Rule (Roam Series, Book Five) (31 page)

Wynn… Rose…
every time I stumbled, crying, Will caught me in his arms.

My parents were
kept separated, as though their mere proximity posed a challenge to Eric. Christopher continued to fight at his shackles the march to the castle, poking at and instigating the guards until my father finally turned to him.

“
Enough
, Christopher.”

He was silent after that, but I could feel the pain radiating from his young, sweltering temper.

The people of the castle were gone; I assumed many had been imprisoned. I thought of the kingdom, the innocents, wishing I’d done more to protect them.

I knew Eric couldn’t be trusted- I felt it- why did I ignore it?

As we entered the hall, my eyes found Meredith immediately. Long, black hair framing sallow skin should have made her oval face ugly, but something about her seemed haunted rather than sickened. The woman sitting on my throne refused to watch anyone else as we entered the great hall, keeping her shadowed, crazy eyes focused on me. Their depths of insanity sent terrible waves of nausea rolling through my stomach.

Will’s voice at my side gave me a pinch of confidence. “Meredith. You do not wish this for me,” he reasoned in a familiar way. “This is Eric’s doing.”

“Remove the dead woman’s body from my presence,” she spoke, monotone.

Logan carried Violet in his arms, giving a murderous look to the approaching guards. “Don’t fucking touch her,” he growled.

“She will be treated with respect.” Meredith’s long, raven hair was parted down the middle, disappearing into the folds of her black gown. She raised her hand toward Logan. “Uncle. Your time to grieve will come. Now, you have a task to complete.”

“Where is Asher?
” My father demanded, stepping forward before Logan could speak.

“Ah, West. So this is the enemy of my father.” She traced the length of her hair as a guard tried to take Violet from Logan
’s arms. Meredith noticed the struggle, turning to my mother. “Roam. You will take her body. Go with my guard.”

Logan
seethed. “I’m not leaving her-…,”

Meredith’s voice ooz
ed with a thick, morose cry. The sound was something out of a facility lined with padded walls. “Logan, your wife has already left. This is her shell. Your journey with your love has ended, and you will accept this in time. I’ll allow Roam to prepare her for the pyre; my condolences for your suffering.”

My mother,
brushing at her tears, focused on Violet’s body. Finally, she walked to Logan

Reaching for him
, touching his face with her hand, she whispered something that made him crumble into tears. I had never seen Logan cry in my entire life, and my chest caved inward with horrible pain. He closed his eyes tightly, gripping my mom’s hands, choking as she brushed his tears away with her thumb.

The guard gently gathered Violet’s
limp body.

“
I’m sorry… I’m sorry,
” she whispered to Logan, again and again.

He pressed his forehead into hers, cringing, fighting.
“
Take care of her, Cam,
” he begged, and my mother nodded, her shoulders shaking with the force of her tears.

My strength, usually unaffected, wavered. I turned and gagged, shoving my fist over my mouth to keep from throwing up on the stone floor.

Meredith’s head snapped to my direction. “This? This is the prevailing queen that I am to fear? This frightened child?”

“
You have killed her sister,” Will defended, and I noticed the first trace of illicit fury in his voice. “You threaten her family. For what? Revenge on our father?”

She gave a distant smile, sitting back against the throne. “
The torture that I have planned for our father… is vast. Choreographed. I will destroy him slowly, over years, as he did to me.”

My father glared at her. “He has hurt everyone in this room. He has killed my wife and child for centuries. Now, he continues to murder and destroy through you. You’ve become exactly what he was.
Was that your intention, Meredith?”

She listened to my father
dispassionately before slowly rising to her feet. Eric scoffed next to Christopher, shaking his head.

“West,” she circled him slowly, calculating, like a hungry cat. I tensed, taking deep breath and pulling from the very back of my mind before raising my hand over my head.

As she reached to drag her long fingernail along his face, I erected the same electric fence between them that I had used to protect Will from my father’s fist. She screamed and pulled away, holding her hand in pain.

Inevitably, music accompanied my emotional attempt to protect my dad, and the penetrating beat of
Black Sabbath’s
Electric Funeral
thundered through the castle.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” I sneered, wrenching from Will’s grasp and stalking to Meredith. Finally, with the support of the stabbing bass, I stepped between her and my dad. “Hurts a little less than your sick, twisted fuck of a father. You want me to send them back to get him?
Fine
. When he comes through, I’ll end
you
, and
him
, and your fucking
fish
-man, and then when you’re dying in a flaming pile of bitch at my feet, I’ll laugh in your fucking melted
face
.”

She had at least six inches on me in height.
As her eyes widened to maniacal orbs, I remained in complete control, finally feeling superior to this threatening woman.

“Oh, and I’m going to
help
her do all that,” Christopher added, spitting in Meredith’s general direction.

Instead of attacking me (which I silently begged
for) - she turned her eyes on Will.

I closed my fist, cutting the music. When I tried
to lift my arm, Eric’s magic twisted my arms behind my back.

Meredith’s hand whipped my face to the side too quickly; and explosion of pain burst in my nose and eye, and if it wasn’t for Eric’s invisible grip, I would have fallen to my knees.

“Your wife is a little cunt.” Meredith spat, glaring at Will. “And I am going to punish her.”

