Page 14 of Love's Ace

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 beenplayingat 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 goingon?”

I didn’t owe him anything. My duty was tokillhim. 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 knowwhat’sgoing on.”

His eyes widened at the wordsoulmate, 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, infeelingeach other. I wasn’t going to do that.

The first person I allowed myself to touch, to really touch, in almost a century wasnotgoing 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 wascoming hard and fast, trying toignorethe 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 tosaveyou, Theo. You’re right. I’ll probably kill you before this is all over. Until then, I need to get back to what I’msupposedto 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 neverfelta 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 neverquestionedwalking away from a personbefore. I didn’twantto 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 makesense. My arrows didn’tdothis. 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, Iwouldbreak free of it. I couldn’t let myself be controlled by an Enmity—my life was already in danger by being tied to him.

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