*CUPID'S MATCH BOOK 2* FIRST DRAFT
Lila receives an ominous Valentine's Day card.
Cupid & Cal are keeping a dark secret.
Fate is being interfered with.
And a sadistic, and extremely powerful banished cupid is intent on stealing Lila's heart. Literal...
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Cupid and I walk hand in hand down the corridor toward the trial room. As my eyes brush across the black and white patterned walls, bad memories flicker through my mind – like being marched down here, hands bound, on the way to Venus's trial. If we fail – Venus is coming back. But then again – if we fail - I will be dead before then anyway.
I need your heart for what I'm to do.
My body feels cold.
But I feel a steely determination hardening among the panic. Because I think I've figured this out. And our time may be running out, but we will fight this. We have to.
The murmur of voices permeates through the double doors at the end of the hallway. Cupid squeezes my hand as we pause in front of it. We share a look – his hair ruffled and his eyes burning as they catch mine. Together we walk through.
It's packed with people wearing white suits.
All cupids who weren't too injured from Valentine's escape are congregated in here, and we have to push through the crowds to reach the raised platform at the front. I'm vividly brought back to the moment when Cupid, Crystal, and I were tied to poles erected on the platform. I blink, dispelling the image and bringing myself back into the moment.
Crystal is stood on the stage behind a lectern – surveying the crowd before her. She nods at us when she sees us, then her gaze sweeps the trial room once more.
An annoyed grumbling to one side of me catches my attention and I turn to watch as Charlie barges through a group of Matchmaking Agents, looking somewhat disheveled in her jeans and crumpled white top from the fight she's just had, and comes to stand beside me.
"Have I missed anything?" she says.
"No," I tell her. "I think Crystal is waiting for everyone to get here."
When I'd told Crystal and the others where I'm sure the hearts are being being kept, she'd leapt into action; calling a Matchmaking Service wide meeting ahead of whatever battle might be to come. Then she'd sent Mino off to recruit Selena and her sirens, and as many of the myths that had fought with us against Venus last time as possible, while Cassie was sent to a meeting room to call the Fates.
"I have a feeling it's not going to be as simple as just destroying the hearts," she'd said darkly back in the dungeons. "Cassie prophesized a battle. That means Valentine will have back-up – probably the whole of his zombie army. And he has help from someone – who is as yet unknown to us, but unmistakably powerful. We need to be prepared."
Charlie says something and I jolt myself out of my memories and back into the trial room.
"Huh? Has Cal found out who helped Valentine escape yet?" I ask her.
She shakes her head, then winces and rubs her neck.
"He's still looking," she says. "Whoever it was – they somehow hacked our system, stopped the surveillance from recording anything during the time they were in the building."
