Rise
Roam Series, Book Three
By
Kimberly Stedronsky
Rise (Roam Series, Book Three)
Kimberly Stedronsky
Text copyright © 2013 Kimberly Stedronsky
All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work.
Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the expressed written permission from the author.
To My Brian
From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.
- Socrates
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Prologue
July 14, 2013
She screamed, her fear resounding through the castle and into the snowy mountainside.
Morgan already held Eva in her arms. West turned to the guard at his left, breaking his arm before his neck. Another guard approached from behind. He sent his elbow into the man’s throat, not waiting to watch him choke.
West knew the sound of the gunshot before the bullet reached his chest.
He jerked and opened his eyes, the static of the baby monitor crackling. Sighing, he grabbed his cell phone and slid his bare feet to the hardwood floor. After padding down the dark hall, he stopped in the doorway of the bedroom, blinking away the sleep in his eyes.
“Daa,” Eva grinned, gripping the rails of the crib and pulling herself to her feet. Her plump cheeks were wet and shiny in the nightlight’s glow, evidence of a new tooth coming in. After a moment, she dropped to the sheet on her diapered bottom before determinedly trying to stand again.
“Daddy is sleeping,” he smiled softly, moving toward her to press a kiss to her red curls. “Eva sleep.”
“Daa?” She repeated, her chubby fingers touching her palms in a grabbing motion as she reached for him.
West scooped her against his bare chest, pressing two more kisses to her head. “Okay, babe.”
Walking back to his bedroom, he watched as the alarm clock changed to 4:45. Get up and drink a pot of coffee, or see if she’ll sleep a little more?
His phone vibrated, and he grabbed for it, shifting the baby to his hip as he glanced at the number. Morgan. He reached for a diaper, carrying Eva to the changing table.
“Morning.” Pinning his cell phone between his shoulder and ear, he cleared his throat.
“No sleep, either?” Groggy. She sounds like she’s been up all night.
“A collective two hours. How soon can you be here?”
“It’s her birthday,” she choked softly.
West re-snapped the pink Onesie, gripping his daughter protectively to his side as she reached for his phone. “I know.”
“What if we tried again today? Maybe, since it’s her birthday, there’s a way, or some special significance…,”
“We can try.” He thought of the inclined plane in Chili, the last one he’d attempted. “I’ll drive to Pittsburgh after school if you’ll stay with Eva.”
She was silent for long moments, finally taking a deep, shaking breath. “She’s gone, isn’t she?” she asked softly.
He went down the stairs in his gray pajama pants, lowering Eva to her Pack-n-Play before turning the air conditioner down to sixty-eight. “No she isn’t. I’ve tried 1912, but I’m so close to the coordinates for 1790, and…,”
“I’ll be over at six, okay?”
“Morgan,” he cleared his throat, closing his eyes tightly. “I will find her.”
She disconnected.
The last moments inside the castle roared through his memory. It was her tortured scream that made him turn back, killing two guards with his bare hands before the third shot him in the chest. Jason dragged him, bleeding and unconscious, back to the door at the tracks, and immortality healed him once more as he stopped dying in the back of the Pilot.
When he regained consciousness two hours later, he went back to the inclined plane, taking it up to the top of the mountain as the others waited below.
He could not go back.
The days after were spent grasping for sanity. Logan and Roam were reported missing, and a manhunt began. Her father, devastated, worked with Logan’s parents day and night to search for their missing children. The entire country watched as their yearbook pictures flash across newscasts, and saw their parents beg for information about their son and daughter. After seven months, the FBI had no leads.
They were gone.
I’ve failed her. He gripped the counter, taking deep, calming breaths as the torrent of guilt consumed him once more. He watched her be tortured and killed a million different ways in his vivid, demented imagination, and continued suffering through the memory of standing with Eva in his arms. He had contemplated fighting anyway, as he’d planned, but Eva would have surely died.
He saw Roam’s eyes, pleading, begging him to take her daughter to safety.
“Damn it,” he cursed, fists clenching over the sink as he fought for control.
“Daa!” Eva shouted, and he lifted his face to the living room.
“Daddy won’t curse,” he called softly, filling the carafe with water.
And then there was Laurel.
Laurel stayed with him for the first month. She explained that for her only a year had passed. She still looked only twenty-eight years old, though more than nine years had gone by since Troy had taken her away.
One year there to nine in this world?
“I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me about all of this. You were my husband… are my husband,” she said, sitting quietly on the couch.
“I couldn’t tell you. I couldn’t risk your life, or Violet’s. But, I ended up doing that anyway.”
“No one hurt me. I sat in a cell, worrying, praying, wondering where I was and what was happening to Violet. Suddenly, one day, they brought a baby to me, ordering me to care for her.” She had stared at Eva, sighing. “I fed her and cared for her for two days… and then you came.”
