Awry taoa-2

by Chelsea Fine

  “Oh, you were dead,” Nate nodded. “You didn’t have a pulse.”

  Scarlet looked at her hands, turning her palms over. “Did my body vanish?”

  “Nope.” Nate scratched the back of his head. “That’s why it’s so weird.” He looked at her eyes again. “How do you feel?”

  “I feel…normal.” She watched Tristan roll his shoulders with his eyes closed. The muscles in his neck shifted beneath the movement.

  Nate twitched his lips. “Hmm.” He went to the kitchen and returned with a small flashlight in his hands. Clicking it on, he started examining her irises, pulling at the skin beneath her eyes to get a better look.

  “Before you died, your eyes were glowing and your nose was bleeding. But now….” He clicked off the flashlight. “Now, you seem healthy.” Nate moved behind Scarlet and slowly peeled away her bandage.

  Ouch.

  “And your wound is completely healed,” he murmured.

  Scarlet slapped a hand to her back and felt around. No scars, no wound…just smooth skin.

  Nate said, “It looks like your body has completely reset itself.”

  “Huh.” Scarlet nodded once. “So that’s…good? That means we have more time to find the fountain, right?”

  The fountain of youth was the only sure way to cure Scarlet’s heart and undo the curse. Tristan’s immortal blood was embedded in her heart from a previous arrow incident—apparently, the two of them couldn’t be around an arrow without one of them getting shot—and now Scarlet’s heart was a ticking time bomb, slowly being ripped apart. The fountain was their only hope.

  “I hope so,” Nate said. “But hey! It doesn’t really matter how much time we have because you know where the fountain is. So, yay…” He weakly pumped a fist in the air.

  Scarlet looked at him in bewilderment.

  Nate’s face fell. “You don’t remember, do you?”

  Scarlet shook her head. “Remember what?”

  Ah, crap.

  Do I have amnesia again?

  Nate exhaled. “After you were…shot, you told Tristan you knew where the fountain was.”

  “I did?” Scarlet’s heart started to race. She glanced at Gabriel, who offered a shrug, then at Tristan, who gave her a single nod.

  “Think,” Nate said emphatically. “Really think.”

  Scarlet shook her head. “I don’t remember saying that.”

  “Do you remember anything? Your previous lives? Your history? Anything?” Nate looked hopeful and desperate.

  Scarlet tucked her lips in as she thought. “I remember my last life. With you guys…and the cabin. I remember having amnesia.” Wow, that sounded weird. “And I remember Laura…and school….”

  “You remember your last life, here in Avalon, but no lives before that?” Nate asked.

  “Just the bits and pieces I put together before I was shot.”

  Tristan gently asked, “And you don’t remember saying you knew where the fountain was?”

  His familiar voice sank into her pores, filling her with warmth and she wanted to scream in confusion. Why was she so attracted to him? And why had he been willing to die for her?

  “No,” she said, mentally trying to brush Tristan’s voice off her skin. “I don’t remember saying anything about the fountain.” Scarlet felt helpless as she looked at Gabriel. “Why would I forget something so important? What is wrong with me?”

  Gabriel gave her a sympathetic smile. “Nothing’s wrong with you. You just keep losing your memories, that’s all.”

  Yeah. Nothing sounded abnormal about that.

  “But why? Why do I remember you guys and Avalon and…” She looked at Tristan briefly, her thoughts charging at the memory of his kiss before he put her to sleep. Damn you, Tristan, and your hot lips and sexy tattoo. “…other stuff? But not the fountain’s location?”

  “What’s the last thing you remember?” Nate looked at her intently.

  Scarlet concentrated. “Um…I remember feeling the arrow go into my back…and then Tristan holding me….” Her cheeks heated as she remembered Tristan’s arms around her as she sank to the ground. His hands touching her, his eyes filling with tears. Scarlet cleared her throat. “And then…nothing.”

  Nate twitched his lips. “You must have been in shock by the time you had the memory. And I’m sure Tristan clutching you like a toy doll probably didn’t help.” He glared at Tristan.

  Scarlet felt guilt swell up inside Tristan.

