AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I didn’t want to be cynical about all this, but I found it hard to believe that two people could take a blood test and match up well.
After a few minutes, Mervyn returned and handed us each a piece of paper with two numbers on it.
I took mine. Ninety-seven and eight?
“The top number is how closely matched you are with your prospective partner,” he said. “The second is your room number.”
“You’re kidding.” I flashed him the paper. “Ninety-seven percent?”
That was basically soulmates, wasn’t it?
“Our highest match yet.” Mervyn beamed under the lip of his mask. “Exciting, no?”
Exciting? I wanted to throw up.
Nobody had mentioned accidentally finding someone I might actually connect with. Where was the informal fling Kira promised?
“No way!” Kira snatched the paper off me and held it up against hers. Whoever she was about to meet had a seventy-nine percent match with her. “I thought seventy-five percent was the average?”
“Ooh, I like my chances then,” Allison said, holding her paper to her chest.
“Seventy-five percent was our average. However, after today, I expect it will be a little higher.” Mervyn handed us each a Venetian mask. “Please, put these on and we can begin.”
Kira jammed hers onto her face before he had even finished speaking. Before my eyes, she transformed from a blond, silver-winged fae to a redheaded, black-winged one.
“Ooh, lovely!” Allison said, before fitting hers onto her face.
I shot out a hand to steady her as she shrank an inch and teetered toward me in surprise. Bright-pink tones spread through her hair from root to tip, and as I held her arm up to help her upright, I noticed her skin was a shade darker.
“Come on, don’t be a wimp.” Kira poked me in the shoulder as Allison righted herself. “You’re doing this with us, aren’t you?”
I stared down at the red mask in my hands. The whole reason I had agreed to do this was because I wanted to seize the day a little more. And how dumb would I have to be to turn down a ninety-seven percent match with someone, no matter how scary it sounded?
I put the mask on, which stuck to my face like a magical magnet. The strands of hair around my face lightened, and I grabbed a lock in time to watch the blond seep down to the tips.
In a moment of rebellion as a teenager, I had wanted to turn bleach-blond, but I’d chickened out at the salon. I made a note to check myself out in the next reflective surface I found.
“Ladies, if you’ll follow me, please.” Mervyn led the way to another door across the room and we followed him through it, arm in arm.
We walked down a red-carpeted corridor that seemed to go on forever, lined with doors bearing numbers.
“This is me!” Kira squeezed my arm before she unhooked herself from me. “Wish me luck!”
“Happy boinking,” I said as she opened the door.
Allison giggled at my shoulder. Kira made an obscene hand gesture at me before dashing inside.
“Even if ours goes wrong, at least Kira will have a good time,” Allison said as we continued down the corridor.
“Silver lining,” I said.
My insides writhed like snakes as we walked along. Somewhere behind one of these doors, someone I was supposed to have a strong connection with waited for me.
The number ninety-seven seared itself to the front of my mind, refusing to let me forget that whoever this person was might have high hopes if they had been informed about our match percentage. Considering how little I had wanted to come here, would I disappoint them when they got to know me?
Mervyn stopped us in our tracks, and it wasn’t until Allison nudged me that I caught sight of the number eight on the door we had stopped by.
Oh, gods.
