Nate nodded. “Well, then, we need to assume your perpetrator has every intention of coming back. Which means we need to keep you, and your memories, safe.”
Gabriel shifted his weight. “I think Scarlet should stay here with us until Laura gets back.”
Tristan paced to the far end of the kitchen. “No way.”
Wow.
“You’re a jerk.” Scarlet snapped at Tristan.
He shrugged.
Nate stepped over to Scarlet. “How have your eyes been? They look pretty healthy right now, but have you noticed any sparks in them lately? Any changes in color?”
Scarlet looked at him in utter confusion. “What?”
Nate raised his eyebrows and looked at Gabriel. “Please tell me you told her how her eyes change.”
Gabriel shook his head. “She was already freaking out about dying and I didn’t want to—”
“Dude.” Nate held his palms up. “That’s, like, an important thing to tell her. She needs to know.”
“I need to know what?” Scarlet asked, panic rising in her chest.
Nate came over and smashed both his hands against her cheeks, making her look like she had duck lips. He leaned in and stared at her.
So. Weird.
Scarlet froze. “Uh…what are you doing?” Her words came out distorted through her awkwardly-puckered lips.
“Looking at your eyes.” He used his thumb to pull down the skin below her right eye and examined her like she was a foreign creature.
“They look healthy.” Nate released her face and stepped back. “Tell me, Scarlet, have your eyes been burning lately? Have they felt hot?”
Scarlet rubbed her face where his hands had been. “Uh…no, not really.” She thought about it. “Well, maybe a few times. Like when I have flashbacks, or when….”
She remembered how her eyes felt hot when she was standing so close to Tristan in the kitchen the night before.
Tristan makes my eyes hot. Yeah, she wasn’t going to broadcast that.
Nate looked at her. “When what?”
Scarlet shook her head. “That’s it. Just when I have flashbacks. Why? What’s wrong with my eyes? Am I losing my sight?”
Wonderful.
Not only am I dying, but I’m going blind as well.
It’s like the curse that keeps on giving.
“No,” Nate said shaking his head. “You’re not going blind. You’re dying.”
Scarlet blinked at his bluntness. “I know.”
“And the closer you get to death, the weaker your heart gets. Over time, your eye color intensifies, indicating your heart is close to failing. So, your eyes will get brighter and brighter…until you die.”
Scarlet;s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”
Nate nodded.
She darted from the kitchen and into the hall bathroom to look at herself in the mirror.
The guys followed her.
She leaned in and looked at her irises closely. “Oh my g—they’re different. My eyes didn’t used to be this blue! They’re different now. They’re…weirder.” Her heart started to pound.
Tristan’s mouth tightened as he leaned into Gabriel. “I told you.”
Scarlet whipped her head around and looked at Nate. “What does this mean, then?” She pointed to her eyeball. “Am I almost dead? Could I die any second?” Her voice was rushed and high-pitched.
She was officially freaking out.
“No,” Nate said.
She calmed down a tad.
“But you are definitely going to die,” Nate continued.
She freaked out again.
“Unless we find a way to cure you.”
Scarlet looked at the three immortals in the bathroom with her. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go find that freakin’ fountain and cure me!” Scarlet nearly shouted, moving past the wall of boys and out into the hallway.
There was no time for bathroom pow-wows and paper towel doodles. Something had to be done. Immediately.
“It’s not that simple,” Nate said, following her into the living room.
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t know where to look. We can’t just pack up today and find the fountain tomorrow. I think our best bet is to come up with a new plan, and find a way to keep you safe and alive in the meantime.”
“I already have a new plan.” Tristan cocked his head to the said.
“Nobody likes your plan.” Gabriel didn’t look at his brother.
“Your plan sucks,” Nate agreed.
Scarlet couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Who cares if a plan—any plan—sucks? Let’s just fix me! I could die any second.”
“Oh, no. You have at least a few weeks left. Maybe even months.” Nate nodded.
Through her teeth, Scarlet said, “That’s not very comforting.”
He dropped his head. “You’re right. I’m sorry. But if you want to be healed, what we need to do is come up with a plan. I put a call in to one of my old contacts, looking for pictures of a recently-discovered map of the New World, so that might be a good starting place for us.” Nate looked at his watch. “I should hear back from him in the next few hours. Maybe then we can come up with a new search strategy. But for now,” Nate unzipped his backpack, “I need to set up my video games.”
59
Forty-five minutes and two-hundred wires later, Nate had transformed the spare bedroom upstairs into a video game haven. Scarlet listened to the three boys argue about the most efficient way to destroy an AWOL robot and realized she’d rather listen to Heather complain about last year’s footwear styles than one more minute of nerd-talk.
Nate pulled a few speakers from his bag.
“Surround sound, Nate? Really?” Gabriel pointed to the hall. “My bedroom is right next door. How am I supposed to sleep when you’re blasting aliens all night? Why couldn’t you just use the downstairs guest room?”
“First of all,” Nate adjusted a speaker and looked back at Gabriel, “the aliens are on my team—so I don’t ‘blast’ them. Second,” Nate’s eyes grew wide, “you know I have a wicked fear of sleeping underground. Basements are for bats and axe-murders.” He looked at Tristan. “No offense.”
Tristan shrugged.
Nate’s phone rang and he scrambled to answer it. He then proceeded to have a long conversation—in French—about…well, Scarlet didn’t know because she didn’t speak French, but she was pretty sure they were talking about maps.
Eventually, Nate ended his call and turned back to them. “Pierre just emailed me pictures of the map he found. Let’s go downstairs, print them out, and come up with a search plan.”
Finally, Scarlet thought.
The four of them went back downstairs and waited while Nate printed out the pictures.
The map made no sense to Scarlet, but she nodded her head and tried to understand what the boys were saying to one another as they poured over the pictures.
An hour and several map arguments later, Nate sighed. “Well, that sucks. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before.”
Gabriel shook his head. “I was really hoping we’d have a new lead.”
Concern came over Scarlet. “So, the map is a dead end?”
Nate nodded.
“What now?”
“Now we go with my plan.” Tristan said, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall.
Gabriel and Nate ignored him.
“I think our best bet is to start from scratch. We’ll divvy up search responsibilities and see what we can come up with in the next few weeks. Who knows? Maybe we’ll come across something we missed before.”