Awry (The Archers of Avalon, Book Two)

by Fine, Chelsea

But she didn’t. Because she was mature.

  “So, what do you say?” Aaron eyes returned to her face.

  “I say no.”

  Aaron’s lips parted. “Why not? I have a new car. I can drive you.”

  Right. Because transportation was Scarlet’s biggest turn on.

  Scarlet said, “I don’t do fairs. Or festivals.”

  Aaron gave a cocky smile. “What do you do?”

  She was starting to hate Aaron.

  Scarlet imagined Gabriel beating Aaron up. He’d throw him to the floor and make him beg for mercy for being such a jerk.

  But then Scarlet imagined Tristan beating Aaron up, and the visual was much more satisfying. Because Tristan wouldn’t give Aaron a chance to beg for mercy. He’d just rip him apart without question.

  Scarlet blinked. Why was she envisioning Tristan beating anyone up on her behalf?

  She had problems.

  Narrowing her eyes, Scarlet said, “Not you.”

  Kristy snickered beside her and Aaron tossed his hair again.

  He stood from his stool. “You’re making a big mistake, Scarlet.”

  I doubt it.

  Scarlet didn’t look at him as he dragged his stool back to his own lab table.

  “You should be nicer to Aaron,” Kristy said in a sticky voice beside her. “He might be the only attractive boy left in this school that wouldn’t mind being with you. Even if you have no fire.” Her smile was poisonous.

  Scarlet turned her head and stared at Kristy. “You suck.”

  Kristy raised her brows as her mouth fell open.

  Okay, so maybe Scarlet wasn’t mature after all.

  After chemistry, Scarlet headed to her locker without making eye contact with any of her fellow students.

  “Hey.” Heather came up to Scarlet as soon as she reached her locker. “How’s it going today?”

  From the look on Heather’s face, she already knew how it was going.

  Scarlet eyed Heather sharply. “You wouldn’t by any chance know why everyone at school knows about the breakup, would you?”

  Heather made a face. “I might have said something to Clare about it yesterday at work?”

  Scarlet’s mouth dropped open. “You told your boss? Why would you do that?”

  Heather shrugged. “Because Clare is cool, and she’s the only person I have to talk to at work. You can’t just expect me to work six-hour shifts and not chat about my life. That would be insane.”

  Scarlet sighed in frustration. “But you were chatting about my life.” She leaned her forehead against her locker.

  “I’m so sorry, Scarlet.” Heather looked genuinely upset. “I didn’t know other people were around when I told Clare.”

  Scarlet pulled her head up and straightened her shoulders. “It’s okay. People were going to find out anyway. I just wasn’t ready for a Kristy/Aaron attack this morning. That’s all.”

  Heather wrinkled her face. “Want me to beat up Kristy for you? Because I will. I will pull her hair and break her nails and smudge her eyeliner.”

  “As hardcore as that sounds, I think I’ll pass.”

  Just then, Scarlet saw Kristy approaching Gabriel at his locker a few feet away.

  “Hi Gabriel.” Kristy pressed her schoolbooks against her stomach, making her chest rise and stick out. “I was just looking over our new history assignment and it looks like we’ll all need partners.” She took a step closer. “Wanna be my partner?”

  Gabriel looked at her for a moment, his eyes scanning her face.

  If Gabriel agreed to be Kristy’s history partner, Scarlet was going to smack him. And maybe egg his car.

  Maturity was overrated.

  “Sorry, Kristy,” Gabriel said. “I already have a partner for the assignment.”

  “You do?” Kristy looked hurt. “Who?”

  “Heather.” Gabriel shrugged and turned to his locker, silently dismissing Kristy.

  From the corner of her eye, Scarlet saw Heather’s jaw drop.

  Once Kristy walked away from Gabriel. Heather grabbed Scarlet’s arm and dragged her over to Gabriel’s locker with her.

  “Um…excuse me? We’re history partners now?” Heather flicked a wrist at Gabriel. “Were you going to tell me about this, or was I going to find out about it during our final presentation?”

