Wren

I’d been prepared to die since I was eight, and I’d been fine with dying all these many years. The few who would grieve my passing would continue with their lives afterward. They would probably never speak of me again, and when they were gone, no one would ever remember I’d existed.

Then, one day, my soul would be reincarnated, and if Earth still existed, I would start all over in a brand new life. The new me would have no memory of Wren or Bonnie.

I’d been good with dying for a while now, and being taken out while helping to destroy a horseman was not a bad way to go. It might make me a legend who wouldn’t be forgotten by everyone. Maybe, one day in the distant future and in a different person, I’d be sitting with humans and listening to the legend of the human, Wren, who had helped to slay Greed.

I might even smile and think how courageous Wren must have been. I might aspire to be like her, and maybe that reincarnation of me would one day go on to do better things than this version of me had.

Yep, I was all right with dying; it didn’t even hurt so much anymore. When the horse had first come down on my chest, agony had exploded through my entire body as the sickening sounds of my bones crunching filled my ears. Warm blood had burst from my mouth to trickle down my chin.

Then, the pain eased, the blood cooled, and so did the rest of my limbs. I’d watched the horse’s hooves kicking in the air and waited for the final blow to come as death crept in to claim me. It didn’t even bother me that I’d finally found love and the joy of being alive only to have it ripped cruelly away from me shortly afterward. That was the way life worked, I knew. What I did feel was grateful I’d had the chance to experience those things before I died.

Then the horse had burst into dust above me.

Beautiful. The thought had been crazy, and I didn’t know what made the ash so beautiful. Maybe it was the sun filtering through the trees to illuminate the floating dust. Perhaps it was because the ash consisted of the colors of the horse. Or maybe it was because I knew this would be one of the last things I’d ever see.

Whatever it was, the ash had been beautiful as it settled around me in a colorful wave that coated me from head to toe. If I hadn’t felt so broken, I might have laughed and thrown up the dust to celebrate Greed’s end, but my limbs were too heavy for that.

My eyes drifted closed as Corson’s arms enveloped me. His body eased the chill in me, but not enough. He would never be able to stop the ice encasing my limbs, and that was okay. I opened my mouth to tell him everything would be fine, my time had come.

The words stuck in my throat when I saw the sorrow emanating from his eyes and the misery etched onto his features. This would not be fine for him, I realized. My demon wouldn’t be okay with this.

There was no reincarnation for him. If he chose to walk his mother’s path, that would be the end of Corson. That comprehension was far more excruciating than the horse stomping on me had been. If Corson died, there was no chance future Wren might meet a demon with pointed ears and dancing citrine eyes, who would make her contemplate tearing her hair out at the same time she wanted to throw herself into his arms. There would be no demon for her to love because he wouldn’t exist.

I don’t feel the Chosen bond as he does. But I felt the stirring of an emotion so raw and primitive that it could only be a long-buried piece of my DNA coming to life.

Was this what soul mates were for humans? Was this why some people claimed they fell in love at first sight? Did some ancient piece of genetic material spark to life in those random few to show them they’d found their human equivalent of a Chosen? Or was I losing too much blood and completely delusional?

Either way, I knew I couldn’t tolerate seeing Corson like this. What remained of my life surged forth within me, and I did everything I could to surface enough to comfort him. I loved him, and my death would destroy him.

When he offered to change me, a piece of me recoiled from the idea and the uncertainty of what I would become. But a larger part of me was willing to do anything to take away the devastation in Corson’s eyes.

You can’t say yes only for him, my mind whispered to me. You’ll regret it if you do and that will only destroy him more.

Could I live with being a demon?

Yes, I could. I wouldn’t be evil, not like some of those I’d encountered over the years. I wouldn’t be cruel. I would live forever, with Corson. He warned me it would take some getting used to and I might injure someone in the beginning, but I would stop myself from doing that, somehow. Even if I had to go away and couldn’t lead this group of Wilders, I would do whatever it took to stop myself from harming someone else.

I would have an eternity with Corson. How could I refuse that? We were good together. He made me crazier than any man should make a woman, but I loved him more than I could fathom.

So I said yes, and now I had no idea what would become of me, of him, of us, or even if I would survive what was about to unfold. I tried to get my fingers to clutch his shirt, to hold him closer, but they were too weak and clumsy. He sliced open his forearm and poured his blood over my wounds.

No, don’t hurt yourself, I moaned in my head when I saw his flayed-open flesh, but I couldn’t get the words out as the world slipped further and further away from me. Did my heart stop?

