“Asher was a wizard?” I asked, and Troy gave me a biting grin.
“Magician, enchanter, warlock… I don’t know what he was. He did this to all of us. Made us all immortal, gave us the numbers… all to save his son.”
West. I looked toward the house, shivering at the damp air. “But Asher wasn’t immortal. He died in a fire.”
He tilted his head slightly, saying nothing.
“What about Violet’s mother? She deserves to have her back. This has nothing to do with her.”
“Why do you care?” he hissed, choking through his dry words.
“Because I have more than a shred of human decency,” I bit angrily. “And I know what it’s like to lose a mother.”
Troy scoffed. “Humans from this world do not age in my world,” he explained, his lips curling into that filthy smile. “Laurel has been the same age since I took her there, in 2003.”
I processed his words, suddenly feeling light-headed.
“She’s… the same?
“Don’t you wonder what your hero will think of her?” he taunted. “They are still married… but that’s just a technicality, right? He couldn’t possibly still love her.”
Knotting my fingers together, I stared him down, refusing to let him rile me. “Tell me where the doors are.”
He met my eyes, yanking at the chains. “You saw the castle, Roam. What did you see?”
“Ice! Frozen water! Arctic cold.”
“What else did you see? How did you get from the ground, up to the castle?”
I had no idea what he was talking about. My dream of the castle had been indoors, once in a grand hall, and once in a ballroom.
“Just tell me!” I shouted, so frustrated, wanting desperately to go back to Eva and hold her in my arms.
He gave a half-laugh, staring at the ceiling. “The fountain doors were made by mortals- mere men. So are the doors to our world.”
“Your world,” I hissed, shivering. “My world is any world without you in it.”
I turned on my heel, throwing the door open. The bright, morning light blinded me. Before I could step out, he called me.
“Roam, whatever happened to Julie?”
Logan waited, most likely having heard our entire conversation. I glanced at Troy’s hideous smile once more before hurrying out of the putrid shed. “Gag him,” I cried, running back to the cottage.
The sky turned dark within an hour. Rain began to slash at the cottage in sideways sheets as I fed Eva. West diligently worked at the detergent-filled bathtub, soaking the dirty laundry. “We’ll go across to the mainland as soon as it stops raining,” he called from the bathroom.
I heard Violet from the kitchen, listening to her curse every so often as she tried to prepare a meal for the four of us to eat for lunch. She’d borrowed a pair of hip-hugging capris and blouse from Annie’s closet and had pulled her hair back into a curly ponytail.
Sitting on the bed gazing at Eva, I touched her delicate nose, sighing deeply. “I don’t want to stay here anymore, West. I just want to bring her home. We’ll make it work, right? I can go away with you, and-”
“We don’t know if the prophecy has been fulfilled. The numbers are still here, Roam.” His sleeves were rolled up past his elbows, the numbers clearly revealed in the bathroom light.
After a long, tumultuous pause, I finally forced the words to my throat. “We have to feed him. We can’t starve him. I can’t know that he’s just out there, just… rotting.” I rocked our baby in my arms, lifting my eyes to his.
His expression darkened, and he turned away from the bathtub angrily. “Do you know what he’s done to you? To me? To our daughter?” He stood up, brushing his wet hands on a towel. “This is not the first time I’ve held our child in my arms, Roam. It’s the first time I’ve held our living child in my arms.”
I winced, gripping her tightly to me. “I just want to end this. I just want to go home.”
The overwhelming need to cry hit me with such force that I could barely keep from doubling over. He moved to me quickly, taking Eva from my arms and gently placing her in the cradle.
The moment he moved to my side, I buried my face into his chest as he held me. “Roam. I understand that everything’s been nonstop for you the past two days, and you just went through so much, baby.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead, and I cried silently, trying not to wake Eva.
“I just don’t see the end. What are we doing? Are we trying to save Laurel? Is it worth keeping Troy alive for her?”
West held me silently.
