CHAPTER
1
Scarlet had her memories back,
which meant two things.
She knew where the Fountain of
Youth was.
And she was mad at Tristan.
Still clutching a bloodstained
knife in her hand, she marched through the graveyard and glanced over her
shoulder at the green-eyed boy she’d loved for centuries. “By the way, you
suck.”
“Wow,” he said.
“I can’t believe you tried to
kill yourself.”
“I was trying to keep you
alive.”
“Agh. Spare me your sacrificial
agenda.” Another memory hit her and she turned to face him, her blood boiling.
“And you let me wander around with amnesia for two years before meeting me?”
He opened his mouth, but
Scarlet cut him off. “And then you let me date Gabriel? What the hell, Tristan?”
A muscle flexed in his jaw.
“First of all, I was supposed to die. So I didn’t think intervening in your
love life was any of my business. Gabriel made you feel happy and safe and I
wasn’t about to screw that up for you. And
second,” he raised his voice over the protest on Scarlet’s lips, “the
reason I didn’t ‘meet’ you for two years was because I didn’t think I’d be able
to follow through with killing myself if you and I were, you know…pals.” His eyes glinted.
She scowled. “Well that was
selfish of you.” Turning, she resumed her walk through the dark cemetery.
“You think I was selfish?” Scarlet could almost
hear his jaw drop as he followed behind her. “You’re the one who shut everyone out. You’re the one who kept secrets and stole stuff and ran away—“
“I had to run away,” she
snapped.
His voice rumbled in anger.
“Did you have to die too?”
Spinning around to face
him—again—Scarlet met his hard eyes in the darkness. “I wasn’t trying to die.”
“But you did,” he said coldly.
They stared at each other for
a moment, heartbreak colliding in the space between them. Because of her
connection to him, Scarlet could feel the hurt and fear pulsing through his
veins as his eyes traced over her in the moonlight.
But she could also feel the
love heating his core as he took her in. And it was the love—that undying fire
that blazed in him and burned through her—that stole her words away as she
looked at him.
He was so beautiful. Even
standing in a graveyard, covered in dirt and blood, he was striking. His dark hair
fell wild around his face and his green eyes shone in the moonlight.
A shiver of desire ran through
him--or was it her?--and Scarlet clenched the knife in her hand so she wouldn't
do something stupid. Like crush her mouth to his and claw at his clothes until
there was nothing between them but heat and skin. But that would, of course,
lead to death.
Everything always led to
death.
Tristan softened his voice as
he scanned her face. “What happened in your last life, Scar? What are you
hiding?”
Scarlet's chest tightened at
his question.
Millions of Avalon stars
winked from above and reminded her of a time when she and Tristan spent their
days in the trees and everything was fair; everything was simple.
Nothing was simple anymore.
He tilted his head and repeated,"What
are you hiding, Scar?"
She could feel his heartbeat
echoing inside her soul; powerful and constant, as his emotions swam into her.
Patience... Love... Worry...
Could she tell him the truth
about the fountain? The whole truth?
The truth that would undo any
hope they had of a happy ending?
She opened her mouth—
“Holy crap! Did you guys see
that?” Nate jogged up to them with a knife in his hand, a grin on his face, and
a trickle of blood running down his neck. “I totally kicked Ashman ass over there!
I was all like hi-ya and you wanna piece of me? I was a super
slayer! Buffy’s got nothing on me.”
Scarlet shut her mouth and
shifted away from Tristan’s searching eyes as Nate continued.
“It was life and death out
there, guys. Life and death. They just
kept coming at me and I just kept putting them down.” Nate took a moment to
catch his breath. “I mean, sure, I screamed like a girl a few times and
accidently stabbed myself at the beginning, but still. I feel amazing! For the
first time in five hundred years I feel alive.”
Moving his gaze away from
Scarlet, Tristan eyed Nate's neck. “You’re bleeding.”
Nate touched his wound and
drew back bloody fingers. “I’m bleeding.
Haha! I have a battle wound. Oh, this is so awesome.” Tucking his knife into
his waistband with a smile, he looked around. “Where’s everyone else?”
