Reign (Roam Series, Book Six)

by Kimberly Adams

  I’d been so preoccupied with seeing Violet again, I’d barely given any thought to the trial, and Roam, and how close to death we’d come. “Are there… two of you? Are we in our past life… bodies?” I asked, looking toward West’s Pilot. The car seat in the back was still there, waiting for her toddler self to be securely strapped in.

  “We’ve gone back in time, but I’m me, I’m the only… me,” she reached for my hands. “Violet is freaking out, Logan. Dad’s telling her everything, and she’s not handling it well.”

  “About our lives?”

  “Yes. And me. She sees me, but she can’t believe that I’m her baby sister… the same toddler that she just saw yesterday. She’s-”

  “Logan?”

  I lifted my eyes to the door.

  Violet stood in the driveway, her hands going to her mouth in shock. I could already smell the floral scent of her hair as the warm breeze picked up in the evening air; my entire body reacted to finally being this close to her after all this time.

  “I’ll leave you alone.” Eva backed away quietly, and I moved toward my wife.

  “Take it easy, Logan,” West’s voice interrupted the trance between us as he walked through the front door of the house, and I turned to him. “Just tell me… is Roam okay? Will, the girls? They’re all okay?” He asked.

  “I don’t know. I appeared at the gate, about to cross over. I had to move, or I’d be caught. I chose to come here, trusting Eva could take us back.” I kept my eyes on Violet’s confused gaze, amazed that she was still managing to hold herself together.

  “We’ll leave in ten minutes. Cole is in North Carolina- I told him to just meet us in Pennsylvania. Violet?” West flattened his hand over the back of her head, “Are you okay?”

  She only nodded, taking a step toward me. I watched as Eva moved back into the house with West.

  “You know I love you, right, Vi?”

  She crumbled, tears breaking through her strong barrier and trickling down her cheeks. “I’ve missed you so much… and West said that… that you’re from the future, and I… died…”

  “Come here.” I had cried after making love to Roam in the castle, and I was tearing up once again, my pulse racing. Tracing the shape of her lips with my thumb, I took an impossible step closer, and felt her weaken. “God, you’re so young… just like… when we met…” I held her face in my hands, her masses of platinum curls like silk between my fingertips. “Can you trust me? Can you just believe that I’ve spent years kissing you goodnight?”

  “And we have… children? Daughters?” She pleaded with her eyes, and I nodded, smiling slowly as another tear trailed down my cheek.

  “Two beautiful, smart, amazing daughters,” I said, so softly, calming her trembling voice. “And I’ll do it all again with you, if you’ll let me,” I added, my mouth moving over hers even as I spoke.

  She nodded, squeezing her eyes closed and wrapping her arms around my neck. I groaned, lifting her into my arms and smothering her against my chest. I tasted her lips. The way we kissed was so familiar, so right, and I knew that I didn’t deserve her again but thanked God that I was being given a second chance. “Thank you for coming back to me, Rush,” she whispered brokenly.

  “You’re my everything, Vi. You’re my whole life. It ended with you, and it just began again with you.”

  She laughed and cried into my kiss. “Eva is… grown up,” she turned toward the house. “She was just… just a kid…”

  “She’s a mouthy little shit, but I love her,” I agreed, returning her smile.

  “So, she never changed,” Violet said, and Eva let the screen door snap, dropping to adjust the ties on her combat boots. Her camo pants were too big but were tucked into her boots, and her black tank top covered just enough cleavage to be decent.

  “My magic is so inconsistent here. I can’t conjure clothing for myself. Maybe because… it’s the past? I don’t know. Oh, well. They’re not my Gucci boots, but they’ll have to do,” she tied her hair into a ponytail, narrowing her eyes at me. “What?”

  “Your shirt it too small.”

  “It’s my mom’s. Or was. I can’t help it my boobs are bigger.”

  “Jesus, Eva.”

  “What, you looked.”

  “Let’s go,” West moved through the door with purpose, carrying AK47s. “If Christopher is there, he can use his magic to make weapons… but I’m not going in unarmed.”

