Page 88 of Love's Ace

“There isn’t.” Aiden sounded so gods damned nonchalant, like he wasn’t talking about killing my soulmate and leaving me broken and alone. Fuck, it was exactly how he’d made me, so it madesensethat he wouldn’t care.

My eyes flicked to Theo, who was watching us both with the dark depths of his stare torn.

It was the same way he’d looked when he heard Gethin talking about this—but there was something beneath it now.

Determination.

Fight.

Things were different.

We were different.

Ilovedhim, and there was no world that existed where I gave him up to save myself. I’d just found him, just realized what emotions were, what they truly meant. I’d fight until we found another answer, until we found some other choice. I’d fight until my last breath, because Theo wasn’t taking his while I was still breathing.

“There’salwaysanother way.” Beside me, I felt Theo shiver from the fury in my tone, felt his hands smooth up along my back. The touch made me shudder, and my wings sprang out just like they had at Gethin’s, wrapping around him like they could shelter him from the bullshit Aiden was spewing.

It made the man in front of me widen his eyes—Theo’s dark, clawed fingers, stroking through my feathers soothingly, trying to calm me down.

Theo, the Enmity, theenemy—an embodiment of rage and fury—making sure I didn’t completely lose my cool while I was facing the only person I knew who probably had the answers we needed.

“Wren, you’re in danger. You realize that, right? I can see it…” Aiden’s eyes dropped to my chest, and he frowned. “Youaresoulmates. You’re all tangled together. But whatever seal was placed over the part ofTheo’ssoul…” He sounded almost irritated to say his name. “It isn’t holding. Little bits of his darkness are leaking out, taking over. It will consume you both.”

“I don’tcare.” I snarled, and Aiden’s hand shot forward. He grabbed the thread on my chest, and the strength of his grip made my knees go weak. It was Theo who reached around, his blackened fingertips that snatched Aiden’s wrist, his nails that bit into his skin and nearly drew blood.

“I’ll kill you before the thread falls to the ground. I swear to whatever god you believe in, you won’t make it out of this alive.” The rumbling growl of Theo’s voice might have been soothing if my vision wasn’t spotting with weakness.

“I’m not tearing anything out, you fucking puppy. Calm down.” Aiden’s voice was scolding, and he didn’t bother shaking Theo’s hand off. “But do you see? I can’t just tear the thread out, it’s all tangled in his aura, around his heart and soul. It would rip Wren open—flay him wide and leave him to take in every drop of darkness around him. He would shatter. His aura would snap. I don’t know what he’d become, but he wouldn’t be himself anymore.”

Aiden’s eyes darted up, and I hated it—hated it because I could feel Theo tensing behind me.

“Theo, we don’t have to listen to him.” Even as I said it, Aiden pressed on.

“But… if you die, the thread could dissolve. It would kill a part of him, sure… but that part could recover. Wren would still be himself. And you…” Aiden’s head tilted, his violet eyes roaming over both of us. “Well… what were you supposed to become anyway? Think about it.”

Theo spoke before I could cut him off again, and I hated the pain in his voice.

“You think I haven’t been thinking about it since—” He stopped himself before he said Gethin’s name, but I knew the exact moment the damn possibility had been put into his mind. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about. I don’t fucking know you, and I don’t really give a shit who you think you are. But…” Theostepped until he was standing slightly in front of me, and he dropped Aiden’s wrist so he could take my hand. “Maybe I am a monster, because I’m not giving Wren up. Not when I just found him.”

“Not when we just found each other.” I echoed his words. Aiden gave the thread in my chest a tug, but he let it go when I swayed and Theo had to catch me.

“You’re both going to end up dying then.”

“Iknowthere’s another way, Aiden. Who made the Enmity?”

The question caught him off guard—he stiffened, and his eyes snapped behind us to a shelf.

To the books that looked just like the one Gethin had.

To the painting above it—an image of three circles of looping symbols, a language I couldn’t read.

I’d seen the same picture in the book.

“You don’t know what you’re asking, Wren. That’s not…” Aiden shook his head. “They’re not the answer. They’d probably think the entire situation was a game.”

The way he spoke, it almost seemed like Aiden knew thempersonally…but that was absurd.

He was old, but he couldn’t be that old.

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