Scarlet’s stomach churned as
reality whooshed in and slapped her in the face. “Raven kidnapped Heather.”
Saying it out loud had emotion crawling up her throat.
Nate’s face fell. “What?”
With a deep breath, Scarlet
summed up the evening’s events. “Raven is actually Clare—Heather’s boss at the
coffee shop—not Laura. Laura was working for Raven, but Raven killed her and
dumped her body in a grave—”
Ohmygoodness. Laura was really
dead.
Scarlet blinked.
My guardian is dead.
More emotion wiggled up her
throat and she quickly swallowed, trying to keep her focus on the things at
hand.
Scarlet cleared her throat.
“Then Raven had an Ashman kick the crap out of me so she could kidnap Heather
and hold her ransom for the map to the fountain. And the lifeforce between
Tristan and I shifted. So I can still feel his emotions, but he can’t feel mine
anymore.”
Thank God.
If Tristan were still able to
sense her, he’d know she was freaking out. Not just about Heather or Laura. But
about the fountain and what finding it would mean.
A sick feeling swirled inside
her gut.
“And because the lifeforce
shifted, Scarlet now has her memories back,” Tristan added, sliding his eyes to
her.
Nate blinked. “What? I go slaying for ten minutes and I
miss everything—wait.” His eyes shot to Scarlet. “Does that mean you know where
the fountain is?”
Scarlet hesitated.
It was decision time.
No truth? The whole truth? A
vague truth?
“Yes,” she said, going with
vague. It was always safer to start vague. “But we need to rescue Heather
before we do anything else.”
Her heart started to hammer at
the thought of her happy friend being held hostage by a vengeful witch with a
drug problem. So many things could go wrong.
So many things already had.
Nate nodded. “Did you see
which direction Raven took her?”
Looking around the cemetery,
Scarlet shook her head and let out a groan of frustration as guilt swamped her
soul. “This is all my fault. I should have stayed by Heather’s side. I should have
protected her.”
Tristan scanned the premises.
His coat was sliced open in several places and dark splotches of blood slowly
seeped through the shredded fabric of the black T-shirt he wore beneath.
His immortal body wasn’t
healing like it should, which meant his wounds had been inflicted with
Bluestone weapons.
Not good.
“Dude.” Nate caught sight of
Tristan’s injuries. “Are you okay?”
Tristan looked down at his
stained clothes and shrugged as if the slashes in his skin were more of a
nuisance than anything else. “I’m fine. The cuts are shallow. Where’s Gabriel?”
Scarlet furrowed her brow. “He
came with me to the coffee shop, but he was gone when I came out. He wasn’t
with you guys?”
They shook their heads and
worry crept through Scarlet’s veins.
“I’m sure he’s around here
somewhere.” Tristan looked calm as he glanced around, but Scarlet could feel
concern coiling inside his chest. “Why don’t you two go look for him at The
Millhouse and I’ll search the rest of the graveyard.”
Scarlet nodded.
Good plan.
Split up. Find Gabriel. Rescue
Heather.
And stay away from the
fountain.
Okay, that last part might be
difficult since Amnesia Scarlet spilled the beans about the freaking map, but
whatever. She could still throw them off. She could lie.
She’d been lying for years.
As Scarlet and Nate headed out
of the cemetery, Tristan walked deeper into its shadowy depths. Distant music
from the ongoing Avalon carnival drifted through the night air, making the wind
sound eerily happy as it wrapped around headstones and swept through Scarlet’s
hair.
Putting her knife away, she
rubbed her head where it still throbbed from the blow Raven had dealt her with
the business end of a crossbow.
One more reason to hate the
crazy witch.
Everything was so screwed up—
A sharp pain darted up
Scarlet’s body and twisted around her insides with liquid fire until she
doubled over. Sinking to the ground, Scarlet clutched her chest and stomach,
afraid her skin might split open and empty her insides all over the grass. She
tried to suck in air, but her lungs wouldn’t work.
Nate dropped down beside her
with terror in his eyes. “What’s wrong?”
The fire turned to ice and
wrapped around her organs and bones, squeezing without mercy. Scarlet couldn’t
help but cry out loud.
