Awry

27

Ana Jacobs heard footsteps outside the door of her hut and assumed it was Scarlet and Tristan returning from the forest. But when she turned to the door, Ana stopped short and her heart skipped a beat.

Francis.

“Hello, little sister,” said her only sibling. Everything about him looked healthy and strong. Except his eyes. His eyes looked hungry. Violent. Dead.

“How did you find me?” Ana was careful not to sound afraid.

Wearing leather and cotton, Francis looked well-off. But the jug strung at his hip, no doubt filled with blue water, told Ana otherwise. He cocked his head at an abnormal angle. “Desperate men can do anything.”

Yes. She knew this.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“You know what I want.” Francis stepped forward, gripping Ana by the sleeve of her dress. “Where is the map?”

Even though Ana had returned the blue water to Francis and William, she refused to let them have complete access to the very thing that stole their souls. So she had stolen Francis’s map and hid it away.

Ana kept her chin high. “You are poisoned and black inside. I will not help you.”

“You will!”

“I will not!”

He slapped a hand across her face and demanded, “You will give me what’s mine!”

Ana rubbed her face and stared at him defiantly. “Never.”

Francis released her sleeve, stepped back, and cocked his head to the side again. “Then you leave me no choice.” With a forceful blow, he ran his fist into Ana’s face, knocking her to the ground and sucking the air from her lungs.

Ana’s head hit the hard floor and blackness closed in around her as she started to lose consciousness.

Tristan lay on the riverbank with Scarlet in his arms. After a long and unsuccessful day of hunting, he and Scarlet had gone for a swim and now lay together watching the afternoon sun glint off the river.

Scarlet was draped across his bare torso, tracing circles against his skin with her finger. Her long hair flowed over his chest and down to the grass beneath them, lifting slightly in the soft wind.

Tristan kissed the top of her head and ran a hand down her back. She was so small and soft and tough and brave…and she was forever in his heart. There was nothing he could do to remove her, even if he wanted to.

Which he never would.

Scarlet picked up a newly-fallen leaf beside them and bent it over in her hand, breaking the leaf in half. A dark green syrup oozed from where the leaf split and ran down Scarlet’s thumb.

She turned her head to him and gave a mischievous smile.

He raised a brow.

Scarlet sat up and eyed his torso.

“What?” he asked, looking down at himself.

“Nothing.” She bent to kiss his lips and then sat back up. Resting a hand on the grass, she set the dark green edge of the leaf to Tristan’s side and began to draw on him, the green syrup from the leaf staining his skin as she traced across his hip.

“What are you doing?” He looked down, amused.

“I am drawing an arrowhead, for you are a great hunter and your arrows are true and steady. Just like your heart.”

She kept her eyes on his skin as she finished the arrowhead and began to draw around it.

Soon, her leaf became dry and she quickly found another, breaking it in half to squeeze out more of the green stain. She went back to her drawing, making strokes that went upward, and then started to draw strokes downward.

Her hands drew a stroke low on his hip, passing his hipbone and traveling even lower to the center of his body, causing him to shiver at her touch.

“And what are thosemarks?” he slanted his eyes to her.

“These marks,” Scarlet finished with her drawing and ran her fingertips along the lower design, clearly loving the shiver she pulled from him. “Are just for fun.”

She tickled him again and this time he caught her wrist with a smile. “You are evil, woman.”

She started laughing and Tristan gathered her into his arms, trying to tickle her neck with his lips. Her laughter rang up to the trees, across the quiet water, and rolled along the soft grass. Beautiful and free, the melody was everything Tristan wanted to feel inside himself for the rest of his days.

When he released her from his grasp and her laughter cooled, she tucked herself right back into his arms, laying her head against his chest.

He stroked her hair for a moment, thinking of how wonderful his life had been since Scarlet had entered it.

“Marry me,” he said.

He could not live without her and he did not want to. Not ever.

Scarlet was silent for a long time. “Don’t be foolish, Hunter.”

He smiled at the sky above them. “Marry me, Scar.”

