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

LEX

I never expected to be led through a thinned-out forest by an ex-princess I once vowed to kill, yet here we are.

The walk is awkward, the guard gripping my arm the entire time, while with my other hand, I keep my grip onto Belren’s ice-cold palm. He stumbles along, his expression distant and pained. I’m not even sure how aware he is right now.

After a few minutes, we reach a house in the middle of the scant trees, stuck between some rail-thin pines. Aside from the rather sad-looking forest, the structure itself is more like a palace than a house. What it lacks in length, it makes up for in its three-story height. The face of it is made of crude stone, but even in the dark, I can see that it’s polished to perfection. The windows too are shiny and streak free, and there’s an immaculate hedge garden that we pass by on the way to the front door.

The second guard opens it to let Soora sweep inside, while I’m dragged in right after, pulling Belren behind me. My brows lift as I take in the entryway. Aside from the pair of staircases on either side, the room commands attention solely for its color choice.

There’s purple everywhere. Lavender, plum, mauve, eggplant, and every shade in between. There are also crystal vases filled with violet bouquets on every single flat surface we pass by.

I knew that the Wyndices’ family colors were purple, and the sigil was a violet, but still, this interior decorating choice is very bold.

I glance at Belren to see if he’s seeing this too, but the grimace on his face pulls at my stomach. “Are you okay?” I whisper.

He gives a short nod, but it doesn’t convince either of us. He’s struggling, looking like he’s fighting an internal battle and not completely aware of the things going on around us. I squeeze his hand a little bit tighter.

I’m led into a sitting room—upholstery, rug, and curtains, all purple—and Soora turns toward the two guards. “You can leave us, thank you.”

The one holding my arm doesn’t let go. Instead, he starts to pull the strap of my quiver off my shoulder. “Hey!” I say, trying to bat him away.

“You can’t have weapons,” he growls at me.

“It’s alright,” Soora intervenes, making us both freeze. She casts a bored look at my bow. “I’m not worried.”

“But Princess—”

Soora waves a dismissive hand at him. “I’m far more powerful than a few arrows, Werenz. Besides,” she says, looking toward me, “you’re not going to try anything, are you?”

I shake my head. “No.”

The guard doesn’t look convinced. “What was that about murder?” He glares, wayward curls from his eyelashes getting stuck in the ones from his eyebrows.

Soora doesn’t intervene this time. Instead, she takes a seat on one of the plush purple chairs, crossing her ankles and holding her hands in her lap as she watches me regally.

“Well…it’s…it’s a funny story, really.”

She perks up a single brow. “Hmm. Werenz doesn’t really have a sense of humor.”

I eye the guard warily. He just scowls back.

“You really need to fall in love,” I tell him curtly.

He gives me an unimpressed look. “Excuse me?”

“It’s true. I can feel the loneliness, you know. You’d be great at love when you find your Match. I could help you.”

“Please refrain from trying to bribe my guard,” Soora drawls.

I whip my head around. “It wasn’t a bribe.”

She doesn’t look convinced, and now the guard seems even more hostile than before. When they just continue to stare at me, I finally let out a breath. “You’re not going to believe me about the murder story.”

“Tell me anyway. And start with why you are here and why you claimed to be Emelle.”

She’s very pushy. Probably because she used to be a princess.

“The Emelle thing was an accident. At first. But I’ve been looking for you, so I just went along with it.”

“Why were you looking for me?”

This is the tricky part.

“Well…I actually was there the day your husband died.”

Soora bristles, and for the first time, I see some real emotion in the depths of her eyes. It’s not mourning. It’s anger. “He’s not my husband,” she snaps.

No love lost between those two, clearly.

“Prince Elphar,” I amend. “He tried to attack Emelle, but he thought I was her, so his power was directed at me, and…” I steal a look at Belren, and my stomach dips when I see that he’s finally looking at me, blinking the haze from his eyes. His shoulders are slumped, his entire posture looking like he’s been kicked by a horse, but at least he seems to be aware again.

“You’re the one that the Horned Hook leapt in front of.”

My gaze pivots to Soora. “You know about that?”

“Of course I know about that,” she replies shortly. “Why did he do it?” Soora casts a look over me. “Why you?”

I’m taken aback by the anger that’s volleyed up into her voice. “Umm…” Words fail me, but then I feel Belren squeeze my hand.

“This is the princess?” he asks skeptically.

