Page 29

Chapter 29

Wren

M y lashes fluttered open, and I wondered for a second if I was in some kind of nightmare. I was on a couch, and a few feet from me, Aiden stood over Theo with a blade pointed at his throat.

This was everything I’d been trying to avoid, everything I couldn’t let happen.

I didn’t think when I stood, even though the corners of my vision were still spotty and my body felt weak.

I didn’t have to be strong. I just had to get between the blade Aiden held and Theo’s chest.

“Wren, don’t.” Theo hissed the warning, but I couldn’t listen. I flung myself across the room and realized I couldn’t knock Aiden over. I couldn’t risk him ramming the blade down.

The only thing I could do was put myself between the knife and Theo. It tore a line of agony along my shoulders, probably a preface to the pain I’d feel when Aiden ripped out my wings… but it didn’t matter.

I rolled both of us and landed with Theo beneath me, twisting my body so I could look up at the man who’d been the only father I’d ever known. Aiden was the only family I had, but I’d never really known if I could trust him.

I had to trust him now, to understand… he had to understand.

“You can’t kill him.” I panted the words, and felt Theo’s fingers trail along the slice on my shoulder. “You can’t.”

Aiden fixed me with his pale eyes and frowned, the knife still held in his hand.

“We’re built to kill Enmity, Wren. Did you somehow forget that?” His eyes tracked the thread spilling from my chest, the one tangled around both of us as we lay there on the floor together. “Or did you do something impossible, and now you think you’re exempt from your duties?”

I stared up at him, surprised my heart wasn’t leaping from my chest. The anxiety rolling off Theo was like thunder, like waves crashing and threatening to pull us both down. But his arms were wrapped around me, his chest plastered firmly against my back.

He was protecting my wings.

My hands slid up, and I threaded my fingers through his and flicked my gaze back up to Aiden.

“I didn’t forget anything. I just didn’t know… Fuck, Aiden.” My eyes dropped in near accusation to the red thread, and when I looked back up, he was frowning. “You always said cupids couldn’t have soulmates.”

“They can’t—”

“Then what the fuck is this?” I couldn’t yank on the damn thing because I knew what it would do to me, but I wanted to. I wanted to stand and drop it into his hands and have him tell me that it wasn’t exactly what we both knew it was.

“What did you do, Wren?”

“I didn’t—”

He took two quick steps forward, and the flat of the blade caught my chin and jerked my head up. “Don’t lie to me.” But there was something behind his hard stare. “What did you do ?” He tapped my cheek with the cool metal, and Theo growled behind me.

“Stop it.” His hand came up, and I had to catch his wrist to stop him from cutting himself on the blade trying to get it away from me.

“Feisty. I’m surprised you aren’t changing right now, trying to tear me apart with teeth and claws.”

“If you want me to, I can—”

“Theo.” I cut him off, pressing back and dragging his hand over my chest. Over my heart.

Over the line.

“What happened?” Aiden waited for Theo’s growls to taper off before he spoke.

Telling him wouldn’t change anything. We were here, and I would fight if I had to… but if Aiden wanted to, he’d rip off my wings and kill Theo with ease.

If Aiden wanted to, he’d run us both through with the knife still held against my cheek.

“I shot Theo, but I pulled an arrow of Fate.” I paused, half expecting him to tell me it was impossible, that cupids could only pull the arrows they needed and we would never need an arrow of Fate to defend ourselves. When he didn’t, I pressed on. “When he rushed me, he ran us both through, and it shattered the vial of Ardor you gave me.” Aiden’s eyes flared wide and dropped back to my chest.

“So you’re under the influence of—”

“No.” I cut him off from the lie I’d tried to tell myself when I’d first realized what I was feeling. “No, not anymore. That first night, maybe. But it faded… it faded, Aiden, and the thread was still there. It happened the night you gave me the vial. It faded, and the feelings were still there.” My fingers spasmed, tightening on Theo’s hand in mine, and the thundering of his heart almost drowned out the ringing in my ears from the hints of fear I felt. “He’s mine , Aiden. My soulmate.”

I sat perfectly still as he stared at me, as the press of his blade told me he was still deciding whether he believed me. When he lowered it, I blew out a breath.