When he finally spoke, his voice was strained. “If he had taken your mother or father… or Morgan… how far would you go to get them back?”
I brushed at my tears with the back of my hands. “I’m sorry, I’m being so selfish.”
Patiently, he lowered his voice, brushing his fingers over my back. “You’re not selfish. You’re protecting her.” He gazed down at the cradle. “You’ll do anything for her. No matter how old she is.”
I realized what he was saying, lifting my eyes to the open doorway.
Violet. She’s his daughter, too.
Violet jumped back from the stove as the contents of a pot began to boil over. “Shit! Shit shit shit,” she cursed, turning the dial on the stovetop.
“What did Troy say to you?” he asked.
I took a deep, steadying breath, explaining the story that Troy had told me. “He said the doors are manmade, and that they have something to do with the castle. But in my dreams, I’ve never seen the outside of the castle. Only the inside.”
His eyes sparked with realization, and he stood up, glancing around the room. “I’ve seen the outside, in my dreams. The castle sits high on an angle, and there are old tracks of some sort on the mountainside.” He knelt in the corner next to the dresser, rummaging through a pile of books stacked against the wall.
“World Book Encyclopedia,” I murmured, watching as he chose one. “We didn’t have a washing machine in 1955, but we had encyclopedias?”
West smiled distantly. “Annie loved to learn. Almost as much as you do.” He offered me a loving look, opening the tome marked I - F. “Inclined plane…”
His words sparked a memory, and I nodded. “An inclined plane is a very old way to move things,” I remembered. “Stonehenge is thought to have been constructed by using the ground to build a slope.” I brushed an unruly tear away, pulling the volume into my hands. “What did you see? Describe it exactly.”
When he said nothing, I lifted my eyes to his.
He grinned, tilting my chin to meet his lips. “I like when you teach me something.”
His beard brushed my nose, and I gave a breathy laugh, my cheeks reddening at the unfamiliar blush. I touched the dark, blond hair on his chin, and he raised his eyes. “I like this on you, but it’s harder to kiss you.”
“Well, then, it’s gone,” he promised.
I smiled, looking down at the book and flipping pages. “Tell me what these tracks look like. Is it like a railroad?”
“I would say that, but kind of archaic,” he added, following along on the page that I read. “Inclined planes are used as modes of transportation all over the world. Manmade.”
I widened my eyes, meeting his. “Like the fountains.” I confirmed.
West nodded. “In my dreams of this castle, the main structure sits on a cliff and the ground below forms a long, inclined plane. Really, any type of ramp is an incline. There are large ones in Chili, South Africa, Austria, Hong Kong, Istanbul, even as close as Pittsburgh.”
“And Johnstown,” Logan called, knocking lightly on the open door. “Pennsylvania. Inclined planes? What are we talking about?”
“The door to the other world,” I replied, closing the encyclopedia with a gentle snap. “Something that Troy had said. We don’t know anything for certain.”
Logan nodded. “There’s one near my grandmother’s house, in Pennsylvania. Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I don’t know how old it is.”
&nbs
p; I narrowed my eyes. “Well, the first flood there was in 1889. Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross, went there to help. That plane saved hundreds of lives during the flood, transporting people to safety. It’s at least that old.”
Logan yawned, tapping his finger against his temple. “I don’t know where you store all this,” he said with a grin.
I gave him a fleeting smile. “Should we go there? Today… in 1955?”
“Hold on,” West said firmly. We both watched Logan stretch, and West shook his head. “Logan, you need to sleep. I’ll take watch. I don’t want to pack everyone up and leave going on just an idea. Especially not Eva.”
Logan shrugged. “Yeah, I’m tired. Violet’s got something delicious going in the kitchen,” he added sarcastically, making a face that made me bite my lip.
“She’s trying,” West defended her.
I sighed, patting the bed. “Logan, get some rest. You can stretch out here. Eva’s sound asleep.”
