He was so beautiful. Even standing in a graveyard, covered in dirt and blood, he was striking. His dark hair fell wild around his face and his green eyes shone in the moonlight.
A shiver of desire ran through him--or was it her?--and Scarlet clenched the knife in her hand so she wouldn't do something stupid. Like crush her mouth to his and claw at his clothes until there was nothing between them but heat and skin. But that would, of course, lead to death.
Everything always led to death.
Tristan softened his voice as he scanned her face. “What happened in your last life, Scar? What are you hiding?”
Scarlet's chest
tightened at his question.
Millions of Avalon stars winked
from above and reminded her of a time when she and Tristan spent their days in
the trees and everything was fair; everything was simple.
Nothing was simple anymore.
He tilted his head and repeated,"What are you hiding, Scar?"
She could feel his heartbeat
echoing inside her soul; powerful and constant, as his emotions swam into her.
Patience...
Love... Worry...
Could she tell him the truth about
the fountain? The whole truth?
The truth that would undo any hope
they had of a happy ending?
She opened her mouth—
“Holy crap! Did you guys see that?”
Nate jogged up to them with a knife in his hand, a grin on his face, and a
trickle of blood running down his neck. “I totally kicked Ashman ass over
there! I was all like hi-ya and you wanna piece of me? I was a super
slayer! Buffy’s got nothing on me.”
Scarlet shut her mouth and shifted
away from Tristan’s searching eyes as Nate continued.
“It was life and death out there,
guys. Life and death. They just kept
coming at me and I just kept putting them down.” Nate took a moment to catch
his breath. “I mean, sure, I screamed like a girl a few times and accidently
stabbed myself at the beginning, but still. I feel amazing! For the first time
in five hundred years I feel alive.”
Moving his gaze away from Scarlet,
Tristan eyed Nate's neck. “You’re bleeding.”
Nate touched his wound and drew
back bloody fingers. “I’m bleeding.
Haha! I have a battle wound. Oh, this is so awesome.” Tucking his knife into
his waistband with a smile, he looked around. “Where’s everyone else?”
Scarlet’s stomach churned as
reality whooshed in and slapped her in the face. “Raven kidnapped Heather.”
Saying it out loud had emotion crawling up her throat.
Nate’s face fell. “What?”
With a deep breath, Scarlet summed
up the evening’s events. “Raven is actually Clare—Heather’s boss at the coffee
shop—not Laura. Laura was working for Raven, but Raven killed her and dumped
her body in a grave—”
Ohmygoodness. Laura was really
dead.
Scarlet blinked.
My
guardian is dead.
More emotion wiggled up her throat
and she quickly swallowed, trying to keep her focus on the things at hand.
Scarlet cleared her throat. “Then
Raven had an Ashman kick the crap out of me so she could kidnap Heather and
hold her ransom for the map to the fountain. And the lifeforce between Tristan
and I shifted. So I can still feel his emotions, but he can’t feel mine
anymore.”
Thank God.
If Tristan were still able to sense
her, he’d know she was freaking out. Not just about Heather or Laura. But about
the fountain and what finding it would mean.
A sick feeling swirled inside her
gut.
“And because the lifeforce shifted,
Scarlet now has her memories back,” Tristan added, sliding his eyes to her.
Nate blinked. “What? I go slaying for ten minutes and I miss everything—wait.” His
eyes shot to Scarlet. “Does that mean you know where the fountain
is?”
Scarlet hesitated.
It was decision time.
No truth? The whole truth? A vague
truth?
“Yes,” she said, going with vague.
It was always safer to start vague. “But we need to rescue Heather before we do
anything else.”
Her heart started to hammer at the
thought of her happy friend being held hostage by a vengeful witch with a drug
problem. So many things could go wrong.
So many things already had.
Nate nodded. “Did you see which
direction Raven took her?”
Looking around the cemetery,
Scarlet shook her head and let out a groan of frustration as guilt swamped her
soul. “This is all my fault. I should have stayed by Heather’s side. I should
have protected her.”
Tristan scanned the premises. His
coat was sliced open in several places and dark splotches of blood slowly
seeped through the shredded fabric of the black T-shirt he wore beneath.
His immortal body wasn’t healing
like it should, which meant his wounds had been inflicted with Bluestone
weapons.
Not good.
“Dude.” Nate caught sight of
Tristan’s injuries. “Are you okay?”
Tristan looked down at his stained
clothes and shrugged as if the slashes in his skin were more of a nuisance than
anything else. “I’m fine. The cuts are shallow. Where’s Gabriel?”
Scarlet furrowed her brow. “He came
with me to the coffee shop, but he was gone when I came out. He wasn’t with you
guys?”
They shook their heads and worry
crept through Scarlet’s veins.
“I’m sure he’s around here
somewhere.” Tristan looked calm as he glanced around, but Scarlet could feel
concern coiling inside his chest. “Why don’t you two go look for him at The
Millhouse and I’ll search the rest of the graveyard.”
