Page 17 of Love’s Ace

Chapter 17

Wren

S aying I had a place I knew we could go was exaggerating a little… but I was fairly certain that if anyone was going to keep us safe while breaking the laws of all things that had been established for our kind, it would be Gethin.

After all, he was the prime example of why you didn’t break the rules, and the fact that he was made him hate most of our kind.

I think the only reason Gethin didn’t hate me is because I occasionally snuck him vials of Ardor. It was apparently one of the only things that could take the edge off the pain he felt from having his wings ripped from his back.

Gethin was both a shining example of exactly why I had to do my job precisely and a glaringly obvious flaw in our code.

No one deserved to live in pain like he did, and if I was being honest, tearing his wings from his back had only made him worse.

He still had a step up from humans in strength, an eternity to exist… and one singular goal in mind.

They’d made an immortal serial killer when they’d punished him, and they didn’t seem bothered to keep him in check. He couldn’t be turned into an Enmity, as far as it had been proven, which meant he wasn’t their problem.

“Why are we in a graveyard?” Theo’s voice wasn’t hushed like a normal person’s would have been when they were stepping through a cemetery, but his eyes were wide and curious as he glanced around. It had taken exactly two days to get a hold of Gethin to arrange this visit—thankfully, he’d invited me to stay without much question.

I hadn’t exactly mentioned that I was bringing someone with me, but I figured it was better to ask forgiveness than permission.

And honestly, I didn’t know if I had it in me to let Theo down. He’d been so shaken up after what happened. He was still so angry, quick to pick a fight, ready to show me his claws and threaten to tear my throat out.

That didn’t change the fact that every night I heard the low sound of him groaning from his room.

It didn’t change the fact that both nights I’d ended up leaving my bed and curling against his back until he settled down.

It didn’t change the fact that something in my body was getting used to the way he felt like he was made to fit against the curve of my chest.

It was dangerous.

“Wren?” Theo’s questioning tone pulled me out of my thoughts, and I blew out a breath like it could clear my chest of the emotions.

“My friend isn’t exactly… normal. You’ll…” I didn’t know how to explain it. “You’ll see once you meet him.”

Gethin was maybe a little morbid, though I knew it had more to do with the fact that he’d placed sigils and paid witch and Reaper alike to guard this place so no one could enter without his express permission. It was his own little sanctuary, on the off chance that Aiden finally caught up to what he was doing and decided he didn’t like it.

I knew Aiden didn’t give a shit, because he’d stopped asking me to drop in and check on how Gethin was doing a year ago.

When I stopped by now, I did it because I wanted to.

Or… because I needed to. I’d never actually needed to quite so much, though. I’d occasionally asked him for a favor… but this was different.

This was big.

It was big enough that a small part of me was worried he was going to turn us away as soon as he realized what Theo was becoming—what laws we’d broken.

There was only one way to find out, though.

I knocked on the door of the little cottage he had on the edge of the cemetery. He tended to the graveyard as a cover for living here, burying bodies and keeping the place clean and presentable. I sometimes wondered if he did it because it brought him satisfaction, being able to put things into the ground.

He’d already told me the real reason he did it was because it made it easier for him to get rid of bodies when he was finished with them. Some of the times I’d asked Gethin for a favor, it was because I’d killed a human who was still this side of too human to be considered an Enmity.

While not technically unallowed , it wasn’t exactly something we were supposed to do. And Gethin… well, Gethin just killed anyone who he felt like killing.

I was stepping out of one type of danger and right into another.

Either way, the door creaked open after a moment, and Gethin’s eyes—a blue so light it was almost white, with little fractures of violet broken through the iris—peered out at us.

“Who the fuck do you have with you, Wren? He smells broken.”

“Fuck you, too.” Theo’s voice came out in instant irritation, and I realized bringing him to my grave-digging serial-killer ex-coworker might not have been the best idea after all. The Enmity couldn’t get him here, and I didn’t have to worry about Aiden finding him… but Gethin was just as much of an ass as Theo was, and there was every chance they were going to end up killing one another.

But… that didn’t stop him from swinging the door wide and looking at us both. His blond hair had gotten longer since the last time I’d seen him, sweeping to brush the top of his shoulders. He looked perfectly groomed, though, dressed in a suit like he’d just gotten off work, and his eyes dropped between the two of us and widened.

The thread.

Of course, he could see the thread.

When they popped back up, the grin that crossed his face was absolutely wicked. “When they tear off your wings, do you think they’ll let me have them, Wren?”

Theo started to move forward, the vibrations of the snarl rumbling in his chest radiating along the length of my spine in warning. My hand shot out, and I dropped my fingers onto the back of his neck.

“No one is tearing my wings off, Gethin. I’m too good to get caught breaking the rules.”

I tried to keep my voice light, sarcastic and a little mocking, but Gethin had already noticed what Theo had so blatantly showed him in the few seconds he’d stepped forward.

His eyes were black-tinged red, the hands that clenched to fist at his sides tipped with claws.

“Oh… oh, shit, Wren. You really are fucked, aren’t you?”

I kept my fingers on the back of Theo’s neck, and I could feel the small, tremoring pulse of emotion tearing through him. Was it hard for him not to move forward, to attack Gethin because he didn’t seem safe?

“Are you going to help or not?”

