Signs of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 1)

In one foul gulp, I shoot Arachno’s drink down.

A terrible burning sensation travels from the back of my tongue, down my throat, deep into my gut, and then up my spine, where it finally settles in between my shoulder blades at the base of my wings. If I thought my stomach was hurting me before, it’s nothing compared to this pain. An agonizing cry rips out of me and I fall to the ground and writhe uncontrollably. It feels like all the bones in my back and my wings are breaking like dry branches, splintering off into uneven halves.

Arachno’s face swims in front of my eyes, and it takes me a long time to realize she’s speaking. With great effort, I focus enough to hear her say, “Pull them in, push them out, pull them in, push them out,” over and over again.

Pull my wings in? I don’t even know what that means and I sure as hell don’t know how to do it. Still, Arachno’s chanting infiltrates the agonized shifting of nerves at my back. “Pull them in, push them out, pull them in, push them out…”

With a scream, I focus on my wings and mentally pull. Envisioning them curling into my spine, safe and wrapped beneath my skin, I pull and pull and pull.

And just like that, the pain vanishes.

I gasp and sit up, nearly toppling over in the process because of the sudden weightlessness of my body. My wings are gone.

Following instinct, I push them back out. With a snap of pain, I feel them break free from my body and when I look over my shoulder, there they are again.

A tired, shaky laugh escapes me as I look at them in disbelief. My celebration is short-lived as Arachno pulls me to my feet, her sharp nails digging into my arms. “Trade,” she says with a threatening sneer.

I hand her the pouch with the hair and tongues inside, and she greedily snatches it from my grasp. She plucks the tongues from inside, and places two of them in a jar. She does the same with the hair, separating them by color.

Then, to my horror, she takes the third tongue, opens her mouth, and bites into it like a cheeseburger.

“Oh gods…”

I can’t help the dry heaves that escape me, and I’m forced to turn around, clutching my aching stomach. I try not to listen as she chews and slurps and sucks, but the sounds seem to echo off the walls of the rocky cave. To make matters worse, the tingling sensation is back, but this time, it’s in both hands.

        I look down in horror to see my hands flickering in and out of sight. “Are you doing this?” I ask in a shrill voice.

She ignores me, and when I hear her licking her fingers with satisfied “Mmm,” sounds, I turn back around and begin to make my way toward the exit. “Okay, then. Glad you enjoyed the…tongue. Pleasure trading with you. Have a nice banishment.”

She finally looks at me and zeroes in on my flickering hands. She swallows down the last of the tongue and licks her lips with a creepy smile. “Hmm. The little red bird has strange magic in her. Arachno can tell the little bird about the magic.”

I stop in my tracks and turn around to look at her. I’m pretty sure that she’s now slurping down a strand of my guys’ tail hairs like it’s a spaghetti noodle. Yuck.

The pain in my stomach grows so intense that it makes it difficult to breathe, and now the disappearing flicker is spreading, reaching all the way up to my elbows as my limbs come in and out of visibility. “What do you know?” I croak. “What’s happening to me?”

Arachno smiles and sidesteps around me. I’m all too aware that she just got between the exit and me. With every step she takes closer to me, I back away. Arachno opens her fist and shows me one of my feathers crushed inside her hand. She must’ve plucked more than one when she used it for the potion. She lifts the feather and puts it into her mouth, swallowing it whole. I clench my teeth. “My feathers were not part of the trade,” I snarl.

Arachno just smiles wider as she picks a string from my feather out from between her teeth like a piece of floss. “Arachno can taste every magic. Every taste makes Arachno stronger. Arachno can taste what you are. Little bird is not fae. Little bird does not belong here, oh no. Does not belong here at all. Little bird cannot stay.”

Even as I hold myself around the middle with invisible arms, bending over slightly from the pain, I stare at her. “What do you mean I can’t stay?”

Arachno smiles widely. “She will fade. Oh, yes, little red bird will fade away. It’s already started. Her anchors keep her here, but she is too far away from her anchors, now, isn’t she? Little bird should not fly so far away from her anchors. Stupid, stupid little bird.”

Dread fills me like cement, solidifying in the pit of my stomach and hardening my mind.

“It will not last, either,” Arachno goes on. She plucks another strand of genfin tail hair from her pocket where she must have stashed some away and sucks it down. She rolls her eyes in the back of her head in euphoria. “When the genfins’ mate-bond forms, they will not be little bird’s anchors anymore. Cut away, she will fade. Oh, yes, little red bird will lose her anchors and fade away.”

My body trembles, but I don’t know if it’s in pain, horror, fear, or a combination of all three. When she keeps advancing on me, I accidentally back all the way up to the sticky, stringed wall. It’s only when my wings and back touch the tacky substance that I realize what it is. A web.

The bump behind the wall of web moves when I come into contact with it, and I jump against it, startled, but I realize then that I’m stuck. The second I realize it, Arachno realizes it, too, and she starts cackling again.