  “What about you? Have you tried your magic?” I asked, setting Violet to her feet but refusing to let go of her. She tucked her head to my shoulder, more than willing to stay in my arms.

  West nodded, and Eva snorted, tucking a Glock into her belt holster. “He destroyed the living room. It’s seriously like a wrecking ball went through there.”

  “I haven’t been practicing for my entire life, Eva Anastasia,” West chided, hurriedly adjusting her belt and repositioning the weapon in the holster at her side. “Besides, the ability to bring down the walls may come in handy.”

  “When we go through, I need you to take care of our daughters, Vi,” I instructed, walking with her to the Pilot.

  “And my daughter, because I’m going to tell Will not to fight, but he’s not going to fucking listen to me, just like he always doesn’t,” Eva slid the knife into her boot, and Violet widened her eyes.

  “Daughter? Wait, what, you have a child? Who is Will?”

  “Come on, we’ll tell you more on the way,” West planted a kiss to her forehead, shooting me a look. “Eva told me what you did and why. You protected her from Troy, and I owe you my life for that, Logan. Everything else that happened in that castle is forgotten. You hear me?”

  “I hear you,” I acknowledged, unable to resist the memory of Roam’s body naked against mine. “And I wish I’d thought of some other way, but I guess you can’t stop the past from happening.”

  “The past is obdurate,” he murmured, agreeing. Eva reached for the leather jacket, looking confused.

  “What does that mean?” She asked.

  “The past refuses to be changed. It’s a quote. Stephen King.”

  “So, we’re just going to march in there and… win? Just… us?” Violet asked, skeptic, and I warmed when I recognized her familiar tone.

  West turned to her. “The Battle of Thermopylae pitted three hundred Spartans against…”

  “Stop with the history lessons, Dad! Oh, and PS, all those Spartans died,” Eva snapped sarcastically, tossing a duffle bag into the SUV.

  He turned to her, stunned. “You knew that? You do listen,” he replied, his voice filled with pride. She buckled into the passenger’s seat.

  “Listening and paying attention are two very different things. Now come on. I have two worlds to save.”

  I grinned at her and slid into the back seat, tugging on one of her long, red curls.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Troy

  “You have returned a week early, your majesty. She was not expecting you.”

  I nodded efficiently, rifling through the stack of papers in my office before tossing them to the desktop. “Where is William? I expected all of this shit to be completed before I returned.”

  “His highness has been very preoccupied with planning the masque in your absence,” Gregory replied.

  “Oh, yes, the fucking masque.” I rolled my eyes, already annoyed. “These bills are outrageous. What in the hell has she planned? These meals… stage lighting? It’s like a fucking production. Where is my wife?” I growled, tired from the day-long journey and wishing for the convenience of an airplane rather than horseback. I imagined the ignorant masses in the kingdom watching a Boeing 747 cross in the sky over their heads, chuckling to myself.

  “I do believe she is in the pool.”

  “William hasn’t done a god damn thing with my accounts in the week I was gone. I had no choice but to leave. I want him waiting in this office when I return.”

  Gregory bowed as I turned for the door, and I ignored everyone in my p
ath as I made my way to the enormous pool. The glass doors and ornate chandeliers illuminated her graceful body, and instantly my cock twitched in my pants.

  She continued with her laps, and I moved to the edge of the pool, watching her face turn for air each time she’d lift her arms in a breaststroke. Her eyes were closed, and immediately I could see that her face was fuller, healthier. At least she fucking eats while I’m gone.

  My first instinct was to hate her; it was always to hate her. I’d spent centuries hunting and killing her. As I watched her in the water, my mind drifted to the tiny shanty in the back of that godforsaken ocean cottage. I remembered her bringing me water, seeing kindness and compassion on her innocent face.

  And then I remembered charging into her room, all those hundreds of years ago, and seeing her, my queen, lying in West’s arms. Even as my guards had put him in chains, she’d defied me with those venomous eyes. I had begged her to tell me that it wasn’t true.

