Avow

CHAPTER 39

The next morning, Gabriel stared at Nate. “What are you wearing?”

Everyone rushed around the campsite, packing up and getting ready for their hike to the Bluestone caves.

Nate looked down at his outfit. “Adventure attire.”

“You look like Indiana Jones.”

“Exactly—ooh! I need my whip.” Nate rushed over to his backpack just as Heather exited the tent.

She looked at Gabriel and turned around in a circle. “How do I look?”

She was wearing a pair of tiny jean shorts and a bright pink T-shirt. Her blond hair was matted on one side and there were dirt smudges all over her arms, legs, and face.

Gabriel hesitated. “Like a Barbie doll that got run over by a garbage truck.”

“Wow. Really, Gabriel?”

He shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”

“Say something encouraging,” she snapped. “Something like you look like G.I. Jane.”

“But you don’t look like G.I. Jane. And why are you wearing pink?”

She looked down at her shirt. “What color should I wear?”

“I don’t know. Maybe a color that doesn’t scream helpless girl in the forest?”

She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Found it!” Nate stepped away from his backpack with a whip in his hand—an actual whip.

“Why on earth do you own a whip?”

“Why don’t you?”

Oh dear God.

Flicking his wrist, Nate let the whip sail. It lashed out and made a snapping noise before slapping against his wrist and drawing blood.

Nate dropped the whip and clutched his hand. “I’m a little out of practice.”

“With whip usage? I should hope so.” Heather crossed her dirty arms over her pink shirt.

Gabriel shook his head. “Why did you even bring a whip?”

“Because Tristan wouldn’t let me bring the Thor hammer. Besides, you never know when you’ll need a whip. What if we need to climb something really tall or swing across a deep chasm?”

“I seriously doubt we’ll be swinging across any chasms.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Nate straightened his shoulders. “I’m still bringing the whip. And you know what else I’m bringing?” He grabbed something from behind his backpack. “This.”

He placed an Indiana Jones style hat on his head. Retrieving his whip from the ground, he stood beside Heather with his hands on his hips and grinned at Gabriel. “Now how do I look?”

Gabriel stared at Indiana Jones and Garbage Truck Barbie.

Heaven help us all.

Scarlet exited the tent dressed in cargo pants and a black tank top with her hair pulled back and a knife in her hand.

“Now, that is how you dress for a hike to a deadly fountain.” Gabriel gestured to Scarlet.

“A tank top, Scarlet?” Heather looked at her chest. “Seriously?”

“It’s comfortable.”

“What’s the deal over here?” Tristan stopped rolling up sleeping bags. “Why is everyone standing around chatting and wasting time? And why is Heather wearing pink? Come on, people.”

Heather rolled her eyes and disappeared back inside the tent, reappearing a minute later with a dark gray T-shirt on.

“Better?” She cocked her head at Tristan.

“Yes. You’ve just extended your life by at least an hour.”

The morning sun warmed Scarlet’s face as she looked up at the happy sky. Warmth was nice, she decided. The sun, in general, was a happy constant, rising each morning and bringing newness with it. Why had she never seen the sun as such a beam of hope before?

She stretched her hands out and absently let the leaves of nearby trees brush against her fingers, green and soft, cool from the earlier dew, still living while attached to the great tree that brought them life day after day. Another leaf brushed her palm and she squeezed it briefly, releasing it before it was pulled from its life source by her greedy palm.

To her left, Tristan’s face was staring ahead, alert and beautiful in the daylight. Next to him, Nate adjusted his backpack as he weaved through trees. To her left, Gabriel walked along quietly, looking every few minutes at Heather by his side.

Heather scratched at her neck and twitched, then looked at Gabriel. “Am I acting crazy?”

Gabriel smiled. “Nah.”

It was a lie, but it was a beautiful lie.

Scarlet was grateful for beautiful lies.

Heather would be cured.

Gabriel would fall in love someday.

Tristan would understand Scarlet’s sacrifice.

Nate’s heart would heal from Molly’s death.

Beautiful lies, all of them.

They walked until the sun began to set and, finally, they found the Bluestone caves.

The mouth of the caves looked just like a cluster of boulders, but with bright green wines wrapped around them. The only thing that gave away the caves themselves were the glinting blue stones that jutted out from between the thick vines every few feet.

“This is it,” Scarlet said, bringing everyone to a stop.

Gabriel eyed the thorny tendrils that blocked the cave entrance like a giant green gate. “And these are the magic vines?”

