Page 53 of Love's Ace

I couldn’t think.

I couldn’tbreathe.

“You have to. I’m notdoingthis,Wren. I’m not letting you kill me, and I’m not—”

“Noone is killing you, you fucking asshole. Don’t you get it?” He leaned in, so close I could see the rain catching in his lashes, so close the violet of his eyes were like gravity, like universes. Like the end of forever, pulling me in.

“I—”

The pelting chill of the rain suddenly stopped, and it took me a second to realize why. Wren’s wings were out, sheltering me, wrapped around us both.

“No one is killing you. No one ishurtingyou.No one is taking you away from me, Theo. Do you understand?”

Fuck.

Fuck.

He couldn’t say shit like that.

The surge of fear that ripped through me was enough to let me push him off so I could scramble back on hands and knees. I couldn't see past the hot sting in my eyes of the tears that were threatening to fall… because thosewordswere sharper than any arrow, more capable of breaking me apart than any monster or cupid.

I lashed out again, and this time my fingers took him across the chest, claws tearing his shirt open and leaving behind streaks of golden blood.

The pain couldn’t even touch the fear and longing building behind my ribs.

“Wren,don’t.” I said it again when he moved closer, cried out when I swiped at him and he caught my hand.

I nearly crumbled when he linked our fingers together and jerked me against his chest, rolling us back to the ground.

“No one gets to hurt you, because you’remine. It doesn’t have to make sense, Theo. You don’t have to understand it, because I sure as fuck don’t. But you are, and you have been from that first night we met—since you wereborn—we were made for each other. You’re mine, and I’m yours, and I don’t give a fuckhow the thread between us happened. It’s real.” He dragged my hand until it pressed between us—I could feel my heartbeat thundering. I could feel the echoing pulse of his, matching the beat like it was a rhythm made just for us. “Thisis real.”

Lost.

I waslostin the ocean of his emotions; endless, fathomless, warm and unwavering anddemanding.

I was lost the second that damn arrow went through my chest—the second he’d touched me.

From the first time I saw him.

Wanting Wren was a fight I couldn’t win… and for the first time in my life, I wastiredof fighting.

I just wanted tofeel. I wanted to believe him when he said I was his.

I wanted—

Wren’s mouth crashed against mine, and the press of his lips carried the strength of the storm around us. It swept me away, and the tears I’d been trying to hold back fell from my eyes like rain.

My fingers still pushed him, curling into fists in an attempt to shove him away. I wanted this, I wantedhim. I hit him and clung to him, fought to get him away from me and scrambled to keep him close until I wasn’t sure at all what I was doing, what I was thinking.

I only knew everything that had been happening had been leading to this moment, and now that I was here, there’d never been another end for me.

There’d never been another possibility.

Wren pulled back just long enough to search my face, and the expression tried to break me all over again. I could see it, the way he wanted to make sure I wasokaywith what was happening… the way he was worried, even though I’d barely toldhim anything about my past, about the things that had hurt me and the agony that still lingered when I thought about it.

But Wren didn’t make me feel that way. I was afraid, I was terrified… but I was more frightened of him stopping.

That would break me more than anything else.

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