Page 80 of Love's Ace

“From what I can tell. It doesn’t matter.”

“Ofcourseit matters. They hurt you. Fuck, they hurt you, Theo, and the only thing I could think about was how much I wanted to break them, to spend the rest of my life making them pay for it. I—” He cut himself off, and I took the opportunity to lean in again, to press my mouth against his to tell him all the words that seemed trapped in my chest.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. I… It doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing matters as long as you’re still… here.”

Still with me.

Wren tore his gaze from the carnage he’d caused and looked back at me. Around us, his wings rustled, wrapping forward to cocoon me in their warmth, to hide me from the blood, from the death, from every memory I would never have to experience again because Wren had wiped it all away in streaks of red.

“I’m right here, Theo.”

And fuck me… Even though I wanted to burn this house to the ground, with his arms and his wings around me, right here was the only place I wanted to be.

Chapter 27

Wren

We were quiet whenwe left the house and made our way back to where we were staying. In the back of my mind, I knew I needed to do something to clean up my mess. I could just imagine it now—Sephtis shaking his head at the torn apart souls he’d have to scrape together to ferry.

Then again, I was pretty sure Sephtis could see the weight of what made up a man. He’d know why I’d done what I’d done. He couldn’t blame me for it.

And if I could go back and do it over and over…

I had to cut the thoughts off, because I felt the surge of anger again. That darkness wasn’tmine. At least… it wasn’t something I should have been able to possess.

It had always been there, just below the surface.

Maybe Theo and I had connected because of more than just the Ardor.

My eyes glanced down at my bare chest, and my brows knitted together.

The swirl of red and white had faded to faint lines… it had been like that for days now, hadn’t it?

The Ardor had faded.

What I felt now…

What was happening now had nothing to do with the vial.

I glanced over at Theo, but I kept my mouth shut until we were back in the house and the door was closed.

“I should call Gethin. He’s better at cleaning up murders than I am.”

“Wren—”

“Then again, with what I did, if Aiden or any of the others find the bodies, they’re going to think Enmity did it.”

“Wren!” Theo caught my wrist as I started toward the room to find my phone, and when he whirled me around to face him, I couldn’t quite read the expression in his eyes.

“Did you kill them because of me?” He sounded… pained. Miserable. And I hated hearing it.

“No, it wasn’t… I mean, yes?” I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to say—I wasn’t sure what Icouldsay that would make what I’d done okay. They’d tormented him, they’d ruined his life… but I’d still been a monster. Theo told me he’d killed people, but this wasn’t just killing.

I’d hunted them.

I’d murdered them.

And I wanted to do it again—I wanted to find every person that had ever touched him and bleed them out while they were screaming.

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