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."

"You think it was a cupid?" I say. "Someone on the inside?"

"I don't know," she says darkly. "Cal doesn't think so – whoever it was completely blindsided us all. And after all the cupids that Valentine has killed he can't believe anyone would help him. But I don't know who else would be able to hack the system."

A thought occurs to me.

"Valentine was able to hack the system," I say. "Maybe he told someone how to do it."

"I keep thinking about that," says Cupid suddenly over the lull. I look up at him, my eyes tracing the light stubble that has started to grow on his face, and the unmistakable smear of blood on his black leather jacket. "We've been assuming that Valentine knew how to do that because he used to work here – but he hasn't been part of the Matchmaking Service for years," he says. "The system would have been upgraded countless time since then. Plus, there's the fact that he's been in a Sim for almost a century."

I nod, understanding what he's saying.

"What if it's the other way around?" I say. "What if someone told Valentine how to do it?"

Cupid looks over my head at someone.

"Don't suppose you've had any prophecies lately, Cass?" he says. "Something useful...I mean."

I turn as she pushes through the crowd that Charlie just barged through – adding to their disgruntled muttering. She stuffs her cell phone into the pocket of her skinny jeans and shakes her head.

"No," she says. "It's kinda weird actually. I haven't seen anything past what I told you earlier. And even that's pretty fuzzy. I tried looking into the Fates' computer code after I'd texted Cal the other day – not that I'm meant to, but I'm guessing you're not going to tell on me," she adds with a sly grin, her dark eyes bright, "but the code seemed different to usual. I didn't understand it."

She shrugs.

"Your prophecy before," I say, "the one that was left in my locker at school. It said I should stay away from my match on Valentine's Day. We asked Morta about it but she wouldn't explain. What did it mean?"

I think of what Valentine said – a grin wide on his face. Turns out the hearts of you and your match can be used to bring Venus through the barrier of the dead.

I glance at Cupid – fear again beginning to twist inside of me.

"Did you just mean that he was going to take both of our hearts?" I say.

She frowns.

"I don't know. My prophecies come to me in different forms, with different levels of detail. I had a feeling whatever he was planning needed you and your match, together, to succeed. That's all."

I nod, my head feeling heavy. I'd hoped for, but hadn't really expected, something more insightful.

"You get in touch with the Fates?" I ask her.

"No answer. I left a message. I'll try again later."

"Later?" says Cupid. "Not to panic anyone... but I don't think we have a later... it's Valentine's Day in four hours..."

Before we can continue our conversation, Crystal clears her throat and we all snap our heads to the stage where she stands in her crisp white suit, blue eyes blazing fiercely.

"Thank you for coming here at such short notice," she says, her voice amplified by a small microphone on her lectern and echoing off the tall stone pillars erecting the high ceiling. The cavernous room falls into silence. "Today, as you know, we experienced an attack and – the rumors circulating for the past half hour are true - Valentine has indeed escaped from the custody of the Cupids Matchmaking Service."

A murmuring breaks out across the vast room. Charlie and I share a look.

"As many of you know – Valentine plans to bring back our original founder. And he plans to do this on his day – which begins in approximately four hours." She pauses, looking around the room. I follow her gaze, seeing a mixture of anger and fear among the cupids. "To stop him, and to send Venus back to the underworld for good, we need to destroy the hearts that Valentine is using to control his undead army. We destroy those – Valentine loses his army and Charon takes back his ship. Lila, who you all know by now, has determined where the hearts have been hidden – and she will be heading out to retrieve them. However – we don't think it will be as easy as strolling into the hiding place."

She looks around the trial room again – her cheeks flushed with passion.

"Valentine and his army will be waiting. And so now, I must call upon you all to stand by us. To stand by the rest of humanity. To stand by our agents who have been killed by Valentine. I must ask you to arm yourselves."

The tension in the room seems to buzz, a force of its own. All around me agents stand tall, stiff, to attention. Beside me Charlie's jaw sets in determination. Cupid squeezes my hand tightly. Crystal's eyes blaze.

"Because tonight we rid this world of Venus once and for all," she says. "Tonight we go to war."

