Page 48 of Love's Ace

Wren opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, then snapped it shut and reached into his pocket. It took me a second to realize he was fishing out his phone, and another few before I caught on to what he was doing.

“I’d like to place an order.” He turned his back to me when he said it, and I felt something inside me threaten to crack.

It was justfood. It was fuckingfood, and it didn’t mean a damn thing. It definitely wasn’t enough to make something in me feel like it was breaking.

My eyes flicked back to the pictures on the wall—to the man Gethin had given up his wings for, had given himself over to a life of pain for.

It wasn’t worth it.

Lovewasn’tworth it.

And Wren…

Fuck… I had to tell myself that Wren wasn’t worth it, either.

Chapter 19

Wren

Iwasn’t sure whatI expected when we came to Gethin’s, but it wasn’t the weird sense of calm that settled over me for what had to be the first time in decades. I didn’t realize how on edge I’d always been, the tension that I carried stored along my spine, nestled next to my wings.

There was no reason for it to suddenly leave my body, but there was no denying it had faded away as the sound of the rain that had started an hour earlier beat down on the roof. There was something about sitting around in Gethin’s living room and eating takeout while he complained about a television show he’d been watching, like we were mortals, that felt… soothing.

It was like everyone in the room wasn’t holding a secret that could easily get them killed.

My eyes kept drifting to Theo. As soon as we’d come back to the main house, he’d drawn in on himself again. I hadn’t missed it, though, the way he’d opened up while we were in the library, the way he’d seemed to almostforcehimself to let me in enough to know that he was hungry.

I’d never spent this much time around someone destined to become an Enmity. Honestly, I’d been more than happy to slit the throat of humans who were far less transformed than Theo was. His nails had never truly gone back to normal since the last time—the tips were black and sharper than they should have been. His teeth were pointed. It was only the liquid brown of his eyes—soft and wet and unsure—that reverted to normal.

It was those eyes I kept getting hung up on, the soft expression that continually drew me back to glance at him over and over again.

He was curled in the corner of the room, his shoulders slowly relaxing until they dropped down… and he stopped picking at his food and started actually eating after a few minutes.

I never thought I’d find myself fascinated with watching someone slowly open up, like a flower that hid its petals until it was kissed by the moonlight—a sight I was starting to realize was rare, but…

Fuck, was Theo beautiful?

I was pretty sure hewas…

“Wren.” Gethin’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts, and made me realize I’d probably been doing a little more than glancing at Theo this time. I turned away from his confused expression and back to my friend.

“Hm?”

“How did you say you managed to keep him from changing?” I could hear the curiosity in Gethin’s voice, edged with the same tenacity and hope there always was. Anything that could influence a cupid, anything that could influenceanythingsupernatural, was of interest to him. I honestly didn’t know if his hopes were fruitless—I’d never heard of a cupid getting their wings back. I didn’t even know if it was possible. At this point, I didn’t know if that was what he was aiming for, or if he justwanted to strip himself of his immortality altogether so he could be human again.

If he could have that, maybe the orders he’d been given wouldn’t hold anymore.

Maybe Aiden and his rules wouldn’t have any sway.

Though judging by the pictures in his library, it seemed like he was already skirting around the edges of them.

“I called in a favor,” I answered carefully. I didn’tthinkGethin would ever do anything to endanger me, or anyone who’d helped me, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to find a way to use Sephtis if he got the chance.

I wasn’t sure if there was a damn thing the Reaper could do for him. The only reason he’d managed to stop Theo’s transformation was because when a human truly turned to Enmity, their soul shattered. A soul leaving the body was the one place a Reaper had true control—ferrying all the fractured pieces of the human to the afterlife.

I didn’t realize my fingers were clenching hard enough to slice half-moon impressions of my nails into my palms until Theo let out a low, pained sound beside us.

Fuck.

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