26. Caleb

TWENTY-SIX

Caleb

I don’t know what possessed me to take Josie to Rocksmith Café, only that it felt as natural as breathing. It was like my feet just led us there of their own accord, and it didn’t click where we were until we were settling down at my favorite table. And maybe, deep down, I wanted to see her here, in my favorite haunt, to see how she fit.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised that she fit beautifully, warmly greeting Victory and settling into the second chair at my table like she’d been there with me all along. Victory took our drink orders with a smile, shooting me a knowing eyebrow waggle over Josie’s head before hurrying off to get the drinks.

“So, do you come here a lot?” Josie asked, looking curiously over the patio, the strange assortment of patrons, and the people flowing by in a constant stream. Everything felt fresh and bright, as if I were seeing it through her eyes.

“Yes, I do. This is the only place in Seattle where I’m a regular.”

The corner of her mouth quirked up at that. “Is that so? What’s so special about this place? ”

“Well, they have the best lemonade in Seattle, for one. The service is always good, for another. But the truth is…” I leaned forward, lowering my voice to a conspiratorial whisper, even as I was careful not to touch her, “this is a café for supernaturals.”

Her eyes widened, her lips dropping into a shocked “O.”

“Are you saying that everyone here is something… like you?”

“Sort of. They aren’t angels, but all supernatural beings are welcome here. The owner is dwarven, and he’s very set that everyone is safe under his roof. It’s a hospitality thing with dwarves.”

I allowed my senses to scan the room, a cupid habit, to see if there were any unmated supes awaiting their fate. Nothing unusual came to me—a happy witch with a fae, a dwarf not yet ready for his match, and then… a hum. I turned to see where it was coming from. The sound blocked me from sensing the supe’s status, and that never happened. I found a man, broad shouldered with nothing but muscle on him. He was dehydrated and dark circles were under his eyes as the hum emanated from the place where he sat.

A lone wolf.

The hair rose on the back of my neck as I inspected his condition more closely. He must have sensed it, because he looked up from his hands to meet my gaze.

The pain in his heart struck me like a knife.

He looked back down, and I allowed the hum to roll back through me, assessing it again with my powers. Something was horribly wrong with his aura, but I couldn’t address it with Josie sitting across from me.

Her eyes were wide as she looked closer at the other occupied tables on the patio. “So… they don’t care that I’m here? And why have I never noticed this place before now? ”

“It’s glamoured. You wouldn’t see it unless you already knew it was here or you were a supernatural being.”

“So, you guys can just… hide whole buildings from humans?”

“Supernatural species can do a lot more than you’d think.”

“ Clearly .” Josie stared wide-eyed at Victory as she set the drinks down in front of us and handed us each a menu.

As Josie studied the menu, I turned to look at the wolf shifter again. I had never experienced this sensation before—like his future had been veiled from me. His head was back in his hands, the hum ever present, but after a moment or two of concentrating, I realized that the hum wasn’t coming from him, it had been cast upon him. A curse.

He caught me looking at him again and was out of the café like a shot. My heart was heavy as I watched him go. He had a very complicated fate. A fate even I couldn’t begin to disentangle, because whatever curse he’d found himself under was not the purview of cupids.

I turned my attention back to Josie who was stuck on the menu as if that decision was going to make or break her.

“Want to try the club? It’s divine.” I shot her a wink to break the tension, and she snorted in laughter, then slapped both hands over her mouth, as if embarrassed it escaped.

“Yes. Yes, a club sounds, uh, great.” She half-choked out the last word.

“All right, two usuals, coming up.” Victory clicked her pen a few times as she walked off, shooting curious glances at us over her shoulder.

“What is our waitress? She seems so normal,” Josie whispered.

“She mostly is. Best I can tell, Victory had a werewolf ancestor a few generations back. For all intents and purposes, she’s human.”

“Oh, well, that’s kind of a letdown.”

I chuckled. “There are plenty of mixed-species people in Seattle. Not to mention, many supes can pass as human, even without a glamour.” I waved up and down at myself, to illustrate the point.

“This is blowing my mind. But it’s not why we’re here.” She cleared her throat to change the subject. “Let’s talk about your third couple. What are their names?”

She pulled a legal pad out of her messenger bag, along with a pink gel pen of her own.

“Marigold and Axel.” Their names were hard to get out, and gloom reared up inside me at the idea that this was the last couple we would match together before whatever came next.

“Ooh.” She leaned forward on her elbows. “Interesting names. Tell me about them. What makes them tick? Why are they so hard to match?”

I took a long pull of my lemonade to give me a second to regain my composure. I couldn’t focus on my problems right now. I had to get my job done, and then I would deal with the aftermath and what it meant for me—to be restored to the Host.

“They are very different people. The main binding thread is that they’re both environmentalists—they really care about Mother Earth and preserving the planet. But they have wildly different backgrounds, and all of my attempts to match them in the past have ended… fiery.”

“Fiery?”

“With them arguing, not kissing. They are practically enemies at this point.”

“Ooh, I love a good enemies-to-lovers!” She practically vibrated in her seat, and I had to chuckle at her genuine excitement.

“A what, now?”

“Enemies-to-lovers. You know, the romance book trope?”

I stared at her blankly.

“Caleb, you’re not seriously telling me that you’re a cupid ”—she dropped her voice low, even though she now knew everyone else there was in on the secret—“and haven’t ever read a romance novel? They’re the very epitome of love always winning. Very on-brand for a cupid. No matter how messed up the characters may be, they always come together in the end. Surely, you know the old saying—love conquers all.”