The vines were as thick as Scarlet’s forearms, covered in thorns, and too overgrown and tangled to see through.

“Yep,” said Scarlet. “And they’re supposed to be deadly, too.”

“They don’t look very magical,” Nate said. “Or deadly.”

“The journal said the vines can only be cut with immortal blood, so,” Scarlet took a blood-coated knife from her belt, “let’s see if this works.” Raising her knife, she swung the blade down on the nearest vine and watched as it easily sliced in half.

Huh.

Heather made a face. “Well, that was anticlimactic.”

Scarlet frowned and was just about to shrug off the whole magical/deadly plant thing when the severed vine began to move. It grew new tendrils and pulled itself back together, mending the green gate until there was no longer a gap.

“Now that looks magical,” Nate said.

Scarlet took a deep breath. “All we have to do is cut through these vines as quickly as possible and enter the caves before they close back up.”

“And trap us inside,” Heather added with a shrug. “That’s not terrifying.”

Tristan was already handing out bloodstained weapons to everyone. “If we all swing at the same time, we should be able to make a wide enough hole for all of us to squeeze through before the vines grow back.” He gave a pointed look at Gabriel then nodded to Heather.

“Wha—what was that?” Heather lifted a brow. “What was that hey bro, make sure the blond chick doesn’t cut any body parts off look? Because I’ll have you know, I’m an expert with butcher knives.”

Tristan pointed at the weapon in Heather’s hand. “That’s a machete.”

Puckering her lips, Heather looked at the blade. “Aren’t they the same thing?”

“I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just say that. Everybody ready?” Tristan looked around to make sure everyone had their weapons raised. One…Two…Three.”

Everyone swung and pieces of the vine fell to the side as Team Awesome hurried through the vines and into the blackness beyond.

“Ow.” Nate sucked air through his teeth just as the vines started to move back together. He lifted his torn sleeve to show a bloody scratch on his shoulder.

“Watch out for the thorns.” He wiped the blood away. New blood bubbled from the wound. He wiped again. Still bleeding.

“Why aren’t you healing?” Gabriel asked.

Scarlet examined the thorns. “The thorns have blue tips. Maybe they work like Bluestone.”

“Perfect,” Gabriel said. “Killer plants.”

The vines continued slithering until the vine wall was completely reconstructed and had shut them inside the caves which, Scarlet now realized, were not completely dark.

A soft, blue glow illuminated the cave walls and softly pulsed, as if the caves were alive and breathing. The pulsing blue shimmered with each breath like glowing stardust and it was almost beautiful.

“Oh no. I’m seeing them again.” Heather sounded panicked. “I see more sparkles. Like everywhere, you guys. O-M-G, O-M-G—“

“No, no. It’s okay, Heather,” Scarlet said. “That’s just the caves. The walls are actually sparkling.”

“Oh.” Heather calmed down a bit.

“When you said ‘caves’,” Nate said to Scarlet. “I had something less sparkly and more bat-infested in mind.”

Scarlet stepped forward. “So did I.”

Nate said, “Well this is awesome. The glowing walls will make navigating the caves much easier.”

Though it was still rather dark, the blue walls gave off enough light for them to find their way through the tunnels without flashlights.

Tristan shifted. “And these caves are supposed to weaken immortals?”

“Yeah. If the deadly plants don’t kill you first.” Gabriel touched a hand to the cave wall and waited. “I don’t feel any different.”

“Me neither.” Nate scratched his head.

“I actually feel…stronger,” Tristan said.

Scarlet felt for him, but nothing echoed inside her soul.

“Maybe the caves aren’t as debilitating as we thought,” Nate said.

She looked at Tristan and tried again, but still nothing.

He caught her eyes. “What’s up?”

“Uh…” Scarlet felt around inside herself. “I can’t feel you anymore. Like at all.”

Tristan frowned. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Can you feel me?”

He shook his head.

“That’s weird.” Scarlet looked at Nate. “Do you know why—“

Tristan wrapped a warm hand around her wrist, gently encircling it in his fingers and Scarlet turned her eyes to where they were touching.

“Do you feel anything?” he asked.

She felt no supernatural pleasure at his touch. She just felt…normal. Wonderful.

“Oh,” Nate said in realization. “That’s what the journal meant by deadly to immortals. The caves must cancel out our immortality.”

She walked her eyes up to Tristan’s. For the first time in five hundred years they were touching without one of them being in danger.

From the look in his eyes, he’d realized the same thing.

And now the hand around her wrist felt incredibly intimate. Warm and safe and intimate.

