Signs of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 1)

Well I’m certainly not on Earth anymore.

   That’s my first thought the moment my non-corporeal self pops into the fae realm. I’m actually hovering in midair, right smack in the sky. There are clouds above, around, and below me. The sun is straight up, but has more of a pink glow than the one on Earth. But the biggest difference? This place is made up of floating islands. Yep. Floating. Islands. Believe me, it looks stranger and more beautiful than it sounds. And there are hundreds of them. Some are barely a stone’s throw away from another. Some are thousands of feet apart. Some are up, some are down, some are huge, some are tiny.

   I soak in the sight. The fae realm. I never thought I’d find myself here. I’m pretty sure I was human in my former life, although, that’s just a guess. I just felt a general connection to humans. But being here fills me with a sort of awe. I can almost feel the magic that I know is ripe in the air. The fae are the most magically powerful beings in all the realms, and their realm is also one of the largest. There’s a reason lots of cupids want to land a gig here. Fae are supposedly freaky. Freakier than the freakiest of humans. There aren’t the same inhibitions with fae as there are in other realms. So it’s fun for cupids to get in here and spread some desire, because the Fae are down for pretty much anything. And, unlike most realms, there are a ton of different species in this realm, which breaks up the monotony of things.

   I don’t know why I was sent here, but I’m pretty freaking excited.

   I decide to fly to the different islands and look around. There are so many, I just want to explore for a while. I head below to the lowest islands first and scour the skies. One island that I fly over is made purely of water. No land to speak of. It looks like a diamond, hovering there in the sky, and I’m pretty sure I see some merpeople splashing around. I also see an island with a huge volcano that seems to be stuck in a never-ending eruption. Lava drips off the sides and into the sky, landing gods only knows where far below. A lot of the islands are made up of cities. Some have humble looking huts, and some have sprawling mansions and town squares. I watch them all from high above, just getting my bearings.

   I fly for a long time, not getting close to any island in particular, until I find a smallish one that’s set apart from the heavily populated areas. In fact, it looks almost untouched and is heavily forested. I decide this is the one I’ll take a closer look at, though I don’t know why I’m drawn to it. Maybe it’s because it’s so green and serene looking, so different than the human city I came from. Or maybe it’s because after getting yanked from the cupid meeting, I’m feeling about a million times lonelier than I was before.

That’s what happens every time I get yanked. It’s nice while I’m there (when I’m not getting disciplined) because I can actually talk to others. But it doesn’t last nearly long enough, and then I’m put back out for however many years with no one but myself for company again. That short visit I had made me feel real, but it’s so painful to be cut off from all interaction again. I needed more. I always need more.

   So it’s my own lonely depression that draws me down to the island that looks just as lonely as me. I float through the trees and touch down on the grass, and then I stare out over the side of the island. If I were real, and if I were to take a step, I’d fall right over the edge of it. I wonder how long I’d fall? I can’t see anything below except a lilac sky and puffy clouds.

   Gods, it’s so pretty here.

Gods, I’m so lonely.

   If I could produce tears, I’d cry.

   Still looking out at the sky, I hear a noise behind me and I swivel around.

   There, standing in the forest under the speckled sunlight filtering through the trees, is a shirtless god of a man. Or fae. Whatever.

   “Good goddess and all that is sexy,” I say under my breath.

   He’s shirtless and huge. I mean, he’s at least a foot and a half taller than me, with more muscles than I even knew existed on a body, and every single one of those muscles is ripped. His bicep is bigger than my head, no joke. He’s carrying a stack of wood in his arms as he walks toward me. He stops and drops the wood in a pile on the forest floor. Then he looks up and stares right at me.

   He stalks forward. Like a predator. Like he’s coming to devour me. Part of me is like, hell yes, let’s do this; while the other part is like, wait, how can he see me? But mostly, I’m getting ready to climb him like a tree, because this man is all kinds of sexy.

