Anew

23

Scarlet tapped her fingers on her knees. She didn’t know where to begin

“So, we were engaged. Your crazy ex-girlfriend shot me. Tristan tried to save my life, but really what he did was turn me into a reincarnating, semi-immortal girl. And you never told me…any of this?” She looked at him in confusion and hurt.

Gabriel drew a long, deep breath. “I was hoping the curse would be broken before you remembered everything. I wanted to have good news for you. I didn’t want to freak you out.”

“But you did freak me out. I’m totally freaked out, Gabriel!”

He nodded and looked at her closely. “I am so sorry you’re scared. But I promise, I didn’t think it would be this bad. Usually, when you come back to life, you remember everything right away.”

Scarlet wrinkled her brow. “You lied to me. You deceived me. You came into my life and pretended you didn’t know me. You played with my head—you played with my heart, Gabriel. That was wrong.”

“I know.” His voice cracked with emotion. “But you have to believe me. I know you don’t remember me, you don’t remember us together, in the past, but I am crazy about you, Scarlet. I swear I wasn’t trying to trick you. I just…I just missed you. And I didn’t want to scare you. Please forgive me?”

Scarlet pressed her lips together, a myriad of emotions coursing through her. She was angry and she was hurt. But, try as she might, she couldn’t hate Gabriel. In a weird way, she almost sympathized with his desire to be in her life. Like she understood what lengths someone would go to for the person they cared about.

Scarlet shook her head, confused and frustrated. “I’m done with the lies. No more. From now on, you need to be honest. Because this,” Scarlet waved about the room with her hands, indicating all she’d learned since entering Gabriel’s cabin, “is not cool. You shouldn’t have kept this from me. It wasn’t fair.”

Gabriel looked like a wounded animal. “I know.”

“No more lies,” Scarlet said.

Gabriel agreed, “No more lies.”

Scarlet pressed her lips together. “Then I forgive you.” She paused a moment, thinking about her past relationships with Gabriel—the ones she couldn’t remember. “Have we been, uh, together in all of my lives?”

He shrugged. “Most of them.”

“And...how many lives have I had?” Scarlet scrunched her face.

Two? Three? Eighty?

“Six.”

Six? Okay, not bad. Six lives.

Less than a cat.

I can handle that.

Scarlet shook her head. “And what about the first fifteen years of this life? Why don’t I remember those?”

Gabriel looked sympathetic. “When you die, you’re body doesn’t get buried or decay. It just sorta…disappears.”

Well, that was good to know. At least she didn’t rot in a grave after every life.

“But when you come back to life,” Gabriel continued, “your body just sorta…reappears. Out of thin air, or whatever.”

Scarlet raised a brow. “What?”

“You don’t get born into a new life,” he said. “You just… materialize in random places. You wake up without any memories—like what happened two years ago—and you’re always fifteen years old when you…reappear.”

Scarlet’s mouth hung open. “I‘ve had six lives, but none of them have been complete lives?”

“Except your first life,” Gabriel said. “You were born into that one, of course. With a family and everything.”

Her heart sank.

Family.

If this was all true, then Scarlet didn’t have any living family members. No family had abandoned her in the park. No family would ever come looking for her….

“Wait.” Scarlet held up a palm. “If I materialize in random places, how did you know I was here in Avalon?”

“Because,” Gabriel shifted in his seat, “Tristan can find you.”

“What? How?”

Gabriel pressed his lips together for a moment.

“How can Tristan find me?”

“It’s really not my thing to tell you—“

“Gabriel!” Scarlet was so sick of all the half-truths and secrets.

“Okay, fine.” He turned and hollered down the hallway, “Tristan!”

Several moments passed before Tristan appeared at the living room entrance, looking annoyed. “What?”

“Scarlet wants to know how you’re able to find her,” Gabriel said, looking anywhere but at his twin.

Tristan narrowed his eyes. “Nope.” He started walking back down the hallway.

“Please?” All the secrets were suffocating her; she had to know.

Tristan kept his back to her for several long seconds and, for a brief moment, it was as if she were momentarily inside him, feeling what he did.

Fear, anxiety, helplessness… desire?

But the emotional onslaught disappeared as quickly as it had come.

Was she losing her mind?

Probably.

That would certainly explain a lot.

Slowly, Tristan turned around and met her gaze. His eyes were empty of emotion when he said, “I’m…connected to you. Because of the blood. So, I can sense you. If I follow what I feel, I always find you.”

