The princess is on her feet now, but I bite my lip, still unsure if we can trust him. Am I being a super bad spy by just assuming he’s a good guy? What if he’s kidnapping Belren right now, and I’m letting him?

“Who are you?”

“Me owe Horned Hook favor. This it.”

Hmm. Well, the thief does like to earn favors. The princess and I exchange a look. “He’s our best shot at getting out of here,” she murmurs.

“Okay, but let me go first or something. Since I’m your spy and stuff, it only seems right.”

The corner of her mouth turns up. “Very well.”

All business, I stalk forward to antler-guy and give him an intimidating look. At least, I think it’s intimidating, but then he just wipes a callused finger over my nose and shows me where dirt was smudged on me. “You dirty.”

I frown at him. “That’s not nice to say to someone. Unless it’s in a sexual way,” I inform him primly.

He just turns and stalks through the portal without so much as a how do you do. Taking a breath, I stand in front of the portal and prepare myself to go through. It’ll either lead us to safety, or this is some fucked up trick.

Regardless of the outcome, I have to go before the princess, since, you know, I’m supposed to be saving her life and stuff.

So after giving the princess a fake, plastered-on smile, I walk through.