Tristan said, “But you didn’t tell her about me, either.”
Gabriel shrugged. “I didn’t want to freak her more than necessary. And I didn’t want her to be afraid of you. Sorry Scarlet, but when you’re around Tristan your heart condition gets worse. He basically breaks your heart in half with his presence. No. I didn’t want her thinking you could kill her.”
“But I can.”
“But you won’t. And that’s what matters. You haven’t made her sick yet. We’re fine.” He exhaled.
Tristan flexed a muscle in his jaw. “You need to tell her to stay away from me.”
“If she starts to get sick, I’ll make sure she knows to stay away from you. Until then, I don’t want to add to her fear.” Gabriel ran a hand through his hair. “She’s so scared. What do I do?”
“Nothing,” Tristan said, shaking his head. “Just…give her some space and let her process everything you told her today. You can’t just expect her to trust you immediately. You told her things that probably sound insane. Let her be for a while. When she’s ready, she’ll come back.”
Gabriel shook his head. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing while she’s freaking out about dying. I have to find a way to comfort her. I have to do something.” Desperation came over him. He looked around the room for a moment before looking back at Tristan. “I have to find a way to break the curse immediately. We have to find the fountain.”
Tristan rolled his eyes.
“There has to be something we missed before—”
“No, Gabriel. We’ve looked everywhere. The fountain is a dead end.”
“No.” Gabriel shook his head. “I refuse to give up. I will find it. For Scarlet.”
Tristan sighed. “Good luck with that. In the meantime, I’ll be pursuing murder so we can really break the curse.” He moved toward the back door.
“Where are you going?”
Tristan didn’t turn around. “Target practice. It’s been a rough day.”
Tristan went out the back door as Gabriel headed upstairs to go back through his research on the fountain of youth.
Tristan’s plan might work, but Gabriel didn’t have time to wait around for his brother to come home with a corpse.
Scarlet was probably scared out of her mind and needed reassurance—something Gabriel was determined to give her.
25
Scarlet’s pounding heart seemed to quiet as she paced away from the cabin.
She thought she’d be balling by the time she stepped off the cabin porch, but no.
She was too numb for tears.
Air flowed in and out of her lungs, but she felt nothing.
She walked toward her car without a plan. What was she supposed to do? Go home and have dinner with Laura like nothing life-changing had happened today?
Uh, no.
I’m going to die.
The curse had existed for hundreds of years and no one had been able to break it. It was hopeless.
Scarlet’s heart was going to kill her.
Oh, she would come back to life again, but not without the same horrifying, confusing, unfair memory loss she’d experienced two years ago.
Her life? Screwed.
When she reached her car, the schoolbooks on her passenger seat reminded her of the “normal” life she had back home.
She wasn’t ready to re-enter “normal” life yet.
Her feet began walking into the woods and she followed their meandering trail. Through the dense forest and fallen leaves she paced, not seeing anything around her, not feeling anything inside her. Just…walking.
The sun was low in the sky and night would come soon.
Crunch, crunch.
Dead leaves and small twigs broke beneath her footsteps.
Scarlet was alone.
Alone in her fate. Alone in life.
She had no one to turn to, no one to lean on.
She had nothing.
Except a broken heart—literally.
Agh.
She ducked under a tree branch and found herself in a small clearing. Realizing where she was, she froze.
It was the exact spot where she’d awakened two years earlier.
She remembered it perfectly.
Scarlet’s eyes roamed the clearing for a moment.
It seemed fitting to have absently arrived at the origin of all her confusion and fear, since she was more confused and fearful than ever.
With a numb body, she sat on the damp earth and closed her eyes.
She wanted to feel the wind kick at her hair.
She wanted to feel the cold air of the forest and shiver.
She wanted to feel something. Anything.
And she wanted to cry.
26
Tristan lined up his first arrow and aimed at the target in the distance.
Whoosh.
Bull’s-eye.
When Scarlet left the cabin, his insides tightened in her absence, making his breathing labored and painful.
Which was nothing new.
But, for some reason, it hurt more than usual.
And, on top of that, he was stressed out.
He drew back another arrow and let it fly, hoping to relieve just an ounce of tension.
Whoosh.
Bull’s-eye.
No relief.
If anything, he felt more anxious. More helpless and afraid.
Today had been a disaster.
Scarlet meeting him…her not remembering the past…Gabriel telling her about the curse—or at least, part of the curse….
Disaster.
Sighing heavily, he drew back another arrow and loosened his fingers to release it.
Something caught his eye.
Through the thickness of the tall trees, Tristan saw movement. It was brief and shapeless, but he immediately knew what it was.
Scarlet.
What was she doing in the woods?
He blinked a moment, before shaking his head. He drew the arrow back again, trying not to think about her.
Whoosh.
The arrow missed the target completely.
He paused for a moment, wrestling with his instinct to go comfort her.
He was drawn to her physically and supernaturally, that he knew.
But what he was feeling at that moment wasn’t supernatural.
It was something old and deep, something he’d never been able to part with.
He shook his head again, shoving the warmth in his chest back into the frigid pools of his soul where it belonged.
Gabriel was her boyfriend. He should be the one to go console Scarlet in the woods.
And besides, hadn’t Tristan just lectured Gabriel on giving her space?
Tristan shook himself.
No. He refused go over to her—even if it hurt to stay where he was.
Which it did. Very much.
Tristan drew another arrow and lined it carefully against his bow.
Whoosh.
Another miss.
He waited a beat before lowering his bow and cursing.
Not because his arrows had gone astray.
But because the missing piece of his soul—the blood that belonged to him but pulsed inside Scarlet—was huddled down somewhere in the deep woods, sad and afraid.
Tristan dropped his bow to the ground and started walking into the thick forest.
He couldn’t see Scarlet, but he could feel her.
And that was all he needed to find her.
27