Nate nodded. “It would also explain why you guys can’t feel each other in here and why Tristan feels stronger. You’re not sharing a life-force right now.”

Imagine that.

Tristan hadn’t released her wrist yet and Scarlet was absolutely okay with that. For like ever.

“Everyone’s mortal. Yay. Now can we get moving?” Heather said.

Tristan ran his thumb over Scarlet’s wrist and something about it made her heart leap. It was a simple touch, but it was carefree and unafraid. Tristan hadn’t touched her in such a weightless way in hundreds of years and she didn’t want him to let go.

But he did. He slowly released her wrist, his fingers brushing the length of her hand as he pulled away and it took Scarlet a moment to get the butterflies in her stomach to behave.

Everyone was staring at them.

“O-kay.” Nate clasped his hands. “Who wants to walk through the uncomfortable sexual tension first? Gabriel? Heather?”

“Ugh. Gag me,” Heather said. “Wait no. No one gag me.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes and walked deeper into the cave, Heather and Nate moving behind him.

Scarlet followed her friends through the glowing caves, staying by Tristan’s side as they walked along. His shoulder brushed against hers and the electricity that ran through her body had nothing to do with immortal blood or magic. It was just…real.

She glanced at him, looking at his shadowed profile in the blue glow around them. It had been so long since anything between them had been real. Or allowed. Or safe.

His eyes met hers and held them for a beat before Scarlet faced forward and swallowed. Her throat was dry. Her heart was dry. She missed him. He was walking right next to her and still she missed him. She’d been missing him for centuries.

As if he could still read her emotions, Tristan’s fingers brushed the back of her arm and slowly slid to her wrist before slipping into her hand. He wrapped her hand in his like there hadn’t been years between them, between their hearts. They were connected at the hand and Scarlet could breathe, really breathe, for the first time since she and Tristan had run in the trees together in her first life.

She lightly squeezed his hand, just to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. They were touching and no one was dying. If Scarlet hadn’t been so wrecked over what she was planning to do, she would have smiled.

The first hour of their hike through the caves consisted mostly of Nate contemplating the most efficient route to the fountain. The caves split off into dozens of tunnels that went every which way. Following the map, Nate led the way through a series of rather uneventful tunnels and was fairly confident they would get to the fountain ahead of schedule.

But a few hours into their hike, they hit a wall.

It was a wall of vines, but still.

This vine gate was different than the last. It was wide and in constant movement. Stretching almost fifteen feet across, the vines twisted and crawled across the tunnel like a wall of snakes, making a shhh, shhh sound.

Through in the vines, Scarlet could only see more vines, indicating the wall was very thick, and the blue tips of the vine’s thorns glowed in a pulsing rhythm.

According to the map, breeching the wall of thorny vines was necessary if they wanted to continue.

So that sucked.

“Goodie,” Gabriel said. “A moving wall of death.”

“Think of it like an obstacle course,” Nate said. “We just need to hack through the vines and tuck and roll until we’ve made it to the other side.”

“Except for that,” Heather pointed to the sides of the cave where jagged stalactites of Bluestone stuck out from the cave walls like thousands of blue knives.

Nate’s eyes widened. “Holy crap.”

“You know what we need? A chainsaw. Why didn’t anyone think to bring a chainsaw?” Heather bit at her nails.

“Next time.” Nate pointed at Tristan. “Make a note, dude. Tracking devices and chainsaws.”

She stepped forward. “I’ll go first.”

Tristan made a face. “Like hell you will.”

“Excuse me? I’m the only semi-immortal here. If I die, I’ll come back to life.”

Nate said, “Unless, of course, the caves do negate all immortality, in which case, you’re actually just mortal right now so dying could be, you know, permanent.”

Damn.

Scarlet hadn’t thought of that.

“Why don’t we all go in together in a line? If we keep hacking and sawing away, we can probably make it to the other side as a group,” Gabriel said. “I’ll lead the way and we can put Nate and Heather behind me, then Scarlet and Tristan. That way we’ll have two decent hackers in the front and two in the back.”

“And the weak, crazy girl who can’t defend herself in the middle,” Heather said dryly.

“With a machete,” Tristan said.

A commotion behind them had everyone turning around to see a group of Ashmen charging down the tunnel with their weapons raised.

“How did they get in here?” Heather asked.

“Raven.” Scarlet said. “We have to make it through the vines before they reach us.”

Everyone lined up and, one by one, they walked into the moving wall of death with their enemies right behind them.

