Rise (Roam Series, Book Three) (11 page)

Will
nodded as the door to the secret chamber slid closed. Taking a deep breath, he leaned against a low cabinet, turning to me.

“The world was split in two. The child of the scorned lovers will bring the sun back to
Icepond. If the child dies in the seventh life, your world ends. If the child lives, the sun will overheat the land… until our world burns to ashes in two year’s time.”

As I processed his words,
I thought of the busy street in Russia where Logan told me the truth about West in 1977. The same harrowing feeling of betrayal had me grasping the sword, struggling to focus.

His words hung in the air as I flattened my back against the wall.

How does our child save the world?

I don’t know… I’ve wondered that for centuries.

Gasping, I covered my mouth with my hand. “All she has to do is… live.”

“Your red-haired daughter.” He pointed to a tall window, where the sun shone brightly in the sky. “She lives, and so our world continues to heat… and will burn. It was prophesized to take two years… but astronomers are seeing evidence of a
second
sun. My father refuses to believe them… he is…
blinded
by his obsession for you, and his unborn child.”

I stared at Will, shaking my head. “He’s not blind. He’s… waiting for his child to be born.” Covering my stomach, I doubled over, nausea brewing.

Troy means to kill Eva within two years.

“
I can’t let that happen.” Will stared at me, as if waiting for me to draw a conclusion.

As his words connected, I unsheathed the sword, readying myself for his attack. “You want to kill me…
Troy, Troy’s child… and my daughter. You want to rule this kingdom.”

Will nodded once, holding his index finger in the air with a small smile.
“An obvious conclusion.
If
I were a barbarian, like my father.”

Gripping the sword, I clenched my teeth. “What then?”

He met my eyes, his blue stare so much like Troy’s. “I think you know. There is one man who created this dark spell, and one man who can alter- or destroy- it.”

I took a deep breath, glancing down at my arm. “Asher?”

Will’s eyes darkened. “Henry Asher sought to save you and your knight- and your unborn child- from execution. He possessed unpredictable, but powerful, magic. On the day of the execution, he was too late for you. Troy had you executed first, so that your knight and my uncle would watch.”

My fingers wrapped at my neck.
Sounds like good old Troy.
“And Logan?”

“Yes, Logan was next. Asher could only cast your souls immortal, and not your bodies.”

“But West and Troy…,”

“Your knight, cast immortal, was sent to the other world in infant form.
He aged to twenty-seven. Once Asher made the spell, he found that Troy remembered everything, while the two of you knew nothing.”

“The doors, the last life, all of that… West said that it was
me
who told him about the prophecy, long ago, on his twenty-seventh birthday. I was a red-haired gypsy, and I told him about the reincarnation, the Alters, the last life…,”

“When Asher realized that his son knew nothing of the prophecy, he cast himself immortal and
left to find his infant son in the other world.”

“West’s family had died of the bubonic plague, and Asher… adopted him.”

Will nodded. “He helped him study, and taught him everything he could in order to prepare him for the day he would finally tell him about the prophecy.”

“But… someone set fire to their home, and Asher burned in his bed.”

“Asher was immortal. My father and his men took him prisoner that night. His son escaped.”

“
Asher never had time… to tell him about the prophecy,” I slid down the wall, resting my arms over my knees. “So… I told him?”

“No.” Will shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “He escaped from my father here, and traveled through time there to enlist the help of a young woman from the… future.”

“Me,” I pictured myself on a dirt road, with masses of curly, red hair and my own bright, green eyes as I told West about the prophecy.

“No,”
he repeated. “The young woman who explained the prophecy to West… was his own daughter.”

I narrowed my eyes, staring at the numbers on my arm.
Slowly, his words began to unravel, and I held my breath. “
Eva?
”

“
Your own daughter. Eighteen years old.” He tilted his head slightly.

“She lives to eighteen… that’s two years here,” I jumped to my feet, gripping the sword. “But you said the second sun is coming, and this world is already heating quickly…,”

Will stood as well, slowly crossing the room to stand only inches from me. He gave me a knowing smile, gesturing to my stomach. “Exactly. I made sense of it all last night. The child that you carry isn’t my father’s child, nor is it Logan’s.
That child belongs to your knight.
”

I
covered my mouth, blinking away the tears that burned my eyes.

“Somehow, you changed the plan… the design. Somehow, you managed to bring his child here, in your womb… and it is changing
everything
.”

The morning before we left, I remembered watching West’s struggle as I asked him to make love to me, and give me a baby.
He tried to resist, but couldn’t… and we conceived this child.

“
You won’t hurt me, or Eva?” I demanded.

Pain slashed across his handsome face. “I would never hurt you. You’ve been
through enough… and in so many lifetimes. Whether I find Asher and change this prophecy or not, I will get you safely home.” I let him reach for my hand, taking it in his as he knelt before me. “I swear to protect you with my own life.”

“Why?” I gazed down at him,
wiping my tears away with my shoulder. “What am I… to you?”

