Avow

by Chelsea Fine

  “Thanks for…earlier. With the living situation.”

  Tristan nodded and slowly said, “Was there a reason you didn’t want to—“

  “No.” She shook her head. “No. I just—I just tried to be with Gabriel like that last time and it wasn’t…”

  Tristan held his breath, nervous and eager and scared as hell to hear whatever words she came up with.

  “It wasn’t…right.”

  His whole body relaxed. Not in relief, but in selfish, selfish love.

  “So, what’s up?” she asked.

  “Oh, uh...” He pulled her mother’s brooch from the pocket of his jeans and carefully set it on the dresser by the door, turning to leave before Scarlet could say anything. Or worse, feel anything.

  ***************

  Scarlet stared at the brooch and her heart clenched. All these years, all the hurt, and Tristan had kept this token of family for her. What did that mean? Did that mean he still cared for her?

  Scarlet closed her bedroom door as she gingerly picked up her mother’s brooch and absently rubbed at the design on the side of the circle.

  Click.

  The brooch in her hand broke apart and Scarlet’s heart fell.

  The beautiful etching had snapped and was barely hanging onto the band. Scarlet scowled as she looked down at the only remaining piece of her family and hated herself for being so careless.

  She gently touched a finger to the design, hoping to repair her damage, and watched as it swung back into place—as if it had never been broken at all.

  Odd.

  With careful movement, she ran a soft finger over the design again and it swung back out.

  What the…? Turning the ring over in her hand, Scarlet realized the brooch was hollowed out and the markings she had dislodged were acting as a latch.

  Her heart began to pound as she peered inside the hollowed ring and saw a piece of parchment rolled up inside.

  Sliding it out, she realized the parchment must have been trapped inside the brooch for hundreds of years. Had her mother known about it? Had her mother planned for Scarlet to find it?

  She slowly unrolled the ancient paper.

  Okay. Okay, okay, okay. What was she looking at here? A tree that said Avalon. Some weird lines running through the tree. And the Spanish words for eternal water. Her heart leapt in her chest.

  Eternal water! Eternal water!

  Scarlet started to shake and a smile stretched out her mouth, filling her with hope.

  Her mother had purposely hidden this parchment and it had the words Eternal Water on it—that couldn’t be a coincidence. It had to have something to do with the Fountain of Youth!

  She looked over the parchment again. It looked like the eternal water had something to do with a place called Avalon. How many Avalons could there be in the world?

  Scarlet laughed out loud, delirious with joy and had just jumped from her bed to go show Nate when she noticed dark lettering on the edge of the map.

  Sitting back down, Scarlet read:

  Through Bluestone you shall find the Fountain of Youth, but even immortality cannot withstand the caves. A sacrifice must be made, for while bringing life, The Fountain of Youth is true death for all.

  Her head started spinning.

  Immortality cannot withstand the caves? Sacrifice?

  Her joy was quickly turning to fear. The fountain was true death for all?

  Even immortals?

  She needed to tell Nate and have him examine the drawing. Yes. That’s what she would do. She stood and started for her bedroom door, then paused.

  If she told Nate that the fountain was dangerous, would that stop him from searching for it? Would it stop Gabriel? Tristan?

  Probably not.

  She could beg them not to hunt for the fountain, but if they knew it would cure her they would probably walk right into death to find it. With careful hands, Scarlet rolled the tiny scroll up and tucked it back into the ancient brooch. She would not risk sharing this clue with anyone until she knew just how deadly the Fountain of Youth really was.

  CHAPTER 29

  Scarlet had spent the past five days at the library searching for information on the Fountain of Youth and the word Avalon and found only one promising lead: a town in Georgia called Avalon.

  Not only was the town closely located to where Scarlet’s uncle claimed to have found the fountain, but it was also the only place in the world one could find Bluestone—the rarest rock on earth.

  Coincidence? Scarlet didn’t think so.

  But she needed more details, which was why she was headed out to meet with someone who might have more answers for her.

  She tiptoed down the stairs and hoped her roommate was too consumed with his research to notice her leaving the house so late.

  She liked living with Nate. He was quirky and quiet but he kept out of her business. He didn’t pander after her like Gabriel or shy away from her like Tristan. He was just…normal. Normal and sad.

  The last thing she wanted to do was add an additional worry to his heavy shoulders. Quietly, Scarlet strode to the front door and opened it without a sound. She was basically a ninja. Stealthy. Silent. Blending into the night—

  “Good evening,” Nate said.

  Scarlet jumped and spun around to face him with a loud exhale. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”

  “Okay. Then don’t sneak out on me like that.”

  “I’m not sneaking out.”

  He squinted. “You were tiptoeing through the hall, hunched over like the Pink Panther.”

  “The who?”

  “Never mind. Where are you going?”

  “I’m meeting someone. A friend.”

  Nate waited.

  “A guy named Kirk,” Scarlet said. “Happy?”

  Nate shrugged. “I’ll come with you to see Kirk.”

  “No, you won’t.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “What’s going on, Scarlet?”

  She ran a hand through her hair. “There’s just some stuff I have to do, and I need to do it on my own. Trust me.”

