Coldhearted (9781311888433) (42 page)

Edie knew better. It was just a matter of
time before he dealt death like some macabre dealer at a haunted
casino. So, she wasn’t surprised (but she was terrified) when
Tristan lunged and grabbed Mason by the back of his coat. He hauled
him toward the center of the gym, where Mason struggled to get
away, but ultimately failed, being subdued by a sinisterly superior
power.

The decorations that’d been terrorizing
everyone suddenly lost all their vitality and collapsed on the
floor, no longer a threat.

It was another’s time to be the center of
attention now.

“
Witness,” Tristan said,
projecting his voice so everyone could hear, “the death of your
beloved classmate.”

He forced Mason on his knees, keeping a firm,
iron grip on his shoulder. Edie felt that same grip holding her in
place, but she was the only one immobile. Everyone else advanced to
stand in a circle, gathering around the executioner and his victim.
Her friends were at the front lines, making hushed plans for a
rescue. The rest made no such plans, but they weren’t enjoying this
barbaric spectacle. They were silent, watching with wide eyes,
afraid to make a move. Or in the case of Edie’s action-ready
friends, being hindered by Tristan’s unseen control, as they failed
to move beyond the invisible line Tristan had drawn.

Yes, it was all very, very real, and all
very, very terrifying.

And it was more so because she’d lost the
ability to move.

But now, by his will, he released her, and
cleared a path through the crowd, so she could advance easily,
front and center. Her legs were shaky, but she managed to steadily
come forward, before halting a few feet away. She was afraid to
look at Mason, but she did, and saw the fear in his eyes. He wasn’t
afraid of Tristan or even death. He was fearful of the knowledge
that he’d never see her again.

She wanted to tell him that he was wrong but
that would’ve been a lie.

Tristan kept his grip on Mason, while staring
at Edie with those dark, blue eyes, full of hate and joy at the
same time.

“
Come forward, Edie,” he
summoned.

She did and rushed toward Mason, falling on
her knees in front of him. “Mason?” She cupped his face in her
hands. He was so cold. Tristan was killing him. “Mason?” she
repeated, tears running down her face like a never-ending waterfall
of sorrow and regret.

“
I…love…you,” he finally
managed to say, despite his teeth chattering.

Tristan’s grip was sending wave after wave of
cold poison throughout Mason’s veins, freezing him to death. His
body was stiffening. His skin was losing all color. And his eyes
kept searching for hers, but he was blind, unable to find her.

“
I’ll…always…love…you,” he
said to her lips, instead.

They were still warm from the kiss he’d given
her—their last kiss. She held Mason’s face gently in her hands, for
as long as she could, until he couldn’t feel her anymore, and then
she had to let go.

Tristan removed his cold hand from Mason’s
shoulder, letting him fall ungracefully on the floor. His legs were
still bent at the knees. His mouth was still open from the last
words that he’d spoken.

His eyes were open, but they searched no
more.

Mason was dead.

Chapter 28

Edie didn’t scream.

Rochelle did, who then covered her mouth in
shock. Ravenna stood beside her, open-mouthed, as was Candie and
the rest, students and teachers alike. Close, but at a distance,
were Quinn, Jules, Diana, Madelyn, and Russell. No one dared to
come near Edie or Mason, because of Tristan, who stood over the
couple with a watchful, crazed eye.

Edie was holding onto Mason. He felt like an
iceberg, but she didn’t care. She didn’t care about much of
anything right now. In fact, she wanted to die too.

She looked up at Tristan. “Let them go,” she
said, indicating all the scared people around them.

He hesitated, and then lazily waved his hand
in the air. “Done.”

The doors opened with a bang. No one
hesitated and ran for their lives. Everyone fled, except her
friends.

“
Go,” she told them, choked
up, as her sorrow stuck in her throat.

They wouldn’t leave. Their loyalty was
endearing, but right now, she needed to be alone. If they found out
what she was planning, they’d stop her. Tristan would stop her.

“
Go,” she said with more
force.

They refused, again, to turn around and
leave. Instead Russell and Quinn stepped forward, blocking the
girls from Tristan’s wrath.

