Bonds of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 2)

“This bread is, like, the best,” I say, stuffing another piece of the warm loaf into my mouth.

It practically melts on my tongue. I wash it down with something called nectarale and then devour the piece of purple fruit on my plate next. “This fruit is the best,” I moan.

“You said that about the bread already,” Sylred points out, his brown eyes crinkling at the sides.

“She also said that about the meat she practically inhaled,” Evert adds.

“She’s a big fan of fairy wine, too,” Okot says.

Ronak looks at him, amused. “She got drunk, didn’t she?”

Okot laughs, but quickly smothers it when I shoot him a glare. I try to remind him not to tell my secrets, but my mouth is so full that I pretty much just mumble incoherently.

Evert is leaning back against the wall, sitting across from where I’m perched on the floor as I enjoy the last of my meal. “You keep eating and drinking that fast, and you’re going to make yourself sick.”

He looks around at my plethora of empty plates on the floor and sees gluttony. I see success.

I open my mouth so I can retort something dazzlingly witty, but my stomach clenches, and my throat heaves with a forceful noise. It’s so sudden that it startles me, and just as my first ever hiccup erupts from my mouth, I pop into the Veil.

I stare in shock at the four guys who are gaping open-mouthed at the space I was just visible in.

After a moment of silent shock, Sylred says, “Did she just…”

“Hiccup herself invisible? Yep.” Evert says as he picks up one of my plates and starts helping himself to my leftovers.

I glare at him. “You ass(hiccup)hole. Stop (hiccup) eating (hiccup) my food.” Oh my gods. I already had to deal with an itch that lasted over half a century. If I have to deal with hiccups for even a whole day, I will literally go on a cupid tangent.

“Umm, should we be concerned?” Sylred ventures.

Evert just keeps eating my food. Asshole.

“Emelle?” Ronak says. “Try to pop yourself back in.”

I scoff. “Oh, yeah, I’ll just (hiccup) snap my fingers and (hiccup) pop myself right back into the physical (hiccup) realm like it’s no big (hiccup) freaking deal!” I pretend to snap my fingers for added drama.

I blink when my fingers don’t go through themselves. “Oh.”

The genfins smirk at me in all my physical glory. My hiccups are gone, too, thank gods.

I look over my body, but my eye catches on my wing. “What the hell?” I yelp.

On the edge of my right wing, growing right in between all my red feathers, is a single black feather.

Evert reaches forward to touch it. “Huh. That’s weird.”

“Her eyes,” Sylred says suddenly. “Look at her eyes.”

“What’s wrong with my eyes?” I ask shrilly.

They all lean in for a closer look. “They’re not blue anymore.”

“What? What color are they?” I ask, poking at my eye as if that’s going to help answer the question.

“They’re sort of…all the colors?”

I blanche. “What do you mean all the freaking colors, Sylred?”

He passes me a small mirror from the bedside table and I snatch it up, holding it in front of my face. My eyes are indeed all the colors. They look like prisms, constantly reflecting light and facets of it shining back like a rainbow. “What. The. Hell.”

“So, she accidentally pops into the Veil and then comes back with a black feather and different eyes,” Ronak summarizes. “That’s weird.”

Okot comes over and kneels in front of me. “Do you feel alright, my beloved?”

I put the mirror down and assess myself. “Yeah, I think so.”

I look around him to glare at the genfins. “For the recond, you guys really suck at being my almost-mates. Okot is much nicer than you,” I tell them.

I point a finger at Sylred. “You. You’re supposed to be the nice one. I expected better from you. You’re not supposed to laugh when I hiccup myself invisible. I’m gonna table this whole feather and eye color thing for now, because I can’t handle anymore crazy, but as of this moment, you’re all in trouble. So there.”

I put myself in Okot’s lap and smirk in victory when the genfins narrow their eyes at my current show of favoritism.

“Not me. I’m not in trouble,” Evert argues.

“Yes. Even you. I turned invisible, and you just sat there and ate my food.”

He snorts. “Please. You can’t stay mad at me. I fucking own this mate shit.”

Sylred clears his throat. “Speaking of mates…”

“We should return to our home island and begin the mating ceremony,” Ronak inserts.

I sigh in fake boredom. “Hmm, I don’t know…I’m gonna need a little wooing.”

Three sets of eyes blink at me. “…Wooing? What the fuck is wooing?”

“You know, romance. Love. Flirting. Nice stuff,” I emphasize.

“Oh here the fuck we go,” Evert mumbles. He points at Okot. “You. This is your fault. Stop being so gentlemanly. You’re making us look bad.”

At first, I think this will offend Okot, but then I feel his rumbling chuckle against my arm. “All I heard was that I’m not in trouble,” he says with a smug shrug.

I turn to grin at him. “That’s right. And we need to confirm our bond.”

The red ring around his black eyes flare to life, pulsing in color and size. “You…are ready to confirm our bond?”

Oh. Should I have said that in private? And am I making things weird for the others? Crap, I don’t know how to do this covey mate stuff.

I quickly scramble to my feet and all four of the guys rise to stand with me. “Okay, so I know Okot and Evert talked to me about this stuff, but I think all of us should talk. Or, I mean, at least discuss a bit about…you know. Because this can’t get weird. If this gets weird, I’ll just die. I mean, not literally, but you get what I’m saying, right? So we should talk it out. Make sure we’re all on the same page. We are on the same, page, right? That’s what Evert and Okot said, but I want to make sure. You’re all gonna be my mates and stuff, but I don’t want anyone to get mad, or jealous, or resent me, or—”

Ronak takes pity on me and cuts me off. “Emelle. Stop. Breathe.”

I take in a huge inhale. My rambling really has repercussions sometimes. Like lack of oxygen.

My wide eyes focus on Ronak for further command. Guy should be in charge of an army or something. I totally get the alpha vibe from him. He has that title on lockdown. I look him up and down, envisioning him in uniform. Hell yeah. Guy should totally be in charge of an army. I’d let him shout orders at me all day long. And all night long, too.

“Emelle.”

Right. Focus.

“Hmm?”

“The four of us know what we’re agreeing to,” he says calmly. “We accept each other as your mates and we give you our word that there will be no hostility in this covey.”

I look between them all. “Really? Just like that? You really don’t mind…sharing me? Because I gotta say, I’ve been floating around the human realm for the last sixty years and this wasn’t a thing there.”

Sylred shrugs. “The three of us were always going to share, so it’s natural for us. And we are fae, not human.”

“And you’re really okay with not getting your genfin super powers or whatever?” I eye Ronak. “I need you to be positive about this, Not-First.”

He’s the only one out of all of them that I’m not really sure about. He’s harder to read than a Dostoyevsky book.

“I’m positive,” he says simply, his dark eyes locked on mine. “And can you stop calling me Not-First? That stupid first kiss competition has been over for a long time.”

“No, I can’t. It’s a pet-name. Anyway, are you all positive that you want to have me for a mate when it’s pretty much a death sentence? The prince hates me. If he finds out you’re my mates…”

“Like I said, we know what we’re agreeing to.”

I blow out a breath. “Okay. So…we’re really doing this?”

Evert groans. “How many times do we have to say it? We’re really fucking doing this. Get used to it.”