Page 8 of Love's Ace

Well, in the end, I guess saving my life—and the life of the man who I’d accidentally tied to me—was a better use.

For just a second, I thought he wasn’t going to show. There was a moment of silence where another scream tore from my throat and the man in my arms echoed the sound, a moan that made him scramble, made his fingers clutch at my shirt and his body shiver. He bowed forward and when his forehead pressed to the exposed column of my neck, he inhaled sharply and settled.

And that’s exactly how Sephtis found me, appearing in a white burst of light and blinking down at my body collapsed on the ground with a bleeding half-Enmity clinging to me like I was his only lifeline.

His golden eyes widened, and the sweep of his black hair spilled into his face as he tilted his head.

“Well, Wren, I hope you didn’t call me here to join you on the ground.” He looked down the length of his body—well muscled and clad in dark jeans and a black turtleneck. “I’m not really in the mood to…”

His teasing faded as he noticed the blood spilling from my chest and the swirl of red and white staining the front of my shirt.

When he realized what it was, his eyes widened.

When he saw the red thread drifting between the two of us, his jaw dropped.

“What did you do?” His voice was hushed, and he actually dropped to a crouch to stare at the red line with wide, curious eyes. When his fingers stretched out to touch it, my hand rose of its own volition and pushed them away.

“I don’t know. Something happened. Something must have tampered with my arrows. You know I only pull what I need.”

Sephtis’s eyes shifted between the two of us, and his silence was louder than anything he could have said.

“He’s dying.” He finally spoke, and my arms holding the body against me spasmed.

“I know. And I don’t know what will happen to me when he does. Look at this.” I pushed him gently away from me so the Reaper could see the way the black essence of the Enmity was slowly eating at the red thread between us. Sephtis frowned and leaned in close, and this time when he lifted a hand to touch it, I didn’t stop him.

His finger ran along the line of black and it pulsed beneath his touch. When it suddenly shot forward and up, when the body in my arms started to spasm, I tried to jerk free.

Sephtis wrapped his hand around the thread and squeezed tight. For a moment, it felt like the breath was cut from my chest, that everything around me was whiting out.

Was I dying?

I’d always thought it would be at the claws of an Enmity, with my wings ripped from my shoulders and my life spilling out… not like this.

Not with Sephtis and his pretty face looking at a red string of Fate that I shouldneverhave been able to create for myself trailing between my body and that of my sworn enemy.

But…

Here I was.

And when he smoothed his hand along the line, air rushed into my lungs. I looked down to see the black slowly fading away,seeping back into the chest of the man who moaned and tensed before falling completely limp. At the base of the crimson, a symbol flared to life—the same symbol on the pendant Sephtis had given me. It faded to a soft white, and in my arms, the man’s heavy breathing leveled out.

“What did you just do?” My eyes lifted. For a moment, Sephtis’s golden gaze was black like a starless night. As the color slowly seeped back, he shrugged.

“I don’t know how long it will hold, but for now… I’ve stilled the spread. But you have to know that I can’t keep him alive forever, Wren. Eventually, death will take him.”

I shook my head and forced myself to stand—it was harder than it should have been, because the man in my arms was taller than I was, and he was still unresponsive.

“It’s fine. I’ll figure out how to sever the tie before then.”

“Can’t you just cut it?”

My eyes darted down to the red line, to the color that was slowly bleeding back into it since Sephtis had wiped the black away. I shook my head.

“I’ve never heard of a cupid being… attached to someone. I know when a human loses their connection, it opens them to the Enmity. What if it does something to me?” My fingers came up and tugged the line, and just that gentle pluck made my chest burn, made it ache like I was trying to pull something physical from my body. The sensation was enough to make me sway, and it was only Sephtis’s hand on my shoulder that steadied me.

“How did this happen, Wren?”

He’d asked it before, but…

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