Sheer Cupidity: A Standalone Cupidity Romance (Heart Hassle Book 5)

LEX

My admission is met with silence.

Emelle and Ronak stare at me, and then after a second, Emelle’s multi-colored eyes widen. “Oh my gods. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

I nod slowly. “And the ghost…well. He’s here.”

She glances around the empty spaces like she’s trying to spot him. “He’s here? Right now?”

Belren strides over to her and holds out his hand. “Hello, other Pinky.”

Of course, she doesn’t see him, so it’s his bad luck that Emelle bursts forward in that instant, walking right through him to wrap me up in a hug. “I can’t believe this!” she exclaims. “You found—”

“Hook,” I blurt, cutting her off.

She starts to pull away in confusion, but I bring my arms up and squeeze her tight, pressing my lips against her ear to whisper. “Call him Hook. He doesn’t remember who he is, and we can’t trigger him with memories, or he might get sucked back to his deathplace and forget everything,” I rush to explain. “And…I can see him. Even when I’m not in the Veil.”

Emelle goes stiff in my arms as she takes in what I’ve said. “Like…right now?”

I nod against her and then release her slowly, my eyes flicking over to where Belren is standing next to Ronak a couple feet away. “This bastard has a lot of muscles, doesn’t he? And why’s his tunic undone at the top like that? What’s he trying to prove?” Belren grouses.

Gods.

Pulling away, Emelle searches my face. “I can’t believe this,” she says quietly, tears in her eyes. “I never thought he’d be a ghost.”

Sadness spears through my stomach. “Me either.”

“He should’ve moved on. Should’ve picked a job,” she goes on, quickly wiping her eyes. “Is he…is he okay?”

“He’s better than any ghost I’ve ever come across. He’s coherent.” For now is the unspoken end to that sentence, and we both know it.

Emelle’s eyes immediately fill as a sob wrenches out of her. The second she does, Ronak is at her side in a second. “What’s wrong?” he demands.

Instead of answering, she buries her head against his chest as another cry comes out, muffled this time. But with this sudden flood of emotion, Lust Breath starts puffing out of her lips, her tucked wings begin to glow a bit with heavenly light, and lucky pennies fall from the sleeves of her gray dress.

Ronak flinches and makes a pained grunt as he gets a face-full of Lust. “You’re leaking.”

“What?” Emelle pulls back, eyes widening at the pink cupid power she’s exhaling. “Whoops. Sorry.” She pins her lips together and shakes her hands to try to stop the lucky coins from falling. I watch as they tinkle to the ground in a nice, neat little pile until she can get it to stop.

Belren pops up next to me. “Your penchant for coin thievery is tingling, isn’t it?”

“It’s not thievery,” I sigh.

Emelle seems to get a handle on herself, wings dimming down as the coins stop falling and the last of the Lust Breath diminishes. “Are you talking to Hook?”

I nod. “He’s standing right here.”

Her gaze moves to where I indicated, and her eyes shine again, but she manages to keep the tears in. Ronak tenses up. “Who the fuck is Hook? And why is he making you cry?”

Emelle shakes her head at him. “Ook-hay is elren-bay so don’t alk-tay about it right now, okay?”

Ronak stares at her like she’s insane. “What?”

She sighs and looks at me with a shake of her head. “Fae. Always thinking they’re so superior, when they can’t even speak pig Latin.”

“What the fuck is pig Latin?” Ronak asks incredulously.

“Well, it’s an argot,” I quickly jump in. When he turns that blank stare at me, I go on. “A pseudo-language that humans used, probably starting sometime in their 1800s. Mostly by children, but adults as well. It was a very effective way to talk in simple code.”

“See?” Emelle says to Ronak. “Lex gets me.”

Ronak shakes his head. “Cupids,” he mutters.

Emelle tugs on his beard lightly, making him bend down until her mouth is next to his ear to whisper. His eyes widen as she speaks, presumably catching him up.

He lets out a whistle. “Fuck.”

She rolls back on her heels. “Mm-hmm.”

“I have to say, this is a very strange boss-employee meeting,” Belren tells me.

He’s not wrong.

