With a loud, sickeningcrack, he ripped half the Enmity’s head off and unceremoniously dropped it to the ground. Ithadn’t even landed before he turned toward me, his stance still defensive.
“Who the fuck is that, Wren?”
“Don’t worry about it, Theo. He’s a friend.”
Theo.
I’d never heard Wren say his name before. Under any other circumstance, I would have asked him exactlyhowthings had happened… because I was certain that the man standing beside Wren, the man reaching out to take his hand, was anEnmity.
I didn’t have the leisure for questions, though. On the ground beside me, Cole was dying.
It wasn’t something I could fix with a small burst of Vitality this time, though I was full of it from the soul I’d taken just before I’d found him on the bridge. I could barely feel him there, other than the way his soul called to me. Now, in these moments when he didn’t have the strength for defense… it was reaching out to me.
But I wanted it tostay.
I turned to Wren, my eyes flickering to the red thread trailing between him and his Enmity. A man who’d been dying.
Someone who shouldn’t be here at all.
Hissoulmate.
“Wren…” I couldn’t believe I was asking him this again. “Pull an arrow.”
Wren moved without question, and it was the man beside him that caught his arm. “What are you doing?”
Wren’s eyes drifted to Theo’s chest. I knew what he was thinking about, even if the man beside him didn’t.
“Returning a favor,” he said softly, but he didn’t shake Theo’s hand away when he reached behind his shoulder to pull an arrow.
It was the same crimson color I’d seen in the hospital, the same bright light that I’d wanted so desperately for Caiden, eventhough it had never been him I was there for. I wondered if it was the same one he’d pulled then, if it had been waiting for me to ask this whole time.
“Are you sure about this, Sephtis?” His eyes dropped to my chest. “We’ve already proven once that a cupid’s arrow isn’t really meant for a Reaper.”
I didn’t hesitate. “I’m sure. It’s the only way I can think to keep him.” I’d have to worry about asking Cole’s forgiveness after.
“Reaper?” Theo echoed the word, but Wren didn’t ask me again. A low gasp tore from me when he let the arrow fly—it pierced my chest in the same place the other had, but this one passed through me.
Straight into the dying man on the ground.
I turned, glancing between us… but the red thread was black.
Nothing.
And Cole wasn’tbreathing.
“No.” The word felt like agony ripping from me. I could feel the connection—could feel where his heart was supposed to be beating—but I couldn’t feel him.
“The thread…” Theo’s voice was a soft whisper.
“Sephtis, I’m sorry. It’s…” Wren trailed off when my body fell forward. There was weight tugging me down from the center of my chest, from the thread that connected me to the dead body beneath me. For a moment I saw his soul rise up. For just a second, his eyes were clear when they looked at me… curious. Surprised, like he was seeing me for the first time.
“Sephtis?”
I hadn’t even called his soul, but it was coming to me.
I didn’twantit. I didn’t want him dead.
Another sensation streaked through my chest, white hot and impossible, because Iknewwhat it was.