  Instead, she told me that the child in her womb wasn’t even mine.

  I wanted to drown her again. I wanted to take her to my bed and make her scream. More than anything, I wanted her on her knees before her king.

  Blinking back the loathing that threatened to take over, I calmed again, remembering that it was my child in her belly now. She was mine, truly mine, and over the past few months, she’d grown submissive, yielding. She depended on me now; I’d isolated her to the point of madness, offering her only domineering sex as any form of intimacy. I could only guess at the damage I’d done, but I assumed it was just enough to keep her teetering at the brink of losing her mind.

  And, slowly, I was falling in love with her.

  She was so much like my Mina… not only in appearance, but in strength, in mannerisms, and in her ability to touch me and drive me insane. My body reacted to her every movement, her every breath, and the consuming lust that I felt for her had grown almost intolerable.

  She wore a white, two-piece bathing suit that I had never approved of, and I would punish her for that later… and make sure we’d both enjoy it.

  Squatting next to the pool, I waited until she was only inches from my grasp before speaking. “Hi, Roam.”

  Grinning, I waited for her to scream. I loved to catch her off guard, loved seeing her frightened eyes caught in the headlights of my presence.

  Instead, she stilled, wiping the water from her face and moving to the edge of the pool. “You’re… a week… early.”

  “And you are wearing something very inappropriate in the presence of my guards.” I tipped my head toward each doorway. “Come with me, and I’ll see that you’re punished appropriately before dinner.”

  Her breathing lulled for a moment, but the color returned to her face. “May I choose my punishment?” She asked.

  Fucking hell… I was hard immediately, reaching out and clamping my fingers over her forearm. She knew exactly the words to incite the passion that I had for her, and combined with her innocent voice, I couldn’t focus. “Come with me. Now.”

  “I’m coming,” she managed, allowing me to lift her up and out of the pool completely. Her belly was only slightly rounded, and her breasts overflowed in the bikini top, two creamy mounds that were larger than a week ago.

  “You’re eating. You look healthy,” I admitted, my hand skidding over the wet curve of her hip, tugging at the string of the bikini bottom. “How is our baby? Are you still feeling nauseous?”

  She splayed her hands over her bare torso. “I’m not sick anymore.”

  I took a step closer, lowering my voice. “Did you miss me?”

  She locked her eyes in mine, and I stared into their green depths, confused. Gone was the skittish, frightened girl I’d left a week ago… and I didn’t like that one fucking bit.

  “Did I miss you? You’ve killed me eight times, Troy. No, I didn’t miss you, not even a little.”

  Her fierce words, her arrogant defiance, everything about her was off. My lips set into a thin line before I snarled, jerking her to my chest. “Get on your knees.”

  Her face lost all color, and satisfaction seeped through my veins. She swallowed and glanced at the guards, and I kept my eyes fixed on her face. “Leave us!” I bellowed, and one of the doorways was vacated immediately. The guard at the other door stood and dared to stare at me, and I flinched at how much he looked like West. I wondered if she was screwing him, too. “Get the fuck out of here!” I ordered, and I saw Roam nod in his direction. He threw another angry glare at me before turning, and I made a mental note to fire whoever the fuck he was when I was through with her.

  “The walls are glass,” she protested, and now, her voice took on the panicky tone that I’d been waiting for.

  “And the entire kingdom will see you on your knees while you please your king,” I shoved her down, and she slipped a little in the water on the floor. I reached for the zipper on my pants as she lifted her face to mine.

  “Is this what you did to your daughter? To Meredith?”

  My fingers stopped functioning. She was nearly hyperventilating, and her words were breaking almost too much for me to understand them. “What? What did you say?”

  “Meredith. You keep her locked in that filthy dungeon, punishing her for being insane. Is that where I’ll be when you’re through with me?”

  “How do you know about Meredith?” I was no longer interested in sex; my anger simmered, the slow boil taking on an impossible strength.