My eyes closed as Corson’s blood filled me.

* * *

Corson

“What are you doing?” the words were blurted from beside me.

I’d heard them coming, seen them approaching, but my attention remained mostly focused on Wren. A shadow fell over us, and I bared my teeth at the human beside me. Jolie, I dimly recalled her name. The woman gawked at me before focusing on what I was doing with Wren.

The humans knew something had changed with Hawk, but they didn’t know how or why. In case people one day got it in their heads to use demons to become immortal too, we’d worked to keep the knowledge of how the change from mortal to immortal occurred from them, but I didn’t care if they saw me with Wren now. The humans still wouldn’t fully know how the transformation worked, and even if they did, I would do whatever was necessary to save Wren. Let the mortals try to turn on us and use us, it would be the greatest regret of their lives.

Tears shimmered in Jolie’s eyes as she focused on Wren. “What are you doing?” she asked again.

Hawk rested his hand on Jolie’s arm and pulled her back a step. I sliced my arm open again to pour more blood into Wren’s wound.

“Is she dead?” Jolie whispered, her lower lip trembling.

“Dying,” I grated through my teeth as Wren’s heart gave a little beat and her breath rattled out once more. My blood would ward off her immediate death, but that didn’t mean it would keep it at bay.

Hawk’s eyes were wary as he studied Wren then me. He’d once told me being a demon was preferable to being dead, but he wouldn’t have picked becoming a demon. Fate had chosen his course when Lilitu’s canagh blood mixed with his while he was dying. Hawk accepted that course, though there were times he didn’t like it.

He would never have agreed to do this. He would never have offered it.

“Corson—”

“She agreed,” I broke in before he could say more. “I asked her. I told her what it entailed, and she agreed to it. She knows the consequences.”

Hawk gave a brisk nod and pulled Jolie further away. Over Hawk’s shoulder, I saw the others mulling about the woods. Most of them were bruised and bloodied. I wondered how many were dead, but I’d sort that mess out later.

Bale kicked aside the head of the horseman. Unlike its horse, the rider hadn’t turned to dust. “Greed,” she sneered. “I should have known.”

“We all should have known,” Shax said. “We didn’t, and that is the point of the horsemen; they work from the shadows, manipulating and playing their games.”

“I hate these things,” Erin said.

“We all do.” Magnus dropped the black cloak onto Greed’s body. “Where did the cloak come from?”

“I found it in the woods,” Vargas said. “When I was taking a piss. I didn’t feel possessive about it in the beginning, but once I brought it back to the house….”

“Your greed increased,” Magnus said when Vargas’s voice trailed off, and he wrapped his hand around his cross.

“Yes. I set it down, and Hawk and I went to get Erin, but when I discovered others touching it, I found I wanted it more and more.”

“So did I,” Hawk said.

“From now on, no more picking things up when you don’t know where they came from,” Caim commanded as he gazed pointedly at everyone gathering around us. “We have no idea how the horsemen work, not entirely.”

Lix strolled forward with his sword blade resting against his skeletal shoulder. “Where is Greed’s horse?”

“It turned to ash when I lopped off Greed’s head,” I answered.

Bale stalked toward me and rested the tip of her sword in the dirt beside me. “What will you do if this doesn’t work? If she still dies?”

I snarled at her, but she didn’t back away from me.

“It is a possibility you must face, Corson,” she said.

“Not right now.”

Caim knelt by my side. His head turned to the side as he studied Wren. “She is strong.”

“That doesn’t mean the change will be successful,” Bale said as some of the humans crept closer.

“Enough!” I barked at Bale.

Bale took a small step back, and the humans scurried away. One of them kicked the hand Wren had severed from Greed, sending it spinning into the underbrush. Magnus lifted it and walked over to dump it on the body.

“We have to burn him,” Magnus said. “And we need to leave here. Our fight won’t have gone unnoticed by anything nearby.”

“We encountered a manticore and some gobalinus in the woods. They must have been with Greed. We have to leave now.” I slit my forearm open again and adjusted my hold on Wren. My blood continued to flow into her as I rose from the ground. I swayed on my feet, my blood loss making me lightheaded. Shax stepped toward me, his arms outstretched as if to take Wren from me. “No,” I bit out and shifted her away from him.

“You’re barely standing,” he murmured.

“I’m not letting her go.”

I steadied myself and pushed past him to face the others. “Get your things,” I commanded. “Set Greed’s corpse on fire. We’re leaving.”