She didn’t know why she needed him to live, she just did.
Tristan turned around and they stood facing each other, just inches apart. His chest was shaking with uneven breaths and his eyes flashed hurt and pain and brokenness before her.
She could cry.
She would cry.
“You don’t need me, Scar. You need life. And all I do is take it from you.”
She shook her head emphatically, feeling him slip away. “But you also give me life.”
“Yes, and you are alive right now, right here,” he looked her over with love and regret and Scarlet thought she would die of a broken heart right there on the bathroom tile, “because my blood brought you back. But I won’t let it take you away ever again.”
Scarlet opened her mouth to scream and yell and kick and fight, but all that came out was a broken plea. “Please?”
A tear fell down her face—a tear she didn’t know she had.
He was going to leave her forever.
She placed her small hands on his broad chest and looked up at him desperately. “Please?”
Tristan swallowed and she closed her eyes, feeling everything he felt.
Love…it was full and real and breaking him in half.
Fear…filling his gut and churning his insides with guilt.
Hatred…for the unfairness in her life and his.
And hope…hope for what…?
“What could you possibly be hopeful for?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
A long moment of silence passed before he answered, “I want you to have a real chance at wholeness.”
“No,” Scarlet whispered, opening her eyes again. “I don’t want wholeness…not without you….”
What was she saying?
Scarlet didn’t know why she was so desperate to keep him alive, but nothing had ever been so important to her.
Tristan’s green eyes, pouring into hers with need and sorrow, lowered to her face.
His strong jaw tilted beside her head and his perfect lips hovered just in front of hers.
Was it wrong if she kissed him?
Yes.
But she wanted to anyway.
If a kiss could keep him in her world, if a kiss could change his mind, she would kiss the hell out of him.
Because she needed him. She didn’t remember him, but she knew she couldn’t live without him.
His lips barely brushed against hers as his warm hand came up behind her neck to cradle her head.
She parted her lips and inhaled, trying to absorb as much of him as he’d let her. He smelled like leather and soap and all things wonderful as he pressed his lips to hers.
At her mouth, he whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
She felt a prick behind her ear and immediately knew she had lost.
“No…,” she croaked out as her body fell limp and numb in his arms.
The crystal. He must have pricked her with the sleeping crystal.
She heard the arrow fall from her hand and hit the tile at her feet.
He gently picked her up and she could do nothing but stare up at him in disbelief and horror.
He was going to kill himself. While she slept.
He placed her on his majestic bed and tucked her in with shaking hands and wet eyes. “I’m so, so sorry, Scar.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead with soft lips as she laid, heavy-lidded, in a sea of blankets and sheets that smelled like him and filled her heart with love.
He was going to kill himself and she couldn’t stop him.
She was falling asleep….
Another tear fell down her cheek as her heavy eyes watched him retrieve the bow and arrow and head out of the room.
The bedroom door began to close behind him and, as her world began to fade into slumber, she saw a tear fall down his cheek as well.
He was going to destroy the most beautiful thing Scarlet couldn’t remember.
74
“Scarlet!” Gabriel called out in a panic as he left his car running in the driveway and opened the cabin’s front door.
He’d gone to her house to convince her not to go to the dance, only to find an agitated, blue Heather complaining about earrings and Scarlet’s erratic behavior.
When Heather mentioned how Scarlet had said Tristan’s name, Gabriel immediately headed to the cabin, terror in his veins.
Scarlet was sick and probably confused. Or worse.
“Scarlet!” he called again, racing upstairs and all around the main floor. Finally he raced into the basement and barged through Tristan’s door.
There was Scarlet, beautiful and still, on Tristan’s bed.
Her cheeks were tear-stained and soft, her breathing deep and steady. Walking over to her, he shook her gently. “Scarlet…Scarlet, honey.”
Nothing.
No movement. No response.
He shook her again, but still she didn’t wake.
Where is Tristan and why is Scarlet sleeping in his bed?
On the sheets next to Scarlet’s head was the tiny white crystal from the Head Ghost.
Tristan had drugged her.
Rage fueled Gabriel’s curse words and his hands as he checked her pulse and looked all over her body to make sure she was all right.
Why would Tristan do such a thing?
Gabriel frantically ran to Tristan’s medicine cabinet to search for the antidote.
After finding it, he ran back to bed and gently tipped Scarlet’s head back. He pricked the back of her ear with the black crystal, waking her body up with the serum.
Scarlet came to and immediately started to hyperventilate, new tears springing from her eyes as she breathed out, “Tristan’s…going…to kill…himself….”
Gabriel was confused. “What?”
“He’s going…to kill himself…with the arrow…to break the curse. We have…to stop him!”
For a moment, Gabriel dismissed Scarlet’s words. She was sick. She was confused.
“Scarlet, are you sure...?”
“Yes! The arrow...can kill...immorals...that’s why...I hid it...we have to hurry!” Scarlet’s eyes lit up the room.
Gabriel was about to argue when suddenly, everything made sense. Tristan’s secrecy about who his murder victim was…Scarlet’s fear of the arrow…everything.
Gabriel’s eyes burned with fear and anger.
How could he be so selfish?
Scarlet sat up and started shaking out her limbs. “We have to go. Now!”
“No way,” Gabriel said. “You’re not going anywhere. That bastard just drugged you. You are staying here.”
Her neon eyes lit up the room. “Like hell I am!” Scarlet scrambled off the bed, her dark hair falling in a mess around her face. “We need to stop him!”
Gabriel started to argue with her but was afraid the fight might be too emotionally draining for her and cause her heart to break even faster.
“Fine. Come on.” He led her out of the cabin and to his parked car, the engine still running. “Do you know where he went?”
Scarlet shook her head. “No idea.”
“Then we’ll start looking downtown.” Gabriel started to get in the car when he saw Scarlet pause at the edge of the driveway.
He watched her close her eyes and tilt her head to side.
He waited.
Then she took off running into the woods.
What the hell?
Gabriel hurriedly turned off his engine and chased after her into the darkness.
75
Scarlet was running, blind and hopeless, through a thicket of trees that were the only thing between her and Tristan’s precious life.
She didn’t know where he was. But she could feel him. And she followed the feeling without question.