Page 5

Chapter 5

Wren

N one of this made sense. There was no precedent for a cupid being tied to an Enmity, no book I could find or person I could ask. And honestly… I’d never heard of a human being attacked and holding out for more than a few days. If Theo was telling the truth and it had been weeks , it was a wonder that he was still able to hold on to his sanity at all, that he was still mostly human.

Though when he’d had his hands around my throat, his eyes had bled back to red for just a moment before he’d jerked away.

That was the other thing that made no sense. I’d thought the first time was a fluke, when I hit him and it felt like my head was going to explode.

But when I squeezed his wrist, I could feel the pain echo and reflect back into my own body.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Sure, there were cases where soulmates—once they were joined with a cupid’s arrow—were more in tune to one another. Sometimes they could tell when their partner was in pain.

But this? This was something completely different. This wasn’t just an echo of empathy.

I could feel his hurt, just as much as I could feel the fluttering of his pulse as I touched him. And fuck, I hated touching people. But he was warm and solid beneath me, and for some reason…

For some reason, I couldn’t let him go.

For some reason , I pressed him closer to the wall and pinned him with my frame, even though I probably could have gotten away with dragging him back to the bed and tying him down.

It was easy to tell myself it was because I wasn’t going to be caught off guard again.

But…

“What the fuck is going on? What was that arrow? If you’re a cupid…” Theo trailed off, and I wondered if he was coming to the correct conclusion or letting himself get carried away with flights of fancy.

I couldn’t hear his thoughts, at least. But I could feel the sting on his wrists.

It had to be because we weren’t human. It had to be because a cupid’s arrow was never meant for creatures like us.

It shouldn’t have worked .

And yet…

I pushed back from him in a sudden burst of irritation, though my body was already tensing for him to spring at me again. He hadn’t been playing at trying to kill me just a few moments ago. Or in the alley.

“Wren.” He snarled my name and stepped back into me, and my hand flew up automatically, landing in the middle of his chest. He stilled, but his teeth were this side of too sharp when he snarled at me. “What’s going on ?”

I didn’t owe him anything. My duty was to kill him. I should have kept him chained to the bed until I figured out how to sever the connection between us safely and done just that. Instead, my fingers shifted back and ran along the red line—it made me feel weak, just touching it. “A cupid’s arrow shouldn’t work on a monster.” My eyes darted up to his, and his dark expression told me he wasn’t a fan of the name-calling. “And a cupid can’t have a soulmate. I don’t know what’s going on.”

His eyes widened at the word soulmate , and when his fingers lifted and he tugged at the line between us, I slapped his hand away. Every time my bare skin made contact with his, I could feel that tether between us pull tighter. A soulmate connection usually culminated in touching, in fucking, in feeling each other. I wasn’t going to do that.

The first person I allowed myself to touch, to really touch, in almost a century was not going to be an Enmity, no matter what my fucking arrows said.

“Don’t think too hard about it. It’s obviously a fluke. I’ll figure out how to fix it.”

“Fix it?” The words flew from his lips as I backed away. He followed me like he couldn’t help himself, and the world started to narrow down to how small the hotel room was—how close he was.

How bright the red light shining between us seemed to be.

“Yes, fix it,” I hissed. “I can’t stay connected to you.”

If I wasn’t mistaken, there was a moment where his face paled. It had to be rage, because his hand came between us and wrapped around the line again. When he jerked, I fell forward, and it was only his taller frame that stopped me from collapsing.

“Why wait? I can rip it out right now. I can—”

I drew my blade in a clumsy motion, pressing it to the underside of his jaw. “Stop that. You’ll kill us both. That thread is the only thing stopping you from completely changing into an Enmity, so unless you want to be a mindless creature beholden to rage…” I trailed off, trying to hide the way my breath was coming hard and fast, trying to ignore the way my body burned in every line pressed against his.

It was the damn thread. It was making me crazy.

Finally, he scoffed and dropped the line in his hand.

“You’ll kill me once it’s severed. I can see it on your face.”

It was true. I’d had the thought already, but…

“If we can figure out how to stop you from transforming, I won’t have to kill you.”

He laughed and pushed me away from him, turning to glance around the room. When he spotted the wet jacket I’d peeled him out of, he moved to grab it.

“I’m already beholden to my rage. You can’t save me, Wren.”

“I—” The word came out as a sputter, chased by a sharp laugh. “I never said I wanted to save you, Theo. You’re right. I’ll probably kill you before this is all over. Until then, I need to get back to what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“Fucking up people’s lives with stray arrows and shit aim?”

“Killing your kind,” I snapped, whirling before he had a chance to say anything else and stalking out of the room.

The only good thing about the line between us was the fact that he wouldn’t be able to run. He couldn’t hide. I could go out and hunt—work out the tension that was lancing through my body—and I could find him when I was done.