  “I could have loved you,” she answered, still trembling, her long, dark hair dripping cold water down her shoulders. “You had the coordinates from the beginning. You found my sister… you found Morgan. You could have found me, and loved me, not killed me, Troy.”

  Something was wrong. Everything was wrong. This girl, this Roam Camden, looked too much like my Mina, sounded too much like my Mina, and I balled my fist, ready to strike.

  “Don’t hit me,” she pleaded, shivering. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “Answer my question. How do you know about my daughter?”

  “May I stand?”

  “Stay on your fucking knees!”

  She jolted at my words, her chin trembling. “I found her. In the dungeons.”

  “What were you doing down there? It’s dangerous down there, Roam,” I thought of the piercing eyes of the creatures I’d captured, imagining their claws on her body. “And Meredith spoke to you?”

  “No,” she answered quickly. “No, she was just talking and screaming and… pulling at her hair,” she answered, keeping her face to the tiled flooring.

  I closed my eyes, remembering Meredith’s face. Immortally twenty-seven years old, she looked so much like Helena did when I’d first met her. Her raven hair and haunted eyes still gave me sleepless nights.

  So, this is why she is behaving this way. “Stand up,” I said, softer now.

  She did as I asked, keeping her eyes on the floor.

  “Do you think that I hurt her?” I asked patiently. Roam nodded. I sighed, tipping her chin up to face me. “Do you really think that any mother would allow me to live after I harmed their child in such a way? Do you really think Helena would have spoken fondly of me, knowing what I was said to have done?”

  She stared at me, confused. I reached for the towel on the table to our right, unfolding the white cotton and tucking it around her shoulders. “I don’t know. I can’t ask Helena, you killed her.”

  “I did not kill her.” I tightened the towel over her breasts, and as my knuckles grazed them, she shuddered. “Helena believed that I was cutting you. When I explained to her that I loved you, and would not hurt you in such a way, she became jealous. She was mad, just as our daughter is now. Insane, Roam.”

  She shivered, and I rubbed her upper arms through the towel. “She was jealous… of me?”

  “I know that she was helping you. She asked that I drug you the first night. She hoped your listless body would turn me off enough to lose interest in you.”

  “That is just disg
usting.” She stiffened under my hold. “Sickening.”

  I regretted mentioning the first night; I wished to make her forget the way that I had attacked her. I continued to brush at her arms, giving her a slight nod of agreement. “She would have done anything to see you gone from Icepond. Even in her old age, she longed for me, and could not accept that our time together… had ended. She took her own life, Roam.”

  “What?” She narrowed her eyes. “She killed herself?”

  “William would have been devastated. It was rumored that I’d had her executed for helping you to attempt to escape, and so I allowed you to believe that. To frighten you. Unfortunately, William must have heard the same thing, and I assume that is why he has completely vacated his position as my chief financial officer.”

  “Did you hurt Meredith?”

  “I hit her,” I admitted, untangling her long strands of chestnut hair with my fingers. “Her screaming fits were maniacal, and she was unhinged, even since she was a child. I did not know how to deal with her. Mental illness is not as tolerated here as it is in your world, Roam. Later, when she was eight, she told me… that she had been raped. By my son.”

  “What?” Her eyes watered, and a single tear slipped down her cheek. “No… please tell me it’s not true, that didn’t happen, not Will…”

  “Of course it didn’t happen. I kept my son imprisoned in the dungeons below for nine years, Roam, nine fucking years thinking that he was evil, that he’d destroyed her.” I held her hands in mine.

  “I found out that she was raped by one of my soldiers… repeatedly. She accused Will because she was… fixated on him. I executed the bastard who hurt her and moved her into my room, refusing to let her out of my sight. I had a team of maids and nurses working around the clock to help her, bathe her, feed her… she wouldn’t go outside, not even on the brightest winter days.” I shifted uncomfortably.

  “Eventually, she developed an unhealthy love for me… that embarrassed me. It was incestuous, and possessive, and even when I offered her a place on the throne as my heir, she insisted that she loved me and wanted to be my queen.”