“Little bird is trapped,” she says in singsong. “Arachno will taste the little red bird as she fades away.”

Terror washes over me, but only for a second. The next second, I’m reaching down to the dagger strapped at my thigh and ripping it out. I stab at the web behind me using the limited mobility I have, but it’s enough to get my right side free. The dagger gets snagged in the web, forcing me to let it go. I close my eyes and concentrate, pulling my wings back into my body. With a sharp jolt of pain, my wings disappear.

I try to jump free, but Arachno is suddenly there in front of me with a dagger of her own. She aims it for my heart, and I manage to stop her from stabbing me just in time, my hands coming up to hold off her arm and wrist. She’s much stronger than she looks. It takes all my strength to keep her from plunging the blade into my heart. There’s movement behind me, and out of the corner of my eye, I see something snatch onto my left behind dagger and pull it deeper into the web.

“Little bird flew into Arachno’s web. Little bird’s wings will taste very good, oh yes,” Arachno hisses in my ear. I can see my terrified reflection in her black spider eyes as she tries to bear down on me. I don’t have the strength to release one my arms to try to get to my second dagger. I’m barely keeping her at bay as it is. It’s strange to fight against her when I can’t see my limbs. Maybe I can use it to my advantage.

“Will little bird’s blood be as red as her wings?” Arachno snarls in my face. “Will little bird’s bones crunch? Will her skin melt in my mouth? Will her invisible fingers taste strangely?”

I flinch when she brings her head close to mine, and she runs her long, purple tongue up my cheek, making me shudder.

“Oh, little bird will taste so nicely.”

I scream at her, my arms shaking with the force of trying to hold her off, but I’m losing quickly. My energy is draining, and inch-by-inch, her blade gets closer.

But then I’m suddenly falling back, and Arachno is falling with me. I barely have the wherewithal to roll out of the way so she doesn’t crush me with her blade as she falls on top of me. Before she can get her bearings, I shove her off of me and leap up, only to stare wide-eyed at a man covered in webs, his face deathly pale and gaunt, his hand clutching my dagger.

His wild eyes flash behind me, and he’s suddenly launching himself at Arachno, knocking her back down again. He shoves her screaming, flailing body into her web wall and uses the dagger to cut some of the web away to wrap it around her until she’s stuck hanging there. She wails at him, her face flushed red, her whole body thrashing but unable to get free.

I’m standing frozen at the scene when the man grabs hold of my arm (the visible part), turns, and forces me to run. I stumble but he keeps going, forcing me to scramble to get my feet underneath me again as I sprint after him. “Which way?” he asks, panting.

I look around, trying to remember which way we came in from the underground passageways. “Left,” I say.

Still holding my hand, he races forward, pulling me with him. I direct him every so often until we’re finally outside again, and I take in huge gasping breaths of fresh air. Arachno’s screams can still be heard echoing after us. “Come on,” he says, forcing me to run again. I really hate running, but since my wings aren’t out, it’s a little easier without their added weight and bulkiness.

We race away, but the man makes us double back several times in different directions. I don’t say a thing. I’m too busy panting for breath and dealing with the pain in my stomach to do anything except put one foot in front of the other.

Finally, we reach the very edge of the island where the barrier shimmers at our feet. We both struggle to catch our breath and I curl over, both because of my screaming lungs and my screaming gut.

“You okay?” the man asks.

I tilt my head and get a good look at him for the first time. He has white hair and gray eyes, and the softest shade of silver for skin. But it’s the two curved horns coming out of the top of his forehead, curling down behind his ears that hold my attention. They’re gray and thick, holding back his long hair and ending just at the base of his jaw.

“What are you?” I ask before I can stop myself.

He tilts his head at me. “I’m a Cernu. What are you?”

“Umm…half high fae, half human,” I answer carefully, hoping he’ll buy it.

“Human, hmm? Interesting.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” I say, still catching my breath. Gods, my stomach hurts. I’m trying to hide my arms behind my back, too, because I don’t think he’s noticed that they’re invisible yet.

“Thanks for the dagger,” he says with a smile. It’s obvious that he’s the shadow of a very handsome fae. With a few dozen good meals in him along with a long bath and web removal, he’s probably a heartbreaker.

“Thanks for taking out the spidery bitch,” I say.

He places a hand on his chest in introduction. “I’m Belren.”

I try to stand up, but I can’t quite straighten out. “Emelle,” I say in greeting.

He nods and looks around. I reach to my waterskin while he’s not looking and push it into his chest before quickly snatching my hand away again. “Here. Sorry, I don’t have any food.”

He takes the waterskin and starts downing the water, his throat bobbing up and down. He stops and wipes his mouth with the back of his arm before trying to hand it back to me. “No, you have it.”

He looks like he wants to argue, but we both know that his need is far greater than mine. He takes another long drink before stopping himself. “Thank you.”

He motions to my arms. “What happened there?”

“Oh, umm…” I look down at my hands, even though there’s no point because I can’t see them. It looks like I have stumps for arms. “Some kind of magic spell,” I answer vaguely. “How long have you been stuck there?” I ask, deflecting attention away from me.