He accepted my offer without protest. “No more than an hour,” he managed, already closing his eyes.
I stood up, pulling a blanket over him as West watched me from the doorway.
“You should sleep, too, Roam,” West said as he walked to me, taking my face in his hands. “There’s only one bed, and you both need it. It’s okay.”
Sighing deeply, I eyed the empty space next to Logan. “I don’t know why I’m so tired,” I admitted, lowering to the bed and moving as far away from Logan as possible.
West gestured to our sleeping infant, raising his eyes my way with a pointed look. “Really?”
“Oh, yeah,” I whispered, smiling as he knelt to my bedside.
“I need to talk to Violet alone, anyway,” he said with a deep breath. “It’s long overdue.”
“I wish I could help,” I admitted, sliding my fingers into his hair. “I love you so much. She will, too, West. She’ll understand.”
He nodded, catching my lips in a soft kiss.
Chapter Fourteen
I listened to West’s voice from the kitchen as I dozed. Catching snippets of their conversation made me feel like a trespasser, but I marveled in the compassion in his tone as he spoke to his daughter.
“I found you in the crib. You weren’t breathing.”
“What happened to me?”
“I don’t know for sure. But I began CPR, and you started breathing again.”
“What made you think that I was immortal? CPR probably saved me, West.”
He was quiet for a long moment. Finally, he cleared his throat, his words pained. “Laurel admitted that it wasn’t the first time that you’d died.”
Violet was silent.
“She was very depressed after you were born. I worked so much, and she was alone with you…” I could feel the pain in his words. “She did an awful thing. Twice.”
“My own mother tried to… kill me?” The tears in her voice broke my heart. I had to hold onto the headboard to keep from going into the kitchen to comfort her.
“She went on medication. It helped. Violet, she loved you so much. She just needed help, but I didn’t see that. I began to piece things together then. I had a strong suspicion that you were immortal, like me.” I imagined that he was allowing her to cry and comforting her softly. “I knew the numbers were coming, so I had to leave. I couldn’t put either of you in danger. The day that I drove away from you was one of the worst days of my life. Violet.” His voice wavered, and she gasped tearfully.
I stared at the wall, so exhausted but unable to fall asleep. Eva made tiny sounds as she slept, comforting me, and Logan breathed heavily behind me. He shifted, his arm moving to drape it over me. The weight of his touch calmed my frantic nerves as I finally drifted off to the sound of the rain on the roof.
. . .
“Chocolate, with a little vanilla, but not a twist.” Logan imitates a customer through his headset, screwing his face up animatedly and sending me into fits of laughter. “Definitely not a twist.”
“I can’t wait to not work here anymore,” I groan, squeezing the mop into the bucket of sudsy water. I drop the mop, touching the hem of my tiny shorts and matching King Cone shirt. “Wait I… I don’t work here. Logan, what are we doing here?”
He looks at me, slowly removing the headset. “At least I’m not killing you for a change,” he says, moving around the counter toward me. “And I don’t want to.”
“Why are we dreaming about our lives now? This isn’t a past life,” I argued, trying to grasp a thought that refused to take hold.
I only dream about past lives, in the lives that I have died…
“You know what I want to do in this dream?” Logan asks, grinning suggestively before scooping me up and setting me on the counter next to the cash register. “I want you, right here.” He lowers his lips to my neck, tucking my legs around his waist. “I’ve been thinking about it for two months. Roam.”
“Logan, we’re dreaming… at the same time,” I protest, squirming beneath his lips.
“Don’t ruin it,” he warns as his hand slides up my thigh. I wriggle backward, gripping his shirt to keep from falling off the counter.
“Logan, we’re sleeping, in 1955, in the cottage… Logan?” I grasp his face in my hands.
He stares at me, and then slowly lowers his gaze to his arm.
The numbers swim over his arm, swirling against his skin.
. . .
“Don’t ruin it,” he groaned, his face against my neck. I woke to Eva’s cries, turning my head on the pillow.