“Tristan!” Nate called,
checking her pulse before pulling at the skin beneath her eyes to check their
color.
Usually when Scarlet felt pain
of any sort it was because her heart was failing. And when her heart started to
fail, her eyes would glow and her nose would bleed. But this didn’t feel like
heart failure.
This felt like something else
entirely.
She squeezed her eyes shut and
grimaced until the agony started to subside. Her muscles loosened, her lungs
started to expand, and soon Scarlet wasn’t hurting anymore.
Out of pain, but still very
confused, she opened her eyes to find Tristan crouched beside her.
His green eyes were glowing
into the night as panic oozed from his pores. “What just happened?” He searched
her face.
Good question.
Scarlet rubbed her chest to
make sure all her insides were where they were supposed to be. Yep. Still in
one piece.
Phew.
“She just collapsed in pain.”
Nate turned his eyes from Scarlet to Tristan. “Dude. You need to calm down.
Your eyes are super green.”
Tristan rubbed a hand over his
mouth, still looking at Scarlet. “It must be the transition. Maybe when the
curse shifted we switched places, putting Scarlet in pain without me, just like
I used to be in pain when I was without her.”
Well crap.
That would suck.
“I guess that would make
sense.” Nate scratched the back of his head. “Especially since her pain went
away when you walked back over to us.”
Scarlet stood from the ground
and brushed the cemetery grass off her pants as Tristan and Nate rose to stand
beside her.
A surge of guilt rolled through
Tristan and Scarlet hurried to reassure him. “I’m fine now—”
“You’re not fine,” he snapped. “You fell to the ground in pain when I was
only thirty feet away from you.”
Yeah.
That was weird.
Nate pressed a finger to his
lips. “If the lifeforce reversed your roles—”
“Oh no.” Scarlet’s eyes
widened as the possibility sank in. “If our roles have been reversed, does that
mean my touch can make Tristan sick? My touch can kill him?”
She took a step away from
Tristan and felt his pounding heartbeat soften. Stepping back up to him, the
pounding resumed. “Oh no. No, no—”
“Okay. Don’t freak out.” Nate
held a hand up.
Too late.
“His heart responds to my
nearness.” Scarlet shook her head as her chest tightened in despair. “No, no,
no.”
This couldn’t be happening.
“So it appears the curse has
shifted,” Nate said calmly. “We can handle this.” He held up a calm hand to
match his calm face and calm eyes as he looked at her. “All we need to do is
make sure you two stay within close range of one another so you don’t writhe in
pain, but far enough away so Tristan doesn’t, you know, die.” He shrugged.
“Easy. We’ll just reenact the ten-foot rule between you guys.”
Nate stared at them. Waiting.
“What?” Tristan said.
Nate rolled his eyes and
thrust his hands in between Scarlet and Tristan, pushing their bodies away from
one another. “Ten feet. There you go. Now let’s go find Gabriel so we can get
our Heather rescue on. Then we can finally find the Fountain of Youth and cure
everyone of this God-forsaken and completely obnoxious curse.” Turning, he
headed down the street toward the Millhouse.
Scarlet and Tristan slowly
followed after him in stunned silence.
She was killing Tristan with
her very presence.
Glancing at him under the
yellow glow of the streetlamps, Scarlet ran her eyes along his profile as he
stared forward with a clenched jaw. He was fierce. He was patient. He was
everything she loved.
And he was dying.
Divulging the truth about the
Fountain of Youth was no longer an option. Tristan’s life was at stake.
To hell with happily ever
after.
I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS BOOK! This sneak peek has made me even more excited for Avow to be released. I miss Tristan's sexinessbroodinessyumminess very much. Only 1 week and 1 day 'til the release! If you haven't started this amazing series yet, which you totally need to, here's how to get the first two books! You absolutely will not regret it!
Anew (Book 1):
Awry (Book 2):
To win Chelsea’s giveaway (she’s giving away a Kindle Fire, signed copies of all the Archers of Avalon books, bookmarks, and a $25 gift certificate to her Archers of Avalon store), enter below in the Rafflecopter. This would be an amazing international giveaway to win! Avow comes out December 11th, 2012!!!!!!!!
Who's excited?!
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