Tristan was speechless. He blinked. And then blinked again.
Scarlet started to hyperventilate. “Ohmygoodness, ohmygoodness, ohmygoodness—”
“Okay, let’s not panic here.” Heather held up a hand. “It’s really no big deal.” She shrugged, trying to look brave. “So you’ve got a secret arsenal of slightly-used weapons. Hidden in a creepy…and probably spider-infested cellar…in the middle of nowhere. That’s no reason to panic.”
A bat flapped in front of them and Heather yelped.
Scarlet’s eyes began to glow.
Tristan’s eyes began to burn as well, searing into his head with a blaze he couldn’t begin to describe. But the pain immediately stopped.
He saw Scarlet blink as the neon glow disappeared from her eyes. She stared at Tristan. “I had a memory.”
“What do you remember?” Nate asked.
“It was a good memory,” Scarlet answered. “I remember a graveyard.”
Heather tucked her lips in. “That’s not what I would call a ‘good’ memory—”
“No, I mean. It was an important memory.” Scarlet walked over to the weapons and grabbed a blood-coated butcher knife off the wall, looking at the blade curiously.
“What was important about it?” Tristan watched her eye the knife.
“I can’t remember.”
“Of course you can’t.” Heather sighed.
“But the graveyard is in Avalon.” Scarlet started making her way back up the cellar stairs, still clutching the knife. “Let’s go find it.”
Tristan looked at Gabriel.
Gabriel looked at Tristan.
And Scarlet kept walking up the stairs with a bloodstained knife in her hand.
“Uh…Scar?” Tristan tried to sound calm. “You know you still have a knife in your hand?”
Scarlet looked down at the weapon. “Yes. I want to take it with me.”
“Why?” Heather swallowed.
“Um.” Scarlet looked confused. “I don’t know. But I know I want it with me.” Scarlet turned and started back up the stairs.
Gabriel and Nate exchanged a nervous glance before following after her.
Heather pointed at Tristan. “Okay, if my B-F-F goes rogue and starts trying to chop me into pieces, I fully expect your immortal hotness to protect me, got it?”
Tristan raised his eyebrows in response.
Taking a deep breath, Heather followed everyone up the stairs and out of the cellar.
Waiting until they were gone from sight, Tristan grabbed two bloody daggers and a hunting knife off of Scarlet’s wall.
If she was going rogue, so was he.
71
It was Scarlet’s wedding day.
Her servants—because she was now the countess and had servants—helped squeeze her into the dress Gabriel had bought her for the occasion. The skirt was made of layers upon layers of sheer white, sticking out at various angles to make the skirt full and heavy. The top piece was pure lace, with beautiful straps that fell over her shoulders and crossed in the back, and the final adornment was a black corset top.
Scarlet hadn’t worn a corset since she was a young girl, so standing still while she was tied into the corset was difficult. And painful.
Which reminded her whyshe hadn’t worn a corset in so long.
When she was dressed and ready to be presented, Scarlet looked at herself in her bedroom mirror.
She did not see the girl from the woods. She did not see Ana’s young daughter or a dedicated hunter.
She saw a new woman. A countess.
Which made her proud. And sad.
She shoved the sadness aside and allowed her servants to lead her out to the main hall for the ceremony.
She did not have a whole soul, but she had love.
She thought of Gabriel and smiled. Gabriel was her strength. And today he would be her husband.
By the time Tristan reached his home village, he was exhausted. He had made the long journey from the monastery by foot and seldom stopped for rest or food.
He was weak, he was dirty, and he was tired.
But the village bustled with news of a wedding that was taking place in the late morning and energy shot through him.
Scarlet and Gabriel were to be married in less than an hour.
He hurried to the castle. Not to stop the wedding. Not to beg Gabriel to give Scarlet back to him. But to see her.
Just to see her.
After the wedding, he would have to go into hiding; he surely could not stay in a town where he was thought to be dead and live peacefully. His father would have his head and the guards would never allow him back into the castle.
But weddings were public occasions and Tristan knew he could sneak inside the main hall and see Scarlet’s sweet face one last time.
Church bells rang in the distance, signaling the end of the morning and Tristan began to run.
72
The sun was setting on the small, quiet downtown of Avalon, Georgia and everything looked perfectly normal.
Everything except for the five teenagers walking into the Avalon cemetery, Scarlet still armed with a bloody butcher knife.
Scarlet knew it looked weird, but she didn’t care. Something was there….something was in the cemetery.
“You know,” Heather started. “This whole scenario sorta reeks of danger. I mean, a graveyard? Really?”
Scarlet took a deep breath and headed toward the cemetery gates that stood ajar. Like they were inviting them in.
Scarlet accepted the invitation and stepped into the green grassy hills of death.
Avalon Cemetery was vast and beautiful. It was slightly hilly, dotted with tombstones, and well-groomed. Birds chirped in the trees that spread their branches out over the departed and colorful flowers laid here and there at various headstones.
Peaceful.
Scarlet carefully walked along the clean sidewalk of the grounds, up the small hills, and along the grass.
Nate looked around as he walked along. “What are we looking for exactly?”
Scarlet’s eyes canvassed the area, hoping a memory would flash. “I don’t know.”
“Ah.” Nate nodded.
Heather turned to Nate with a smile. “It’s like we’re on a memory scavenger hunt. Scarlet gets a clue, grabs a dirty knife, and we follow her to a place filled with dead bodies, hoping to find the next clue.” She looked around at the standing tombs under the fading sunlight. “If it wasn’t so weird, it might actually be fun.”
“It’s not here,” Scarlet said, convinced she was looking at the wrong thing. “This isn’t the right place.”
Gabriel looked at her. “You said the Avalon cemetery.”
Scarlet slowly nodded, still looking around. “But this isn’t what I saw in my mind.”