  Gabriel sighed. “Sorry. I needed an excuse not to work with Kristy. Her voice drives me crazy.”

  “And I was the best excuse you had?”

  “What’s the big deal?” Gabriel looked exhausted. “So, we’re partners. Who cares?”

  “I do,” Heather said. “I was going to ask Derek Winters to be my partner.”

  Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Derek Winters thinks the Boston Tea Party was what the Mad Hatter had in Alice in Wonderland.”

  Heather blinked a few times. “Okay, so he’s not the smartest guy in school. But he’s hot. And I need a date to the town fair.”

  “Why does everyone take dates to this fair?” Scarlet asked. “It’s so weird.”

  “It’s tradition.” Heather looked at Scarlet, then pointed at Gabriel. “We better get an A plus plus on our project or I’m going to throw a fit.”

  Gabriel gave her a crooked smile. “Like you’re doing right now?”

  “Precisely.” Heather turned to Scarlet. “See you at lunch.” Then she walked away, leaving Scarlet and Gabriel standing alone. Together.

  Scarlet looked at her shoes.

  “So…” Gabriel said.

  “Yeah.” Scarlet bit the inside of her cheek.

  It wasn’t uncomfortable between them. But it was weirdly quiet.

  Aaron walked past them and wagged his eyebrows at Scarlet.

  Now it was uncomfortable.

  Great.

  42

  Three weeks after the engagement announcement, Scarlet sat at the large table in the dining hall with Gabriel. Guards stood at every door and servants brought endless platters of cheese and meat.

  After years of hunting and foraging for her food, Scarlet was uncomfortable being waited on at a fine table with glass goblets and large plates.

  She had been raised in wealth, and was familiar with having servants and fine meals, but she still felt terribly out of place. She did not belong in a castle or at a table covered in meat.

  She belonged in the trees. She belonged with Tristan.

  “How did you sleep?” Gabriel asked with a smile.

  Scarlet bowed respectfully. “Well, my lord.”

  She had spent her first week in the castle angry at Tristan for handing her off to his brother. She’d spent the second week crying because she missed Tristan. And she spent last week plotting how to postpone her marriage to Gabriel until Tristan returned. If Tristan thought she was going to marry his brother, he was mad.

  Gabriel looked around at the servants. “Thank you for our meal. We shall dine alone now.”

  Bowing heads and shuffling feet made their way out of the hall, leaving only a single guard posted at the door.

  “Tennius.” Gabriel looked at the guard. “We shall dine alone.”

  The guard seemed perturbed, but left the room and closed the door behind him.

  When it was just she and Gabriel, Scarlet took a moment to really look at him. He was identical to Tristan, right down to their perfectly placed dimples and square jaws but, somehow, Gabriel looked nothing like Tristan.

  For a few minutes, neither of them spoke or ate. They simply sat.

  “I’m sorry to hear your mother is ill,” he said sincerely, his voice echoing in the tall room. “We have our best healers with her.”

  The healers weren’t helping at all, but Scarlet nodded anyway. “Thank you, my lord.”

  Scarlet’s mother was getting worse. She was slowly becoming mad and had a feve
r no one could soothe. Although Scarlet spent every hour with her, trying to ease her torment, she knew her mother would die soon. And the thought made her stomach hurt. She did not know how to be herself without her mother. Without Tristan.

  Gabriel took a deep breath. “How are you settling in the castle?”

  “Well,” she lied. The castle was foreign and cold. She was already weary of playing countess.

  An uncomfortable silence fell. Scarlet cleared her throat. “I am sorry for the obligation you have to me.” She had said it to be polite, but as the words came out of her mouth she realized how very true they were. She was sorry for Gabriel. He did not know her. He did not love her. Yet, he had agreed to marry her.

  For Tristan.

  Gabriel smiled at her. “I am not sorry. I have the privilege of honoring my brother with the company of a beautiful woman. If anything, I am sorry for you.”

  Scarlet pressed a smile to her face. “You are kind.”

