Page 31 of Love's Ace

That’s what I was going to become?Monster, Wren had said, but I hadn’t realized he meant it so… literally.

The one he cut reared back, and a pair of black wings sprang from its shoulders. It took me a second to realize why—when it spun, the barbs on the tips caught against Wren’s cheek, cutting it open.

Wren bled gold, and the thing licked sharp teeth with another low growl.

Wren bled gold… and he moved so his body was between me and the danger.

Oh.

Oh shit, he was protecting me.

That burn in my chest was back, so sudden it felt caustic, and violent enough my entire body started to shiver.

The two beasts circled him, and I didn’t like the way he stiffened. I liked it even less when I saw him move with them while keeping his body between mine and theirs. He only had a knife in his hand—the bow I’d seen him with earlier was still back at the hotel room.

Had he forgotten it because of me?

Was he about to get hurt because of me?

How many people had to get hurt because of me?

“Theo, run,” he said in a low voice. “Get around the corner andrun.”

“No.” The word came out before I could think it through, but it felt solid on my tongue, spilling down to my feet and keeping me rooted to the spot.

“I can’t fight them if I’m watching you.” Wren moved his body between me and the two creatures again in a deadly dance that he had no partner for. When one lunged, he thrust his knife forward and sliced into it, but he came away bleeding again. “Go. Please.”

“No.” I snarled the word this time, and my feet suddenlyweren’tstuck anymore. I was moving without thinking, and I charged past Wren and tackled the thing that made him bleed to the ground.

It was second nature to raise my hand and stab it down. Claws tore into its chest, and it looked up at me with a shocked expression and dark eyes that bled crimson around the edges. The face was so close to human, so close to the furious reflection I saw when I looked in the mirror.

When it roared and tore into me, I felt an echoing answer rip from my chest. I snarled back and wrapped my hands around its throat.

Somewhere behind me, Wren called my name… but then there was movement, a scuffle. A fight.

He didn’t have to face two of them, though.

He didn’t have to face this alone.

No onehad ever stood between me and danger. It… meant something. But whatever it meant was slowly bleeding away to that rage and fire tearing through me, making me feel like my skin was going to scorch off, that my veins would turn just as black as the things I was trying to kill. Black veins on pale skin.

Like the monster I was destined to become.

No wonder Wren hated me.

If I had to be a monster, though, maybe it was okay if I was being a monsterforsomeone.

Maybe it was okay if I was being a monster for him.

I let myself go with that thought, knowing there was every chance I wouldn’t be able to find my way back to sanity again… and it feltgood.

It felt good when my fingers plunged into the Enmity’s stomach—when I tore into it—and it felt good when its claws tore along my back and I screamed. It felt good because I could hear Wren behind me, fighting just as hard as I was—still fighting, because he didn’t have to fight alone.

My fury slowly ate away at the edge of my vision until all I could see was red, until all I could feel was that inferno raging through my chest… and it feltgood…

Because for the first time, I was burningforsomeone instead of burning alone.

Immolation with a cause.

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