Read Online Avow by Chelsea Fine - Free Book Online

met before. Women flock to you and beg for your attention, and you ignore them all.” Gabriel hung his head.
    While Gabriel spent his days drinking and gambling, Tristan devoted most of his time to helping townsfolk. Providing food to the orphans, giving money to the churches, letting whoever and whatever find shelter in his large home for indefinite periods of time. It was truly impossible living alongside a brother with such a bleeding heart. And that bleeding heart was like a beacon for women everywhere, drawing them to his presence only to be sent away.
    “It’s truly sickening, brother,” Gabriel said. “You, at the very least, should marry one of the poor girls.”
    “Why, so I can lose my horses?” Tristan smiled.
    “Yes! Then you could join me in my misery,” Gabriel said.
    Tristan went back to his knife. “I have my own misery to bear.”
    Gabriel rolled his eyes.
    Poor soul, indeed.
     

CHAPTER 7
     
    London 1684
     
    Immortality, Tristan decided, was only magnificent for those who had a reason to breathe and, for him, that reason was lost somewhere in-between worlds. Until Scarlet returned, his every breath was just a laborious means to an end.
    So he existed. But he did not live.
    Waiting on love will do that to a man; keep his heart suspended in a state of thin hope—just bright enough to want to live and heavy enough to envy death.
    Music played into the large, ornate room where he and Gabriel stood among dozens of other well-dressed Londoners.
    Laughter, merriment, movement.
    Life, breath, hope.
    Mortality.
    Tristan was envious of it all.
    He stretched his neck, trying to ignore the mysterious pain in his limbs.
    “Remind me again,” Gabriel leaned into Tristan to be heard above the music. “Why are we at the Trevena Ball?”
    “Because we were invited,” Tristan said.
    Gabriel took a deep swig from the goblet in his hand. “Yes, but why did we come?”
    “Because we are young, wealthy gentlemen and that’s what young, wealthy gentlemen do.” A woman across the room batted her lashes at Tristan and he stifled a sigh, his lungs pulling uncomfortably tight.
    “I feel that is a poor reason.” Gabriel took another drink.
    A group of ladies by the back doors stared at them in between their whispers and giggles.
    Tristan exhaled. “I think us standing side-by-side is drawing too much attention. People do not know what to do with twins. They see us as a circus show.”
    “They do not,” said Gabriel. “Now, maybe if we both had tails, we’d be a sideshow. But we do not have tails. We have strong bodies and godlike faces. If we’re a show of any kind, we’re a show of beauty.”
    Tristan shook his head. “Your confidence is disgusting.”
    “A hundred and fifty years of female affirmation has made me this way .” Gabriel’s smile faltered for the briefest of moments and Tristan felt heavy, knowing who Gabriel was and who he wanted to be were warring enemies.
    His brother’s behavior had not changed much in the last century: drinking, gambling, breaking rules, breaking hearts. He embraced his immortality as an opportunity to exploit life as a whole and Tristan acted as his peacemaker and babysitter, trying to keep the wild Gabriel from causing more damage than could be undone in a lifetime.
    Tristan had considered leaving London and moving someplace far from his brother, but his conscience never allowed him to leave. Gabriel was a reckless star, casting about wherever he may, exploding into whoever made him feel alive, and burning casualties in his wake.
    Lord only knows what that star would burst into next if Tristan were not there to remind Gabriel of those annoying bits of humanity called morals.
    Gabriel’s fruitless search for love had left him a bitter brute who swam in booze and slept beside whoever welcomed him, his mood always bleak.
    Tristan was worried for his brother’s state of mind and wished, more so now than ever before, that he could change Gabriel’s