Avow

CHAPTER 27

Boston 1897

Tristan was back to shooting arrows at trees to ease his restless heart. The night after his kiss with Alex, he’d lost his first fight in decades.

He didn’t want to fight back. He didn’t want to fight at all.

So he went blind in agony, felt muscles burn, heard bones break.

And then he healed.

Because his immortal flesh never failed to come away from a beating unscathed. His heart, however, had no such luck.

Fighting had fed the darkness inside him for a long time, but after crushing Scarlet, fighting no longer helped him escape the pain that haunted him. He retired the sport and moved outside of town, where his limbs ached with Scarlet’s distance but his mind had room to breathe.

He never saw Scarlet, but Nate—who visited frequently, though Tristan insisted he did not need company—had kept him informed of Gabriel and Scarlet’s relationship.

It seemed they were growing closer. A fact that almost made Tristan want to go back to fighting. But isn’t this what he had wanted all along? Scarlet safe. Scarlet happy. Scarlet loved.

Yes. This was what he wanted.

A crunch of dead leaves alerted Tristan to someone nearing him in the trees. He turned to see Gabriel approach from the side and then went back to shooting without a word.

Gabriel pursed his lips. “We need to talk about Scarlet.”

Tristan lowered the bow as a ripple of tension rolled through his body.

“I love her,” Gabriel said.

Something twisted in Tristan’s chest. “Good.”

Gabriel paused. “If you want her, you need to come home and make things right with her. Now.”

Tristan stared at him. Was this a threat? Or an opportunity?

Did it matter?

When Tristan didn’t speak, Gabriel scratched his chin. “I’ve watched her heart break over you too many times. I won’t let it happen again. If you don’t fix things with her now, I won’t give her back.”

Tristan rubbed the back of his neck, hating his life. But what could he do? What could he possibly do?

Not a damn thing.

He shook his head. “There’s nothing to fix.”

Gabriel looked sad—the bastard actually looked sad. As if Tristan’s surrender of Scarlet had somehow wounded him.

With his eyes on the ground, Gabriel nodded. “I’ll make sure she’s happy.”

And then Gabriel, who had somehow become the better man between them, turned and walked away.