Page 102 of Touch

Love glowers. “How do I feel? How dare you! I did my job and—”

Sorrow scoffs. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“Do not tell me what the fuck to do!”

“Listen before you judge,” Anger cautions while leaning against the cottage wall.

“Please, let me explain.” Wonder’s plaintive voice reaches out to Love. “When Anger sent the message to everyone that your arrows didn’t work on the lovers—”

Didn’t work on them?

“—The Court raised the sky. It was a frenzy. They believed you were fading swifter than expected and had grown too brittlefor your weapon to have an effect. But I knew. I knew why the arrows didn’t work. You’ve changed.”

Love shakes her head. “Am I…”

Wonder forges ahead and clasps her hands. “Your hearts have bonded. You’re mortal.”

Shock stalls Love’s tongue, and she almost drops the blanket covering her nudity. Although she had begun to fall for Andrew after their first quarrel in the cottage, had sensed herself tumbling headfirst into love, that pivotal emotion hadn’t reached its peak yet.

Instantly, she knows when it happened. It was several days ago, when Andrew and she had prowled after one another through the woods, challenging each other to an archery battle. They’d been equals, neither human nor deity but simply two lovers at play, in their most primal element. Then and there, she had fallen wholly, utterly, eternally in love, while they’d been sportively aiming deadly weapons at one another.

In those moments, Love was happier than she’d ever been in her misbegotten life, finally connected to someone in an elemental way. Body, mind, and spirit. The sensation had been fierce and unconditional.

Either Andrew had fallen at some point before that, or at the same time as Love. In any case, that’s why they’d been able to touch afterward on the pond, the transformation stoking their passionate kiss.

Back then, Love had misunderstood the reason. She had assumed they’d been able to touch because she was weakening further.

And her frailty on their way to the bookstore, after more than twenty-four hours of relentless fucking, it had been a trial to carry her iron arrows. Yet that hadn’t been because she was dying. It was because she’d become human. Because someone equally mortal loves her.

If she’d been bred in a different world—this world—Love might have recognized his feelings long ago. Ironic, given which emotion she reigns over.

She blinks down at herself, prepared to find an unrecognizable soul. Then she turns sideways to the glass wall and presses the pads of her fingertips to her cheeks, testing the consistency of her skin, searching for the real Love somewhere in the alternate reality of her reflection. The wings are gone, their absence once more flooding Love with bereavement.

Her maroon eyes remain, albeit duller and lacking the starlit pupils. To the untrained eye, the irises would appear brown with a deep red undertone, unusual but not unearthly from a human’s perspective.

It’s all too surreal. To distract herself, Love studies her bandage with fascination.

“When we awakened, you and your mortal were gone. Based on the footprints in the snow, he carried you here and then fell unconscious by your side,” Wonder says. “That’s how we found you, though at some point your wings must have faded.” She offers Love an emphatic look. “The mortal dressed your wounds, but Sorrow stitched up your palm.”

“Don’t look surprised,” Sorrow chides Love. “I’ve been near plenty of black-and-blue humans to know my way around this.” She removes the needle pinned to her collar and holds it up. “Don’t worry. The flames sterilized it… I think.”

Love strives to put her thoughts in order. Words that Anger’s Guide once spoke return to her.

Your weapon is a part of you. Your power, your breath. As you have magic, it has magic.

If Love no longer has magic, neither do her weapons. When she became mortal, her arrows had lost their matchmaking power. Now that she thinks on it, she hadn’t seen the arrows crack open Andrew and Holly’s hearts. Instead,the weapons had remained benevolent, sparing Andrew and Holly from death when Love had struck, the momentum only knocking them off balance.

“I didn’t realize,” she says. “But I was in the bookshop when I loosed the arrow. I was invisible to everyone but my target. The arrow penetrated Andrew and Holly without killing them, and—”

Sorrow groans. “You’re welcome for the stitches.”

“Remember what I said? Your humanity manifests in stages,” Wonder explains. “I’ve been doing more research, and tangibility comes first, which is why Andrew and you were able to touch. Visibility is next, which hasn’t happened yet. Then strength, speed, and any powers and divine physical traits will fade slowly. So whatever…” Despite her mythical origins, she flushes. “Whatever intimate activities may have occurred between the two of you… well, they won’t result in procreation. As for the rest, soon enough every facet will wane entirely.”

Everything did transpire fast. Love had released her arrow and ran. Even if Ulrik had left the store without noticing her, and Georgie had been assisting a customer in another room, Holly hadn’t seen Love. Only Andrew had.

As for her weapons, Wonder expands. Since Love hasn’t fully changed yet, the arrows may have lost their magic to infuse emotion, but they haven’t become visible or lost their immortality. That’s why they impacted the humans physically yet spared Andrew and Holly from being impaled.

And the cut on Love’s palm had been merely that. A simple cut. One that had only happened because the arrow is fused to Love’s soul, immortal or not. Naturally, it would break her flesh before anyone else’s.

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