Tristan held a knife in each hand as he followed Scarlet into the vines. As a team, they slashed at the snaking thorns and, for the first few feet, were successful. But the wall was thicker than they anticipated and Tristan was soon hacking like a madman just to keep up with the vines Scarlet had hacked a moment earlier.

The Ashmen were getting closer and would soon be entangled in the vines with them. The last thing Tristan wanted to do was fight off rogue plants and dead minions at the same time.

Faster and faster he sliced, blue-tipped thorns cutting into his skin as the vines slithered against him and Scarlet. She slashed at the tendrils lashing out from the walls while Tristan focus on the vines at their feet. The group was slowly separated by rivers of snaking green and forced in different directions.

The first few Ashmen entered the vines.

Like the tentacle of a green monster, a dark vine wrapped around Scarlet’s torso and yanked her toward the wall of Bluestone spikes. Tristan swung his blade through the monster, freeing her just as her body reached the spikes.

They hacked their way through the green current, Ashmen gaining on them by the second.

What were the Ashmen after? Raven had the map. What more did she want?

Tristan could no longer see Gabriel, Nate or Heather as the vines knit together more densely, as if sewing them inside. Which would just be perfect.

He and Scarlet reached the end of green web and were soon free from the thorny vines and standing in another glowing blue cave. Alone.

“Hello?” Scarlet called.

“Scarlet?” came Heather’s voice from somewhere on the other side of the cave wall. “Are you out of the vines?”

“Yeah. Where are you guys?”

“We’re out, too. There must have been more than one tunnel on the other side,” Nate called.

“What should we do?”

Gabriel said, “We have to move forward separately. The Ashmen will reach the edge of the vines any minute.”

“According to the map,” Nate said, “the cave you two are in will lead down a few miles and intersect with our cave at a fork in the tunnels. So when you come to a fork, stop. Got it?”

“Got it.”

The dense vines suddenly tightened, sliding against one another until they were a solid mass. They stopped moving, forming a solid barrier between the tunnels. Like a thick, green door.

“Well.” Scarlet sighed. “At least the Ashmen won’t be getting out of that anytime soon. If ever.” She made a face at the scratch marks on her arms. “Agh. These sting.”

Tristan looked down at his own cuts. “Yeah, but at least they’re shallow.”

“Well.” She exhaled and held up her knife.“Ready for more cave fun?”

He cocked his head. “Have I mentioned how badass you look with a dagger in your hand?”

She smirked. “Not for a few hundred years.”

“Well, I like seeing you with weapons.” He smiled as they started down the tunnel. “Even if those weapons are mine and in the trunk of your car because you’re stealing them from me.”

“Borrowing,” she corrected. “I had every intention of returning them to you and, if you think about it, I sort of did. Since, you know, all the bloodstained weapons in the shack are yours.” She grinned.

This felt good. Walking next to her without either of them being afraid, conversing like time hadn’t bruised them both.

This was living; here in the dark caves where they were mortal and time was precious; here, life had meaning.

“Yes,” he said. “It was very thoughtful of you to leave all my weapons hidden in a cellar six states away from me.”

“Well now they’re right next door.” She paused. “Why are they right next door? How is it that you happened to build your cabin on the same piece of land as mine?”

He shrugged. “I felt you there. After you left New York, I followed you—

“Of course.”

“And I could feel that you were somewhere in the forest by the cabin, but since you told me not to find you I didn’t. The next day, I felt you start to die…” He cleared his throat. “I couldn’t get to you fast enough. And after you were gone, I just…didn’t want to leave. The Avalon forest was important to you for some reason, so I made it important to me.”

She tilted her head. “I woke up in the Avalon forest last time. Right next to your cabin, actually.”

“I know,” he said. “I was there.”

She stopped walking. “You were?”

He nodded. “You couldn’t see me, but I was there the whole time. I wanted to make sure you were safe, even though I didn’t want you to remember me.”

“Which was lame of you. Amnesia really sucks.”

“Well after we get to the fountain, you’ll never have amnesia again.” He smiled.

No amnesia. No curse. Just life.

Her eyes looked pained for a moment and she nodded. “Right.”

A thread of unease slid through him.

“What the…?” Scarlet squinted up ahead as the sound of rushing water met their ears.

Their tunnel ended at an underground river. Its lightning-fast current swept through and around a sucking whirlpool, before dropping into a waterfall that cascaded into miles of darkness.

And the only way to get to the continuing tunnel on the other side was to cross the dangerous rapids.