To his credit, Gethin didn’t immediately answer. He looked between the two of us, and his fingers ran through the dirty blond strands of his hair for a second before he finally stepped aside, muttering something beneath his breath that made the doorway shimmer for just a second.

“Just remember that I harbored a fugitive the next time I want something from you.”

I dropped my hand to Theo’s lower back and guided him inside. Whatever Gethin had murmured had lowered the barriers designed to keep non-humans out… Either that or Theo was still just human enough that he could sneak past them—I didn’t care which one it was. I half pushed him inside and didn’t relax until the door behind us was closed.

For the first time since I’d found Theo, I felt like I could let some of the tension run out of my body. Nothing could get us here—nothing could find us here.

“If you can help me figure this out, I’ll give you all the fucking Ardor I have.” The thought of even touching one of those vials again made me flinch. And like he could read my mind, Gethin’s eyes dropped again to my chest—to the light swirl of white and red that still pulsed around the base of the thread spilling out like a damning marker of exactly what I’d done.

“How did you fuck up this bad, Wren? Look at him. He’s…” Theo tensed beside me, and I shook my head.

“We were fighting, and a vial broke. I didn’t know this would happen.” I frowned. “I didn’t know this could happen. You’re the one with all the books, Gethin. I was kind of hoping you would have an answer.”

He looked behind him, to his living room and the walls lined with shelves. He’d been looking for a way to regain his wings or stop the pain since the second they’d been taken. He’d probably read more on cupids than anyone I knew, dead or alive.

If anyone had an answer for how to break the connection, it might be him. But when I looked over at Theo, who was watching Gethin with wary, untrusting eyes—Theo, who had stepped closer to me and pressed into the hand I had at his back without realizing it…

I didn’t know what answer I was looking for anymore.

“Fine, but if they come looking for you, I was totally holding you here to turn over.” Gethin threw a smirk over his shoulder as he headed toward the bookshelves, and Theo tensed beside me again.

“Don’t worry. He’s always like this.” I didn’t try to be quiet when I spoke, and Theo frowned.

“And I thought I was an asshole.” He also didn’t bother muttering.

“Why don’t you try having wings ripped from your spine, then we can talk.” Gethin’s voice came out casual enough, but I could hear the sting still lingering in his tone all these years later. He pulled off the leather jacket he wore, and I could see the remnants of them spilling out of the collar of his shirt—scars marching up the back of his neck to disappear into his hairline, spreading across his shoulders. They peeked out, angry and raised, a black reminder of what had happened to him that would never fade.

Theo’s eyes widened as he stared. When his gaze trailed to me, over my shoulders, I shook my head and crossed my arms.

“What the fuck happened?”

I didn’t get a chance to answer him. Gethin was back, shoving a book into Theo’s chest hard enough that it knocked the breath from him. He turned with a snarl, but he was met with a cold, apathetic stare.

“That’s none of your business. Why don’t you start reading, you little half monster? You’re already putting Wren’s entire existence in danger by being here… you might as well try to fix it.”

My jaw clenched shut. A small part of me wanted to defend him, to explain to Gethin what had happened, that the broken arrow, the fighting… none of this was actually Theo’s fault.

Not really.

But…

I shook my head instead and plucked the other book Gethin was holding from his hands.

“Try not to intentionally make him kill you, Gethin. I don’t know how you have these fucking books organized.” My words came out casually, but my shoulder bumped into Theo’s as I walked past him. He glared at our host for another few seconds before silently following me to the corner of the room.

I noticed that he peeled off from me for the first time since we’d woken up in each other’s arms, sequestering himself in a chair in the corner of the room and half hiding behind the book he held.

I wasn’t sure why, but I hated it.

A few hours later, Theo finally put down the book he’d been thumbing through and sighed. “Is this all you have?”

Gethin and I had been occasionally engaging in conversation, but for the most part it had been the rustling of pages and the gentle sensation of allowing my body to relax knowing we were safe while we were here.

“There’s another building out back with more books,” Gethin answered without looking up. “As long as you stay on the cemetery grounds, nothing is going to get you. Please, though, wander off. It would probably make things easier.”

The fact that he could sound so dismissive without bothering to look up was a special talent Gethin had perfected over the years. Even though I’d gotten to know him since I’d been assigned to check in on him, there were still so many parts of the man I knew I would never see, never touch. There were pieces of him he kept locked so deep in his chest that I had a feeling the scar tissue on his back had grown over them in the days since he’d lost his wings.

I lifted my gaze as Theo stood up, dropping the book he held loudly onto the table in front of Gethin before making his way to the door.

“So, just inside the fence?”

“If you really have to.”

I clenched my jaw—in theory, it would be fine. I’d be able to see him through the small windows of the cottage. He wasn’t going to go far. Nothing could hurt him…

And I still ended up standing before he’d even gotten the door unlocked.

“I’ll go with you.” At Gethin’s sharp look, I added. “I need to stretch my legs. We’ve been stuck in hotel rooms for days.”

Days. It was still hard to believe that was all this had been. It felt like I’d somehow been in a room with Theo for my entire life, and I was only just seeing him.

Soulmates , the word whispered in the back of my mind, but I waved it off. I still wasn’t sure all of this wasn’t just some fuckery that had happened because of the arrow and the Ardor.

My arrows were never wrong… but…

“Whatever.” Theo sounded sullen, but his dark eyes stayed on me until I made my way across the room and followed him out the door.

Gethin, thankfully, was silent as he watched us leave.