  When Tristan was near her, the immortal blood in her heart went crazy, pulling at her insides and bringing her closer to death. When Tristan touched her—which was pretty much never—the damage to her heart was even more deadly.

  Which was probably why he never touched her.

  And why she shouldn’t ever want him to touch her.

  Right? Right.

  Her eyes trailed along Tristan’s jaw and down to his neck. His eyes caught hers and she felt a trickle of desire run down his core.

  Right.

  “Don’t worry,” Gabriel said to Scarlet, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her.

  Scarlet’s eyes darted away from Tristan as she flushed. I am the worst girlfriend ever.

  Gabriel kissed the top of her head. “Everything’s going to be fine. With or without your memories, we’ll find the fountain.”

  Nate smiled at Scarlet, his happy face shining at her. “Or, at the very least, we’ll keep you away from any stray arrows.”

  Scarlet attempted a smile, but felt no hope. She was doomed to be a weird, sometimes-dead girl with arbitrary amnesia and a crush on her boyfriend’s twin brother forever.

  Great.

  She tried to take a deep breath, but the black corset top she had on held her ribcage hostage. She looked down at the formal dress Heather had picked out for her that was now covered in blood.

  Heather!

  Tonight was the winter formal dance at school and Scarlet had left her best friend, Heather, alone in her bedroom without an explanation when she’d run after Tristan.

  Heather was probably freaking out. Scarlet whipped around and looked at Gabriel. “Does Heather know about me?”

  He lifted a brow. “Does Heather know that Tristan tried to kill himself with a magic arrow, but totally screwed up and got you shot instead?” Gabriel gave Tristan a dirty look. “No. Heather doesn’t know.”

  Oh-kay.

  Clearly, Gabriel was upset with Tristan. And, from the looks of the living room, they’d had a pretty messy fight. Scarlet wanted to believe that their fighting had nothing to do with her, but she knew better. And the thought stressed her out.

  “Okay, everybody needs to lay off Tristan,” Scarlet said, desperate to relieve some of the guilt pulsing inside the green-eyed Archer brother. She looked at Nate first, then Gabriel. “I’m the reason I got shot. Not Tristan. And it doesn’t matter anyway because I’m fine.” She ran a hand through her long, tangled hair.

  I’m just missing a very important memory about the fountain of youth that could save my life. But, otherwise, I’m fine.

  Scarlet looked around the room for a moment. Blood, broken furniture, more blood.

  Yeah, she was out of there.

  “I gotta go.” Scarlet hiked up her skirt so it wasn’t swishing on the floor, and moved toward the front door with sticky feet.

  “Where are you going?” Gabriel asked. “You’re wearing a bloodstained dress and you don’t have any shoes on.”

  Turning around, Scarlet sighed. “I just died and came back to life, Gabriel. I’m confused. I’m hungry. And I desperately need a shower. So I’m going home. We can resume our highly stressful what’s-wrong-with-Scarlet-and-where’s-the-fountain quest after I wash the blood and dirt off my body.”

  Scarlet turned back and walked out the door.

  She did need a shower. But more importantly? She needed to get away from the cabin. And Gabriel. And Nate. And everything else that was too overwhelming for her to think about right now.

  Espe
cially Tristan.

  8

  The morning after he had taken Scarlet home, Tristan arrived at her house and placed a small sack of food by the door.

  Had he been invited? No.

  In fact, he was almost certain Scarlet was going to be upset that he was there. But that didn’t stop him from knocking.

  The door swung open to a wild-eyed Scarlet. “What are you doing here?”

  She was upset.

  “Before you yell at me, you should know that I come bearing gifts.” He stepped back to reveal the sack filled with meat and vegetables.

  “What is that?” Scarlet looked down at the sack suspiciously.

  “Food.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I know it is food. Why did you bring it?”

  “For you…to…eat…?”

  Why was this so difficult?

  Scarlet crossed her arms. “I have no way to pay you for it. Take it away.”

  Tristan raised his eyebrows. “It is a gift. It costs nothing.”

  “Everything costs something.”

  Tristan opened his mouth, then shut it. With a quick shake of his head he held out his hands. “The eastern forest is dangerous. If you accept my gift, you won’t need to hunt or gather or stealfor weeks.”

