He grinned. “Are you planning to steal them?”
“No,” she answered simply. “I am merely observing.”
They moved on for a few moments.
She cleared her throat. “Your horse is well-fed and your boots are well-made.”
Tristan nodded. “More observations?”
“You have money.” Her voice sounded resentful.
Tristan was silent for a long time. “Does that upset you?”
Scarlet paused. “Wealthy people cannot be trusted.”
Tristan guided the horse on, passing by the valley. “Have I done anything that is untrustworthy in your eyes?”
“No,” Scarlet said. “But that means little.”
Tristan took a deep breath, unsure of how to talk to this girl. He wanted her to trust him, but he didn’t know why.
He tried to sound lighthearted. “If it helps, any money I have belongs to my father. I, personally, am not rich.”
Yet.
Soon enough, he would inherit land and fortune. For no reason other than birthright.
They cleared the valley and Tristan slowed their pace, following Scarlet’s instructions as they wandered through more dense trees.
When her home came into view, Tristan brought them to a stop and turned around to look at her. In the moonlight, she looked younger and more vulnerable. Her hair lifted in the night wind and her blue eyes met his cautiously.
The small door at the front of the hut opened and an attractive older woman stepped out with worry on her face. “Scarlet, where have you been? When the sun set I was so afraid—”
“I’m fine, mama.” Scarlet dismounted and walked over to give the woman a kiss on the cheek.
“Hello,” the woman said to Tristan, looking at him carefully. “I am Ana Jacobs, Scarlet’s mother.”
Scarlet gestured to Tristan. “Mama, this is…a friend,” Scarlet said. “He brought me through the forest tonight.”
“I see.” The woman gave Tristan a shrewd smile before looking back at Scarlet. “How did hunting go?”
Softly, Scarlet said, “I have no food for us today, but tomorrow I will try again. Do not worry.”
“You have no food?” Tristan asked, shamelessly eavesdropping.
Pride stained Scarlet’s face as she turned around. “We are fine.”
He looked at the scant garden in the yard and the withered boards of the small hut, his chest tightening.
Scarlet was poor. Very poor.
He swallowed back his hatred for the unfair world and nodded respectfully. “Very well. I shall be on my way.” He began turning his horse.
“Hunter,” Scarlet said, walking up behind him.
He stopped and met her eyes in the moonlight. “Yes?”
“What is your name?”
He smiled. “Have you grown sick of calling me hunter?”
“No,” she said. “I simply want to know who I should thank for…helping me today.”
He looked at her for a moment. “Tristan.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Tristan.”
“My pleasure, Scarlet.”
5
“No,” Gabriel began shaking his head violently, still gripping Scarlet’s hand. “No. She can’t be dead. She can’t be de—” The words lodged in his throat, suffocating him from the inside out.
He blinked back more tears and looked at Nate, whose eyes were wide and sad as he eyed Scarlet’s motionless body.
“You fixed her,” Gabriel said. “You got the arrow out. You stitched her up. She can’t be—” Gabriel couldn’t finish the sentence. Nate searched for Scarlet’s pulse and slowly shook his head. “I did everything I could.”
Gabriel squeezed Scarlet’s hand and waited in silence.
One minute…two minutes…three minutes….
No one moved or dared to speak as they stared at Scarlet’s body.
“She hasn’t disappeared yet.” Nate furrowed his brow. “Something’s wrong.”
Gabriel swallowed and traced Scarlet’s soft face with his eyes. Usually, Scarlet’s body vanished within a few minutes of her death. That was how her curse worked. She would live. Tristan’s immortal blood living inside her would kill her. She would die. Her body would disappear. Then Tristan’s blood would bring her back to life years later.
“Maybe she’s not dead.” Ridiculous hope filled Gabriel’s voice. “Maybe Tristan was wrong—”
“I’m not wrong,” Tristan whispered from his place on the floor, his green eyes flicking to Nate. “She’s not there. Her heart’s not beating.”
Because Tristan’s blood was embedded in Scarlet’s heart, Tristan was connected to her in a supernatural way. He could feel Scarlet’s heart and her emotions.
Something inside Gabriel snapped. Something long ago harnessed and hushed cracked in two, releasing a slow wave of helpless frustration into his veins.
When the curse had first fallen—the curse that had promised Gabriel would never know love without Scarlet—a piece of Gabriel’s soul had been sucked away, leaving an emptiness he could never seem to fill. The emptiness followed him into nightmares and taunted him in daydreams, reminding him that he would forever be without love.
For the first few years after the curse, Gabriel hadn’t known better. He’d lived his life normally, not searching for, or even desiring, love. Because love was a faraway thought in his young, selfish mind.
But the years became decades, and the hole in Gabriel’s soul began to grow. Stretching and groaning, the hole overtook him until he could no longer deny the truth inside him: Something powerful and essential was gone from his heart, stolen by the curse, ripped away permanently.
Love.
He was missing love.
And the only person who could change his fate was Scarlet. Gabriel followed Scarlet from life to life, eager for love. Yet, even when Scarlet was alive—even when she loved him deeply—the emptiness inside Gabriel remained.
But her life, her presence, filled him with a gift almost as impossible as love.
Hope.
Scarlet brought Gabriel hope and made him forget about the missing piece of his soul.
She gave him hope for true love. Hope for life. Hope for freedom.
Gabriel lived for the years that Scarlet was alive, craving the distraction her heart brought to his.
But when she was dead, Gabriel was lost.
Empty, incomplete, and lost. Left to face the world with the full sting of emptiness until Scarlet came back to him.
He glanced down at her body, bloody and pale on the table.
Gabriel had spent many years loving her, protecting her. Only to lose her time and time again.