  “Not hardly.” He leaned forward on his elbows with a crooked smile beneath his deep eyes. He was probably quite popular with the woman of the court. With a smile like that and the confidence he held, what woman would not swoon?

  More silence.

  “You do not need to like me, you know.” Gabriel leaned back with a pleasant face. “We shall wed for my father’s sake, but we do not need to be a true union. We do not even have to get along.”

  She paused. “Tristan cares for you, so I have no doubt I will care for you as well, my lord.” Scarlet bowed again.

  “Scarlet.” Gabriel leaned forward again, smiling at her nicely. “Do not bow to me. Not ever again. And please, for the love of God, do not call me ‘lord’. Call me Gabriel.”

  Scarlet looked into his eyes. “But that would be disrespectful. It would be against the rules.”

  He shrugged and tossed her another crooked smile. “I am not known for my obedience.”

  “Is that so?” Scarlet watched him carefully. He looked like trouble and he smiled like sin. Cocking her head to the side, Scarlet found herself intrigued by the daring boy sitting across from her. “We may get along after all.”

  And for the first time since she’d arrived at the castle, Scarlet genuinely smiled.

  ***************

  “We had a plan, Gabriel!” Raven’s black hair swung around her head as she turned around to yell at him while he stood in her family’s garden.

  Gabriel stepped forward, trying to calm her down. “I promised Tristan—”

  “You promised me!” Raven’s gray eyes looked deadly. “You and I together,” she gestured back and forth between them, “are unstoppable. You and that peasant girl? That is just pitiful.”

  “I promised my father that I would marry Scarlet—”

  “Ugh! Do not say her name.” Raven paced for moment, her eyes catching on him every few steps. Then she stopped and took a deep breath. “There is still time to fix everything. Maybe we could send the peasant away, have her join a nunnery or something.”

  Gabriel shook his head. “I cannot send her away. Tristan asked me to take care of—”

  “No.” Raven set a finger against Gabriel’s lips, halting his words. She brought her exotic face in close to his and looked at him from under her lashes. “Take care of me, Gabriel. Do not take care of a girl who will not hold you,” she walked her fingers from his mouth to the back of his neck, “or want you,” she ran her other hand down his chest, “or kiss you….” Raven set her mouth to his, cupping the back of his neck as she pulled him down closer to her.

  Gabriel kissed her back, placing his hands on her hips and bringing her closer to his body. He loved the way she tasted and the way her hands roved his back and lower….

  Pulling back from their embrace, Raven nipped at his lower lip for a delicious moment. “Gabriel?” Her voice sounded small and delicate. “Do you not want me anymore?”

  Gabriel licked his lips, hot from her mouth. “Of course, I want you.”

  “Then you will find a way to be with me, won’t you?” She pressed her mouth to his neck.

  “Yes,” Gabriel answered automatically. He would not break his promise to Tristan. But how could he resist Raven? Why would he want to?

  He would find a way to be with Raven, yet still take care of Scarlet.

  Somehow.

  Raven kissed him more fully. “Mmmm.” She pulled back again, this time more abruptly, and smiled. “You and I will be unstoppable.”

  43

  Tristan winced as he tried to stand up straight in the little shack. The pain was almost unbearable, keeping him from walking or standing without wanting to scream.

  It felt like he was imploding, his soul pulling at his skin from the inside out.

  He stood in the kitchen, looking down at an untouched plate of food. Lifting a fork to his mouth was too taxing and chewing made his ears throb and pop. He hadn’t eaten all day, but his pain far outweighed his hunger.

  He thought about going back to where Scarlet was, just to relieve the aching for a few hours.

  He would, he decided, if it carried on for another few days. If there was no reprieve from his torment soon, he would make his way closer to Scarlet. Just close enough to breathe easily. Or breathe at all.

  Until then, he would just grit his teeth through the pain.

  He picked up his uneaten plate of food and emptied it into the trash, wincing with every movement.