“A cupid’s aura is never wrong. It would be impossible for you to pull an arrow you didn’t need.” I didn’t know if I should feel worried or relieved. I settled on saying nothing. I did slowly climb to my feet, and I felt Theo follow my movement like a shadow, still keeping himself plastered to my back like his very presence there could keep me safe from the punishment that I knew Aiden should have already doled out while I slept.

“I didn’t pull the wrong arrow.” I sounded so sure, and I had to know that he understood. “I love him, Aiden. I know what love feels like.”

His eyes flickered again, a burst of color nearly prismatic.

“Impossible.”

“Look at the thread and tell me it’s not real. Tell me I’m lying, Aiden. I’ll give you my back right now and let you tear my wings out without saying a fucking word if you can tell me I’m wrong.”

Silence.

Silence that was so suffocating I was sure I could drown in it. I’d never heard of a cupid dying that way, but Aiden made it seem completely possible.

Finally, he nodded.

“You love him. Fine. Forget the fact that you’ve broken every law we have, that you attacked one of our own and I should rip your wings straight from your spine for it and kill him in front of you… We’ll forget all of that, because it’s obvious you’ve been…” He paused again. “Influenced by Ardor and emotion.”

“I’m not—”

“We’ll forget all of that and remember that you’re one of my best, that up until this moment you’ve been exemplary at your job. So… we’ll fix this.”

I wanted to feel relieved, but I could tell by the way he said fix that Aiden wasn’t offering any solution I’d want to hear.

He leaned in closer, his eyes drifting from me to Theo. “You need to die.”

The snarl that tore through the air sounded like it should have come from the man behind me, but it was mine. I was violent when I put myself between the two of them, and it was only Theo’s hands on me that stopped me from rushing him and probably getting us both killed.

“It’s not going to happen, Aiden.”

“It’s the only way I can think to fix this. As long as you’re tied together, as long as he’s still a pretty little human doing his best to wear a mask to hide what a monster he is, you’re in danger. As long as his darkness can trail through your connection while he tries to put up walls to fight it, it will keep infecting you. I saw what you did, Wren.” Aiden’s voice was cold, but he still looked at me like he was trying to get through to me, like his logic made any sense. “He can’t control the monster inside him, and it’s going to consume you both.”

“There has to be another way.” I could barely breathe around the fury building in my chest, the way it ate away at the edges of my vision in black spots. I had to glance down to check that the thread wasn’t going dark again. It felt the same, but I felt like I could rip Aiden apart with my bare hands if it meant it would keep Theo safe.

“There isn’t.” Aiden sounded so gods damned nonchalant, like he wasn’t talking about killing my soulmate and leaving me broken and alone. Fuck, it was exactly how he’d made me, so it made sense that he wouldn’t care.

My eyes flicked to Theo, who was watching us both with the dark depths of his stare torn.

It was the same way he’d looked when he heard Gethin talking about this—but there was something beneath it now.

Determination.

Fight .

Things were different.

We were different.

I loved him, and there was no world that existed where I gave him up to save myself. I’d just found him, just realized what emotions were, what they truly meant. I’d fight until we found another answer, until we found some other choice. I’d fight until my last breath, because Theo wasn’t taking his while I was still breathing.

“There’s always another way.” Beside me, I felt Theo shiver from the fury in my tone, felt his hands smooth up along my back. The touch made me shudder, and my wings sprang out just like they had at Gethin’s, wrapping around him like they could shelter him from the bullshit Aiden was spewing.

It made the man in front of me widen his eyes—Theo’s dark, clawed fingers, stroking through my feathers soothingly, trying to calm me down.

Theo, the Enmity, the enemy —an embodiment of rage and fury—making sure I didn’t completely lose my cool while I was facing the only person I knew who probably had the answers we needed.

“Wren, you’re in danger. You realize that, right? I can see it…” Aiden’s eyes dropped to my chest, and he frowned. “You are soulmates. You’re all tangled together. But whatever seal was placed over the part of Theo’s soul…” He sounded almost irritated to say his name. “It isn’t holding. Little bits of his darkness are leaking out, taking over. It will consume you both.”

“I don’t care .” I snarled, and Aiden’s hand shot forward. He grabbed the thread on my chest, and the strength of his grip made my knees go weak. It was Theo who reached around, his blackened fingertips that snatched Aiden’s wrist, his nails that bit into his skin and nearly drew blood.