“It seems to me,” Tristan said, “that the Fountain of Youth doesn’t want to be found.”

“You think?” Scarlet stared at the raging waters. “What should we do?”

“Swim?”

“That’s your idea? Swim through the deadly whirlpool-waterfall combo?”

“What do you propose we do? Fly?”

“Well, flying would be rad,” she said.

He looked at the river. “It’s not very wide. If we run and jump, we can probably make it halfway across the river before we’d have to start swimming.”

“What about the whirlpool?”

“Yeah.” He scratched his jaw. “That might be tricky.”

Tristan slid his backpack off, pulled out his bedroll, and removed the tie around it. “We’ll tie ourselves together. Give me your backpack.”

She shrugged it off and he threw both their bags over the river and into the tunnel beyond.

”Let me see your hand,” he said.

She held it out.

He tied one end of the rope around her wrist, and the other around his. “This way, if one of us gets sucked into the whirlpool, the other will have a way to pull them out.”

“And if we both get sucked in?” She looked up at him.

He grinned. “Then we’ll die together.”

She smiled and he saw his thief in the woods. “I like that plan.”

So did he.

“You ready?” he asked.

She bit her lip and nodded. “Are you?”

He was suddenly very aware that they might die in the next few minutes. Really die. “Yeah. But just in case this is it for us…”

He pulled her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers. Wild and free, he kissed her fully, holding her face in his hands like he’d so often wished he to do.

He brought her body up against his until she was the only thing he could taste or smell or breathe.

Nobody’s eyes were glowing. No one was dying.

It was the least dangerous kiss they’d shared in centuries and it might very well be their last.

Scarlet fell into Tristan’s kiss desperately. She could touch him—she could taste him—without danger and it felt like her soul had been unbound. She wanted to feel his hair and smell his skin, memorizing every small detail she had ever taken for granted.

She went up on her tiptoes to meet more of his mouth and fisted her hands into his shirt, clinging to him unabashedly. He cupped the side of her face, stroking her jaw with his thumb as he deepened their kiss and she pressed into him with a heavy hunger in her veins. Their tongues slipped over one another and their hot breaths wove together.

He lifted her into his arms and pressed her back into the glowing cave wall as she wrapped her legs around his waist. He softly kissed her ear.

She shivered.

He kissed her neck.

She squirmed.

He licked the vulnerable skin of her throat and her eyes fluttered open to a glowing blue. Not from her dying eyes, but from the walls of the pulsing cave that tucked them into its magical glow and let them feel one another without reservation.

She slid her hands into his hair and the rope around her wrist pulled tight. Tristan moved his bound wrist so she would have more room to run her fingers through his hair.

She loved his hair. She wanted to play in it.

He brought his wet mouth back to hers and slipped his tongue between her lips. Sinking a fingernail into the back of his shirt, she ran a line down his back and he shivered. She did it again and he leaned into her.

She tucked her hands under his shirt and slid them up his stomach, feeling the rope pull tight again as her bound wrist moved farther away from his. This time he pulled back on the rope, his hand slipping under her shirt and over her bare skin. Scarlet happily let her bound wrist be pulled from under his shirt and he kissed her mouth and grazed her skin.

She wiggled against him and tried to move her hand back to his hair, but the rope wouldn’t allow it. Tristan’s hand left the skin beneath her shirt and caught Scarlet’s tied hand with his own. Interlacing his fingers with hers, he brought their hands up to the cave wall beside her head and held them against the glowing blue as his teeth softly slid down her jaw until his mouth was back on hers.

Passionate and soft, his lips pressed against her as he pressed their hands to the wall.

Scarlet wanted to stay right here, bound to Tristan, forever. Behind her were centuries of heartache, and up ahead was her death. But here, in the pulsing blue caves of the very thing that had brought such tragedy to her soul, Scarlet was completely content.

And then the wall rumbled.

Tristan froze, lifting his mouth from Scarlet’s hot lips.

Another rumble sounded and the tunnel began to shake.

He pressed her against him, pulling her from the wall and tucking her into his arms. The shaking intensified and he realized the tunnel was starting to cave in. Behind them, the tunnel ceiling began to crumble and pieces of blue fell to the ground, one after another, crashing closer to them with each new rumble.

Scarlet shimmied out of his body and he took her hand, before turning to face the rapids they’d need to cross if they hoped to outrun the avalanche coming their way.

He squeezed her hand and they ran for the river, leaping into the roaring currents—and possibly into their death—bound together.

For better or worse, they would be together.

This was living.