“How did she get there? One moment, Roam held her, and as we passed through the fountain… she was just gone.” It unnerved him to think about his infant child, lying on that mountain side in the snow. Did a compassionate soldier simply pick her up and take her to the castle?
“I don’t know… I was in a cell.”
“Roam and I lost her for almost a month.”
“She’s very brave,” Laurel focused on her hands, not meeting his eyes. “Your Roam.”
“I know.”
He found a newer house for the two of them near the lake and bought it outright. “I want you and Violet close,” he explained as he offered her the keys. Laurel accepted, and moved into the lake house with Violet.
He started the paperwork for their divorce.
Violet, though thankful to have her mother back, was angry all of the time. West enrolled her at Madison High to f
inish out the year, and on her graduation day, was the one to put the diploma in her hands.
She never stopped trying to find a way back to the other realm… for Logan. West set the coffee pot to brew, reaching for Eva.
His only consolation was that Logan had stayed.
In all of our lifetimes, I never thought Logan would be her only chance.
“Mommy’s birthday is today,” West whispered against her soft cheek. Eva giggled, patting his lips.
“Maa.”
“Let’s watch Mommy.” He moved the mouse for his laptop, clicking on the icon marked Camden- Christmas 2011.
The video was taken with Morgan’s iPhone. Roam, wrapped in a white robe, shifted cross-legged in front of the Christmas tree, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Okay, Morgan, come on, I’m gross.”
“I just want to record your reaction, Socrates. For me. Calm down.”
“Ugh,” she complained teasingly, tearing into the wrapping paper. As she opened the box, West watched her hand fly to her mouth in excitement. “The Abraham Lincoln biography! Unabridged!”
“Dude, it’s signed. Not by Lincoln, you know… but by the author.”
“Oh, Morgan!” She shrieked with excitement, and the video teetered as she hugged her sister. “Thank you! I can’t wait to read this!”
“That’s the one you wanted, right? Not the one where he’s fighting vampires?”
She chuckled, her verdant green eyes sparkling in the lights of the tree. “No, this is it. You’re the best.”
Morgan turned the camera to her own face, looking satisfied. “Did you hear that? I’m the best. Take note, Logan. You may date my sister, but I remain the best. “
West closed the media window as Eva squirmed in his lap.
“Maa,” she reached for the mouse, and he hugged her to his chest.
“Mommy,” he whispered against her hair, watching her toes press into the skin over his bare forearm.
The coordinates were gone.
Chapter One
December 15, 2012
“Stop thrashing,” he pressed me against the stone windowsill, his cutting blue eyes reflecting in the glass as I watched everyone that I love marching through the fallen snow toward the mountainside.
As Troy’s hand slid around my waist, I screamed, slapping my open palms against the window with all of my strength. Suddenly, West turned and fought back. I stilled, petrified as he attacked two soldiers before another raised his gun, shooting him in the chest
“Oh, God…,”
Gripping the stone ridge of the window, I held my breath until Jason shouldered his weight, carrying West toward the platform. In the distance, from the high elevation of the tower, I watched them disappear into the twilight.
“He’ll live.” He caught my wrists, flattening his own hands over mine against the pane of glass. “I wanted you to see them go. I’ve kept my bargain. You will keep yours.”
Meeting his eyes in the reflection, I shook my head. “I can’t. Just end this.” My words escaped in a stifled moan.
He turned me to face him, pinning me cruelly to the ledge.
I lifted my face to his, closing my eyes. Please make it quick.
“You’ve promised me your complete obedience- for their lives. I will give you this night to decide your fate. Beginning tomorrow, and every night thereafter, if you do not submit to me, willingly, I will kill each one of them, one at a time. And I will start with your pretty sister.”
I remembered Morgan’s description of Troy when she’d first met him, not knowing what he was. Sexy… a Greek God. Nauseated, I pinched my eyes closed. He released me and took a step back.
“I won’t hurt you,” he added, as if considering. “I’ve had my fill of torturing you. I told you that in the pool.”
My thoughts scattered to the day he drowned me, and his terrifying words. I’ve already had my fun with you in the past. I began to shiver, every bone in my body aching.
“Letting me take Eva through the fountain, knowing she’d disappear, was the most torturous thing that you could ever do to me.”
He lowered his face, and I turned away, wincing as his mouth hovered over mine. “That is not even close to the unimaginable ways I could hurt you.”
“I want to see that Logan is okay,” I demanded, gasping as he pressed himself tightly against me.
“Another demand. What have I gotten so far? And unwilling wife.”
I wrenched my wrist from his, flattening my palm and slapping his cheek with all of my strength. “I’m not your wife. I’m seventeen-years-old. I live in Ohio. I didn’t sleep with your brother or your army. My soul is not my mind.”
A leisurely grin spread as he looked down at me. He cupped his cheek, stained with my fingerprints, and raised his eyebrows. “You’re strong, Ohio.” His lips touched mine, and I held my breath, fighting vomit. “Even without a screwdriver.”