“Logan… Logan, move your arm, I have to get the baby,” I called, pushing at his shoulder. He had me completely wrapped in his arms, his face buried into my blond hair.
He sat up with a start and released me. I rolled off the bed and hurried to the cradle, reaching for Eva. The sun was low in the sky, and I searched the kitchen and living room for West.
“Hey.” Violet’s voice startled me as she came in from the back door. “West said she’d be hungry when she woke up. He changed her and held her while you two slept. He went to the mainland for supplies.”
“Oh… what time is it?” I asked, disoriented as Eva fussed in my arms.
“About six.”
I watched Violet carefully, trying to find the right words. “Are you doing okay?”
She shrugged, turning away from me and crossing her arms over her chest. “Whatever.”
“I’ll take over back there,” Logan called from the doorway of the bedroom, rubbing the back of his neck. “Vi, get some rest. You need it.”
She disappeared into the bedroom without another word. I rocked Eva gently, glancing at Logan. “Do you remember our dream?”
“About Crap Cone?” he replied, and I remembered our teasing nickname for the town’s small ice cream parlor where we both had worked the summer prior.
“Yes. We dreamed together. How did that happen?”
“Maybe because I was holding you?” He sighed, running his hand over his thick head of brown hair. “If that’s the only way to stop the nightmares, I’m going to need your assistance every night.”
“It’s not over,” I whispered, the reality setting in. West knew it was true, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell me. “The numbers, the dreams… her birth didn’t fulfill the prophecy. She has to do something… to save the world.”
Logan crossed the small living room to me, watching Eva as she waved her tiny fists in the air. “Unless saving the world involves eating, sleeping, or pooping, we have a while to wait.”
I sighed, lowering to the couch. He settled next to me, and I pulled on the strap on my dress, lifting my eyes to his. “Is this weird… if I feed her right here?”
Logan reached for her bare toes, touching them between his fingers. “That’s the only thing that seems normal around here. Feeding a baby. Happens every day.”
I expected to feel self-conscious feeding her with Logan sitting next to me, but his presence, even in a different form, was completely natural
.
“I don’t feel so modest when it’s not even my body,” I explained from under my breath.
He nodded, resting the back of his head against the couch. “I kind of miss TV,” he said, shifting to stare at a fireplace across from us.
I nodded, trying to stay as covered as possible as Eva fought for my breast. “That fireplace is gone now. There’s a TV there.”
“Nice,” he replied absently.
“I could tell you the story that Troy told me,” I offered. He closed his eyes, resting his head on the back of the couch again. Eva finally latched on, and I tucked the blanket around her.
“I heard him talking. Did you think that I’d just let you go in there, shut the door, and stuff my face with breakfast?”
I shrugged, gazing down at Eva. “I figured that you were listening.”
“He’s so full of shit that I don’t know what to believe, Roam.”
“We’ve all had dreams about this castle. I can’t help but believe him.”
He turned to me and rolled his eyes. “So, what if all these people in the world… the president… actors, actresses… Katy Perry. What if they’re all in this other universe? Just normal everyday minions while we sit up in this castle. That’s what parallel universe means, right? A copy of everything?”
“No, not necessarily. It means that it exists alongside ours. And really? Katy Perry? Seriously?”
“I’d like to know if she’s available in castle world. Seeing as how I’m a prince and everything. I’m probably loaded.”
“You’re crazy,” I giggled, lifting my eyes to the sound of the door. West pushed through, carrying bags, and Logan jumped to his feet to help with the supplies.
He murmured a thank-you to Logan before moving over to me and Eva on the couch. “Hey baby. Did you get enough rest? How do you feel?”
“So much better,” I assured him, accepting his kiss while still smiling at Logan’s words. “You went shopping?”
“When the rain didn’t let up, I didn’t want to chance not having what we needed. I had to get rid of the van, too.”
Fall (Roam Series, Book Two) Page 13
