A Tale Of Cupidity – A K Caggiano (1)

It was retaliation for every game of fevga she beat him at, no doubt. Not that she had time lately to go to the agora and challenge him to a game. Or just catch up with him, listen to him bluster to the other cupids, take him down a notch with a cutting word or two, get one of those knowing smiles out of him that said he only exaggerated his stories so she would call him out.

Gods, if it were under better circumstances she might actually feel a flicker of joy at seeing his stupid, handsome face again. But then Markos went and opened his even stupider mouth. “Tell me Thalia: what is the point of being a cupid if you’re not willing to deliver the final jab when you identify a perfect match?” He stuffed his slingshot into the back pocket of his white linen trousers, and when he was no longer touching it, the weapon promptly vanished in a burst of sparkles.

He could have just let it go, and it would have slipped into the ether accessible only to cupids, but undoubtedly he wanted to draw attention to how low-slung he wore those pants. Especially since his bare chest was pretty much impossible to ignore. Thalia licked her lips, eyes trained briefly on the V-shaped muscle running over his hips and tapering unseen beneath that linen, then felt quickly for her protective veil.

It was still strong enough to shield them away from the humans, but it had been cast many hours ago. “Some of us just like to take our time.” She ran a finger down the foregrip of her crossbow and frowned at the still-loaded bolt. It was one of her best creations, and damn it, that was her love to spread. Thalia felt her lips twist up cruelly then. “Rushing things leads to mistakes.

Like with your so-called perfect pastry pair.” Markos lost his pompous grin, brows the same pastel pink as his shock of hair narrowing. “Bun Boy and Monsieur Croissant would have worked out if—” “They set their bakery on fire!” “Fire is…passionate,” he said, arms crossing over his chest and every muscle in his upper body flexing. Oh, that was not fair. “You’re lucky I came along with my Break-It-Off Bolts.” It was her turn to flash a triumphant smile.

“Or else you would have had a lot of explaining to do to the Amoretti.” Markos clicked his tongue, flicking his blue gaze away. “One mistake is worth it to be ahead of schedule as opposed to a dozen matches behind.” Thalia squeaked out a gasp so loud it echoed up into the library’s rafters and the patrons below looked around for the source.

Copyright © 2026 A. K. Caggiano All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from its author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. A Tale of Cupidity is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental, and would, frankly, be pretty damn wild, don’t you think? Cover Art, interior art, and formatting by A. K. Caggiano using Canva assets. For more, please visit: www.akcaggiano.com 1kitap1.com/en Contents Author’s Note & Content Warnings Dedication A Tale of Cupidity Thank You 1kitap1.com/en THANK YOU FOR PICKING up A Tale of Cupidity, a standalone short story of ~6500 words set in an existing contemporary fantasy world.

The reader need not know the details of The Vacant Universe to enjoy this piece. All proceeds from this short story will go to the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). I was inspired by R. Raeta who similarly donates all proceeds from her piece “The Call” to the ACLU. The world has always been full of horrors, but justice feels particularly far away right now for many. Often when authors raise money like this, they produce a piece of thoughtful fiction full of commentary or rage or other critical cleverness.

That was not my approach. Nothing on these pages was written as a response to the various problems we’re facing. What came out of me instead is a silly little love story with a hearty dose of of smut. It is not meant to trivialize, only to offer a breather from the atrocities. All that said, fuck ICE. *** Though the following is lighthearted, please be aware this story includes: Explicit intimacy on the page Explicit language Shooting of non-harmful weapons Weapons on the page 1kitap1.com/en For anyone struggling to get that project done.

*makes grabby hands for your art* Gimmie! 1kitap1.com/en THALIA’S AIM WAS ALWAYS true; the trouble was picking a target. She gnawed her lip, eyes pinging from one mark to the other. She’d been here many times, the same covert spot, the same restless thoughts, the same ache crawling up her spine to settle between her wings.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: a1fdcc5b1440262e
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,735,715 bytes (1.655 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 28
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 34.93 minutes
• Total Words: 6,986
• Total Characters: 39,174
• Average Words per Page: 249.5
• Average Characters per Page: 1399.07

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