“That’s a relief. I was worried for a moment there.”
Wren laughed, just like he wanted him to.
“I know you’re trying to make me feel better. I’m supposed to be makingyoufeel better.”
“You are,” Teddy said. “You just being here is enough.”
Wren smiled in defeat, settling at his side instead of helicoptering. Teddy took his hand in his.
“Fill me in?” Teddy asked.
Wren took a deep breath, then he did. He explained the hospital and Gwen. The way they had found the trail Teddy had left and the curses in the woods. Teddy felt a little sick when Wren explained the liger and what a close call it had been.
“What about Kellan?” Teddy made himself ask, forcing the name past his lips. He wasn’t going to be tied down by it anymore.
“Dead,” Wren said with finality. “He’s not going to hurt you again.”
Dead? He was gone?
Teddy could hardly believe it. For most of his life Kellan had been haunting him, always a shadow, always a chain, and now he was…free?
“Don’t cry,” Wren whispered, wiping his tears.
Teddy hadn’t even realized he was. It felt cathartic, not sad. He had faced his demon and won. He’d looked him straight in the eye and finally seen him for who he was. Weak, not strong. And now Wren had made him disappear forever.
“I don’t think that will sink in for a while,” Teddy admitted. “I don’t…”
“You can take as long as you need to process,” Wren murmured. “I know it must be hard.”
“H-how did it happen?” Teddy asked. He watched Wren flinch and look away as he bit his lips. “What did you do?”
“Promise you won’t get mad,” Wren said.
Teddy frowned. “No promises. Did you put yourself in danger for me? You did, didn’t you?”
“I’m not apologizing.” He stuck his cute little nose into the air and Teddy felt a rush of feelings flood his already overloaded system.
“What did you do, Little Bird?”
Wren took a deep breath. “I dosed myself with the drug, used the boost in magic to connect with the cursed animals, every one he took from and abused, and they got retribution for every hurt. Both for you and me,” Wren said, almost in a single strung-together word.
Teddy felt like he’d be sick for a moment. The thought of Wren putting himself at risk like that, taking the drug without knowing what it would do to him, all for Teddy, made him want to scream.
“Why are you not in bed, getting treated?” he asked, looking around to find the room empty of another set of the machines and medications Teddy was hooked up to.
“I actively used a lot of the magic I got,” Wren said. “And I didn’t take a tenth of what he dosed you with. I also wasn’t plugged into that fucking death trap designed to drain me of my magic, so…I’m good.”
“Good?” Teddy asked. “You drugged yourself with an unknown substance, Wren.”
“I had a good reason for it. And I’d do it again. A million times over. He was going to kill you, and the world has no right to exist without you in it.”
He said it with so much passion and conviction in his voice that Teddy had no way to argue with him. And at the end of the day, he would have done the same. It was how their love had always been.
And when he put the thought of Wren being hurt aside, it was poetic justice that Kellan had met his end at the teeth and claws of the creatures he had subjugated and thought less of. He had fought to rise so high and he had fallen all the further for it.
All Teddy could do was nod and squeeze Wren’s hand tight, not trusting his voice to come out steady. Wren allowed him the space, just sitting quietly with him.
“Thank you,” Teddy finally said.
