Page 21 of Love’s Ace

Chapter 21

Wren

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so swept away in flight. I knew for a fact that I’d never felt this way before, because I’d never bothered to fly with another person.

Even when I’d gone on jobs with other cupids, when we knew that there was an entire den of Enmity somewhere, I’d never bothered to be near while we were in the air.

This wasn’t just being near.

Theo had his arms wrapped around me, his body clinging to mine, and his strength and weight completely capable of throwing me off balance and sending us both plummeting to the ground if he wanted to.

His hands wrapped around my back, fingers that had clawed my chest open so close to the base of my wings I was practically begging to be injured.

I was begging him to never let me go.

It was a feeling I couldn’t escape, and something I was done trying to ignore.

It felt too good to be this close to Theo. It felt so fucking good not to fight the way the thread between us burned all the brighter now that we’d finally given in to what our bodies had wanted all along.

I wasn’t sure I could go back, even if I wanted to—even if it meant that Theo and I had to fight, that I had to bleed every time he felt insecure, every time he felt like running away.

It was worth it.

It was…

“Wren?” Theo’s voice was a soft murmur against my ear, and I pulled back enough to look at him.

“Hm?”

“Do you think we should go back?”

It took me a second to realize why he was asking. Theo sounded…

Fuck, he sounded exhausted.

I had to remember that even though he was turning into an Enmity, there was still a huge part of him that was human. Even if he had more strength than he should have, it probably still cost him to use it.

That, and I could feel how relaxed his body was now that he was pressed against me—I could feel it because the emotion was reflecting all along my spine, into my muscles.

“We can.”

“Is it going to be… okay?”

I knew what he was asking, and I honestly wasn’t sure. There was every chance Gethin wouldn’t let us back into the house without a little persuasion. But I was willing to figure it out if I had to.

“It’ll be fine.” I turned and started back toward the graveyard. “We’ll be fine.”

We.

Us.

There was no denying that it was us . That it had always been us, even if we’d both tried to ignore it.

And I realized that Theo picked up on the word as soon as it left my lips—I caught the smile that threatened to cross his features, the one he only just managed to tamp down.

“Yeah, we will be,” he finally said, like he couldn’t resist, then he wrapped himself around me as I took us back to Gethin’s.

When we touched down, I zipped up my jacket and held my hand out to him, and it only took until his fingers slid through mine for me to realize that I was doing it just as much for myself as I was for him.

I knew how threads worked—I knew that physical intimacy just made the connection burn all the brighter. I wasn’t trying to avoid it anymore, though. I wasn’t sure if I could.

And I refused to show back up at Gethin’s door without doing something to show him that Theo was with me, that Theo was going to be with me, and there wasn’t room for argument.

There was every chance he wouldn’t let us back in—every chance he would mark it as too much of a risk. He’d already spent too much of his life risking everything—was still risking everything.

I knew he wasn’t worried about himself. That worry was all for the man he was in love with. The reason he’d lost his wings.

And some tiny part of me was starting to wonder if I could understand why he’d made the decisions he had. Up until now, I’d always thought he’d temporarily lost his mind, that he’d given in to an actual burst of insanity when he’d allowed his wings to be torn away.

But now…

Now Theo’s hand was warm in mine, and he didn’t step behind me when we walked up to the door. He drew himself up to his full height and let the soft expression he’d been wearing slip from his face.

He wasn’t leaving me to face Gethin alone, even though he’d just been worried about what would happen.

He was standing beside me, shoulder to shoulder.

He was ready to fight if we needed to.

He was with me.

And fuck me, yes… I understood why Gethin had given everything up.

“Ready?” I murmured.

“Yeah, go ahead.”

I knocked on the door once and waited in silence. When Gethin didn’t answer, I did it again.

The sound of footsteps approaching made me brace for Gethin to mutter again and send us both flying out of the graveyard. Instead, the door opened.

Gethin didn’t say a word. He looked back and forth between the two of us—at the cuts on my chest and the way Theo’s lips were still bruised from my kisses, the way I’d left marks on his neck and torn his shirt until it clung to him in tatters.

When he muttered beneath his breath and the sensation of his barriers dropping washed over me, I used my fingers interlaced with Theo’s to pull him inside. He only hesitated for a second, wincing as he stepped over the threshold.

I hadn’t even bothered to ask him if he was okay after being thrown out of the house. I didn’t completely understand the magic involved in being able to expel a threat with a single word, but I’d felt the pain rocking through his body when he slammed into the ground.

I had no idea if it reached deeper, to something on a soul level.

