“They killed me, but I survived.”

Three years after Rory Riordan foiled her own murder, she still trusts no one. Not Dr. Z, the eccentric college professor who has taken her under his wing, not Benji, the endearing, attractive classmate who insists on following her around, and certainly not Cy, the beautifully dark and mysterious boy who sits on the first row in Dr. Z’s Astrobiology class and asks far too many questions.

When Rory witnesses Cy being abducted by soldiers in the middle of the night, she finds herself submersed in a world that holds even more secrets than she could imagine–even darker secrets than her own.

From #1 New York Times Bestseller Jamie McGuire, experience the perfect combination of her bestselling books Providence & Beautiful Disaster. This New Adult Sci-Fi Romance is an action-packed, whiplash-inducing roller coaster ride. Page after page, this unpredictable, dark and sexy nail biter will keep readers guessing until the very end!

Halloween night, while everyone was dressing up and attending parties, Cy and I were in the basement, punching numbers. The Fitz was one of the oldest buildings on campus, and it struggled to keep itself comfortably heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. The basement was particularly miserable and felt like an icebox on very cold nights.

I sipped my water and pulled the sleeves of my sweater further down my hands.

Cy cleared his throat and, for the first time in weeks, spoke to me first. “I can talk to Dr. Zorba about a space heater.”

“He’ll never go for it,” I said, putting down my water and wiping my lips with the cuff of my sweater. “He wouldn’t risk a fire or a significant temperature change affecting the specimen.”

“It won’t affect the specimen. It came from space.”

“Exactly. Where it’s cold.”

“Who says the planet it originated from wasn’t able to retain higher temperatures?”

“Like Venus?”

“Exactly like Venus. I mean . . . I’m sure that it’s possible. I’ll look into a space heater.” I watched him expectantly. “What?”

“No Uranus jokes? I’m disappointed.”

“What do you mean?”

I chuckled. “Never mind.” My fingers began clicking against the keyboard again, and I was sure that I’d caught Cy staring at me from the corner of my eye. I glanced over at him. “What?”

“You’re much more attractive when you smile. And your laugh is lovely.”

“Uh . . . thank you.”

“You’re—”

“I’m welcome. It’s okay. I say thank you to you a lot, apparently.”

“I just want you to . . . I don’t know what I want.”

He stared at me for a few moments more then continued with his work. My face caught fire as the blood pooled under my cheeks. My fingers wouldn’t work after that, and I couldn’t concentrate on the numbers.

Cy stood up and left the room without a word. Right about the time I’d decided to get up and look for him, he returned, setting a Butterfinger on my desk.

“Trick or treat, right?” he said.

“Is that a Halloween joke? I mean that’s cool. I just didn’t know you had a sense of humor.”

“I’m surprised you’re here. There are costume parties all over campus.”

I shook my head. “I don’t really do parties. Just once in a while when I’m bored out of my mind, but I avoid Halloween parties at all costs.”

“Why is that?”

“Fake blood. Dead people. Slutty costumes. None of it screams fun to me.”

Cy grinned. “I suppose not. We still have an hour or so of work to do. Would you mind if I walk you home when we’re finished?”

“Why?”

My response took Cy off guard. He blinked a few times and then cleared his throat. “I think that maybe my insistence not to form attachments here was incorrect. We spend a lot of time together down here, and I’d like to get to know you better.”

“So that’s why you’ve been ignoring me? Because you know you’re leaving?”

He hesitated. “In part, yes.”

“What’s the other part?”

He squirmed in his chair. “You . . . intrigue me.”

I wanted to high-five myself. The few times we’d interacted before I thought he was being nice in spite of feeling an extreme loathing towards me. Instead, it was the opposite. To Cy, I was intriguing. I shrugged, trying to pretend I wasn’t irrationally pleased. “If you want.”

He smiled then continued with his work. Despite the difficulty I had focusing, I forced myself to get through the pages of data on my desk. My mind kept wandering off, questioning why I felt so drawn to him. Cy wasn’t my type. He was leaving. His lack of concert T’s told me that we likely had nothing in common. But even then, I had a strong feeling that there was a reason life had thrown us together.

Jamie McGuire was born in Tulsa, OK. She attended the Northern Oklahoma College, the University of Central Oklahoma, and Autry Technology Center where she graduated with a degree in Radiography.

Jamie paved the way for the New Adult genre with international bestseller, Beautiful Disaster. Her follow-up novel Walking Disaster debuted at #1 on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. She has also written apocalyptic thriller Red Hill, a novella titled A Beautiful Wedding, and the Providence series, a young adult paranormal romance trilogy.

Jamie lives on a ranch just outside Enid, OK with husband Jeff and their three children. They share their 30 acres with cattle, six horses, three dogs, and Rooster the cat.

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