Relief floods me that he’s feeling well enough to talk. I shoot him a look in my peripheral before I give a small nod. As inconspicuous as I tried to be with the movement, Soora’s eyes narrow on me, her gaze traveling down to the hand holding Belren’s. I didn’t even think about how strange it probably looks.

“I don’t know why he did it,” I answer her.

“Liar,” Belren says teasingly, though I can hear the strain of his voice—can practically feel the toll on him that it took to deny the pull. It worries me that it’s getting this much worse. He was good at hiding it before, but it’s obviously gotten to a point where he can’t anymore. Sure, he didn’t disappear when his muck was cleaned up, but maybe it just took a while for the strain to set in.

“Tell her the truth, Pinky,” Belren says tiredly, running a thumb over the back of my hand. “Tell her it was because a ghost was meant to fall in love with a cupid.”

My breath catches and my wings lift.

I can’t help but look over at him, our eyes locking. For a moment, we’re not here, in an overly purple room with a questionable ex-royal. Instead, it’s just the two of us, the rest of the world faded away. Until that world shoulders its way back in.

“What are you looking at?” Soora asks, making me snap out of the moment.

“Nothing,” I say quickly, jerking my gaze back to her.

She doesn’t look convinced, eyes skating over to where I was looking. Trying to cover up my weird hand-holding posture, I walk forward to the chaise and sit down with Belren beside me, where I can rest our hands next to my leg so it’s not so noticeable. I haven’t missed the fact that the bald guard is still standing by the door, obviously not trusting me alone with her.

“So, you don’t know why the Horned Hook jumped in front of you?” Soora asks again, suspicion thick in her tone.

Belren looks at me pointedly. “Not gonna say the cupid-ghost bit, hmm?” he asks. “Alright, then tell her it was because I thought you had a great ass and it would’ve been a shame to lose it.”

My eyes nearly bug out of my head.

“He was just being nice?” I offer aloud instead, because there is exactly zero chance of me saying the word ass to a princess, ex or otherwise. Especially when said ass is mine.

Soora scoffs. “The Horned Hook didn’t do things to be nice. He was a cunning thief and a master tracker. He wasn’t altruistic by nature.”

Belren cocks his head. “Sounds about right.”

“Did you know him well?” I ask her, because I don’t know all the details of their relationship other than the things Emelle relayed to me, which wasn’t much.

“For a time, I knew him better than anybody.”

That surprises me. Apparently, it surprises Belren too, because he sits forward, head cocked. “Shit. Did I fuck her?”

What? No. Soora was with his sister. The two of them couldn’t have been together too… Right?

My stomach clenches, and my mind immediately conjures up an image of Belren with her. I don’t like it. I squeeze his hand so hard that I make my fingernails dig into his skin. I only stop when he shoots me a narrowed look. It makes me feel marginally better.

“Were the two of you ever romantically involved?”

Soora’s brows draw together, making a dainty line form between them. “Belren and me?” she asks incredulously before letting out a laugh that somehow manages to sound both musical and a little arrogant. “Of course not. I knew him well because of his sister, Benicia.”

“Right, of course,” I say, barely suppressing a sigh of relief.

As soon as Soora says the name, Belren’s entire body straightens, and his hand becomes as stiff as a board. His lips move, and I hear him repeat the name under his breath. “Benicia.”

I sneak a nervous glance at him.

“Benicia,” he says again, brows furrowing in deep thought, hand coming up to his stomach absentmindedly. “She was missing.”

He remembers?

I stiffen beside him, watching the faraway look that comes over his expression, the way his eyes grow troubled.

He shakes his head at himself. “I couldn’t find her,” he says, voice louder this time. “I could always find anything, but I couldn’t find her. My own damn sister.”

Dread comes in bursts, popping hot and cold through my veins. This isn’t good. I’ve tried so hard not to push him, not to trigger anything, and—

“Benicia ran away. Because of her,” Belren snaps, jabbing a finger toward the princess. “She broke my sister’s heart when she married the prince. I remember. I remember that.”

Uh oh.

“What’s happening?” Soora cuts in, a confused irritation making her tone bristle as her eyes wander around me. I’m not doing a very good job of hiding Belren’s presence.

“Tell me at once,” she demands when I don’t answer. It doesn’t matter that she technically doesn’t wear a crown anymore, her command is pure royalty.

“Well…”

At my hesitation, Soora’s guard comes up behind me, his face stony. “Answer the princess at once.”

The snappish bite to his tone is bristling enough, but when he reaches for my arm, the threatening move does not go over well. At all.

