She blinked at him, a hand still running down the grand piece of furniture in reverence. “Hey.”
“It’s a nice wardrobe.” He nodded at the cabinet. Why was he making small talk?
She looked back at the wardrobe with softness in her eyes. “My father used to have one just like this when I was a little girl. His wasn’t as crafted or smooth, but it looked similar. I used to make beds for my dolls in the drawers.” She touched a finger to a drawer handle then cleared her throat and looked back at Tristan.
“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.”