Gwen stared at Teddy for a few seconds before turning back to Wren. “Don’t you want things for yourself?” she asked. “You can make real change.”
“I want what I have always wanted,” Wren said, squeezing Teddy’s hand. “I want to help animals the way I feel they need to be helped. I want to run my sanctuary without having to justify my every move. I want to treat cursebreaking as a job I am willing to do because I’m good at it and it pays well, not because it’s all that I am and all I’m allowed to have.”
“You’re still willing to be a cursebreaker?” she asked carefully.
“For now. If you grant me one more request.”
“Name it,” she said, looking resigned.
Wren looked at Teddy.
“I want to be allowed to love him. Not in dark corners or with hushed voices. I want to love him loudly and out in the open. For everyone to see.”
“Our rules seem to be…outdated,” she said. “I can make that happen. It’s the least I can do. Well, that and…”
She pulled out two files and handed one to each of them. Wren recognized them immediately as the personal files Nexus kept on each of their placed cursebreakers. He took his with shaking hands, looking at the photo of his eighteen-year-old self on the front of it, sunken cheeks and hollow eyes staring back at him.
He looked up and caught Gwen looking at him.
“Open it,” she said, and they both did so at the same time, Wren’s heart lodged inside his throat at the words.
Cursebreaker trainee ID: 28/32018
Specialty: Animal curses
Placement: Slatehollow
Registered name: Wren
He heard Teddy’s matching gasp and turned to look his way, finding him reading over a matching file and running a finger over his own registered name.Teddy.
“You…”
“Nexus owes you your true identities back,” she said. “You are owed a clean slate and a fresh start. So, Wren and Teddy, go live your lives. And make sure you clock in to work on time.”
They stood up, shaking her hand and thanking her before walking out of her office.
Wren knew Teddy might come back here someday. But for him, the door closed behind them on the last time he’d ever willingly step foot inside. He was done. He was free.
“Did you mean what you said in there?” Teddy asked, holding his hand as they walked toward the front door of the Nexus building.
“I meant everything I said, so you’ll have to be more specific,” Wren said, barely able to believe he was holding Teddy’s hand in his own, openly, so everyone could see.
“Do you really only have bad memories of this place?” Teddy asked and Wren froze in place, turning to look at him before moving until they were standing chest to chest.
“None of my memories with you were bad,” Wren said, reaching up to cup his face. “You know you were the only thing in this place that mattered to me. The only thing that made sense. The only one I wanted to keep.”
“And now you get to,” Teddy said with an elated smile.
Wren nodded with a wide smile of his own.
“I do,” he said. It still felt unreal.
“Will you come somewhere with me?” Teddy asked.
“To the ends of the earth, no questions asked,” Wren said, and Teddy smiled, taking his hand and pulling until they were running down an empty, dark hallway Wren could probably walk in his sleep. They got to the end of it and pushed a large iron door open, stepping out and onto a narrow path leading into the field behind the building.
He knew where they were going. He’d known it the moment Teddy asked.