  44

  Later that week, Scarlet and Laura sat on the couch together watching an old movie. Laura had been especially worried about Scarlet lately, always asking where she was going and what she was doing.

  And sometimes, just sometimes, Scarlet swore Laura was looking at her eyes. But that made no sense. How would Laura know? And if Laura did know, why wouldn’t she tell Scarlet?

  Maybe for the same reason she didn’t tell me she knew about Tristan? Or her weapon fetish?

  Scarlet was so confused. She didn’t know what to think of her guardian’s secrecy. But she also didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. Laura had been great since Scarlet’s breakup with Gabriel. She’d taken Scarlet out to dinner and movies and distracted her as best she could.

  Scarlet and Gabriel had almost every class together, so Scarlet couldn’t help but see him all day, and their conversations had been clipped and limited.

  They didn’t hate each other. Not at all. They just didn’t know how to act around one another. Scarlet ran a hand through her hair and looked around the room.

  Piles of folded, clean laundry were stacked up around the couch, making cloth towers in the living room. If there was one thing both Laura and Scarlet were bad at, it was putting laundry away.

  The movie came to an end and Scarlet looked over at her guardian, who was sound asleep with her head on the arm of the couch. Her red hair fanned out against the pale fabric of the sofa, looking soft and flawless as it settled on top of a short tower of Laura’s clean shirts.

  Scarlet turned the TV off and gathered a few piles of clothes from the floor. She tiptoed upstairs and dropped her own laundry off in her room, before walking into Laura’s room to do the same. Her joints burned as she moved and Scarlet winced. That had been happening a lot, lately. Maybe Scarlet needed to take up yoga or something.

  She set the clothes on Laura’s bed and turned to leave Laura’s room, when something caught her eye.

  Peeking out from the double doors of Laura’s closet, was a suitcase. The same suitcase Laura had been so weird about when she’d come home from Europe.

  Scarlet stared at the closet, twitching her lips.

  She never invaded Laura’s privacy.

  In fact, she’d only been in Laura’s room one other time and that was when Laura first showed Scarlet the house two years ago.

  She had no business being in Laura’s private space, let alone looking inside her luggage
.

  No business at all.

  Nagging curiosity poked at Scarlet as she stared at the suitcase. Were the Bluestone weapons in there? Was that what Laura was hiding?

  A minute passed.

  Scarlet scolded herself as she made her way over to the suitcase.

  It was wrong. So wrong.

  But did that stop Scarlet? Nope.

  She looked behind her to make sure Laura hadn’t followed her upstairs, then eased the closet door open and knelt beside the suitcase.

  Slowly unzipping it, Scarlet felt her nerves begin to jump. She didn’t know what to think of Laura carting around a collection of knives.

  Lifting the flap of the unzipped suitcase, Scarlet blinked.

  Not knives.

  Inside, carefully tucked into black casing so as not to be jostled, was a single yellow flower, roots and all.

  What the…?

  Footsteps on the stairs had Scarlet quickly shutting the flap and zipping the suitcase back up. With her heart pounding, Scarlet stepped out of Laura’s room and tried to act casual as Laura reached the top of the stairs.

  Laura’s sleepy eyes roamed over Scarlet. “What are you doing?”

  “Just putting your laundry on your bed.” Scarlet smiled, hoping her lie sounded convincing. She faked a yawn. “I’m sleepy. Good night.” Scarlet walked to her bedroom door and let herself in, Laura’s eyes on her the whole time.

  Once inside her bedroom, Scarlet closed the door behind her and allowed her heart to beat at the full force it wanted to.

  Her head spun as she stared ahead at nothing in particular. What was so important about that yellow flower?

  What the hell was going on?

  45

  For two months, Tristan had been in the king’s army, traveling from battlefield to battlefield. It had been a bloody and exhausting journey. But more than that, it had been impossible to escape.

  Short of death, there was no way to flee from his duty. Too many men kept careful eyes about the troops and too many men were traitors.

  Tristan had been fortunate enough to come thus far without injury. He was grateful for such luck, but impatient to get home.