Whatever it did, it wasn’t enough to dissuade him from following me, and he only tried to pull out of my grip for a second when I led him to the couch and pushed him to sit down so I could follow suit. With my side pressed to his, I felt a measure of calm settle over him. Over both of us.

“Uh… have a nice walk?” Gethin asked, his expression wide and innocent, like he hadn’t instigated everything that had happened. I turned to him with narrowed eyes, but it was Theo who spoke up.

“Yeah. Feel better now, thanks. Just needed to get some air.”

“That’s good. I found some blankets for you both—the couch folds down into a bed. It looks like you’re going to share, so…” He trailed off with a gesture, and made a show of locking the front door.

How were they both acting like nothing had happened? Like we’d actually gone for a walk instead of Gethin using magic against Theo? The rain had done a good job of washing most of it away, but Theo and I were still covered in mud and blood and sex.

I’d been prepared to take sides if I had to, and I’d been surprised at how easy it was to realize which side I would take.

It seemed like I wasn’t going to have to do that after all. Relief swept through my chest, and some of the tension ran out of my body. I didn’t want to lose Gethin as a friend, and I knew if it came down to it, that’s exactly what would happen.

Was that why Theo wasn’t angry? For me?

“Goodnight, Gethin,” Theo said, and the only evidence that he wasn’t sure how he felt about the situation was the tension that ran through his muscles where our bodies touched. He was doing this for me.

“Night. I’ll go to the library with you two in the morning to see if I can find something you didn’t notice. I have an idea of where we can look.”

And like things were completely normal, Gethin trailed to his bedroom and closed the door behind him.

Like his strings had been cut, Theo slumped against the couch once he was gone.

“Are you all right?” I asked in a low voice. He just shrugged.

“Tired. I was kind of worried he wasn’t going to let me back inside.”

I could have told him I wouldn’t have come in without him, but the sudden confession seemed so out of place when he’d literally been trying to tear me apart earlier.

And I’d already overplayed my hand, telling him that he was mine , that nothing was allowed to hurt him as long as we were tied together.

I’d almost told him I had no intention of cutting our thread, but…

Too much.

It was entirely too much.

All of this was overwhelming, and I knew he probably felt it just as much as I did. I pushed him off the couch and folded it down instead of saying anything, and Theo watched me with careful eyes as I quickly changed out of my wet clothes. He was wary when he did the same, not saying anything as he quickly scrubbed himself clean with the ruined fabric and pulled on something dry. The worry didn’t fade from his expression until I lay down and held my hand out to him to join me.

Even after what we’d just done and everything I’d said, there was still a part of him that was waiting for me to push him away, waiting for me to hurt him.

There was a part of him that was so scarred from whatever had happened in his past, from whatever had left him open to the Enmity, that I wondered if there was any way I could ever heal it.

Was there a point in figuring out how to reverse the hold they had on him if he could just be taken again the instant I wasn’t looking?

The thought made something in my chest jerk violently, and I pulled him tighter against me.

“What’s wrong?” He muttered the question softly, but I noticed he didn’t pull away from me like he would have a few days ago. He hesitated for a second before he threw his arm over my chest. Then, with a soft grunt, he flung his leg across mine too.

“Nothing.” The lie came smoothly from my lips, and Theo tensed like he could feel it sting against his skin. “I’m just trying to think of how to… fix everything,” I quickly amended. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it was close enough that he seemed to accept it.

With a shrug, he wriggled his face until his lips were pressed against my pulse, until he was buried so deep in the crook of my shoulder that his voice came out muffled. “Everything’s fine right now. Think about that instead.”

Everything’s fine right now.

If anyone else had said it, I would have thought they were being sarcastic, or just accepting the situation. But Theo… there was something about the way he spoke, the softness in his voice.

The way his body was so relaxed against mine.

I had a feeling that everything hadn’t been fine for him for a long time.

Almost against my will, my hand rose and I wrapped it around him. When my fingers slid beneath his shirt and pressed gently into the warm skin at the base of his spine, Theo let out a soft sigh.

“Yeah. I guess you’re right. We’ll worry about everything else tomorrow.” I stroked his skin almost helplessly, and he shivered, wriggling closer like he couldn’t help himself either. He was plastered against me, and I realized it felt good . It felt right .

“Sounds good, Wren. Now go to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow.”

The demand of his voice punctuated by his sharp teeth nipping at my neck should have infuriated me. I should have shoved him off the couch…

Instead, my wings rustled just beneath my skin, wanting to come out and wrap around him. I had to settle them by pulling him closer and pressing my nose to his hair. He smelled like rain and roses, and the scent pulsed through me, gentle waves of comfort and peace .

Home. I’d never known what home smelled like before.

It was Theo… Theo was the first good memory that was just mine.