No. No.
A roar sounded into the room and Tristan—murder on his face—raced to Gabriel, standing over his fallen body. He was slicing and jabbing and killing and crying. He was crying.
“Scarlet!” Nate screamed her name and her eyes dragged to his desperate face. “We have to save Heather! Are you listening? I need you to save Heather.”
Scarlet blinked and forced herself to keep from falling apart. She charged forward, choking on her anguish and determined to save Heather from this day of hell. This nightmare.
The Ashmen were holding Heather by the tree. She struggled against them, and Scarlet filled with fury. Heather did not deserve addiction or violence or death. She deserved life and love. She deserved to go to college and have a family and smell like cookies. She was the closest friend Scarlet had ever known, she was the reason Scarlet was brave, and she would not die.
Scarlet ran for the tree, chopping into any creature that stood in her way. When she reached Heather, she hacked up the Ashmen with malicious glee and set her friend free.
Scarlet moved Heather forward and placed her under the great canopy. “The Ashmen can’t get to you under the tree.”
Scarlet stared at the iridescent tree trunk and took a breath.
This was it. This was where her love outweighed her fear.
She looked at Heather. “After this is done, the fruit will appear.”
“After what is done?”
“Once the fruit appears, you have to grab it and run. Do not let Raven get the Avalon fruit. Do you understand?”
Prepared to set her hand to the fatal tree, Scarlet looked over her shoulder one last time and her heart stopped when she saw Tristan.
Ashmen bore down on him mercilessly as he stood fighting above Gabriel’s body. He was sorely outnumbered and cut and broken everywhere as he fought in a rage. There were too many Ashmen, he would never survive.
Knowing Heather was safe, Scarlet ran to help Tristan.
As she neared, she couldn’t help but see the boy he was long ago. Laughing in the trees. Smiling in the sun. She saw his green eyes trusting her, believing in her without question, and loving her through time and death all things broken.
She saw hope and love and forever.
She saw everything they’d suffered for, fought for, lived for.
And it was all falling apart right before her eyes as his attackers beat down on him.
He couldn’t die.
She wouldn’t let him die.
She began to cut through the army of Ashmen surrounding him. She sliced and slashed and growled and cried. And when she finally reached the center of the onslaught, her blue eyes found a set of green eyes and she suddenly knew everything was going to be okay.
Life.
Death.
It was okay. Because they were together.
Without a word, they stood back to back and started to battle against the Ashmen closing in.
They were losing, they were dying.
But they were together.
The cavern began to shake and the ground began to split open. The fighting stopped for a moment as the earth moved beneath their feet. Scarlet looked back at the Avalon to make sure Heather was safe, but froze at what she saw.
Nate had his palm pressed flat against the trunk of the tree, a look of surrender on his face as he stared at Scarlet.
“No!” She pushed out of the Ashmen—who had dispersed a bit with the earthquake—and ran to him, unable to breathe. “Nate!”
She reached him just as his body slid to the ground, his eyes tired and colorless, but he had no remorse on his face.
How did he--? Why would he—? No!
“Nate!” she screamed. “Wh—what are you doing?” Tears stung her eyes.
“I am giving you a chance to live.” His breathing was labored and she could see the life draining from his body—she could actually see it sweeping up through his arm and into the iridescent tree, glowing as it entered the trunk.
“No. No!” Her voice cracked as she tried to pry his hand away from the trunk. But the Avalon seemed to have a grip on him somehow and Scarlet’s desperate yanking was futile.
“Scarlet,” Nate said. “I have lived fully and loved deeply. I’m ready to die.”
“No!”
Tristan came up behind her with a horrified expression. “Nate! What are you—”
Nate’s face lost all color and his chest trembled.
Tristan crouched beside him. “You can’t do this!”
“You need the water.” His voice was breathy.
Scarlet kept pulling at his hand and body, tears falling down her face. “No. No, Nate. You can’t die.”
“Yes,” he said with a small smile. “I finally can.” He started to gasp. “Heal Gabriel. You all deserve a happily ever after.”
Scarlet shook her head and wrapped her arms around him. “Don’t die. Please, don’t die.”
His body trembled in Scarlet’s arms and then went lax as the last tremor of life left his heart.
The tree began to rumble, then down lowered a small branch, leafless and bright green with a blue tip. At the tip of the branch grew a small blossom shaped like an apple. Glistening red with iridescent colors of blue and purple and green shining off its glossy reflection, the fruit hung directly above Heather.
Heather reached up to grasp it but was thrown to the ground by Raven. She snatched the fruit from the limb with her gnarled, aged hands and smiled down at Heather. Raven opened her mouth to take a bite and Scarlet left Nate’s body and charged at her.
She knocked Raven to the ground, the fruit rolling from her hand as Scarlet grappled to overpower the witch. A hot pain cut into her arm and she winced, releasing her hold on Raven.
Raven held a knife in her hand, wet with blood from where she’d reopened Scarlet’s stitches and lunged at Scarlet with darkness in her silver eyes.
The knife came at Scarlet’s chest, but Raven’s body jolted and the knife fell from her hand as an arrow pierced her heart.
Then another arrow. And another.
Tristan stood behind Scarlet with his bow drawn and anger in his eyes.
“You cannot kill me,” Raven wheezed at him. “I have fountain water in my body.”
“Even better.” Tristan shot her again.
With Raven unable to move, Scarlet snatched up the fruit and gave it to Heather. The ground shook and the cracks in the chamber floor grew wider, but there was still no water.
Scarlet, Heather and Tristan turned from the tree and saw Raven’s army of Ashmen surrounding them on all sides. Waiting.
They were trapped.
Suddenly, the ground exploded with water pushing up through the cracks and flying up to the ceiling.
The Fountain of Youth.
The water began to fall down like a great rain, drenching everything in the chamber—including the waiting Ashmen, instantly turning them to ash and washing away their existence.
The cavern shook with more fervor and the water began to flood the room.
With their opponents defeated in one fell swoop, Scarlet looked at Tristan. “Gabriel!”
He was already headed to Gabriel’s body. Lifting his brother onto his back, Tristan threw a canteen at Scarlet. “We need to get out of here.”
Scarlet quickly filled the canteen and grabbed Heather by the hand, yanking her from under the tree. Raven was lapping at a puddle of fountain water beside her like a dog, arrows still lodged in her chest.
The Avalon began to creak and groan behind them, its massive branches swaying and twisting through the falling water. More water swelled up from the cracks and soon the cavern floor was a pool of blue.
“Run!” Tristan yelled, and they stomped through the rising water, splashing as fast as they could across the chamber to the tunnels. The water rose higher and began twisting with the tree. Faster and faster the water spun, until the cavern slowly morphed into a giant whirlpool.