Page 99 of Love's Ace

Wren.

I drifted, floating in a sea of darkness. And I wondered… Was this the afterlife? Nothingness? A punishment for every wrong thing I’d ever done.

Every sin.

But… in the darkness, there was a light.

In the darkness, the world smelled like berries and sweetness.

Like Wren.

Like home.

And in the darkness, I couldfeelhis pain. Screaming, tearing through me.

I could hear Wren calling my name.

The light was beautiful—soft and sweet and violet.

I did the only thing I could do. I stretched out my hand and touched it.

I’d been so ready to die.

For Wren, for the first time… I’d been ready to die.

Which was why the sudden burst of air that spilled into my lungs was a shock to my system. My body jerked, my nerve endings shooting with fire…Fire?

Heat.

The same burning that had driven me out into the rain, but this time, it wasn’t painful.

This time, it felt like power pulsing through me, like some part of me had been broken open and the flames had licked inside and made something new. Somethingstrong.

It tore a growl from my chest and my hands slapped the ground as I pushed up.

“Theo?” Wren’s voice was broken—trembling, full ofagony. And I understood.

I could feel it.

I could stillfeelhim.

I could feel the pain on his back where he’d torn out his feathers, the pain in his chest that was endless, fathomless… where that light had been—that light I’d seen. It left him, tore him apart, and came to find me.

To bring me back to him.

My eyes flicked down to the thread. Twined with red and black and gold.

Our thread.

Our bond.

“I’m… okay.”

Iknewthat wasn’t right. My hand drifted to my chest. The cut had sealed, a dark scar across my skin…

And my fingers were still tipped in claws, still black in streaks up along my wrist, melting into my veins.

When I ran my tongue over my teeth, they were sharp.

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