Page 98 of Love's Ace

“Theo, don’t—”

“It was worth all the pain. My whole life, every bit of it… I understand now. It was worth it to have one day with you.”

My fingers moved faster, desperate. I couldn’t catch my breath around the agony, but it didn’t matter, because the more I hurt, the more Theo’s eyes steeled—determined and focused on me, and so full of love I felt like I was drowning.

“I can do this for you, Theo. Let me do this, please. I can—”

“One day… one hour.” He shifted his hand, wrapping his fingers around the blade at his throat. Above him, Helixsmiled.

“Theo,please.”

“One minute,” he whispered as he looked up at me, and the tears clinging to his lashes slid down his cheeks. “One second, Wren. Fuck, I just wish we could have one more. It’s never enough, is it?”

“Theo!” Aiden’s arms caught me as Theo jerked the blade down and threw himself forward at the same time, piercing his chest.

Straight through the sigil Sephtis had left behind.

His heart.

Myheart.

His eyes were on mine when he fell forward, and his lips lifted into a soft smile as his lashes fluttered shut. I felt it—I felt the blade go in. Ifeltthe life spilling out of him.

“Theo! Theo, no!” My throat felt raw, my words tasted like copper, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the way I screamed or the phantom taste of blood on his tongue. I just had to get to him. Aiden’s arms were so tight on me, though, and as much as I reached, as much as I struggled, as much as I shouted his name, he wasn’t moving.

He wasn’tmoving.

I’d never considered a world where I finally had a heart, so I never realized exactly how it would feel for it to break, to shatter. To stop beating the second his did.

“Theo,please.” He wasn’tansweringme.

“Wren…” Aiden’s voice was soft in my ear. Full of sympathy.Pity.

“Aiden… Aiden, let me go. I have to get to him. I have… I h-have…” I swayed in his arms. He didn’t have to tell me.

“Wren, it won’t help.”

“Fuck,please, Aiden. I can’t—” I choked on my words as my vision swam with tears. “I can’tbreathe. Let me go. Let megowith him.”

Let me die too.

I was dying already. Dying with every hitched breath that came from my chest and didn’t rise in his. Dying as I watched the red thread between us start to fade. I would die every day for the rest of my life without him.

“Wren…” He didn’t have to say it. I could see it from how still he was. I could see it in the way Theo’s blood ran black onto the ground, but he wasn’t moving.

It didn’t matter if I couldn’t do this.

I didn’t get sweet last words.

I didn’t get to promise him I’d wait for him.

Theo looked up at me with eyes gone blank, empty.

Theo was… dead.

Chapter 32

Theo

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