“I don’t know, to be honest. Days? Weeks?” I don’t think too long or she would’ve eaten me by now, but she already had something else in that web that she’s been working on for awhile.

“Gross,” I say with a shudder. “What are you doing here?”

“Pissed off the royals, what else?”

“You were sent here as punishment?” I ask, surprised.

He nods, taking another drink. “I was in the royal guard. Got myself into a situation and got carted off here. Didn’t know it was Arachno’s island. I would’ve fought a hell of a lot harder. They knocked me out and left me here. She found me and dragged me back to her cave,” he explains. “Crazy bitch talked to me all day long in the third person about which parts of me she was going to eat first. She likes to make her victims dehydrate and starve first, apparently.”

“That’s awful.”

“What about you? Why were you sent here?”

“I wasn’t. I came here to do a trade.”

He looks at me like I’m insane. “I couldn’t hear everything you were saying through the web, and I thought I must’ve heard wrong. I can’t imagine anyone coming here willingly,” he says, studying me. “How’d you get through the barrier?”

“I…have a magic that lets me pass through.”

His eyes grow excited. “Could you get me out?”

I shake my head and bite my lip. “I’m sorry, I wish I could, but I can’t. It only works on me.”

His face falls, but he tries to hide his disappointment. “That’s okay. They’re constantly lowering Arachno’s barrier and bringing her gifts, just like they brought me. As soon as they come next, I’ll get out of here.”

He flexes his shoulders, and a pair of silver wings jut out from his back. “I like your wings,” I say.

He looks at me with amusement. “Thanks. “You have a pair of your own, I’m guessing?”

“I do.”

He nods. “You should get out of here. I’m going to keep eyes on Arachno and then settle in somewhere to wait it out. It won’t be long before I’m out of here, too.”

“Are you sure?”

He nods. “Yes. Like I said, they bring her gifts every few days, and she’s due for another one soon. They like to let Arachno play with those who have displeased them. Get out of here. Just promise me you won’t come back, no matter what the hell you’re desperate enough to trade for.”

I laugh lightly. “I promise.”

He holds out my dagger, but I shake my head. “Keep it. I have another,” I say.

He nods and starts to walk away. “Good luck, Emelle.”

“You too, Belren.”

When he’s out of sight, I push my wings back out and then launch myself off the island. I’m ready to get the hell out of here.

It’s way harder to fly back. For one, I don’t get to just fall. This time, I have to use all the strength I have left to beat my wings up, up, up. The wind fights me until I finally hit a pocket of air where I can coast.

          My stomach is in such terrible pain now that I can do little more than take tiny, gasping breaths, and I can feel the invisibility tingles spreading further up my arms, all the way to my shoulders now. My vision swims with black dots, and I know I’m not getting enough oxygen for the energy I’m exerting, but I can’t stop. If I stop, I’ll fall and I’ll never reach the guys. And if what Arachno said was true…

To distract myself from the pain, I count every flap of my wings. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four… Sweat drips down my face, and I have to wipe it from my eyes so I can see.

         When the bottom of the island comes into view, a sob of relief escapes my lips. The bottom is jagged with rough rock and packed dirt, and I can see giant tree roots sticking out all over. With the last of my energy, I make it to the edge of the island and hurl myself through the barrier, rolling across the grass before landing in a crumpled heap.

The familiar sights, smells, and sounds of the forest fills my senses just before three big genfins come charging toward me from different directions. I don’t know who reaches me first, because it seems like they’re all upon me in the next second.

“What the fuck? Where are her arms?”

The moment one of them touches me, the pain deep in my gut disappears with an internal whoosh, and then it’s just gone, like it was never there in the first place, and both of my arms pop back into view. I look up to see Evert rubbing his hands, watching as they fizzle with magic before petering out. “What was that? Your arms were gone and then I touched you and…What the bloody fuck, Emelle?”

I rub them hands together as if comforting myself that they’re really there. I take a relieved breath, happy to be back, happy to be rid of the hurt, and happy to be completely visible again. But my relief is washed away with the cold, hard truth of Arachno’s revelation.

She was right, I’m not meant to be here. I know it. Every other cupid knows it. Hell, even the guys know it. The fae prince magic-blasted me into this world. Me, a cupid, an entity only ever meant to exist in the Veil. And if Arachno is to believed, I would’ve faded right back into the Veil if it weren’t for one thing. Well, actually, not one. Three.

I look up at the three faces crowded around me. They’re the ones keeping me here. I landed on their island and they touched me. They were the first people to ever touch my skin, still crackling with the magic blast from the prince. That’s what magic they felt that day. That’s why they can sense me. Instead of sinking back into the Veil, they’re somehow keeping me tethered here. They are my anchors.

That just leaves one problem. If they complete their mating rituals and solidify their covey magic, their bond to me will break. Without my anchors, I’ll float away, back into the Veil and back into where I only exist to myself.