In a blink, Belren is on his feet with a growl, ready to attack. He yanks his hand out of mine before I can stop him, and by the time I jump to my feet, Belren’s already turned and raised his hands up, doing a shoving motion in the air.

Somehow, even without touching him, Belren manages to make Werenz go flying back until his shoulder hits the wall. Belren bares his teeth like he’s ready to rip him apart as I watch wide-eyed. “Don’t fucking touch her!” he seethes.

“What the…?” The guard spins around in a craze, eyes wild. “What was that? How did you do that?”

“What just happened?” Soora demands as she gets to her feet.

Werenz points an accusatory finger at me. “She used some sort of power on me! She’s telekinetic!”

Both he and Soora pin me in place with their stares, but I shake my head. “It wasn’t me!”

Soora’s eyes turn turbulent, and I feel the crackle of magic stain the air. “Something is going on, and I want to know what it is right now.”

Wow. She can really be very scary when her voice drops an octave like that.

“It’s Belren,” I blurt out, looking from her to the guard. “He’s the one who pushed you. He’s protective.”

Soora rears back, purple eyes flaring. “Excuse me?”

I nod warily. “I know it’s hard to believe, but his ghost found me and, well, I think you might be his unfinished business.”

She stares at me.

And stares some more.

The room becomes so quiet that my breath seems blaring.

“It’s true,” I go on. “We’ve been looking for you.”

When she continues to say nothing, my hands wring together, my nerves getting the better of me. I’d really like to fly off and go shoot some people with Love to take the edge off, but considering the way the guard keeps eyeing my arrows, they’re probably not the best thing to grab right now.

Finally, Soora breaks the silence. “Belren was telekinetic,” she says quietly, almost to herself.

“Wow, I’m impressive,” Belren jokes, but his voice is strained.

Then she asks, “Why would I be Belren’s unfinished business?”

I shift on my feet. “Oh. Well, you know. Just for the whole betraying him and the entire rebellion thing.”

Did that sound bad? I tried not to make it sound bad.

Her lips press together so tightly that the purple color drains right out of them. “I did what I had to do to save Benicia. He would’ve understood that eventually, once he’d had time to think.”

Glancing over at Belren, I try to see if I can confirm that one way or another, but my question dies in my throat when I look at him.

His entire body has gone pale and lackluster. He’s lost the luminescent edge to him, lost the substantialness he’d managed to claim. His brows are furrowed, but this time, it’s not in thought, it’s in pain.

I try to hurry over and grab hold of him again, but my hand goes right through him, and my stomach plummets. “Belren?”

A noise comes from him that seems to be pulled from the depths of his soul, and something flickers in his gaze that wasn’t there before. “We’re here.”

Frowning, I ask, “Where?”

His sheer hand presses against the silhouette of his stomach. “The pull. It’s different. It’s…here.”

A sense of foreboding curls in my chest as I turn to Soora. “Where exactly are we?” I ask carefully.

Werenz gets his courage back and snarls, “That’s not to be disclosed.”

But Soora raises a hand. “It’s alright,” she tells him, still looking at me.

“We’re here, aren’t we?” I go on, looking between her and Belren. “We’re at Belren’s deathplace.”

Ghost Island.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t disappear when he let go of my hand?

“How did you know that?” Soora asks, but she’s not angry or suspicious like the guard. Instead, she looks…almost hopeful?

The way her gaze keeps skating around the room makes me think that she wants to believe me.

“This is a good thing, right?” I ask Belren. “We’re back here, so the pull is better, right?”

But to my dismay, he shakes his head. “The pull is stronger. More intense,” he grits out. If he weren’t incorporeal, I have a feeling he’d be dripping in sweat and his face would be flushed from the strain.

“We need to get back to your exact deathplace,” I say decisively, ready to march out of here and get him where he needs to go.

“No…” Belren replies, shaking his head absently. “That’s not it. There was always this draw, like I was supposed to stay there and find something, and that’s stronger now.”

My brows lower, and when I see him wincing, I try to grab his hand again to help anchor him here, but it still doesn’t work. “I can’t touch you…” I try once more, but nothing changes, and I don’t think it’s me blocking it this time. “I don’t know what’s happening,” I say with growing alarm. “Do you think it’s being here with the princess? What can I do to make this better?”

The way his form seems so faded is making my fear spike.

“Enough of this,” Soora hisses suddenly, making me startle. “Belren is not a ghost. Stop your lies and playacting.”

