Anew

73

Scarlet tripped over her flowing gray skirt as she entered the cabin without knocking and ran down the basement stairs.

“Tristan!” She hit the basement floor and plowed into his room, her strategically placed curls falling into her face and her corset top squeezing the breath out of her.

“Tristan!” she called out wildly.

She saw a rigged bow leaning against his wardrobe, and the dangerous arrow on his bathroom counter. He appeared in the bathroom archway, dressed in a solid black shirt and black pants.

Dressed to die.

Over my dead body.

“You cannot—no, you will not do this.” Scarlet stormed past his beautiful, big bed into the bathroom and snatched the arrow off the counter.

Tristan, looking stunned and confused said, “You need to leave, Scarlet. You’re sick.”

“No!” She faced him with the arrow in her hand. “You don’t get to push me away this time! I know what you’re planning to do and I won’t let it happen.”

His eyes widened and she knew she was right.

He really was planning to die.

He looked at her sternly. “Go away.”

She shook her head and pointed the arrow at him. “You cannot kill yourself, Tristan.”

A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Leave.”

She lowered the arrow and cocked her head to the side, trying to feel him.

He was…afraid…and determined.

He walked to the other side of the counter and started messing with drawers and cabinets.

“No.” Scarlet shook her head. “I won’t let you do this.”

He turned around, pressing his lips together with a look of sadness. “You can’t stop me.”

Scarlet’s mouth dropped open, her eyes heating up like never before. “I’m in charge of my life. I’m in charge of when I live or die. Not you! You don’t get to take your life on my behalf! I won’t let you break my heart—break Gabriel’s heart—like that!”

Tristan’s look of sadness morphed into one of fear as he softly said. “Look at your eyes, Scar. Look at them.”

Scar. He’d called her Scar again and it felt…perfect.

She turned and looked at herself in his giant bathroom mirror. Her eyes were on fire. Bright blue fire. As she watched, a single drop of blood fell from her nose and she quickly wiped it away.

Tristan’s voice was hushed and thick. “You’re dying.”

She took a deep breath as she stared into the mirror.

Standing beside Tristan, looking at their bodies side-by-side, caused her heart to twitch.

They were beautiful.

The two of them, standing together, like they belonged at one another’s side, was beautiful. And he was going to take it all away.

She looked at her glowing blue eyes for a moment longer before finding his eyes in the mirror. She kept her voice as controlled as possible. “I don’t care if I die a thousand more times.” She turned to face him directly. “I need you to live.”

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.