Crimes of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 3)

Daylight suddenly appears where it wasn’t before, and huge wooden splinters start falling from the ceiling as it rips apart. Screaming ensues as dust and debris falls down, and Ronak tackles me to the ground, covering my body with his.

I hear shouting and more crashes all around us, and when I peek up between Ronak’s limbs, I see a huge animal of some sort perched on the destroyed ceiling.

The thing is scaled and black, has at least two rows of razor-sharp teeth, and two huge emerald eyes that have no irises or pupils. When it opens its mouth to screech, something black and foul smelling emits. It shoots out of its mouth like black sparks, and wherever it lands, it burns and fills the air with the scent of sulfur.

It’s phoukas!” I hear Ronak shouting. “We need to get her out of here!”

I’m pulled to my feet, and both Evert and Sylred take one of my hands and then start pulling me toward the crumbled wall that once stood tall and seamless. Now, it’s a heap of rubble and wooden splinters, and I can see genfins running and shouting outside.

I nearly trip over the debris at my feet, but Evert manages to keep me upright. When we get outside, I look around in horror at the destruction I see. Those phouka animals are everywhere. There has to be at least two dozen of them.

They’re tearing through the town, burning things left and right with their weird spark-breath, while more scour the street, biting and attacking any genfins who get in their way. The only advantage the genfins have are their wings, but when I look up, I see a horde of the prince’s high fae soldiers stationed in the air, holding bows and training them on the genfins. Any of them that try to take flight to escape the phoukas get shot down with dozens of arrows.

Ronak pulls us into a destroyed building that looks like it used to be some sort of café. Ripping up furniture, he props one up in front of us and stacks another on top, letting us crouch beneath it as we watch through the hole in the wall at the destruction and frenzy outside.

“We can’t stay here!” Sylred yells over the noise. “Emelle, go invisible and get back to the rebel island.”

I start to argue, but all three of them bear down on me. “Now, Emelle!” Ronak snarls.

“Fine, I’ll go invisible, but I’m not leaving,” I tell them firmly, leaving no room for argument.

With a breath, I pop into the Veil…and Ronak completely loses his shit.

Like a bomb going off, his whole body jolts and his furious, feral animal comes barreling out.

“Oh, shit!” Evert shouts, barely dodging Ronak’s claw that comes swiping out to attack him.

I go visible again and pounce on Ronak’s back, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Ronak!” I scream in his ear.

As soon as my skin is touching his, I feel his body jolt again, and Ronak stumbles forward, falling onto his knees. Panting, he looks over at me, his eyes bleeding back to black.

“Shit,” Evert curses.

Ronak and I are both breathing heavy, staring at each other as realization hits.

“I can’t go into the Veil,” I say. “If I do, he goes feral again.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Ronak says through gritted teeth, even though he’s still panting. “Do it. It’s the safest way for you.”

Sylred draws a hand over his dirty face, and I see a cut on his forehead where something must have fallen on his head. “He’s right, Emelle. If things get bad, you have to. Ronak can fight in his feral form, and as long as you’re safe, there’s a chance you can pull him back out of it. But we all need to know you’re okay.” Sylred turns back to the guys,. “We need to get back at the meeting place for the portal and get out of here.”

Ronak nods and I unwind my arms from around him as he gets shakily to his feet. The jolt from changing from his animal to himself has taken a toll on him, though he tries to hide it, and I know that he’s still feeling the after-effects of being weakened by his iron cell for so long.

“I’ll take point,” Ronak says in a hard voice. “You two flank her. We have no weapons, so we’ll have to do this half-animal.” He looks at me. “You don’t stop running. If we get separated, you keep going to the portal. If danger comes, you go into the Veil.”

“But you’ll—”

He cuts me off. “Doesn’t matter. You go invisible. The prince wants you. He’s punishing us for being your mates. He’s pissed that he’s never been able to capture any of us. Do not let him get you.”

I want to argue, to insist that I stay with them, but the hardness in his eyes is never going to relent, and I know right now what he needs is for me to agree to his plan so that he can focus on getting the rest of his covey to safety.

“When you three get to the portal, keep Emelle safe. If the rebel base is compromised, go somewhere else and lie low.”

When he moves to leave, I catch his arm. “Wait, what about you?” I demand.

He shakes his head. “I can’t leave our people. I have to try and help defend them.”

“Don’t you dare,” I hiss. “I’m not going without you.”

Ronak looks back at me dispassionately, and then glances over my shoulder at Evert. “That’s an order. Now let’s go.”

He turns and starts walking out, and I scream at his back, only for Evert to tug me forward by the arm and Sylred to clamp a hand over my mouth.

The street is a mess.

Genfins are lying dead on the ground. The cobblestones are blackened and steaming, the domed buildings up and down the street are caved in and are nothing more than piles of rubble and that strange black smoke.

There is screaming and fighting and crying all around us, and when I see a little girl sobbing over three dead genfin bodies, I shove past Sylred to scoop her up. She screams and tries to wrench away, but I hold onto her and glare at Evert when he looks like he’s about to argue.

“Come on,” he snaps, pulling me forward again.

We keep to the edge of the street, using the ruined buildings to our advantage. All of the animals seem to be concentrated behind us at the egg building, but there are genfins fighting with high fae soldiers ahead of us with more phoukas threatening to tear them apart.

Sylred takes the little girl from me, tucking her against his chest. The thick smoke in the air is making it hard to breathe, but it also gives us the cover we wouldn’t normally have otherwise. As she continues to scream and sob, I hear him immediately start to hum, filling the air with his strange sound power in order to soothe her.

But that cover works against us, too, because my eyes start burning through the strange smoke and ash that rains down on us. All I can see are shadows moving past us, and when we round a corner, a pair of phoukas spot us. A scream wrenches out of me when both of them launch at Ronak.

The things are as big as stallions, but their reptilian bodies make them look like some weird lizard horse with sparks coming of its huffing mouth and smoking nostrils.

Ronak, shirtless, weakened, and still on shaky terms with his animal, doesn’t hesitate to take them on. My strength-empowered mate steps in front of both beasts, blocking them from us. Lifting a leg, he aims a kick at the chest of the first one, his power making the thing go flying back and landing in a heap, dazed and even more pissed off than before.

But Ronak has already moved on to the second Phouka, grabbing the thing by its neck with his bare hands and snapping its spine.

He does all of this in the span of mere seconds, his eyes flashing back and forth between gold and black, his muscular body shaking with adrenaline and tension. When we see more shadows surrounding us, this time it’s two more beasts accompanied by a half a dozen high fae soldiers. The soldiers move as one, their movements so perfectly synchronized that it looks odd.

Ronak draws himself up in front of them, making himself look ten times scarier. “Go!” he shouts to us.

Sylred starts pulling me in the other direction, the child still in his arms. “Wait!” I say desperately, trying to get out of his grip. He doesn’t let up, of course.

“That many of them will kill him!”

“And if anything happened to you, that would kill him, too!” Sylred shouts back at me.

When I look back, I see Ronak and Evert fighting off the horde, but they don’t have weapons and they’re vastly outnumbered. I know, with absolute certainty, that if I leave them now, they’ll die.

And I won’t let that happen.