I endured his mouth as it covered mine, scalding tears burning my cheeks. He pulled back, his eyes narrowed, and reached for my face. I tried to wrench away, but he touched my cheek, and then my forehead. “No,” I ordered weakly, my knees buckling as I swayed.
“Hot,” His touch turned purposeful, the backs of his fingers flattening against my forehead. “A fever.”
Ignoring him, I leaned against the stone, my teeth chattering as the chill set in. He shouted for someone, and an undeterminable amount of time later I was beneath the sheets of a massive, four poster bed with an ebony canopy.
I was aware of two women changing my clothes, removing my jeans and sweater and pulling a cool, silken fabric over my head. The elder of the two, her graying hair nearly white, gave me water and asked that I swallow two pills. When I tried to resist and spit them out, her voice soothed. “Only water and aspirin,” she explained.
Sleep, though frightening, was irresistible. I woke up saturated, my hair nearly soaked with sweat. The older woman came back in, and I watched her reach for a temporal thermometer next to the bed.
“Water?”
“Yes,” my fingers shook as I reached for the glass she offered me. “I need… a restroom…,”
“There,” she gestured to a door across the room. “I will assist you.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled, searching her eyes for a moment as I tried to decipher the color. They changed with the light, between gold and brown. “Is he… here? Is he coming in?” I stared at the door, clenching the sheets tightly in my fists.
“No, he’s traveled. You are safe,” her voice hinted an unexpected kindness. Tentatively, I climbed to my feet. “The fever has broken for now, but will likely return.”
“Where is Eva? How did my daughter get here? I held her in the fountain, and then she was just… here?”
She turned to me with kind eyes. “The entire castle knows of the infant found in the snow, near the mountainside, by the soldiers. Our king was gone, and we did not know where she had come from. I placed her with the woman his majesty brought over.”
“Laurel,” Coughing, I nodded. Everyone at school was getting sick, I should have known. “She was just… lying in the snow?” I cringed at the thought of how cold she must have been. “My throat hurts.” Her words set in suddenly, and I scrambled to the door, nearly tripping. “He traveled? To my world?”
“No,” she touched my elbows, her cool hands supporting my weight. “No, within this world. Your family is safe.”
“And Logan?” I begged, preparing for the worst. She nodded once.
“His majesty has traveled with his brother. Safe,” she repeated, leading me to the door. “Come now, you must care for yourself. You’ll need all of your strength,” she found my hand, clasping gently. Her fingers, long and manicured, showed the lines of the many years of her life beneath yielding skin.
He left me alone… out of compassion? Or does he worry that he’ll get sick?
“Who are you?” I walked with her, careful not to lean against her too much.
“Helena,” she patted my
shoulder softly. “His majesty has placed me as your maid.”
“Thank you for taking care of Eva,” I whispered.
“The poor, innocent babe. No one knew… who she really was, thankfully. I was able to keep her safe.”
“Do you remember me? The other… me?” Coughing, I fought the congestion in my chest.
“My dear, I am eighty-five years old. Your story was ancient, even in my childhood.”
Stopping at the door, I turned to her in confusion. “How does Troy still exist, if he is mortal here? Doesn’t he age?”
She lowered her eyes to the stone floor. “He spends much time in your world, to prolong his immortality.” A thump at the door drew both of our attention, and she opened the bathroom door, ushering me inside. “I’m forbidden to speak any more of the prophecy. I will assist you with your needs.”
“No,” I started inside, taken aback by the luxury in the adjoining bath. It looked like something out of House Hunters International- elegant, with champagne colored walls, arched double-doors, inlets framing a deep, soaking tub, and more than four diamond chandeliers. The marble floor created an oval design, edged by elaborate ornaments on claw-footed pedestals. Three high-backed chairs with ottomans were tucked against the three sinks.
“This mirrored door opens to a shower. I’ll assist you with getting dressed when you are finished, your majesty.”
Lifting my eyes, I turned to her. “I… no, I’m not your queen. Troy’s insane, and I’m just a… girl. I haven’t even graduated high school.”
“You are to be received as our queen. That is his majesty’s wish.”
I shrugged, coughing hard into my elbow. “Do you have a towel?”
“I’ll be ready for you when you are finished,” she promised.
“I would prefer to dry myself.” I tried to acclimate myself to the varying time periods and cultures that presented themselves, and assumed she meant to attend to me like medieval royalty.
She nodded once and turned, her functional, tweed gown sweeping behind her. Before she left the bathroom she stopped, tilting her head but not looking into my eyes. “Guards at the door, day and night,” she spoke under her breath, as if someone was listening just inside the bedroom. “He will return in one week’s time. You must prepare yourself. There is no escape. He means to keep you.” She finally looked at me, warning darkening her eyes. “He is known here for his cruelty. If you are indeed… innocent, from the other world… I will try to protect you as much as I can.”
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