  “I like hunting.”

  He pursed his lips and put his palms together. “Please accept the food.”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself and my mother without your charity.”

  “I believe you are. But the penalty for stealing on the earl’s land is death. And the wicked thieves that roam these woods are sometimes hungry for more than just…food.”

  Scarlet eyed him a moment. “What do you care what happens to me?”

  Tristan rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “Fine. Be stubborn. But if you think I’m going to lug that sack of goods,” he pointed to the ground, “back home with me, you’re mad. You can let it go bad, for all I care. But I don’t want it.”

  Tristan turned to leave, cursing under his breath.

  Crazy, incorrigible, stubborn—

  “Scarlet!” a voice rang out from within the small hut. Scarlet’s mother. “You let that boy in with his gift right now!”

  Tristan indulged in a brief smile before turning back around with a straight face.

  Scarlet had her hands on her hips, staring at him like he was a stray animal.

  “Well?” Tristan asked, lifting brow.

  She stood back, gestured to the small interior and, through her teeth, said, “Come in.”

  ***************

  After the hunter had left, Scarlet caught her mother staring at her as she tended to the pitiful garden. “What, Mama?”

  “I like your young man,” Ana said casually.

  “He is not mine.” Scarlet pulled at the ground. “I’m not sure why I let him see our home in the first place. I am foolish.”

  “You are not foolish. You are beautiful. And your young man does not fail to notice as much.”

  Scarlet sighed in frustration. “What does it matter if I am beautiful or hideous? I am nothing to him.”

  Ana scoffed. “Men of nobility do not bring food to those who are nothing to them.”

  Scarlet stopped plowing around the few vegetables they had and looked at her mother. “Nobility?”

  “Yes, dear. Did you not notice his fine clothes?”

  “Of course, I did. But I did not ask him who his family was.” Scarlet went back to the dirt. She could feel her mother’s eyes on her for a long moment.

  “He is the earl’s son, my love.”

  “He is what?” Scarlet sat back on her heels and stared at her mother.

  Ana nodded. “The patch on his sleeve is his family’s crest. He is Earl Archer’s son.”

  The implications of the earl’s son knowing where Scarlet and her mother lived hit Scarlet like an avalanche of boulders. She clambered to her feet and shook her head in apology. “I am so sorry, mama. I did not know. I never would have brought him here—” Scarlet felt ill.

  The hunter had come into her home like a wolf in sheep’s clothing and would surely turn her in to his father. She was a thief living on the earl’s land. A thief hunting in the earl’s forest.

  Scarlet and her mother would be enslaved. Or put to death.

  Scarlet blinked several times. “I’m so sorry, mama. I’m so foolish. We can pack up at once. I will take care of us wherever we go—”

  “Hush,” Ana said with a smile. “Your young man has no intention of reporting us to the earl.”

  “How do you know?” Suspicion rose in Scarlet.

  Ana shrugged. “Because of how he looks at you. He does not wish to destroy you, my love. He wishes to protect you.”

  Scarlet returned to her knees in the dirt. “I need no protection.”

  Ana tucked in her lips. “Someday you might.”

  “Ha,” Scarlet said. “I will never let a nobleman hold power over me like papa did with you. Wealthy men know nothing of life, love, or honor.”

  Ana clucked her tongue. “Your young man seems to know about generosity.”

  Scarlet thought back to the hunter’s leniency with the deer in the forest and his sack of food this morning. “Maybe. But now I am in his debt.” Scarlet shook her head, angry with herself for accepting a gift from a nobleman.

  “I do not believe he intends to hold a debt over you,” Ana said.

  Scarlet sat back on her heels again and wiped her hands on her dress. “It’s no matter. I will never see him again.”

  Ana smiled. “That is a shame, my dear, for he is so handsome.”

  “Mama, stop.” Scarlet blushed.

  “Did you not see his face, child? He was heavenly.” Ana eyed her playfully.

  Scarlet went back to the dirt. “Even the face of an angel can mislead you.”

  Ana winked. “Or take you right where you need to go.”

