“Hey, journaling is cool,” he said.
“Whatever, man.” Gabriel sat down beside Heather as Nate walked away.
They had set up a spot to camp for the night and Heather’s eyes were growing more crazy by the second.
“How are you doing?”
She rubbed her head. “Not good. I feel insane. I feel like a hundred different people and all of them want to scream and cry and die.”
She started wringing her hands together and biting at her lip over and over. Then she stood up and started walking around.
“What, uh…what are you doing?”
“I don’t know,” she said. She paced deeper into the cave in the opposite direction Nate had gone. “I just need to move.”
“Yeah, that’s probably not a good idea. Why don’t you come back over here, where there’s less chance of vine strangulation and open gaps in the ground?”
“No.” She shook her head. “No, I have to move.” She kept shaking her head as she walked farther away.
Gabriel stayed seated for exactly six seconds before following after her.
This girl.
Loud and ridiculous and completely unavoidable.
Gabriel couldn’t seem to stop caring about the blond mess. She was so little and vulnerable. And happy. The girl was always absurdly happy.
No one so happy deserved to have anything bad happen to them. Ever.
Gabriel walked off after her and found her pacing along a glowing blue wall still wringing her hands together.
“I’m losing my mind, Gabriel. Like actually losing my mind. I don’t know who I am or what I want and I’m so, so scared.” She shook her hands out. “And what if this fruit thingy doesn’t exist? What if we’re wrong about everything and there’s no cure and I’m just going to be psycho and then die?”
She started to cry in a quiet, fearful way and it did something to him.
He tentatively stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder.
“I don’t want to die,” she said.
“You’re not going to die.” He drew her into a hug and had that same protective sensation come over him.
She tucked her face against his shirt, burrowing like she was hiding from the world in his chest. “Even if I don’t die, I’ll be this crazy, addicted person forever and have to live out here in the wild with the bears and werewolves just so I can be close enough to the fountain to stay alive.” She sniffed.
He relaxed his arms around her and held her more closely. “I’ll tell you what. If you have to stay by the fountain for any reason, I’ll camp out with you and fend off any bears.”
“What about werewolves?”
“I’ll fend off werewolves, too. And dragons, if any of those pop up.”
She sniffed again. “Okay.”
They kept hugging and it didn’t feel weird. Gabriel liked how she felt in his arms and how she trusted him to keep her safe.
He liked how she liked him.
It felt real. Maybe it was.
The next morning, Scarlet traced the lines of Tristan’s tattoo as she laid on his chest. She flattened her palm over the design and he covered her hand with his, slipping his fingers in between hers.
Scarlet inhaled leather and water and tears burned her eyes.
She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to leave him.
He kissed the top of her head. “I love you.”
She nodded against his chest and a single tear slid down her cheek and ran over his skin.
It wasn’t fair. They’d never had a chance. It wasn’t fair.
He cupped the side of her face and tilted it up to him. “What’s wrong, Scar?” His eyes looked so pained, so desperate, as he brushed his thumb through another falling tear.
She opened her mouth to reassure him, but her lie got lost in her throat as she looked at him and all the love he offered her. All the love she was about to abandon.
The thread of unease that had been weaving through Tristan’s veins for the past few days suddenly became a rope of alarm and every instinct inside him wanted to pin her against his body and protect her from whatever it was that scared her so much.
She scooted up and her voice shook with emotion. “If anything happens today, I want you to know that it was worth it. All this. All the crap. All the heartbreak. It was all worth it, okay? And you—you—have made my life beautiful and I will love you forever—”
“Nothing is going to happen.” His heart pounded in fear.
Was that what this was about? Surviving the caves?
“Do you not want to go on?” he asked. “Because, say the word and I will stay right here, in these blue caves with you forever. We don’t have to go a step farther. We don’t have to find the fountain. Hell, we don’t need a cure as long as we’re in here. So, if you’re afraid of dying—”
“I’m not afraid of dying.” She swallowed, her blue eyes full and passionate. “We’ve been a broken, star-crossed mess from the beginning and I wouldn’t change a thing.” Another tear fell.
He tucked her into his arms, scared out of his mind at her defeatist tone as she buried her face in his chest. “Nothing is going to happen to you or me, okay? We’ve survived centuries of impossible things. Today—this, whatever this is—is just another battle. And you and I,” he pulled back and gently wiped her wet cheeks, “you and I know how to battle. We’re partners, Scar. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Another tear fell and Tristan was completely lost. He’d never seen her fall apart like this and his heart didn’t know what to do with hers.
He wrapped her back against his chest. Speechless. Terrified.
He loved Scarlet. More than anything.
And she was scaring the hell out of him.
CHAPTER 41
Heather was feeling better. And by “better”, she felt “sane.” Her body was still itching beyond belief and she had a pressing desire to chew on her nails, but she hadn’t seen any floating fish or dragonflies recently, so she was feeling optimistic about surviving the next few minutes.
She walked between Gabriel and Nate through another long, blue tunnel and tried not to accidentally brush up against Gabriel’s ridiculously oversized shoulder. The boy really needed a hobby outside of the gym or bus throwing or whatever it was he did in his free time that gave him those shoulders. They were distracting.
As were his hands.
And his lips…
O-M-G, had she really just been looking at his lips?
Maybe the craziness was coming back. Or maybe she no longer saw him as the oversized, lying, hot guy who had dated her best friend, but rather the oversized, compassionate, hot guy who had carried her through the forest and held her while she cried.
She glanced over at him at the exact same time he glanced at her and things got weird.
Clearing throats, darting eyes, shuffling feet.
Awk-ward.
“So,” Nate said loudly. “Does anyone want to clue me in on what I missed that’s making this walk so tense and silent? Because I’m starting to feel like I’m traveling with Scarlet and Tristan here. Except with less kidnapping schemes. You do not want to know the inner workings of their brains, trust me.”
Gabriel shrugged casually. “We’re almost to the Fountain of Youth. It’s what we’ve been seeking for five hundred years and it’s only a few miles away.”
Nate slanted his eyes at Heather, then at Gabriel. “Right.”
“…as long as there aren’t any other avalanches or tidal waves.” Scarlet’s muffled voice echoed through the tunnel and Heather stopped walking, as did Nate and Gabriel.
“Did you guys hear that?” Nate cocked his head to the side and followed the sound of Scarlet’s voice further down the tunnel, then called out, “Scarlet?”