She turned her head to look at him with big blue eyes, her cheek smashed against his chest. “I do not belong in your village or your castle.”

“You belong right here.” He looked at her and stroked her back. “With me. We can live in the village, or the castle, or the woods or the water…wherever you want. We will take your mother and be a family.”

Scarlet eyes looked pained. “But I have nothing for you. I am a thief. I am nothing.”

He smiled at her. “You are everything.” He went back to stroking her hair and lowered his voice to just above a whisper, “Marry me, Scar.”

“Are you sure you want me?” Her eyes looked so insecure that Tristan thought his heart would break. How could this girl doubt his love even for a moment?

“I love you,” he said. “I want you more than life itself. Forever.” He brushed a hand across her cheek. “And I will take care of you always. Marry me.”

Scarlet blinked and stared at him with her lips parted.

“Okay,” she whispered.

A slow smile spread across his face. “Yes?”

“Yes,” she repeated, smiling. “But only because I love you.”

Filled with joy, Tristan’s heart felt as full as his arms as he wrapped Scarlet against his chest and kissed her passionately.

He was complete.

Ana awoke to the cold trickle of water sliding down her throat. Dizzy and confused, she slowly opened her eyes and found herself propped up against Francis as he held her mouth open and tipped his jug of evil water into her throat.

“No!” Ana slapped the jug away and quickly stood up, bending her knees, ready to fight. Or run. Or claw his eyes out with her fingernails. The edge of her mouth throbbed and Ana felt hot blood ooze from where her brother’s punch had split open her lip. “Are you mad?”

Standing from the floor as well, Francis yelled, “Yes! Yes, Ana, I ammad! I am mad with thirst and I am quickly running out of my supply of blue water. I need the map!”

“You needfreedom. You are enslaved by your wicked water!”

He walked up to her, his vile breath wafting into her nostrils. Ana refused to budge. She would not flinch or cower. She would not be afraid.

He curled a lip. “As are you, my sister.” He shook the jug in his hands. “You have now tasted the wicked water and you will now need it to survive.” He looked proud of himself. “Now, give me the map and we shall find the water we both need, together.”

Ana swallowed back her fear. “No.”

He screamed and knocked the small wooden table in the center of the room over. Pointing at her, he cried, “The water will drive you to insanity and you will need more. And I,” he lowered his voice and strode back up to her face, “will be back to save you. I will return for the map and you will gladly hand it to me in your suffering.” Whipping his head around, Francis left, clutching the jug to his side.

For a few minutes, Ana stood still, breathing in and out heavily.

She was going to die.

Francis had just poisoned her and there was no escape. She would become like him and perish without more water.

Her mouth ceased to throb and she brought a hand up to inspect her bloody lip. The wound had already healed, leaving only a dab of dried blood as evidence of her injury. The water was already working.

Ana had two choices: She could surrender the map to Francis and use his resources to find the fountain and save her life.

Or she could die a painful death, letting the poison die with her.

Ana straightened her back and rubbed her palms on her dirty dress as she came to a decision.

She would die. Painfully.

But first, she needed to speak with the Archer boy and make sure he would care for Scarlet once Ana died. Tristan would keep Scarlet safe.

From the way he spoke of Scarlet to Ana, he probably intended to marry her.

Although the earl might never allow it.

Tristan probably planned to run off with Scarlet and while that was deeply romantic, it was not what Ana wanted for her child. Scarlet had been running and hiding for too many years. She deserved a chance at a real life. A life without danger. A life where she could be free to love and live without having to beg or steal.

Ana touched a finger to the silver brooch she wore and a thought struck her.

A risky thought.

Making a decision, Ana gathered her cloak and walked out the door of her hut.

If Scarlet knew what Ana was doing, she would never allow it.

Neither would Tristan.

Ana swallowed back the ill feeling in her gut.

Scarlet and Tristan may have believed that they had everything they needed, but Ana knew better. Love wasn’t always enough.

Sometimes, true love needed a little incentive.