Scarlet nodded.
Good plan.
Split up. Find Gabriel. Rescue
Heather.
And stay away from the fountain.
Okay, that last part might be
difficult since Amnesia Scarlet spilled the beans about the freaking map, but
whatever. She could still throw them off. She could lie.
She’d been lying for years.
As Scarlet and Nate headed out of
the cemetery, Tristan walked deeper into its shadowy depths. Distant music from
the ongoing Avalon carnival drifted through the night air, making the wind
sound eerily happy as it wrapped around headstones and swept through Scarlet’s
hair.
Putting her knife away, she rubbed
her head where it still throbbed from the blow Raven had dealt her with the
business end of a crossbow.
One more reason to hate the crazy
witch.
Everything was so screwed up—
A sharp pain darted up Scarlet’s
body and twisted around her insides with liquid fire until she doubled over.
Sinking to the ground, Scarlet clutched her chest and stomach, afraid her skin
might split open and empty her insides all over the grass. She tried to suck in
air, but her lungs wouldn’t work.
Nate dropped down beside her with
terror in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
The fire turned to ice and wrapped
around her organs and bones, squeezing without mercy. Scarlet couldn’t help but
cry out loud.
“Tristan!” Nate called, checking
her pulse before pulling at the skin beneath her eyes to check their color.
Usually when Scarlet felt pain of
any sort it was because her heart was failing. And when her heart started to
fail, her eyes would glow and her nose would bleed. But this didn’t feel like
heart failure.
This felt like something else
entirely.
She squeezed her eyes shut and
grimaced until the agony started to subside. Her muscles loosened, her lungs
started to expand, and soon Scarlet wasn’t hurting anymore.
Out of pain, but still very
confused, she opened her eyes to find Tristan crouched beside her.
His green eyes were glowing into
the night as panic oozed from his pores. “What just happened?” He searched her
face.
Good question.
Scarlet rubbed her chest to make
sure all her insides were where they were supposed to be. Yep. Still in one
piece.
Phew.
“She just collapsed in pain.” Nate
turned his eyes from Scarlet to Tristan. “Dude. You need to calm down. Your
eyes are super green.”
Tristan rubbed a hand over his
mouth, still looking at Scarlet. “It must be the transition. Maybe when the
curse shifted we switched places, putting Scarlet in pain without me, just like
I used to be in pain when I was without her.”
Well crap.
That would suck.
“I guess that would make sense.”
Nate scratched the back of his head. “Especially since her pain went away when
you walked back over to us.”
Scarlet stood from the ground and
brushed the cemetery grass off her pants as Tristan and Nate rose to stand
beside her.
A surge of guilt rolled through
Tristan and Scarlet hurried to reassure him. “I’m fine now—”
“You’re not fine,” he snapped. “You fell to the ground in pain when I was
only thirty feet away from you.”
Yeah.
That was weird.
Nate pressed a finger to his lips.
“If the lifeforce reversed your roles—”
“Oh no.” Scarlet’s eyes widened as
the possibility sank in. “If our roles have been reversed, does that mean my
touch can make Tristan sick? My touch can kill him?”
She took a step away from Tristan
and felt his pounding heartbeat soften. Stepping back up to him, the pounding
resumed. “Oh no. No, no—”
“Okay. Don’t freak out.” Nate held
a hand up.
Too late.
“His heart responds to my
nearness.” Scarlet shook her head as her chest tightened in despair. “No, no,
no.”
This couldn’t be happening.
“So it appears the curse has
shifted,” Nate said calmly. “We can handle this.” He held up a calm hand to
match his calm face and calm eyes as he looked at her. “All we need to do is
make sure you two stay within close range of one another so you don’t writhe in
pain, but far enough away so Tristan doesn’t, you know, die.” He shrugged.
“Easy. We’ll just reenact the ten-foot rule between you guys.”
Nate stared at them. Waiting.
“What?” Tristan said.
Nate rolled his eyes and thrust his
hands in between Scarlet and Tristan, pushing their bodies away from one
another. “Ten feet. There you go. Now let’s go find Gabriel so we can get our
Heather rescue on. Then we can finally find the Fountain of Youth and cure
everyone of this God-forsaken and completely obnoxious curse.” Turning, he
headed down the street toward the Millhouse.
Scarlet and Tristan slowly followed
after him in stunned silence.
She was killing Tristan with her
very presence.
Glancing at him under the yellow
glow of the streetlamps, Scarlet ran her eyes along his profile as he stared
forward with a clenched jaw. He was fierce. He was patient. He was everything
she loved.
And he was dying.
Divulging the truth about the
Fountain of Youth was no longer an option. Tristan’s life was at stake.
To hell with happily ever after.
Available December 11th!
Grab the first two books in the Archers of Avalon series!
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