*CUPID'S MATCH BOOK 3* FIRST DRAFT
For the third time, follow Lila into a world of cupids, arrows, betrayal, and love, in the Watty award winning series with over 50 million reads online.
CUPID'S MATCH is published and in stores now!
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I wake with a start.
Something is wrong. I feel wrong.
There's a darkness inside me; a darkness I can't get rid of.
I blink, hard. I try to steady my breathing.
And for a moment I'm not sure where I am. The buzz of an artificial light sounds from somewhere outside the room, and I feel something digging into my cheek – but that gives me no clue. I raise my head slowly and groan as a pen clatters to the desk.
I'm in the school library.
I lean back in my chair and rub my face. I don't remember coming here, much less falling asleep.
I glance around me and notice the records of the Finis open in the center of the table. I frown. I'm not sure why I would have that. Slowly I reach for it. My fingers brush the dry parchment and a clatter resounds somewhere within the abandoned school.
Lila.
I think I hear my name.
My head jerks upward.
It's then that I see the rose petals – a line of them - leading towards the door.
My blood turns cold in my veins. The feeling of wrongness increases.
Very slowly I stand up. The scrape of the chair on the hardwood floor sounds abnormally loud in the darkness. Tentatively I follow the trail of red to the door. I turn the handle and step out into the abandoned corridor.
Lila.
"Who's there?"
Silence answers. My eyes catch the clock on one side of the locker lined hallway. It's almost midnight. Everyone is long gone. I'm alone.
But I'm not, am I?
Because someone scattered those rose petals here.
My heart hammers against my ribs. I think of the quiver full of arrows stuffed underneath my bed at home, and silently curse myself for not having it with me now. Then I take a deep breath, and I follow the dismembered flower heads.
They lead around the corner – trailing under the closed double doors of the school cafeteria at the end.
I remember the last time I came here at night – when the doors were guarded by the undead at the Cupid dance. My breathing quickens. This is where we caught him; the man that I killed. My mind starts to speak his name but I push it away.
He's gone. He's dead. He's no danger anymore.
I put my hand on the handle, and I hesitate.
This isn't smart. Something isn't right. And yet something inside of me yearns to go forward – to open that door; just as it did that night when I met Cupid on his terrace, back when I thought he was a danger to me.