“
I’m not leaving,” Quinn
said in a deep voice, full of defiance, as he folded his muscular
arms over his chest.

“
So this is the bastard who
possessed me,” Russell said, appraising Tristan, and then gestured
at his wardrobe. “Those are my clothes, you asshole.”

Tristan growled and advanced toward Russell,
but suddenly Jules, Diana, and Madelyn stood in his way, forming a
triad of determined girl power.

Jules put her hands on her hips. “Get lost,
ghost boy.”

Diana and Madelyn flanked Jules, giving
Tristan the coldest, hardest stare that Edie had ever seen.
Tristan’s mouth stretched into a smile, but he wasn’t amused.

He turned toward Edie and held out his hand.
“Take my hand and I’ll let the rest of your friends live.”

Despite that threat, Edie didn’t move. She
didn’t want to leave Mason.

“
Trust me,” he said, and
then curled his fingers inward twice, beckoning her.

She denied him, again, and started tending to
Mason. She straightened his stiff legs and placed him on his back.
She closed his mouth and eyes, before securing his arms by his
sides. There. Now he looked like he was sleeping. A hot tear fell
down her face and landed on his cheek. He didn’t react. He wasn’t
asleep. He was dead, and he’d never wake again.

Tristan sighed, aggravated. “Now,” he
commanded, and snapped his fingers, impatient and angry.

She had no choice and took his hand, stifling
the urge to crush his bones, or maybe bite his fingers off. Tristan
lifted her off the floor, as if she weighed nothing, and then
wrapped his arm around her waist, claiming her as his.

Her friends were shaking their heads, telling
her this was a really, really bad idea.

Only Russell opened his mouth to speak.
“Don’t, Edie,” he pleaded.

She noticed for the first time, a spark of
lapis lazuli in his dark, gray eyes.

“
I have to,” she objected
softly.

I have to
die
. They couldn’t be told, not now, she
remind herself, but she wanted them to know what she’d had to do,
so they’d know Tristan was no longer a threat, and Lockhart Manor
should never, ever be entered again.

Edie turned toward Jules. She’d miss those
thick glasses. “There’s a reason why you could never go near
Lockhart Manor,” Edie told her. “It was being protected by a good
spirit to keep you and everyone else away. I just thought you
should know.”

Edie hoped that Jules realized what she was
trying to say. And not say. Edie wanted her to go to Lockhart Manor
and somehow communicate with Arianna, so Jules and the rest would
know where Edie was. And why she’d had to die, so that they could
live.

Edie wasn’t looking for attention, for an
acknowledgement of her sacrifice. She just wanted them to be aware
of what’d happened and why they’d never see her again.

Jules nodded, but Edie wasn’t sure if she
understood.

“
Enough,” Tristan barked,
then grabbed her hand, and tugged her away.

Again, she had no choice, and let him take
her away, as she tried to drown out the sounds of her friends,
pleading for her to return. At the exit, Edie stopped (and Tristan
surprisingly indulged her) to look at Mason one last time, and then
told her friends to watch over him, until he was taken away. Quinn
assured her not to worry and they’d take care of him. She held back
the urge to sob like a baby and finally left.

Tristan didn’t stop until they reached her
car, where he let her go, to only allow her to unlock the doors and
get inside. He slid into the passenger’s side, and she took her
seat behind the wheel, figuring there was no use in jumping out and
running away; he’d just catch her. She turned over the engine,
letting the car warm up, and then she glanced at her reflection in
the rearview mirror. She looked pale and lifeless. And she wasn’t
even dead yet.

She felt around her neck and found her
necklace; she’d bought another chain and had been wearing it all
week. The tip of her finger traced the word Love written in rubies.
She knew that it was an inanimate object, but it made her feel a
little bit better, as she held it in her hand.

Tristan reached over and slapped her hand
away, before taking it firmly in his own. “No more of that.” He
brought her fingers to his cold lips and kissed each one, saying he
was sorry. “Your caresses are only for me,” he said, explaining his
earlier violence.

She let him hold her hand, but she refused to
look at him. “Why’d you have to kill him?”

