Cupid’s Match

Part 4 – Chief Executive Officer

An extract from the Company Policy

1. Once hit by the Cupids’ Arrow, you enter the service of the Founder indefinitely. On entering the service, you will make matches to serve the almighty power of the Founder and perform occasional additional duties as required. These may include sacrifice, arson, theft, battle, protection, guarding, cleaning, general maintenance, chauffeuring, and any other such tasks that may fall under the scope of serving the Founder.

2. Upon joining the service, you will have exactly one month to put your human affairs in order before surrendering your former identity indefinitely. This will include severing ties with family members, friends, and romantic partners in order to focus your attention solely on the tasks cited in Rule One.

3. You may be required to relocate to one of the many global Matchmaking branches to fulfill Rule Two. On doing so, you will be eligible for our relocation package, including a new home and your own personal cupid mentor.

4. You will master the art of the bow and arrow in order to excel in the duties cited in Rule One.

5. NO CUPID MUST EVER BE MATCHED.

Upon adhering to the Rules, you shall be rewarded with a benefits package including eternal youth, beauty, strength, wealth, and a company carriage. Any breaking of the Rules will result in the return of the Founder herself, whereupon she will take back her position as CEO of the Cupids Matchmaking Service.

Any rule breakers will be put on trial and punished most severely.

Venus, Founder and Goddess

Cal glares at us through the sheets of pounding rain. For a moment no one speaks. My head is whirling from the kiss, Cupid’s words, and Cal’s news.

Mom’s home.

“Get inside,” he snarls. “The pair of you.” Then he spins on his heel and goes back through the door.

Hesitantly, I pull my gaze up to Cupid. A mixture of longing and regret swirls behind his eyes.

I touch my lips. I can feel the memory of his kiss bruised onto them. What have we done?

Cal is on the phone inside, his back to us both. As Cupid closes the terrace door, Cal turns, revealing two towels tucked under his arm. He throws one at Cupid, who catches it warily, then thrusts the other out to me. His silver eyes blaze with fury, but I can sense something else there too. Something that looks a lot like pain.

“Thank you,” I mumble, taking the towel and looking down at my feet. I remember our dance, the way his arms closed around me. Maybe it had meant more to him than it had to me.

“What’s going on there now, Crystal?” he asks, pushing the phone back to his ear and stalking off down the hallway.

I look up at Cupid, the towel hanging limply in my hand. He’s used his to dry his hair, which now stands up in random spikes.

“Here,” he says, gently taking my towel and looping it over my shoulders. As he brushes a strand of wet hair behind my ear, I shiver, unsure if it’s related to the cold or the effect of Cupid standing so close.

I shake my head, panic growing inside me. “What have we done? Is Venus really back?”

“Afraid so, lovebug.”

He lets me go and I take a step back, my stomach churning. “I should never have kissed you.” The horror of what we’ve unleashed is slowly dawning on me.

“It was already too late,” he says. “My feelings have been growing for a while. I let my guard down because I didn’t think you liked me.” He tilts his head a little. “But your feelings were growing too.”

Despite the situation, he seems almost pleased. He touches my cheek, his thumb leaving a trail of energy against my skin. His mouth parts slightly and it takes everything in me not to grab his wet shirt and kiss him again.

“You’re supposed to be a love god,” I say, “and you couldn’t tell I liked you?”

“I told you—subtlety isn’t my strong suit,” he says. “Next time get some flashing I Like Cupid badges and wave some flags.”

“I would have but they were all out of them at the store.”

He laughs. “You could have told me.”

“I couldn’t.” I shake my head. “I was mad at you. I am mad at you.”

“I know, lovebug, and I deserve it.”

“Plus, I think I was lying to myself. Like, if I told myself I wasn’t into you then maybe I could make myself believe it.”

He shifts his gaze to the floor and the smile falls from his lips. “I should never have come here.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” snaps Cal, clanging back up the spiral staircase. He’s carrying the black case for the Finis replica under his arm—I presume that this time it holds the real thing. “Venus is sending a team here to arrest us all,” he says. “Now.”

Then he races down the hallway and vanishes into a room across from Cupid’s bedroom. I spin back toward Cupid, who looks resigned.

“We’ll fight this, Lila,” he says, then gestures that we should go after his brother.

