Page 58 of Love's Ace

It was worth it.

It was…

“Wren?” Theo’s voice was a soft murmur against my ear, and I pulled back enough to look at him.

“Hm?”

“Do you think we should go back?”

It took me a second to realize why he was asking. Theo sounded…

Fuck, he sounded exhausted.

I had to remember that even though he was turning into an Enmity, there was still a huge part of him that was human. Even if he had more strength than he should have, it probably still cost him to use it.

That, and I could feel how relaxed his body was now that he was pressed against me—I could feel it because the emotion was reflecting all along my spine, into my muscles.

“We can.”

“Is it going to be… okay?”

I knew what he was asking, and I honestly wasn’t sure. There was every chance Gethin wouldn’t let us back into the house without a little persuasion. But I was willing to figure it out if I had to.

“It’ll be fine.” I turned and started back toward the graveyard. “We’ll be fine.”

We.

Us.

There was no denying that it wasus. That it had always been us, even if we’d both tried to ignore it.

And I realized that Theo picked up on the word as soon as it left my lips—I caught the smile that threatened to cross his features, the one he only just managed to tamp down.

“Yeah, we will be,” he finally said, like he couldn’t resist, then he wrapped himself around me as I took us back to Gethin’s.

When we touched down, I zipped up my jacket and held my hand out to him, and it only took until his fingers slid through mine for me to realize that I was doing it just as much for myself as I was for him.

I knew how threads worked—I knew that physical intimacy just made the connection burn all the brighter. I wasn’t trying to avoid it anymore, though. I wasn’t sure if I could.

And I refused to show back up at Gethin’s door without doing something to show him that Theo was with me, that Theo was going tobewith me, and there wasn’t room for argument.

There was every chance he wouldn’t let us back in—every chance he would mark it as too much of a risk. He’d already spent too much of his life risking everything—wasstillrisking everything.

I knew he wasn’t worried about himself. That worry was all for the man he was in love with. The reason he’d lost his wings.

And some tiny part of me was starting to wonder if I could understand why he’d made the decisions he had. Up until now, I’d always thought he’d temporarily lost his mind, that he’d given in to an actual burst of insanity when he’d allowed his wings to be torn away.

But now…

Now Theo’s hand was warm in mine, and he didn’t step behind me when we walked up to the door. He drew himself up to his full height and let the soft expression he’d been wearing slip from his face.

He wasn’t leaving me to face Gethin alone, even though he’d just been worried about what would happen.

He was standing beside me, shoulder to shoulder.

He was ready to fight if we needed to.

He was with me.

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