Free The Love Lottery by Linda Andrews Page A

practically sticking her nose in the mayor's face.
    "She is in all the ways that matter. If we are truly the disciples of Cupid then the people who fill our heart are family."
    Blood will tell. Lia wrapped her arms around her waist. If they had shared a parent, she would be the lion prowling the council's white marble den. She would be defending her right to stay in the magical village instead of leaving the fight to her sister.
    Cupid shimmered in the green glass arch behind the council. With a wink, he slipped a grape leaf over his privates then beckoned to his wife. Psyche's image flashed in and out of the colored windows punched in the frescoed walls before she collapsed into her husband's embrace. Lia swiped at her tears and averted her eyes as the two fogged the pane with their kiss.
    Sindaco Mezzerti plucked the spectacles off his nose and polished the lenses on the hem of his silk toga.
    "As a teacher of the bow's arts, I would think you would know that Amores is a testament to romantic love, not familial affection."
    Alessa set her fists on her blue-jean-clad hips. The quiver of arrows on her back rattled and tugged up the edges of her crimson Cupid Rock's tee-shirt.
    "That—"
    "Amores's charter is quite clear on the matter." On the mayor's left, Signora Grimor fiddled with the emerald brooch holding the coarse cotton toga over her tiny breasts before opening her arm to encompass the rest of the comunale. "We are here to ensure that all living things continue to fall in love and mate to keep the Earth young. Your devotion, while a favorable reflection upon your untapped maternal instincts, is not covered in the original charter. If you were mated, reproducing as the gods intended…"
    Lia's mouth opened. How dared they talk to Alessa that way! Just because she was thirty and unwed didn't make her less of a citizen.
    "I'm sorry, but…"
    In the window behind the council's head, Cupid and Psyche turned the glass a flaming red. The goddess flipped her flowing robe over her bare shoulder, stomped her foot and pointed at the council. Cupid nodded and tapped his index finger against his chin.
    As if Lia hadn't spoken, Alessa shoved the scroll off the table into the mayor's lap.
    "Zephyrus brought Lia to us, to Amores, during the fall. No outsider has ever found us in any month besides February!"
    Lia clamped her lips together to keep from laughing as the mayor juggled the unrolling scroll. In the window, Psyche sniffed, but her lips twitched. Cupid fluttered his wings then pulled a red-and-black clay urn from behind his back.
    Lia felt her heart squeeze in her chest. Not that urn!
    The goddess snapped her fingers, and a slip of parchment with Lia's name appeared. With a smile, she dropped it into the urn. Immediately, hearts blossomed out of the jar's mouth.
    Oh, gods, no! Not the Love Lottery! Was she that desperate to stay in Amores?
    Psyche crossed her arms over her chest and arched an eyebrow at Lia. Dropping the urn, Cupid grabbed a red heart and stretched it to the size of his face.
    But it wasn't his face staring back at Lia. It was Dante's. Heat roiled through her, leaving her insides molten. She wiped her damp hands on her cooking school uniform. She had to buy enough time for Dante to return home, to see that she'd grown up.
    To fall in love with her.
    With a nod, Cupid and Psyche disappeared, leaving the pane of green glass empty.
    Fixated on the Council, Alessa thumped the tabletop again. The mayor's readers inched closer to the edge of the table.
    "Lia's parents died in an explosion, yet their infant child survived without a scratch; and the West Wind brought her here, just like he carried Psyche to Cupid."
    Sindaco Mezzerti shoved the scroll back onto the table, rescued his glasses and plopped them on his nose.
    "Surely, you do not think Lia is the incarnation of Psyche?"
    A blue butterfly fluttered into the room. Good gods, with this many signs how could the council not see one of them?
    "If I may!" Lia's