“I’ll kill you before the thread falls to the ground. I swear to whatever god you believe in, you won’t make it out of this alive.” The rumbling growl of Theo’s voice might have been soothing if my vision wasn’t spotting with weakness.

“I’m not tearing anything out, you fucking puppy. Calm down.” Aiden’s voice was scolding, and he didn’t bother shaking Theo’s hand off. “But do you see? I can’t just tear the thread out, it’s all tangled in his aura, around his heart and soul. It would rip Wren open—flay him wide and leave him to take in every drop of darkness around him. He would shatter. His aura would snap. I don’t know what he’d become, but he wouldn’t be himself anymore.”

Aiden’s eyes darted up, and I hated it—hated it because I could feel Theo tensing behind me.

“Theo, we don’t have to listen to him.” Even as I said it, Aiden pressed on.

“But… if you die, the thread could dissolve. It would kill a part of him, sure… but that part could recover. Wren would still be himself. And you…” Aiden’s head tilted, his violet eyes roaming over both of us. “Well… what were you supposed to become anyway? Think about it.”

Theo spoke before I could cut him off again, and I hated the pain in his voice.

“You think I haven’t been thinking about it since—” He stopped himself before he said Gethin’s name, but I knew the exact moment the damn possibility had been put into his mind. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about. I don’t fucking know you, and I don’t really give a shit who you think you are. But…” Theo stepped until he was standing slightly in front of me, and he dropped Aiden’s wrist so he could take my hand. “Maybe I am a monster, because I’m not giving Wren up. Not when I just found him.”

“Not when we just found each other.” I echoed his words. Aiden gave the thread in my chest a tug, but he let it go when I swayed and Theo had to catch me.

“You’re both going to end up dying then.”

“I know there’s another way, Aiden. Who made the Enmity?”

The question caught him off guard—he stiffened, and his eyes snapped behind us to a shelf.

To the books that looked just like the one Gethin had.

To the painting above it—an image of three circles of looping symbols, a language I couldn’t read.

I’d seen the same picture in the book.

“You don’t know what you’re asking, Wren. That’s not…” Aiden shook his head. “They’re not the answer. They’d probably think the entire situation was a game.”

The way he spoke, it almost seemed like Aiden knew them personally… but that was absurd.

He was old, but he couldn’t be that old.

Could he?

I stared at the books like I could somehow pull the answers out without opening them up. When nothing came to me, I turned back to him.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me that whoever made the Enmity couldn’t do something about what’s happening to Theo. Tell me I’m wrong, Aiden. You’ve never lied to me, so I’ll trust you. I’ve always trusted you to be honest.”

That silence again—long and drawn out and damning when he pressed his lips together and sneered.

“He could fix it. But he won’t. Trust me on that.”

He.

It was a person.

Someone we could find.

He was real, which meant there was a chance.

“He will.”

“Wren, it’s suicide. What you’re trying to do will get you killed. Worse, maybe. You don’t understand their games. You don’t—”

“No.” I cut Aiden off, and a small part of me felt giddy. I’d never spoken back to him, never questioned him. Sometimes I’d resented him for what he’d done to me, but I’d never questioned that he wanted to protect me, if only to protect what he’d made. “No, you don’t get it. I’m not giving up on Theo. I’m not letting anyone or anything hurt him. If there’s a chance that he knows how to fix this, I’m willing to risk it.” My fingers in Theo’s tightened, and I didn’t have to look at him to know he could feel my thundering pulse, that he could probably taste it on the back of his tongue. “I’d risk everything for him. You tore me from my mother’s arms when I was a baby and made me this weapon, this thing to fight—to kill. You owe me, Aiden. You owe me a chance to get everything you took away from me back . ”

The silence only lasted for a moment this time before Aiden shook his head and snorted. If he felt guilty about the accusation that I’d always felt boiling behind my ribs but never been brave enough to say, he didn’t show it. But his posture went loose, and he looked at me with that hint of fondness I’d seen dozens of times after I’d come home from a dangerous mission. “And that’s exactly what you’ll lose, Wren. Everything.” His eyes flicked back to Theo, and he shook his head again. “I hope the few days you’ve spent with him were worth it.”

They were.

Fuck, they were.