   He continues to walk forward and then, right when I’m about to ask him how he can see me, the guy walks right through me. Yeah. Mood killer. He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at the sky, of course. You’d think I’d have learned by now.

   I don’t even want to examine how disappointed I feel.

   I turn around to study him closer. I look at his back, his broad shoulders, his strong forearms and callused hands, and his…tail. Yep, he’s not happy to see me—that’s a tail poking out from his pants. It’s a sexy tail, though. Like a lion’s. Meow.

I circle around him to study him closer. His brow is covered with a sheen of sweat, like he’s been hard at work all day. He has shaggy brown hair that hangs over his ears, and eyes so black that I can’t see his pupils. He has a strong jaw, a shaggy beard, and a thick, low brow line.

The guy oozes alpha manliness and I want to get all up in that. He’d look human if it weren’t for the tail and his pointed fae ears. His tail swoops down the back of his legs, flicking left to right lazily, with a tuft of hair on the bottom that matches the hair on his head. It adds to his sexiness.

   “You’re just all sorts of strong and capable, aren’t you?” I ask him. “I’d let you protect me all day, any day, big boy,” I say, getting close to his face. He’s big and scary, but there’s something in his eyes as he watches the horizon—a sad sort of look that makes something inside me squeeze. 

   I use my wings to hover in the air so that our faces are within inches of each other. If I hover at just the right angle, it’s almost like he’s looking at me again. That thing inside me squeezes harder. I carefully hover my hands on either side of his face, wishing I could feel him. I’m so damn lonely. This is a new low, even for me. I don’t usually go around face hover-touching people. But maybe it’s the sad look in his eyes that makes me do it. Maybe I feel a strange sort of kinship with him. Or maybe it’s just because he really is the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.

Still fake-holding him, I whisper, “If I could kiss anyone in all the realms, I’d kiss you first.”

   I wish I could be heard, just this once. I wish I could feel, just this once. But of course I’m not and I can’t.

   I drop my hands and sigh sadly. “It’s okay, First. It’s not your fault.”

A noise sounds behind us and I turn to see two more guys walking this way. Huh. So much for this forest island being uninhabited. The sad, vulnerable look on First’s face vanishes and is covered up with a hardened, blank expression instead. “The pile’s right there,” he says, nodding his head in the direction of the wood he stacked.

I float over to the other two guys, and notice that they also have tails. “Good goddess, you two are handsome, too,” I say. And they are. It’s like I landed on Sexy-Guy-Island, population: 3.

I fly up to the one with blonde hair. “Well, hello there. I’d kiss you secondly, for sure,” I tell him as he starts to pick up pieces of wood. He has soft brown eyes and aside from being so handsome it’s almost hard to look at him, he also looks kind. Like he’d rub my feet after a hard day or just let me hug him.

I look over my shoulder at the other one. He has black hair, pale skin, and stunning blue eyes. He’s hot and has that arrogant air about him that makes him all the more irresistible. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll kiss you thirdly,” I assure him.

The three guys collect the wood and then make their way through the forest away from me. I sigh as they go. I need to leave now. I should probably head to one of the busy city islands to get to work. I don’t want to get yanked back and accused of slacking. I have no doubt the superiors would poof my cupid ass.

I look back longingly at the sexy guys and shoot up into the air. The sunlight is already fading, so night will be here soon. And if there’s any such thing as crunch-hour for a cupid, it’s during the night. That’s when lust and love surge, no matter the realm. There’s something about the cover of night that lets people shed their worries and get down to the heart of things. Or get down to their birthday suits by stripping off their clothes.

I fly around, heading for the higher islands until I see it: A massive island, the biggest one I’ve seen yet. Complete with a huge, glittering city made up of stone streets and polished stone buildings. A flowing river falls right off the side of the island casting off mist and rainbows, and behind it are green gardens, and then a huge castle on a hill. It’s complete with turrets and towers, and a thick, shiny wall surrounding it.

I’m right in the heart of the realm. I’ve found the fae palace.