Tristan briefly glanced at Gabriel.

“You can feel me?” Scarlet tilted her head to the side.

Tristan nodded.

“Can I feel you?”

Tristan blinked. “I don’t know.”

“Oh,” Scarlet said, unsure what to do with that information.

An awkward moment passed.

Scarlet cleared her throat. “Is that…is that why your voice seems so…,” Perfect? Beautiful? “familiar?”

“Probably,” Tristan said.

“And Gabriel’s voice?” Scarlet looked at her boyfriend.

“Sounds just like mine.” Tristan said. “Twins have almost identical voices, so your blood—or my blood, or whatever—probably registers our sound and identifies with it.”

“Right.” Scarlet nodded. “Because your blood lives inside me.”

Tristan looked away from her and nodded.

“The same blood,” Scarlet blinked, “that, literally, breaks my heart.”

He nodded again.

Scarlet looked at Gabriel. “And you think…my heart will break again? Like it did in all my other lives? You think I’m going to die?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Gabriel looked at her with pain in his eyes. “Only if we can’t break the curse.”

“Which we will do,” Tristan said, looking at Gabriel sternly.

Scarlet looked between the brothers for a second. “Have you tried to break the curse before?”

“We’ve been trying to break it for hundreds of years,” Gabriel said. “The key to undoing the curse is finding the fountain of youth—the same fountain that gave Tristan and me immortality. But we haven’t had much luck.

“The fountain is rumored to be in Florida, but we’ve combed the state and found nothing. We’ve searched all across Europe, the Middle East, South America…we’ve followed any and every legend pertaining to the whereabouts of the fountain, but we have yet to find it.

Scarlet said, “But it exists, right? I mean, your mom drank from it, so wouldn’t she have known where it was?”

Gabriel shook his head. “No, she never went to the fountain. She drank a vial of fountain water brought back from an expedfition to the New World. The man who returned with the vials never told anyone where he’d found the water, so it remains a mystery.”

“Vials? There was more than one vial of fountain water?”

Gabriel nodded. “There were three vials in all.

“Where are the vials now?”

“Two are empty and the other is...missing.”

Of course.

“So, there are no more vials left, and no one knows where the fountain actually is, but if we don’t find it then I’m probably going to…die?

Gabriel’s face was pained. “The fountain is the only sure way to cure you.”

Fear and defeat washed over Scarlet.

“That’s not true,” Tristan said. “I have a new plan, and it’s awesome.”

“I don’t think awesome is the right word for it.” Gabriel looked at his twin with narrowed eyes.

Tristan shrugged. “It’s foolproof, and it will save Scarlet’s life.”

“What’s your plan?” Scarlet looked at Tristan hopefully.

“Trust me,” Gabriel said, shaking his head. “You don’t want to know.”

Exasperated, Scarlet said, “You just promised me no more secrets.”

“I know but—”

“Gabriel might have promised you no more secrets.” Tristan looked at Scarlet firmly. “But I didn’t. And it’s my secret to tell.”

She glared at Tristan for a long moment. She wanted to argue with him but, somehow, she knew she would lose. “Fine. Keep your little secret. But are you sure this new plan of yours will work?”

Tristan nodded.

Gabriel made a face. “It might work. But I think we still need to continue our search for the fountain.” He looked at Scarlet with a reassuring smile. “And now that you know about everything, we can look for it together.”

Scarlet wasn’t reassured. She was scared. “But you just said you’ve been looking for centuries and can’t find it.”

He nodded. “That doesn’t mean it’s not out there. We’ll just keep on looking.”

“But…what if we don’t find it? What if my blood, or Tristan’s blood or whatever, kills me first? What if I die?”

Scarlet thought back to the morning she’d woke up in the forest two years ago. The fear...the confusion...the helplessness she felt.

It was coming back to her in vivid color and emotion.

She would not—could not—go through that terrifying experience again. She was on the verge of tears.

“Hey, hey,” Gabriel said, wrapping his arm around her. “That’s not gonna happen. We’ll figure out how to keep you alive, I promise.” He tucked his lips in. “Don’t be afraid.”

Scarlet rolled her eyes with a quivering lip as she stood up. “I’m probably going to die, Gabriel. So, forgive me if I’m afraid.”

If she stayed a minute longer she was going to burst into tears and have a total meltdown.

She had to get out of there.