Wow. Okay. It’s very rude to accuse someone of lying.

“I’m telling the truth,” I snip back. “Something is wrong. We’re on Ghost Island already, you’re his unfinished business, and yet he’s still in pain.” A thought occurs to me, and I give Belren a nervous look. “Shoot. Do I really need to do the…you know.” I drop my voice to a whisper. “Rhymes with herder free?”

Werenz’s eyes widen. “Did you just openly admit to wanting to murder the princess right in front of me?”

I grimace. Right. Probably should’ve come up with a different code term.

The guard moves for me, sword drawn, at the same time that I take a defensive step in front of Belren. I’m not sure why, for obvious reasons, but it seems I have a protective streak as well.

“In my defense,” I say, holding up my hands. “I mentioned the murdering in the heat of the moment when I found Belren’s deathplace because I was upset. I was just as surprised as anyone when he actually showed up when I said it. But he seemed very keen, and I wanted to keep him around. Who am I to go against unfinished business if he really needs it?”

There. That sounds logical.

“Guards!” the guard snaps.

Seems redundant, but okay.

Two others burst into the room. “Contain her,” Werenz growls as he moves in front of Soora. I think it’s safe to assume he doesn’t like me.

I swing my bow around and nock an arrow faster than they can draw swords, making the two skid to a halt.

“I’m sorry about this,” I rush to say to Soora, since, you know, I’m pointing the arrow at her. Honestly though, she looks unbothered by the whole ordeal. Perhaps this isn’t the first time someone has come into her home and threatened to murder her? Something to research later.

“I don’t actually want to murder you. It was more of a to-do list thing I came up with so that I could get over Belren dying for me and scarring my existence.”

“Lovely,” Soora says dryly.

The guards look between us, as tense as bristling wolves waiting to bite. Soora keeps them in place with a hand gesture, and I feel sharp magic peppering the air as some sort of barrier shimmers around her.

“Her weapon is useless,” Soora tells the guards impassively. “Leave us.”

Werenz blanches. “But—”

“Leave us,” she repeats, tone leaving zero room for argument. “We females are going to have a private chat.”

The three of them stalk out of the room, obviously unhappy with leaving their princess alone. As soon as the door shuts, I lower my bow and shove the arrow back into my quiver. “Again, sorry. I wasn’t going to actually shoot at you.” Unless Belren asked me to, then I’d have to try at least.

“I know,” Soora replies coolly. I’m slightly offended that she doesn’t seem to be the least bit threatened.

“I could’ve done it, though.”

She looks me up and down. “No.”

I wrinkle my nose and glance down at my sensible clothes and shoes. “I don’t look like a murderess?”

“You’re not a killer,” Soora replies easily. “Though you seem to have very good aim.”

My wings perk up at that. “Thank you. I actually came in first place for accuracy amongst all of cupidity.”

“Very impressive.”

I can’t tell if she’s actually impressed or if she’s mocking me a bit.

It might be the latter.

“Don’t worry,” Belren murmurs behind me, voice hoarse. “She hasn’t seen your full violent potential like I have. I know you have it in you.”

“Are you okay?”

“Fine,” he replies, but he doesn’t sound or look it.

“You’re not fine. Tell me what to do,” I plead, hating this feeling of helplessness. “I think I can shoot an arrow at her if you really need me to. Possibly. I hope.” Now that the situation is at hand, I’m feeling a bit squeamish about it.

I’m so focused on Belren that I don’t even realize Soora has walked over until she’s right next to me. “You’re telling the truth, aren’t you, cupid?”

“It’s Lex. And if you’re talking about Belren being a ghost, then yes, I am.”

Soora eyes me for a long moment, her gaze assessing and measuring. Finally, she nods. “If Belren is truly here and he’s a ghost, then his unfinished business wouldn’t be with me.”

“It wouldn’t?”

She shakes her head, and for a second, I think her eyes land on Belren, as if she can sense where he is.

“No. Belren could find anything and anyone. But when his sister went missing, he couldn’t track her down. It was the one time he failed, and he hated it. It ate away at him. When he finally saw her, it was too late, and then he died before he could find her again.”

Beside me, Belren has gone stock-still, and my heart feels like it wants to pound out of my chest. “What are you saying?”

Soora’s purple eyes latch onto me. “His unfinished business isn’t with me. It’s with finding his sister.”

I suck in a breath, because I already know what she’s going to say before she even utters a word.

“Benicia is here. We live on the island where he died.”