Awry

59

Tristan saw Scarlet enter the living room after changing. She no longer wore his leather jacket or satin shorts, so Tristan was able to breathe again.

Nate called out, “Team Meeting!” and pointed a finger in the air.

When he had everyone’s attention, Nate cleared his throat. “There are a few Team Awesome things we need to discuss.”

Tristan leaned over to Gabriel. “What’s Team Awesome?”

“It’s our team name,” Heather smiled.

“We’re not a team,” Gabriel said.

“We are a team,” Nate corrected. “We’re Team Awesome and I’m team captain.” He looked at Tristan. “You can call me Captain. Or Captain America, if you’d like. I’m even willing to settle for Captain Jack.”

Tristan crossed his arms. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

Heather’s eyes lit up. “Ooh! Can we choose code names? Can I be Catwoman?”

“We’re not choosing code names.” Gabriel looked incredibly annoyed and Tristan almost smiled.

Nate cleared his throat. “First and foremost, an Ashman knows where we live and has a weapon that can injure and probably kill immortals. So we need a good defense.” He looked at Tristan. “How did you kill the Ashman in the forest last year?”

“I shot him with an arrow.”

“What kind of arrow?”

“A sharp one.”

Nate rolled his eyes. “Really, dude? A sharp one?”

Tristan shrugged. “It was a standard hunting arrow. Is that what you want to know?”

“Yep.” Nate nodded. “So why did your arrow kill the Ashman, but not my sword?”

“You mean your Zelda toy?” Heather eyed the large sword still propped up against the wall.

Nate pointed to the weapon. “That is not a toy. That is a collector’s item and a real sword.”

“A real crappy sword,” Heather said.

Nate ignored her and looked back at Tristan. “Can you find the arrow you killed the first Ashman with and let me examine it?”

Tristan nodded.

“Okay, next up: Head Ghosts. When Heather went to Scarlet’s house to grab sleepover items, someone used a Head Ghost on her. The logical conclusion is that either an Ashman, or Laura, drugged Heather. Which means Laura probably knows that we have a map to the fountain of youth. So we need to figure out how to proceed with Laura.”

“Well, I certainly can’t go back and live with her,” Scarlet said.

“No,” Nate agreed. “But we might need you to pretend you don’t know anything so you can go back to your house and snoop around without Laura getting suspicious.”

“Ooh, like a spy?” Heather’s eyes lit up as she looked at Scarlet. “Your code name could be ‘Spy Girl’ or ‘The Scarlet Spy’.”

Scarlet stared at Heather a moment, before turning her eyes to Nate. “What do you want me to snoop for?”

Nate sighed. “Anything…Head Ghosts, Bluestone weapons…whatever you can find that might help us figure out what is going on. You said you saw a flower in one of her suitcases? Look through her other suitcases and see what else she’s hiding. You can take Gabriel and Heather with you, to stand guard or whatever.”

Heather smiled and bobbed her head up and down excitedly as she looked at Gabriel. “It’s like going undercover.”

Gabriel blinked. “Except we’re going as ourselves so…it’s nothing like going undercover.”

Heather wrinkled her nose at him.

Tristan inhaled as he thought about the possibility of Laura being after Scarlet. “Laura doesn’t make sense.”

Everyone looked at him.

He continued. “The only people who ever knew about the curse, and therefore knew about Scarlet, are the five of us—since, apparently, the blond is in on this—and Raven. So unless Laura is actually Raven in disguise, then Laura doesn’t make sense.”

No one spoke for a moment.

Scarlet sucked in a slow breath. “You think Laura might be Raven in disguise?”

Tristan shook his head. “No. No, I don’t think Laura is Raven—”

“But what if she is?” Heather licked her lips.

Gabriel shifted uncomfortably. “Raven’s dead.”

Nate nodded. “Raven is dead.”

Heather said, “Are you sure? Because if Raven was immortal like you guys—”

“Which she wasn’t,” Nate said.

Heather continued, “Then she could have ‘died’, but not really.”

Gabriel looked skeptical. “Laura looks nothing like Raven.”

“So?” Heather shrugged. “There’s plastic surgery and makeup and pushup bras now. She could have completely revamped her appearance to trick you guys.”

Tristan listened to Heather’s theory with a sick feeling in his gut. Raven…alive?

That would really piss him off.

Scarlet tucked her lips in. “But if Laura is Raven then…then…Raven has been my guardian this whole time? Raven, my killer, has been sleeping two doors down from me for the last two years? She’s been feeding me and buying me things and…trying to steal my memories?” Scarlet’s face went pale. “That’s sick.”

Nate cleared his throat. “Let’s not jump to any conclusions. For now, let’s just tiptoe around Laura until we have more information. Scarlet.” Nate looked at Scarlet who was staring wide-eyed at the floor. “Scarlet,” he repeated.

She looked up at him. “What?”

“Can you still do this? Can you still play dumb and sneak around in your house to figure out if Laura is hiding anything else?”

Scarlet raised an eyebrow laced with attitude. “Absolutely.”

“Good.” Nate smiled and looked back at everyone else. “The last thing we need to discuss is the map. I have tried my very hardest to figure out where we’re supposed to start and I cannot seem to crack it.” He took a deep breath. “So we’re going back to Mr. Brooks’ scary emporium of owls to start over.”

Tristan looked around the room. “‘Scary emporium of owls’?”

Nate nodded at him with big eyes. “Oh you’ll see.”