  “I do trust you. But you can trust me too, you know. You don’t have to keep secrets.”

  Scarlet shifted, guilt making her uncomfortable in the doorway. “I know.”

  After a long pause, Nate exhaled and moved to leave. “Don’t stay out too late. Tomorrow is testing day with you and Tristan.”

  Scarlet’s stomach filled with dread. “Yay.”

  She left out the front door and headed for New York University. Once there, she entered a stairwell door and climbed her way to the third floor of the building.

  She stopped outside an office with a sign in the window that read GENEOLOGY and softly rapped her knuckles against the open door. A middle-aged man wearing the world’s worst toupee looked up at her and smiled.

  “Are you Miss Jacobs?”

  “Yes.” She stepped into the office. “You must be Professor Baker.”

  “Yes, but you can call me Kirk. You’re here about researching your family history for a school assignment, correct?”

  Scarlet nodded. So she’d lied a little on the phone.

  “Then you’ve come to the right place. I help students retrace their family trees all the time. Please, sit.”

  Scarlet sat in the chair across from Kirk’s desk as he scratched the top of his head, his toupee moving back and forth with the motion.

  He pulled a form from a desk drawer. “Do you have a list of surnames we might begin with?”

  “Yes.” Scarlet pulled a piece of paper from her pocket with the names of her mother, father, and uncle written down. “I want to look for anything related to these names in or around the Avalon, Georgia area.”

  “Oh. That’s a rather specific request.” Kirk scanned the list and gave a single nod. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  ***************

  “I’m not doing this,” Gabriel held up the joystick in his hand. “It’s weird.”

  “It’s not weird,�
�� Tristan said. “It’s Atari.”

  Nate made a face. “Isn’t Atari a video game for kids?”

  “Yeah. It’ll be fun.”

  “I don’t really feel like having fun.”

  “And that’s the problem.” Tristan shoved the other joystick into Nate’s hand. “You’re miserable. You need a distraction, so suck it up and play the damn game.”

  Tristan started hooking the cables to the TV.

  Gabriel looked around. “Is Scarlet here?”

  Nate frowned. “Nope. She snuck out an hour ago.”

  “She snuck out?” Gabriel asked. “Where did she go?”

  “I don’t know.” Nate shrugged. “But she’s been secretive lately, sneaking off every day to go to the ‘library’. So who knows?”

  Tristan felt his chest twist up. Scarlet’s emotions had been all over the place lately. Scared, excited, worried, afraid. And now she was sneaking out?

  What was she up to?

  CHAPTER 30

  “It’s so early.” Scarlet stretched her arms above her head.

  Tristan shifted in his seat across from her at the table in Nate’s lab. His dark hair was tousled and long enough to hang in his eyes and the black T-shirt he wore stretched across his shoulders in a way that made the butterflies in her stomach want to dance.

  Dropping her arms, she looked away from him and yawned. The professor had loaded her up with ancestry books before she left his office last night and Scarlet had stayed up until the early hours of dawn searching through their pages for any sign of her relatives. She found nothing. Kirk was going to make a call to someone in Avalon to see about family documents so maybe they’d have better luck there.

  Tristan stretched his neck, his trap muscles moving as he did so, and Scarlet’s butterflies started to waltz. Damn him and all his muscles.

  He shifted again, scooting his chair back even farther than he had the last three times he’d moved since they’d sat down. The good doctor was only ten minutes late and Tristan was already halfway to the door in his chair.

  Even though they’d seen each other at Nate’s house a few times—apparently, Tristan and Nate were best friends now—she and Tristan barely spoke. Half of her was fine with that, but the other half—the stupid half—wanted to climb into his arms and beg him to love her and kiss her and touch her until she died.

  He shifted again.

  “Really?” Scarlet blinked. “What’s your plan here? Are you going to scoot your way out of the lab?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “I just don’t want to be here.”

  “Neither do I, but you don’t see me squeaking my way to the door with my grumpy face on.” She leaned back in her chair. “Are you really that uncomfortable around me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why? We’re not touching. There’s an entire lab table between us and if anyone should be freaking out about us hanging out in the same room, it should be me, remember? The girl who keeps dying? Unless you’re planning on accidentally falling on top of me, I’m pretty sure you can relax.”

  He flexed his jaw. “I’m not stressed about touching you, Scar.”

  Scar.

  “Then what is your deal?”

  He stared at her. “I can feel you.”

  “Oh.” Oh.

  Note to self: no more touching Tristan thoughts.

  She tried to act casual. “Well, get over it.”

  He scoffed and tipped his head back. “Right.”

  She watched his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed.

  “See?” He brought his face down. “Like that. What the hell was that?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Good morning!” Nate grinned as he entered the lab. He shuffled around the table between them and picked up a needle. “So,” he lifted the needle in the air, “who wants to give blood first?”

  **************

  Four hours later, Tristan sighed into the strained silence and kept his eyes fixed on the ceiling. He and Scarlet hadn’t spoken since Nate entered the lab and started drawing their blood and monitoring their vitals.