Love conquers all. It was one of the five core beliefs of a cupid. She made it sound so simple; yet how could it be, when she and I were what we were and could never cross the divide between us? If love couldn’t conquer the barrier we faced, how could I believe it conquered all ?

The realization disturbed me. Had I fallen further from my cupid calling than I realized? If the five core beliefs were no longer true?—

“Earth to Caleb!” Josie interrupted my dismayed train of thought with a grin on her face. “I know it’s a thing that men don’t like romance novels, but come on, you’re a cupid! Have you read one, or not?”

“Er, no? I’ve never needed to before. Do you think it would be helpful?”

“We have so much work to do. I don’t even know where to begin with your book-ducation. I mean, paranormal seems like a good fit, given what you are. Except you’re matching regular people, right?”

I nodded.

“So, contemporary. Enemies-to-lovers, for sure. I’m guessing we could find something else that fits them that could give you some ideas. Tell me more about them, and then after we finish our sandwiches, we can get right back to the shop!”

“Okay, well, they’ve known each other now for more than seven years, but the first time I matched them, I did it all wrong. They’re eco-warriors, and I decided to match them through a fender bender.”

“A fender bender?” She wrinkled her nose adorably.

“I know, okay? I realize now that it only drove a wedge between them. He was driving a luxury car, she was riding a city bus… He tapped the back of the bus, and ever since then, she thinks he doesn’t, and I quote, ‘put his money where his mouth is’ because he drives a gas vehicle and doesn’t take the bus.”

“Oh, this is too good! Okay, so, we need to draw them together on the ways they’re alike instead of different. Show them that they were wrong about each other. We can definitely work with that. Hmm… tell me what else you’ve tried.”

“There was a Lovers of Mother Earth conference two years ago, and I made them seatmates. That went over like a lead balloon. Then last year, I sent him to surf at her favorite beach. I thought with all the early morning sunlight and him in a wet suit instead of a business suit, maybe she’d see another side of him. Nope. Then?—”

“Here you go, guys. Let me know if you need anything else.” Victory dropped off our sandwiches, stopping me mid-rant.

“You get the idea,” I said after she left, taking the first bite of my favorite double-bacon club, though I hardly tasted it. The love-conquers-all thing had left me rattled. It was starting to feel like I was missing something. Things had gotten so complicated, when my life used to be simple. Follow the five core beliefs, match my assigned couples, always bet on love, and don’t get distracted by a human stealing my heart.

Being a cupid was not a confusing job.

So why couldn’t I be with Josie? If love always wins in the end, why couldn’t I have the woman I loved?

“I do,” Josie continued while I tried to silence the tortuous back-and-forth in my mind. “You get points for creativity, but now that it’s this bad, it’s going to take a real grand gesture to get them over their past differences. But it’s okay. When in doubt, we go to the books! Right after lunch, I’m going to show you around the part of the Bookish Cat that applies.”

Go to the books. I was jolted out of my train of thought with the reminder from Gabriel, about the book of angelic seals. I’d gotten so caught up in her issues with her landlord that I’d never followed up and asked Josie if she could help me find it.

“Speaking of books, I have a favor to ask.”

“For you? Anything.” The way she smiled at me froze the breath in my lungs. I couldn’t deny that I loved her, that I wanted her, that I wanted her as my Chosen . She was everything good and bright and beautiful about this world, in one perfect, curvy package.

But a quick glance around the packed patio was enough to put me off telling her that right now. For someone who was divinely driven to bring people together, I had terrible timing. Meanwhile, she was eagerly waiting to hear the favor I was about to ask.

“Okay, part of the reason I got into my predicament seven years ago was more than just making some mistakes matching my couples. I lost something, an angelic artifact, and it occurred to me that you might be able to help me find it.”

“O-kay…” She dragged the word out, looking confused.

“It’s a book. Leather cover, embossed with a feather, though I don’t know if a human would be able to make out the insignia. There’s nothing terribly unusual about it to the naked eye, though it holds a lot of power. The inside would look blank, actually, because only someone with angelic blood can read the angelic seals. And it has to be in the state because it can’t have gone far from where it was lost.”

Her eyes grew wide. “You lost an angelic book on Earth?”

“Yes, unfortunately. Makes your tax mishap not look so bad, huh?”

“What if it’s just gone? Stolen? Destroyed.”

“Ahh, good question.” She tilted her head, weighing the idea. “But the fact is, it has a kind of magnetism to me. It’s not lost forever, but it isn’t found either. I suspect a rare-books collector would be exactly the type of person it might find itself with. And that is now right in your wheelhouse. Do you think you could ask around, see if anyone has it in their collection, or maybe in a museum?”

She grew still, wiping her hands on her napkin thoughtfully. Her aura was an interesting shade. Confusion and... guilt? Strange.

“If it looks like a blank journal, how would someone know they’d found it? Journals are a dime a dozen, even old leather-bound ones. It’s a needle in a haystack.”

I drummed my fingers on the table, thinking. How would she know if she’d found it? “Well, I could obviously tell, if you were able to bring it to me. If not, you’d have to open it under the moonlight. Even though you wouldn’t be able to see what’s written on the pages of the book, there’s an inscription on the inside of the back cover, marking it for what it is. May I?”

I gestured to her notepad, and she passed it over. I quickly sketched out the sealing sigil on a blank page and slid it back across the table to her .

“I’ve never seen a journal with this in it, but I’ve also never made a point to look at one under the moonlight . I’ll keep an eye out and see if I can help you find it.” She took a big bite of the sandwich and scrunched up her face.

“You don’t like it?”

She set the sandwich down and looked out across the busy street. “I think I’ve lost my appetite.”