***

As the noise is dying down and Matchmaking Agents begin to make their way toward of the trial room and toward the combat training and weaponry for arrows Cal hurries onto the stage. He barges right into Crystal as she's making her way toward us, his face pale.

Has he found something on the surveillance?

I touch Cupid's arm and look up at the platform, alerting his attention to it. The two talk agitatedly and we hurry up the steps to the stage to see what's going on. Charlie and Cassie, who are talking about whether or not Cassie has foreseen a good grade on Charlie's latest math test, break off from their conversation as they see us move and follow us up.

Crystal shakes her head at Cal as we approach – but her eyes don't look like they believe in the movement.

"No – it can't be..."

"Why else would they have been there if not to help him?" snaps Cal. "And it makes sense. Think about it."

"What is it?" I say as we congregate around them.

Cal's eyes find me, then Cupid, and flash silver.

"I thought you couldn't find anything on the surveillance?" says Charlie behind me.

"I couldn't – so I rewound to the summer and found the crypt in Dublin where Cupid trapped Valentine in the sim," he says.

He pauses and Cupid raises an eyebrow.

"And...? Get to the point, brother..."

Cal's expression darkens.

"The surveillance cut out again, around the time of his escape, but I found someone wandering around Dublin that I didn't expect..."

Cupid makes an impatient gesture with his hand.

"I saw Nona..." he says.

Cassie tenses beside me.

"Who?!" I say.

I don't know the significance of this name, but Cupid's eyebrows furrow and something hardens behind his eyes. His eyes shift toward Cassie, suspicion behind them, then he looks at me.

"Morta's sister," he says. "One of the Fates."

A coldness begins to swell inside my body. Cassie shakes her head violently.

"No way," she says. "They're not involved. They can't get involved in humanity. They have a code to stick to, laws, rules. They wouldn't break that."

"It makes sense," says Cal – ignoring Cassie's vehement outburst. "How else did Valentine find the threads of life? How else did he insert Cupid back into the system? And the attack here earlier...someone with power was behind it."

"Plus, when we think about it, Morta gave her shears up to Valentine way too easily," says Cupid.

Crystal blinks hard, then nods reluctantly – meeting Cal's gaze.

"OK, I see it, I think you're right. The Fates have something to do with all this."

Cassie frowns, her eyes dark. We all turn to her and she raises her hands.

"I admit all that sounds a bit fishy..." she says. She sighs. "And I suppose it explains why I couldn't read the code for this evening. They must have encrypted it..." she looks at us, her eyes widening. "You gotta believe I knew nothing about this..."

"Really great oracle you've turned out to be..." Cupid says, rolling his eyes.

She turns on him.

"I told you I can't control what I see!"

The two continue to bicker, but all I can think of is the power that radiated off Morta – the fear that Cupid and Cal seem to have for the sisters. It further stirs the panic rising within me.

"This is bad, isn't it?" I say, silencing the others.

Cal turns to me and nods, his face white.

"I just don't understand why they're doing this," he says.

***

Fifteen minutes later I sit in the back of the Aston Martin; Cupid drives while Cal sits stiffly in the front. The trunk is loaded with weapons. Charlie stayed behind with Crystal, to join us shortly when the Matchmaking Service army is ready.

"You sure this is the location of the hearts?" says Cal as we drive through the darkness toward Malibu.

I think about my conversation with Valentine, back in the Sim, his shocking blue eyes burning into mine.

What is your earliest memory?

I guess playing on the beach with my mom... I went into a cave and thought I was lost.

I think about Cassie's prophecy.

There will be a battle by water.

And I think of the location of Charon's home, and the fact his cleaner said that his ferry was docked nearby.

I grit my teeth then nod sharply.

"Yes," I say. "They're in one of the caves at El Matador State Beach – along the Malibu Coast. I'm sure of it."

Cupid glances at the clock on the dashboard.

9:30pm.

He puts his foot down on the accelerator.

"We need to get a move on," he says. "It's about an hour away. And it's almost Valentine's Day."

(next chapter now up too!>>>)