Crimes of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 3)

As soon as we get back to the manor, I realize that I’m late in calling back Lex and Sev. They can’t enter the physical realm without me calling them, so as soon as we get settled in our room and have the Princess, Belren, and Zalit in attendance, I do just that.

“Lex? Sev?”

Pink smoke puffs into existence and Sev and Lex are there waiting.

“Took you fooking long enough, aye?” Sev says.

“Sorry. I had sex and then fell asleep and then had to start an orgy. Time got away from me,” I explain.

Evert shakes his head at me, but Lex just nods in understanding. She gets it. Sev starts complaining about starting an orgy without him. “Next time I start an orgy, I promise to include you,” I tell him.

He finally nods. “Right fooking shite, you will.”

I motion for them to sit, and Sev grabs the tray of food and starts chowing down on everything on it.

“So? What did you find?” I ask.

Lex pulls out her pink notepad. “Well, the island is indeed heavily protected. There are aerial guards and ground guards. Approximately one hundred of each, as far as I could tell.

I exchange a look with the princess. The fact that they have two hundred guards alone is incredibly distressing.

“What’s on the island?” Princess Soora asks.

Sev continues to chow down on food as Lex flips through her pages of notes. “Well, I have an estimated count of….nine thousand, nine hundred and…nineteen soldiers on the island.”

Shock goes through the room and I blink at her, my mouth going dry. “What?”

She starts to repeat the number, and Zalit cuts her off. “He has nearly ten thousand soldiers on this island?” he asks incredulously.

“Yes,” Lex answers simply.

“And they’re organized?” Sylred asks.

Lex cocks her head in thought. “Well, would them being in full uniform, following scheduled drills, and going through intense synchronized training be considered organized?” she asks.

Belren nods. “Yep. That about covers organized.”

“Fooking weird right little pricks they were,” Sev says around a mouthful of food as he lounges on the chair.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

He shrugs and takes another bite of fruit. “Don’t know how to explain it. But they were fooking…off, get it?”

I look to Lex for more explanation, and she purses her head in thought. “He’s right. There did seem to be something…very regimented about them.”

Evert rolls his eyes. “Probably because they’re a military regiment,” he says dryly.

“Perhaps,” Lex says.

“No, explain it more,” I insist.

Lex shifts in her seat to get further away from Sev since he’s propped his boots up on the table in front of her. “Well…they didn’t have any love.”

My brows lower. “What?”

“You know, as cupids, we can sense love and desire. Heartbreak, flirtatiousness, longing. But there was none of that. Most of them seemed focused, some of them agitated. But their emotions were limited. It made my cupid powers feel strange,” she says, looking off to the side in memory as she tries to explain. “It was almost as if they were children. Or…”

“Or fooking robots,” Sev puts in, a piece of apple flying out of his mouth as he chews and talks.

Princess Soora leans forward slightly. “All of them seemed this way?”

Sev and Lex both nod.

“What does that mean?” I ask.

Soora shakes her head. “I’m not sure…”

Our group goes quiet in thought, the only sounds are Ronak purring slightly in his sleep where he’s sprawled out on his back on the floor at my feet, and Sev chewing more food.

“These soldiers, what type of fae were they?” Zalit asks.

“Oh, all sorts.”

His orange brows rise in surprise. “All sorts?”

She nods. “Mmhmm. Just from my short reading on the fae realm, I recognized high fae, sprites, some genfins, brownies, pixies, oh, and a large amount of alven fae.”

Princess Soora shakes her head. “Wait a moment, that cannot be. Those fae are all extremely loyal to the rebel cause. Primarily the alvens. They’re the ones that began the resistance. The prince has never had any followers except for high fae in the past. Other breed of fae detest the prince for his ill treatment of them. Why would they be following him now? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“And how did he get such high numbers so suddenly?” Belren asks.

“How many soldiers do we have?” I ask.

A worried look crosses Princess Soora’s face. “Zalit?”

He clasps his hands together and leans forward, balancing his forearms on his thighs. “At my last count from our commanders, and after taking the genfin attack, we have roughly two thousand.”

My eyes widen, and I exchange a look with my guys. “That’s it?”

Zalit nods. “We have the public’s support, but the prince is powerful. Not all fae are willing to move against him.”

“Two against ten are not good odds.”

“There was something else…” Lex says carefully.

All eyes go back to her, and she blushes slightly under the attention.

“What is it?” I prompt.

She shifts in her chair, and Belren takes extra notice when her skirt rides up slightly on one side. “Well, there were…crops.”

“Crops?”

Lex nods.

“Crops of what?”

“They looked like…tea leaves?” she says with uncertainty.

“Okay…”

Failing to see the significance, I look at Soora, but she seems just as lost as I am. “Alright. What about these crops concerns you?” she asks gently. See? The princess is regal as shit.

“There were a lot of them,” Lex quickly says.

Sev snorts under his breath, finally setting the tray of food down. “I tried to tell her, didn’t I? That crop shit don’t matter. Probably been there before the soldiers set up shop.”

But Lex shakes her head. “I don’t believe so. Those crops are regularly maintained by soldiers. There is new growth as well as old. If they simply took over the island to serve as base, they wouldn’t have cared about the crops. They would have built up their camp right on top of them, but that isn’t the case. They make sure that the crops are guarded at all times.”

Well that…is strange.

“And one more thing,” Lex goes on. “I saw the king there.”

Princess Soora sits up straighter. “What was he doing?”

“Walking through the crops.”

“Just walking through them?”

Lex nods. “As far as I could tell.”

Baffled, I run a hand through my tangled hair. I have no idea what all of this means, but regardless, we are vastly outnumbered. Ten thousand trained soldiers? Yeah, that’s really bad.