Tristan sighed loudly and threw her hand
away, his earlier attempt at reconciliation forgotten. She placed
her hand securely in her lap. “I told you, Edie!” He banged his
fist against the interior of the door. “I told you to stay away
from Mason, but you didn’t! His death is on your hands! What was I
supposed to do, huh? Show leniency? No, no, no.” He shook his head
and wagged his finger at her. “You know me better than anyone,
Edie, and you knew I’d never go back on my word.” He pointed an
angry finger at the open road. “Now drive.”

She hesitated, and then put the car in gear.
Most of the cars in the lot had gone; tire marks still evident from
when they’d flown away into the night, escaping a beautiful monster
of immeasurable wrath. She envied them.

“
Where to?” she asked with a
perceptible sigh.

“
Home,” he said vaguely, and
then clarified it by continuing, “I need to have a little chat with
my big brother.”

She’d been planning on going to Lockhart
Manor too, but for a whole other reason. While Tristan and Adrian
were having a little ghostly powwow, Edie would find Arianna, and
hope that she still had that poisonous flower in her possession. If
all went well, Edie was going to die—tonight. Maybe she’d see Mason
or her parents. Or maybe she’d see no one at all.

She’d know soon enough just what “being dead”
really meant.

She wanted to believe it was God’s purpose,
her dying, but she found it hard to rejoice at her fate. She didn’t
want to die, yet she had to. Why her? Why couldn’t someone else
carry this burden? Was she special? Or was she just the unluckiest
girl in the world?

At this moment of
reflection, she heard her dad’s voice, saying:
Well, you play the hand you’re dealt
,
and then her mom’s voice followed, saying:
But try to be the one holding all the cards
.

Sound advice, but sorry, mom, there was only
one dealer in this no-win game.

And he was a corporeal ghost with anger
management issues.

****

They arrived at Lockhart Manor, her new
home.

Tristan led the way, walking along a path of
moonlight toward the woods. She followed solemnly behind, until she
had to stop, as Tristan came to an abrupt halt.

He cupped his mouth, and yelled, “Oh,
brother! Dear, sweet, brother! Come out, come out wherever you
are!”

She felt the change in temperature, going
from cold to colder, as Adrian appeared, standing under the
moonlight.

“
It’s been a long time,
brother,” Adrian said, as a way of greeting.

He’d changed back to his three-piece black
suit. He looked so formal, as if he were attending a funeral. And
he was—Edie’s.

Tristan gave his brother a wicked smile and
held out his arms. “No hug?” He didn’t wait to be embraced and
quickly lowered his arms. “Oh, that’s right, you can’t. You can’t
touch me…or Edie for that matter.” He gestured at her. “Depressing,
isn’t it, to want to touch another so badly, but can’t?”
Demonstrating his superior power, Tristan grabbed her hand and
kissed it with cold lips.

“
We’ve touched,” Adrian
informed, but didn’t sound boastful. “Only briefly and to help me
leave the hospital,” he clarified for her reputation.

Tristan squeezed her hand and she winced,
hurt. He turned toward her. “So…I wondered how he’d left. Ghosts,
where they die, are trapped in that location.” He nodded with his
chin at the manor. “Just as I was trapped in that wretched house,
all alone,” he continued. “But the unseen can latch onto the living
and leave.” He let go of her hand to caress her cheek with his
thumb. “That’s what I did when I saw you. I had to be with you.
You’re the love of my life, Edie.”

“
Funny, you said the same
thing to me.” The voice was familiar and feminine.

Tristan froze, wide-eyed, and then regained
the use of his corporeal body to turn toward their new visitor.
“Arianna,” he said softly.

His hand left Edie’s cheek and he advanced
toward Arianna, forgetting entirely about Edie. She felt relieved,
but concerned for Arianna. Adrian was too and went to stand by her
side, placing a protective hand on her shoulder. At this display of
love, Tristan halted, standing a few feet in front of her. He
ignored his brother.

“
Arianna,” he repeated, but
in a sharper tone, full of hate. “You’ve been naughty, blocking
Edie, conspiring against me.” He pointed a threatening finger at
her. “You will not interfere with my happiness.”