Chelsea Fine - Avow

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.”

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 fifty feet away from you.”

Yeah.

That was weird.

Nate pressed a finger to his lips. “If the life-force 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, Scarlet biting her lip as they walked along. She was killing Tristan with her very presence.

She glanced at him under the yellow glow of the streetlamps above, running 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.

After being pulled into an alley by several Ashmen, Gabriel had steadily worked through his attackers until only one remained. The final Ashman charged at him, and Gabriel swung his bloodstained knife through his chest, watching as the dead creature dropped to the ground and crumbled to ash.

Breathing heavily, Gabriel looked around the dark alley and shook his head at the numerous piles of ash at his feet.

His life was so weird.

He straightened his back and pain cut through his body. The shallow cut in his right shoulder wasn’t so bad, but the deep gash just above his heart was throbbing like a mother and bleeding just as badly.

He touched a hand to the deeper wound and grimaced.

Stupid Bluestone weapons.

Stretching his neck, Gabriel headed back toward the street where he could hear the distant sounds of laughter and carnival music coming from the town fair. Was there really a happy festival still going strong just around the corner? It seemed ironic.