That line felt like a physical thing when I slammed the door behind me. I’d never felt a soulmate connection before, but I knew everything there was to know about them. Once it was in place, that security was always with you—you could be oceans apart, and you would still be tethered.

I took two steps from the hotel room and felt tension building behind my ribs, like the string had tangled around them and was trying to rip my chest open when I walked away.

It only made me pause for a second to wonder if I was doing the right thing. I’d never questioned walking away from a person before. I didn’t want to be in the same room with Theo. I wanted to go back to my damn apartment and pretend none of this had ever happened.

Since I couldn’t have that, hunting would be the second best thing.

But I could feel each step that I took from the room, drawing that line between us more and more taut.

It didn’t make sense . My arrows didn’t do this. He’d contaminated it somehow with his blood. The Ardor piercing my heart had skewed the connection. I took a deep breath and forced myself forward.

By the time I rounded the corner, I could barely draw a breath without my lungs burning. Whatever this was, I refused to let it rule me. Whatever this was, I would break free of it. I couldn’t let myself be controlled by an Enmity—my life was already in danger by being tied to him.

But this?

Needing him?

The urge I had to turn back, to look over my shoulder and make sure the thread between us was still shining bright?

It wasn’t…

I couldn’t…

“Fucking wait up , you asshole.” Theo’s voice sounded behind me, and I felt air suddenly rush into my lungs in a near dizzying wave.

The relief didn’t stop me from answering curtly.

“No one said you were invited, Theo .”

Now that the tension in my chest had eased, a part of me was annoyed that I’d felt it to begin with. I didn’t bother turning when he called out again, striding forward instead, like I had any idea where I was actually going.

It was hard to look for an Enmity to fight when there was one so obviously behind me, and I—

A hand suddenly landed on my back, and instinct took over. I whirled and pulled a blade at the same time. The edge of the knife pressed against the catch of Theo’s jawline, and his dark eyes were wide as he stared at me.

Maybe my reaction had been a bit over the top, but his hands had landed just where my wings sprang free. I’d seen cupids with their backs torn open, their wings forced out. I’d seen feathers and blood and death and…

“I couldn’t breathe,” he hissed, and I wasn’t sure if the faint pink on his cheeks was from embarrassment or fear at being caught the way he was. “You broke something in my chest when you shot me, asshole .”

I wasn’t about to tell him I’d had trouble drawing air myself… but a small part of me was realizing he hadn’t been trying to tear my wings from my spine. I withdrew my blade slowly, my eyes flicking to the small trail of blood seeping down his neck.

I refused to feel guilty about it when I could have done much worse.

“You were already broken, right?” I slid my knife back into its holster and looked over my shoulder.

Hunting . I’d come out to hunt.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Theo stared at me for a moment, the bruises under his eyes so visible in the low streetlight. He looked… tired . Pale and exhausted and wholly human , save for the slight tinge of darkness around the edges of his pupils every now and then. He looked like he was ready to collapse.

Liability. He was a walking, talking, annoying liability.

I turned without speaking, but didn’t miss the crunch of his boots on the ground when he followed me.

I couldn’t hunt this way. There was no way I’d be able to fight and watch my back to make sure he didn’t attack me if something snapped and he transformed… though he didn’t look like he’d be able to do much more than faint if a strong breeze came along at the moment.

It was a good way for him to be—weak, incapable of hurting me. Incapable of taking care of himself.

Which was why it made no sense for me to turn to the left and duck into a small diner when I saw the lights glowing.

Theo hesitated behind me. I heard his boots catch at the doorway, but I didn’t bother to look back.

By the time the server offered me a seat, he’d caught up.

“This is a shitty way to hunt.” He waited until we slid into a booth to speak, and I glanced up at him with a frown. Theo had pushed himself into the edge of the bench, crammed into the corner so he could see as much of the room as possible. He was drawn in on himself like he was afraid everything around him was going to hurt him if he couldn’t see it. I didn’t know if it was the transformation swirling through him and making him paranoid, or if it was just life and the scars it had left behind, shaping him into the man he was.

It wasn’t my business.

“No, but hunting with you following me like a duckling would be impossible. I’m hoping if I feed you, you’ll go back to the hotel and sleep until I figure out what to do about…” I gestured between us to the thread. “All of this.”

Theo’s eyes dropped to the red line, and my body tensed. I’d seen the way it incensed him before, when he was looking at the connection between the two men I’d caught him trying to kill. He just stared at ours, though, and when he brought one finger to trace around the base at his chest, I shuddered. It felt like someone was plucking a song I couldn’t understand behind my ribcage, playing a rhythm against a heart that didn’t have a beat. My reaction made him look up.

His mouth opened, then snapped shut again. Theo frowned when he picked up the menu and looked it over. “I hope you know you’re buying, birdbrain. I don’t have any money.”

I let go of the insult for the moment and shrugged. I knew he didn’t have any money, because I’d gone through his pockets while he was tied to the bed.

I’d still brought him here. It was better than getting killed while trying to hunt because he was distracting me.