We follow Cal into a large study with a prominent mahogany desk. Six monitors cover its surface, and the large tinted-glass wall behind gives a view of the approach to Juliet Hill. The sky is pink in the early dawn.

Cal places the Finis on the desk then leans over to switch on the screens. He looks at Cupid, oddly calm despite his fury. “I take it you still have all your security systems set up?”

Cupid nods and falls back into a leather recliner in the corner of the room.

“We’re staying here, then?” I ask. “Shouldn’t we be, I don’t know . . . running away?”

Cal glares at me. “Don’t you understand? They’re on their way. Now. We’ll never get away in time, and even if we could—Venus is after us. Venus with the full force of the Matchmaking Service behind her—the Matchmaking Service that, in case you’ve forgotten, has an extensive web of worldwide surveillance. There’s nowhere to hide.”

I stare at him defiantly. “But they know we’re here, so we definitely won’t get away if we stay, will we?”

“We’ll keep them out,” Cal says. “Or we’ll try to, anyway.”

He pushes another button on the computer. There is a whirring sound as metal bars slide down to cover the glass window.

“I have them over all my windows,” says Cupid, noticing me staring. “Can’t be too careful nowadays.”

“What happens if they get in?” I ask.

“I don’t know for sure,” Cal says icily, “but I imagine we’ll all die.”

“All right, easy now, Brother . . .” Cupid says.

Suddenly, a shuffling noise comes from down the hallway. As the three of us look toward the door, Cal reaches for a letter opener that sits on the desk. My heartbeat quickens. Then Charlie walks in, rubbing her eyes.

She glances at Cupid and me, drenched with rain, and the small blade in Cal’s hand. She wrinkles her nose.

“What’s going on?”

“The match was made,” says Cal coldly. “Venus is back, and her agents are coming to arrest us all.”

“Oh,” Charlie says. “Damn.”

“Yes,” Cal says, “damn indeed.” He fires another look at Cupid. “Any idea how to get out of this mess you’ve got us into?”

Cupid sighs. “Perhaps.” He pushes himself up out of the chair, shedding his towel, and comes to gently take my hands in his. “It’ll be okay, we’ll get out of this.”

Charlie clears her throat.

“You, too, Charlie.” He grins then turns to his brother. “Come to the combat room with me, we need to get set up with weapons.”

For a moment the two brothers seem at an impasse, Cupid staring at Cal as though silently communicating something. Cal frowns. Then he nods sharply and the two of them walk toward the exit of the room.

“Lila, Charlie,” Cal says at the door. “Keep an eye on the monitors. We have surveillance cameras all over the house and grounds. You see anyone approaching and you shout, okay?” He’s gone before either of us can agree.

Charlie and I hurry around to the other side of the desk. Different parts of the house and grounds flicker in black and white across the screens.

“So, the match was made,” Charlie says lightly.

I look down. “I’m so sorry, Charlie,” I say. “You should never have been involved in any of this.”

She shrugs and slides into the chair facing the monitors. “It’s not so bad being a cupid. Forever young, powerful, weirdly good at archery. The resurrection of an ancient goddess who wants to kill us is a bit of a downer, though.”

Although there’s fear in her expression, she grins. I can’t help but grin back.

“Did you kiss then?” she asks.

I roll my eyes and laugh. The end of the world is coming and she still wants to gossip about boys. I nod.

“Any good?”

I think back to Cupid’s warm hands on my body, the taste of his kisses mixed with raindrops. “You could say that.”

She leans her head against my arm and we fall into silence, staring at the grayscale monitors.

A few minutes later the brothers reappear. Between them, they carry bows and quivers for all of us, each quiver filled with all three different types of arrows. Cupid hands Charlie and me ours, then shares another odd look with his brother. Cal opens the case on the table and slips the Finis into his quiver, hiding it among the other arrows. I’m surprised—I thought that Cupid would have wanted to be the one to take it, given killing Venus was the original reason he came to Forever Falls.

A movement on one of the monitors stops the question in my throat. Tiny shapes are appearing on Juliet Hill. I grab the edge of the desk to prevent the tremble in my hand.

What I see is even worse than I’d imagined. This isn’t a team of agents; it’s an army.

“Oh my God,” I say, my voice barely a whisper. “They’re coming.”