  “Enough, mama.” Scarlet felt her blush grow hotter and hated herself for being attracted to the hunter. “I need no man. I can take care of us.” She looked at her mother. “I can take care of you.”

  Ana nodded slowly. “Yes, but who will care for you?”

  9

  “Scarlet Marie Jacobs!” Heather’s eyes were giant.

  Scarlet was caught off-guard when she found Heather, still dressed for the dance in her fluffy blue gown, standing just inside her house when she got home.

  “Where have you been?” Heather’s voice sounded angry, but her eyes looked hurt as Scarlet walked through the front door. “You ran out of here babbling about Tristan. And then Gabriel stopped by, but no one knew where you were and he was all freaked out, which freaked me out, and then you didn’t answer your phone for three hours, which freaked me out even more!”

  Emotion clogged Scarlet’s throat. If she hadn’t come right back to life, if she’d vanished and not come back for another century…she would have lost Heather forever.

  Tears burned the back of Scarlet’s eyes at the thought.

  Heather continued, “You could have sent me a text. Or an email. Or a carrier pigeon…something!” Her eyes softened a tad. “We totally missed the dance, Scarlet. W-T-H?”

  Scarlet spun around to shut the door behind her before turning back to apologize to Heather. But her apology got stuck in her throat when she saw Heather’s eyes taking in her appearance. Her very dirty, very bloody appearance.

  Oh, no.

  “Is that…?” Heather took a step back and fully looked Scarlet over. “Is that blood on your dress?” Her eyes widened. “O…M…G….”

  Scarlet hurriedly said, “It’s not what you think.”

  “You mean you’re not a crazy serial killer?” Heather cocked her head. “Did you get in a knife fight? Fall into a vat of blood? What the F?”

  Scarlet looked at Heather, the girl who’d accepted her amnesia without question. The girl who’d cheered her up even when everything was dark. T
he girl who’d panicked when Scarlet hadn’t returned her calls for three hours.

  Heather loved Scarlet and she deserved the truth.

  “Okay, I need you not to freak out,” Scarlet said, raising her palms to Heather.

  Heather’s eyes stayed wide. “Freak out? About the dried blood all over the back of your dress? Why would I freak out about that?” Heather squeezed her eyes shut. “Please tell me it’s ketchup.” She opened her eyes. “Please tell me you went to get a hot dog and had an altercation with a ketchup bottle.”

  Scarlet shook her head and adjusted the black corset top that was squeezing her lungs. “Heather…I love you.”

  Heather whispered, “O-M-G, O-M-G.”

  Scarlet continued, “I’m going to tell you something that will sound crazy, but just…go with it, okay?”

  Heather pressed her lips together.

  Scarlet bit her lip, really hoping her crazy friend was just crazy enough to believe her.

  “I’m semi-immortal,” Scarlet said, wiping her palms on her skirt.

  Heather blinked.

  “I die…and come back to life,” Scarlet explained, keeping her eyes on her blond friend.

  Heather blinked again.

  Scarlet swallowed. There was no turning back now.

  “Gabriel, Tristan, and I were born in the 1500s. Gabriel and Tristan are immortal because their mom drank water from the fountain of youth while she was pregnant with them. And, apparently, if you drink fountain water when you’re pregnant, your baby will be immortal.”

  “Anyway,” Scarlet blinked, “in the 1500s, I was engaged to Gabriel, but his ex-girlfriend, Raven, cursed an arrow so Gabriel could never know love without me, and then she shot me with the arrow. Tristan jumped in front of the arrow to save my life, but the arrow went through him and hit my heart. Tristan’s immortal blood was on the arrow when it entered my heart, making me semi-immortal. So even though I died from the arrow wound, I still came back to life years later. Because Tristan’s blood is inside me, we’re connected. So now, he can feel my emotions and everything. Which is awkward.”

  Scarlet thought about how she had felt the desire in Tristan earlier. She shook her head and continued, “Tristan’s immortal blood is too powerful for my mortal heart. So his blood—blood that pumps through my veins right now,” Scarlet touched a hand to her chest, “slowly kills me. The closer I am to Tristan, the more powerful his blood becomes, gradually tearing apart my heart until I get really sick and…die.”