“
You will die trying,” Will responded softly, with a slight shake of his head. He pulled against his chains, but I held my hand up, wiping at the blood on my lip. “Eric cannot keep his hold on Eva and defend himself at the same time. I have already seen this.”

“Eric has no need to defend himself.” Meredith gestured to me, turning to Eric. Eric approached, and only then did it occur to me that the guards working with him were once the guards who swore to protect and serve
me
.

“
Traitors
,” I sneered as they grabbed Will.

I stood, alone, in the center of the hall; each one of my family members were chained and held at gunpoint.

My pulse quickened, but I kept my even stance, staring Eric down.

“You will send them back. Your mother, your father, and Logan. They will bring Troy here.” His threatening voice doubled my panic, but I kept my resolve. From the corner of my eye, I watched as my mother was pushed back into the hall.

Meeting my father’s blue gaze, I locked my eyes with his.
Remember our purpose; our plan. Go back to the past life, but not back in time… gather weapons, return and attack.

Can I do this?
I dug through the polluted ocean in my mind, my head throbbing.
Elements, music, electricity, frequency…

Heartache. Confusion; pain.

“I can’t,” I admitted, glaring at Eric, tasting more blood. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

He took a step closer, and I fought the urge to attack.
There are so many ways I could hurt him. But would the guards kill my family? My dad, my mom?

“Perhaps you need even more incentive?”
His hands encircled my waist, and could feel Will lose his ever-present control.

“
Do not touch her
Eric-…,”

The creature’s eyes drank up the blood beneath my nose and at the corner of my mouth.
“Ah… you are no longer immortal… in
any
realm,” he grinned, turning back to Meredith. “This is a surprise. The fire queen is mortal.”

“
Useful.” Meredith agreed.

“Eva?” My dad fired, and I looked at him quickly, confirming Eric’s words. His face was a wash of fear- and fury.

“And she carries a child,” Eric chuckled, his yellow eyes tunneling into my soul. He must have seen the distressed shock pass over my expression; his hands hovered over my hips. “A child easily destroyed, growing in a mortal body.”

A baby?
Fighting away a wave of panic, I covered my stomach protectively.
Enough talk.
I prepared to lunge at him, but Will’s voice rendered me immobile.

“Send them back, Eva, love. I trust that you can. Focus. Eric, do not threaten her. She must focus to complete the task you’ve put upon her.” His voice was even again, deep and convincing. I turned to him, arguing with my gaze.

“Will-…,”

“To the first life, Eva. You can do this. Just
like your grandfather, you too possess great magic.
He turned back time.
He saved your mother’s life.”

Reading into his words, I finally began to piece together what he was suggesting.

Turning to my father, I met his eyes again.

Encouraging.
Urging
.

Turn back time…

Save Violet.

I knew that
I
needed time to create a spell of that measure. A past life gave me only minutes; time travel gave me days, maybe weeks.

The time my p
arents and Logan would spend time-traveling, in ancient Icepond, would give me the time that I needed. There was no way my parents could bring Troy back here- or
would
bring Troy back here.

Altering the past would end all of our existences.

I trusted in my father to know that.

Focusing, I turned back to Eric. “I’ll send them back
in time. But if you hurt Will or Christopher, I won’t
bring
them back. Clear?”

Meredith’s slow, crooked smile lit her eyes to a brilliant gray. “
Understood. Proceed.”

Eric took a step back, away from me, waiting.

“Let them come to me.”

Eric, still staring me down, waved his hand, and my mother, father, and Logan were pushed forward. I lifted my eyes to each one of them, individually, grasping for courage.

“I love you, Eva,” my dad hushed, and my mom pulled from the guard’s grasp. Meredith nodded and let my mother approach me. I hugged her, digging my fingers into her back, meeting Logan’s blood-shot gaze.

“I love you. I love you all.
Logan,
I’m sorry,
and I’ll do everything I can to make this right,” I begged, feeling my mother’s grip tighten on me.

“It’s not your fault, Eva,” he managed. I silently thanked him for that.

“Do it, babe. Do what you can,” my dad prodded, and my mom finally took a step back, kissing my forehead.

“
You were the reason I was born, Eva,
” she managed, through tears. “I love you, and your brother, with all of my soul.”

“
Please be safe,” I pleaded, knowing that I was about to send them into an unknown world of historic betrayal, murder, and revenge.

I knew the facts; I understood the difference between a past life and the
past
, of time travel and an alter consequence, and the uncertainty of the outcome of the spell I was about to cast.
Time travel… past life…

Our child…

Burying the thought of carrying Will’s baby, I tried again to focus.

I also acknowledged that, rather than being brave and refusing to send them back, I was doing what was easiest… what would keep my family alive…

Come what may.

Closing my eyes, I raised my open hand in the air.

Grandfather, wherever you are… help me.

My frequency began;
the electric guitar of Guns n Roses
Sweet Child O’ Mine
blared through the castle.

The doors to the past were opened with water.

My neck snapped upwards, toward the ceiling, as the stone crumbled and parted. A sudden torrential wave crashed over my parents and Logan. As I brushed at the water from my eyes, I blinked rapidly, pulling my hand from the air.

And
they were gone.

Coming Soon…