Crimes of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 3)

I follow Belren around the manor to meet up with my genfins, and all five of us land in the garden where Zalit is carrying an unconscious Soora. The ground is still shaking, and the manor lies in a heap of rubble behind us.

All of our faces tilt upward, watching the attack being launched at the barrier over the entire island. There are royal soldiers everywhere. I can’t even see the blue of the sky, because hovering bodies of soldiers are surrounding us from the other side of the failing barrier that the princess erected. Judging from the blood now pouring from her ears and both nostrils, she’s losing the fight.

“The barrier is about to fall!” I yell.

Grim faces watch as the once invisible barrier now crackles and sparks, fissures of purple trailing down it as it weakens.

“Watch her,” Zalit says, passing the princess to Belren. “I’ve got to go organize our forces.”

“Don’t go!” his little sister pleads, tears trailing down her face.

Zalit kisses her on the forehead and says something low in her ear, and then launches into the sky. Their father tries to comfort them, but the girls are inconsolable and terrified.

Another attack of power beats against the barrier, making all of us stumble on the ground.

“What do we do?” I ask the guys. “Can we try to get a portal out?”

Belren shakes his head. “The portal wouldn’t be able to take that many of us at once, and besides, the prince will be expecting that. He’ll have his own fae ready to latch onto our portal and infiltrate it. It would only let them get to us faster.”

“They need to hide,” Ronak says, looking at Soora’s family.

Soora’s father nods. “I have a place.”

“Good. Go now before it’s too late.”

Belren passes Soora to her father, and the four of them disappear through the garden, flying as quickly as they can. I hear the girls crying, even after they’re out of sight. I can only hope that they get to their hiding spot before the barrier is breached.

The soldiers above us are eerily in sync as they launch their assault at the barrier. Blasts of power are propelled against it, and my heart pounds about a mile a minute. We’re like fish in a bowl, trapped and waiting for them to hook us.

When the next attack comes, the last of the barrier hisses and pops, and then a deafening crack fills the air. I watch in horror as the last of the barrier falls away, pieces of it shattering like an electrified mirror, leaving us completely exposed.

“We need weapons,” Ronak says.

Wasting no time, Ronak grabs the guys again, and we fly toward the rebel camp as thousands of the prince’s soldiers begin their descent.

The ground looks oddly shadowed, the sun totally blocked out, and I fly faster than I’ve ever flown before as I follow Ronak to the weaponry room at the rebel camp.

By the time we reach it, the prince’s militia are halfway to the ground. They aren’t making a single sound. No battle cries, no shouts of encouragement or even sneers of intimidation. They’re spookily quiet as they fly toward us, weapons raised, and that quietness sets my teeth on edge.

The rebels are a flurry of activity. Commanders are shouting orders, formations are trying to be organized, the weapon room is being ransacked, and some of the buildings have caved in due to the earthquakes caused by the barrier breaking.

Ronak bursts into the weapons room and starts strapping blades onto himself as the others do the same. As soon as he’s suited up, I feel him tear a slit into my skirt at the side so that I can move easier. Then Evert slips a thick leather shirt over my head, with chainmail attached to it. Ronak surprises me by fitting a bow and two quivers full of arrows over my shoulder. He presses the bow into my shaking hands and holds firm as he looks into my eyes.

“Aim and shoot. No hesitation.”

I swallow thickly and nod. “No hesitation.”

“Same orders apply. You don’t get captured, you don’t get killed. You see a blade coming at you, you go into the Veil. Understood?”

“But you’ll—”

“I don’t give a flying fuck if I go feral and never come back,” he cuts me off, his black eyes intense. “My first priority as alpha is, and always will be, my mate and my covey. You go into the Veil and you stay alive. That’s an order.”

I wish I could smooth my hand across his beard and furrowed brow and let his strong arms protect me from the world, but I can’t. The world just won’t let us be, and I already knew it would come to this. I promised myself that I would take down the prince once and for all, or die trying. So that’s what I’m going to do. And yeah, I’m just a cupid with no battle training, but I’m not helpless, and I won’t hide. Not anymore.

“I’ll do what I have to,” I say cryptically.

Ronak nods once, and just as Belren and my guys finish gearing up, we hear ten thousand pairs of feet land on the island, like they did it all at the same time. Then the fighting begins. Shouting rings out, metal hits metal, and power clashes against power.

“Stay together!” Ronak orders us.

Evert looks fierce as he flanks me, Sylred clutches his sword with determination, and I notch an arrow, just trying not to show them how much my hands are trembling.

When we race out of the weapons room, we see the mayhem unleashed outside. The ten thousand soldiers to our two is now grievously obvious. Our rebels are fighting with everything they have, but they’re not nearly as organized as the prince’s military, and there are simply too many of Prince Elphar’s soldiers.

Evert, Ronak, and Belren immediately start cutting fae down, while Sylred steers me to a pile of rubble that was once a cabin. The roof is still in one piece, and I scramble up it, while Sylred covers my back. I perch on the top and cover my guys, launching arrows as fast as I can notch them. I don’t let a single soldier advance, and the bodies start piling up around Ronak and Evert, arrows sticking out of their bodies like living pin cushions. I don’t think about it. I can’t. If I start worrying over the fact that I’m actually taking lives, I don’t know if I can keep going. And I have to keep going, because otherwise, they’ll kill us. So I shut that part down in my mind, and force myself to keep shooting.

With both eyes open, I aim and loose the arrows with perfect accuracy. My arms start to burn, and my fingers slice open from the wire, but I don’t stop or slow. There’s no room for error, not with being so outnumbered. I hear Sylred fighting behind me, protecting my back, and I keep going. But I can see the futility of the fight. I see it, and yet, I try to ignore it.

Noticing more fae advancing toward Ronak, Evert, and Belren, I reach back for another arrow, only to find that I’ve exhausted both of my quivers, and I only have a single arrow left.

“Shit! I’m out, Syl!”

I look over my shoulder, only to find that he’s fighting off three fae and struggling. There are piles of dead bodies littered all over the ground in every direction that I can see, and I can already tell that our rebel force has been nearly annihilated. Rebel after rebel is cut down, but all I can hear is my pounding heart as my chest rises and falls with adrenaline and fear. Blood saturates the ground, and there’s so much heartbreak in the air that I can’t breathe properly.

More soldiers drop from the sky and close in on us. With icy cold realization, I realize that there’s too many.

We’re going to lose.

When I hear Sylred cry out in pain, my mate bond pulses inside of me. Whirling around, I ignore the soldiers who are now marching toward me and grip the arrow in my hand, ready to use it and attack anyone who dares to hurt Sylred. He’s on his knees, his sword gone, and I watch, horrified, as a blade is pressed to his throat.

My vision goes red.

I begin to lunge for him when I’m stopped by a clear, booming voice.

“Stop!”

As if on cue, the prince’s soldiers cease fighting, and I look around wildly to see that the rest of the rebels in my vicinity have been overpowered. Ronak is being held down by some sort of giant fae with stone-like skin, his strength power not even enough to break out of the giant’s hold. Sylred is on his knees with a blade to his throat, while Evert, Belren, and all the rest of the rebels are in the same position.

“Hold.”

I whirl around at the voice, my chest heaving and still clutching onto the arrow in my bloody hand.

Sauntering towards me out of the plumes of dust and smoke, is Prince Elphar.