  “So,” Nate attempted conversation for the third time. He seemed to be in a better mood lately. “Do you guys maybe want to talk about how very uncomfortable this is?” He smiled tightly, looking first at Tristan, then at Scarlet. “Because I don’t know about you, but I feel awk-ward. Let’s hash it out, shall we? Tristan,” Nate said brightly. “We’ll start with you. How are you feeling?”

  “Annoyed.”

  “I like your honesty and openness.” Nate turned to Scarlet. “What about you? How are you feeling?”

  “Tired,” she said. “Nine in the morning is too early for needles.”

  Tristan said, “Maybe if you hadn’t stayed out so late, you wouldn’t be so tired.”

  Scarlet said, “Look who’s decided to speak again. Suddenly, the silent and dark Tristan has an opinion on my life.”

  “Oh, I have many opinions.”

  “See?” Nate said, his smile tighter than before. “Isn’t all this openness refreshing?”

  “Like what?” Scarlet glared at Tristan.

  “For one,” he said, not sure why he was provoking her. “I don’t like how you snuck off to a secret meeting last night.”

  She curled her lip. “How do you know about that?”

  Nate swallowed audibly and Scarlet turned her eyes to him. “You tattled on me?”

  “I was not tattling. I was making small talk. You’re the one being all secretive about guys named Kirk—“

  “Kirk?” Tristan’s veins were on fire. “You’re sneaking off in the middle of the night to hang out with a guy?”

  Who the hell was Kirk?

  She made a face. “Since when do you care about my life? You certainly didn’t care all that much a hundred years ago.”

  Tristan’s gut dropped.

  Nate held up a hand. “Okay, maybe less openness is better.”

  “All I’m saying,” Tristan leaned forward on his elbows, “is that your late night activities are suspicious. I don’t know who this Kirk guy is, but—“

  “Kirk is none of your business.”

  “Like hell. I don’t want you slinking around in the middle of the night with some random guy you don’t even know.”

  “And I don’t want you making out with some slutty redhead after you just beat the crap out of someone. But we don’t always get what we want, do we?”

  Hurt, pain, sadness, betrayal.

  Tristan felt his defenses waiver and knew he was close to caving. He couldn’t stand hurting her. The pain she felt…the pain he caused her….

  He needed to calm down before he did something stupid—like jump across the table and kiss her until things like curses and redheads and Kirks no longer existed.

  He lowered his voice. “That was different—“

  “Different how? Do you usually go for blondes?”

  “And…openness time is over.” Nate started undoing tubes and wires from both Tristan and Scarlet.

  Tristan stared at Scarlet. “Stop it.”

  “Stop what? Stop bringing up the past?” She waved her hands in a spooky way. “God forbid we talk about something real. Like how you made me watch you stick your tongue in someone else’s mouth.”

  “And on that note,” Nate smiled at them, “I’m leaving. I think I’ve got everything I need from you two. Good luck with all your relationship drama. Glad to see you kids are finally working things out. And by ‘working things out’, I mean bickering like an old divorced couple. So fun.” He gave a curt nod. “See you later.”

  Sharp hurt rose up inside Scarlet and Tristan hated himself.

  “First of all,” he lowered his voice and pointed at her, wishing he could grab the pain inside her and stomp it into the ground, “my tongue stayed in my mouth. Second, I had no choice.”

  “Funny. I didn’t see a gun pointed at your head.”

  “I did it to keep you safe.”

  “What?” He
r eyes were incredulous.

  “You came after me even when you knew you would die.” He thrust his hands out, his heart pounding in fear thinking about how careless she’d been.

  “Because you were in pain.”

  “So you risked your life?”

  “Of course!” Love exploded in her chest and he wanted to scream.

  “And that, that right there, is why I did what I did in your last life. To keep you safe from me—from yourself. You reckless woman.”

  “You thought kissing another girl in front of me would keep me safe? Safe?!” Scarlet’s mouth dropped open. “You crushed me.”

  “I was trying to keep you alive.”

  “And I still died, Tristan!” Her face was flushed. “The only difference was I died with a broken heart!”

  “And I’ve hated myself for it every day since.” He inhaled, his eyes wild and hot. “But I don’t regret it.”

  He was so worked up he didn’t know if the pain and hurt and love he felt was his or Scarlet’s.

  Her lips parted as she stared at him, defeat and sadness taking over all the emotions in the room. “Well, that makes one of us.”

  And then she left, her heart breaking in her chest and falling to pieces in his.

  CHAPTER 31

  After knocking, Scarlet stood outside Tristan’s door and waited for him to answer as the wind picked up, blowing leaves and small purple flowers from a nearby tree into her face.

  Unlike the rest of them, Tristan lived outside the city on a small piece of land with a single home in the center. Like a Tristan island.

  Her stomach did flips as she heard the knob turn from the other side. Tristan opened the door. She and Tristan hadn’t spoken since the last time they’d run into each other at Nate’s. Tristan had played video games with Nate all night and afterward the three of them had eaten pancakes together. It had been a perfectly pleasant evening, but then she and Tristan had argued and he’d left. So the moment of silence they were standing in now was very awkward.