Excerpt from The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"You're looking at it. At one of them, anyway."

In the near darkness, Love studied Death's face. Star-white skin. A smart, wavy black bob. Dark eyes. The wide, insolent mouth. He'd seen her face before, but where? She'd also undoubtedly appear as the black cat. How her guises would affect the players was ever a mystery.

"And now to determine the length of the Game," Death said. "You have the dice, I trust."

Love removed the dice from his pocket. The bones clacked against each other. "You first."

"I'll roll the month, then." She rattled the dice in her hands and tossed them on the boards of the bridge. "Three and four. The Game lasts until July. Which day is up to you."

He could add the sum of the dots or multiply them, so long as their product did not exceed the length of the month. He hated having the choice. He would rather blame fate.

He squeezed the dice, kissed his hand, and let them fly. Their clatter echoed over the water.

Death read them. "How droll. A tie."

Even the numbers were the same, a four and a three. Love nearly chose the twelfth of July as the day the Game would end. That would give him more time, the thing he always wished for. Sometimes, even minutes would have made the difference.

But there was something about the symmetry of the seventh that called to him. So he trusted it. The Game would end at mid-night on the seventh of July.

"When will I see you again?" He liked to know what she was doing so he could adjust his interventions to match.

"Two days," she said.

Love nodded. A pair of days felt right.

Death disappeared, as she did when she'd tired of his presence, and Love wandered, dazed, in the other direction until he found himself standing in front of a nearly empty café. He ate alone in the ancient square, a simple plate of gnocchi with a tart red wine, watching the stars find their way out of the darkening night sky. The Game had begun.

He ached for the players.

Excerpted from The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough. Copyright © 2015 by Martha Brockenbrough. Excerpted by permission of Arthur A. Levine Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.