“I’m sorry I sprung this on you. It was a shock to me as well.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Emelle tells me, giving one last swipe beneath her eye. “Ever since I had the triplets, I’ll cry at just about anything.”

“Parenting sounds very…disconcerting,” I sympathize.

“It really is,” she agrees with a sigh. “So, how can I help?”

“For starters, I don’t know why I’m able to see him outside of the Veil.”

Her brows pull together. “Yeah, that’s weird. I’ve never heard of that happening before.”

“Me either.”

“I also thought ghosts stayed put for the most part,” Emelle points out. “Didn’t you say you found him on the other island?”

“I did. He said his deathplace was keeping him there, but he was able to come with me, because…”

Belren sidles up to me. “My muck’s in your quiver. Say it,” he chimes in, voice chock-full of amusement.

“I scooped up some of the dirt from his deathplace spot and took it with me,” I say pointedly.

Belren blows out a breath in disappointment. “That was the boring way to say it.”

This male is going to give me an eye twitch.

“And that actually worked?” Emelle asks, surprise written all over her face.

“So far.”

“Huh.” I can’t tell if she looks more confused or impressed.

“Tell her it was my idea,” Belren says with a wag of his brows, practically bouncing back on his feet.

I roll my eyes and then glance at Ronak. “I meant to tell you earlier, but your muscles are looking quite impressive.”

Belren’s gray eyes darken, and he bristles beside me, while Ronak tips his head, looking smug. “Bigger than the fucking lamassu, even.”

“Very nice.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Emelle says.

Just like I’d hoped, Belren is adequately distracted with sizing Ronak up again, so I use the opportunity to take Emelle by her arm and lead her several steps away toward the lava pond where I’m hoping the bubbling will help cover up our voices.

“I’ll have Sev ask around. The angels might know if this has happened before,” Emelle whispers.

“Thank you.” I cast a look over my shoulder before I ask the real question that’s been burning on the tip of my tongue. “Is there something we can do to fix him? Can you…de-ghost him?”

Emelle blows out a deep breath, the light of the pond making her pink hair shine like sherbet. “Honestly? I don’t know.”

My heart drops.

“The stubborn, difficult ass couldn’t just pass on and pick a damn afterlife job like the rest of us?” Emelle growls out, kicking at the ground. “He had to go and be a freaking ghost?”

A sad smile tips my lips.

“Although, it’s kind of funny that he stuck around on that island and that the first person to find him was you.”

“What do you mean?”

Emelle digs up her sleeve, plucking a stray coin that was left behind from the earlier outpour and tosses it into the pond with a fiery plop. “You don’t think you were the only one who looked for him, do you?”

When I don’t answer, she gives me a wry smile. “Oh, come on, Lex. I knew you were looking for him—looking all over headquarters. I got a few complaints from some Veil supervisors,” she tells me with a snort. “But Sev and I were looking for him too. We’ve been to that island more times than I can count. Maybe he was waiting for you to find him.”

My heart stutters. “Me?”

As if she can sense the turbulence inside of me, she offers me a smile. “It wasn’t me that he jumped in front of that day. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that you’re the one who found him.”

Emotion that I don’t know how to digest wells up in my throat, and she watches me expectantly.

“Technically, he found me.”

She rolls her eyes at that. “Of course he did. The Horned Hook always shows off when it comes to finding things. When he gets his memory back, he’s going to brag about this for years.”

My eyes widen at her use of when. “So you think we actually have a chance at helping him?”

For the first time, she wavers, her expression turning less confident. “I gotta be honest, and I know this is going to come as a total shock to you, but I actually have no idea what I’m doing for cupids most days, let alone any other Veil entity. I have no idea if a ghost can be de-ghosted.”

My stomach ties in knots. “Of course.” I was stupid to hope.

She reaches over and gives my hand a quick squeeze. “But I’m the cupid boss bitch,” she says, all that confidence swinging right back into her. “That means I’m going to figure something out. I’m going to talk to Sev and see if he can do some digging. I’d ask you, since you’re obviously the better researcher, but you’ll need to stay with B—Hook, to make sure you keep him grounded.”

“Well, that’s another thing,” I say, hands wringing. “He sort of appeared when I came up with a certain idea. Something I thought I could do to help avenge his death and maybe gain some closure from the fates.”

“What idea?”

I glance over briefly to see Belren intently studying Ronak’s wings like he’s trying to find a feather out of place.

Heat flames my cheeks, and it has nothing to do with the lava bubbling in front of us. “Well, see, I just got this idea into my head about getting retribution for him. So he sort of overheard me say that I was going to avenge his death by tracking down Princess Soora.”

I leave off the and kill her part because I certainly don’t want to make Emelle into an accessory. I’m already solidly in premeditated murder territory.

“When I said it aloud, that’s the moment he appeared. So I think he might’ve come back because of it.”

Emelle’s brows jump up in surprise. “Did he recognize the name?”

“No. But he is insistent on going with me.”

She nibbles her lip in thought. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe the best thing to do is to help him do this.”

“You think?”

“Keeping him focused is the best thing you can do. You know how ghosts are. They’re flighty. Forgetful,” Emelle says. “You are his line, Lex. Keep him invested, and maybe he’ll keep fighting to stay as much of himself as he can. Keep him busy. Keep him focused. If he was brought here because of Soora, then help him do what he needs to. In the meantime, I’ll find out everything I can and see how we can de-ghost him.”

A seed of hope buries itself in the pit of my stomach. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. He’s my friend, and he doesn’t deserve to waste away like that. Oh!” she exclaims with a sudden snap of her fingers. “That reminds me. I actually heard a rumor that Soora is holed up on a fae island that her father used to own. It was called Havershore… Or maybe Hackenshire? Something like that. You could check it out.”

I file the information away as Ronak walks over just then, with Belren trailing behind him. “Did you know that his wings are roughly fifteen feet across?” Belren scoffs. “He must be compensating for something, don’t you think?”

My eyes nearly bug out of my head when he gestures to his groin. “Stop it,” I hiss.

He shrugs.

“Everything okay?” Ronak asks, but there’s no way that I’m going to tell him what Belren has been saying about his privates.

Luckily, Emelle answers. “Yep, all good. But I have some serious work to do. We need to get back home to check on the kids, and then I can call on Sev plus a certain angel and demon to find out some ghostly answers.”

“Is this going to be okay?” I ask her worriedly. “I know you can’t go to Cupidville…”

Emelle sighs. “Nope. Or into the Veil to see Hook,” she says, and I don’t miss the longing in her voice. Neither does Belren, because he grins at the attention. “I wish I could, but my freaking mate here goes all crazy.”

Ronak scowls at her. “It’s not my fault that the alpha in me takes over when you go into the Veil. It feels like a severed mate bond, like you’ve died. My animal turns feral over it.”

“Like I said, dramatic.”

He flicks his tail up to whip at her butt, making her jump. “Hey!”

“Oops,” he deadpans. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah. But you have to carry me home this time. My wings are sore.”

She barely has the words out of her mouth before Ronak has scooped her up into his arms, making her squeal out a laugh.

“I’ll give you a better ride than that bull would’ve,” he practically growls in her ear. He’s a terrible whisperer.

Emelle’s cheeks go pink, but she smiles at him before looking back at me and tapping on her cupid mark. “Call me if you need me, but I’ll come find you when I have news. It might take me a bit, so just hang in there?”

“I will. Thank you.”

Belren and I watch Ronak lunge up, red wings stretched out as he effortlessly gets them airborne.

“Fifteen feet,” Belren grumbles. “Gotta be compensating.”

Within seconds, the darkness of night swallows the two of them up, and they disappear from view.

“Well, that was entertaining,” Belren notes, coming to stand beside me. “Let’s leave on a positive note, shall we? Time to go murder that person.”

“Goodness, can you stop saying it so willy-nilly?”

He frowns. “Who’s Willy?”

“Never mind.”

“Good. Let’s go,” he says as he starts striding away.

As I watch him, I repeat Emelle’s words in my head. Keep him busy. Keep him focused.

Luckily for him, those are two things I excel at. And if tracking down the ex-princess will achieve that, then that’s what we’ll do.

After all, how hard can it be to find one of the most notorious fae in all the realm?