He brushed his thumb over the back of my hand. “
You are a mother.
”

I searched the heartache in his eyes, gripping his hand. Finally, I understood.

“
Helena…
,”

“Was my mother,” he finished. “And I w
ill be sure that my father pays for her life.”

I lowered to my knees as well, gathering him into my arms. “
I’m so sorry
,” I whispered, guilt breaking through my words.

“Her death was not your fault.” He pressed his face into my
shoulder. “She challenged him. She saw that he was cutting you, and ordered him to stop, threatening to help free you if he did not.”

No…
guilt ignited hot flashes over my chest and face, turning the padded shirt to a sweltering blanket.

It was my fault.

“Troy can die here.”

“I am immortal only in the world I was born into, and I believe this is true for all immortals. Except for my father.” He raised his eyes. “Because of Asher’s spell.”

“And Eva…,”

“The fountains that take you to the past are useful in this life, but you have seen what happens when you try to pass through a door with her. She will always end up here.”

“We thought she’d died,” I looked down, remembering the tearful afternoon in West’s arms, at Paine Falls.

“Logan and I have a plan… and we require your cooperation,” he said, brushing at the tears under my eyes with his thumbs.

“I’ll do anything,” I cried fiercely, pulling him to his feet.

His voice lowered to rapid whispers, and I struggled to keep up with his words. “I believe the numbers on your arm indicate Asher’s location. The dungeons are hundreds of levels deep into the ground, designed to confuse. He is under constant guard, so I am working on a plan to get to him. For the masque,” he turned my palm over in his hand, tracing with his index finger. “Zero-seven-one-four… the keypad code for this room, can you remember that?”

“My birthday,” I murmured, nodding.

“Reverse the numbers for the hidden weapon room,” he searched my eyes urgently. “Ask that no firearms be permitted in the ballroom. Convince my father that they make you uncomfortable. Request that all of my father’s closest guards and advisors be present. All guests must wear masks and costumes at all times. No children,” he added quickly, taking my sword and hanging it back on the wall. “Very loud music. Understand?”

“Yes,” I nodded quickly. “You said you were trying to hide someone… Asher?” I asked as he closed the cabinet.

Will entered the code to lock the door, a small smile forming on his lips. “No. But… it will be someone who can… help us.”

“If you are good, I’ll let you get a toy. But you have to be good.”

“No car!”

In a flash of red curls, she became a tangle of arms and legs, twisting an
d turning in the car seat. “Eva…,”

West took a step back, crossing his arms over his chest. He stared her down, and she turned to him, crossing her
own
arms over her
own
chest and returning his even stare.

“No.
Car
.”

He fought the urge to laugh at her stubborn will so like his own.

“West?”

His hand at the holster
on his belt, West turned at the man’s voice, blocking the car and pulling the gun into his hands in the same motion.

“Logan?”

Logan held his hands up, standing in the middle of the driveway. Early spring sun beat down on his shoulders, the bright light giving him a ghostly appearance. He was lean, his tanned face having lost some of the boyish roundness that he remembered from two years ago. His empty hands carried no weapon.

“It’s me… I’m alone,” he kept his hands high in the air. He wore jeans and the military-grade jacket
he had provided for Logan on the day that they left, and carried a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. “I have someone working with me, on the other side,” he hurried, glancing at the car. “I can help you get through to save Roam.”

“Daddy, who that?”

“Eva, stay back,” West shouted, and she broke into angry tears.

“Out, out, OUT!
I HOT!”

“She’s the key, the way back through the door.”

“I know. You think I’d carry her into a massacre?”

“Troy has a grown son. He’s trying to rule, and he wants the throne. He wants
Roam out of there because she… carries his child.”

His forearms clenched as he gripped the gun. “It’s true, then?”

Logan turned toward the car, where Eva was in a full-on scream. “You can get her out. I swear I won’t hurt her, or you.”

“You can understand how difficult it is for me to trust you, after all that you’ve done over the centuries.”

Logan exhaled sharply, frustrated. “I can, but I don’t know how to convince you. Time moves much faster here. You have ten hours to go through the inclined plane. Beyond that, Troy will be waiting.”

He stared at Logan, reaching with one hand to comfort Eva. Finally, he lowered his weapon slightly. “Is Roam okay?”

Logan looked down. “She’s
alive
. But she’ll never be… okay… again,” he said.

He gathered Eva into his left arm, keeping the gun out to his right side. His chest tightened at Logan’s words. “Have you seen Violet?”

“Not yet. I don’t know how she feels about me… but if it’s still the same, I may not come back from this, and I don’t want her to… mourn.”

“She loves you,” West pressed his lips to Eva’s hair, shifting her slightly as she stared with wide eyes at Logan. “She’d stop at nothing to find you. I haven’t told her about Eva being the key… because I don’t know what she’d do.”

Logan focused on the little girl, a distant smile on his face. “Her eyes.”

“Roam’s,” West agreed, finally holstering his gun. “Logan, this son of Troy’s… how do you know you can trust him?”

Logan stared blankly ahead. “I have to. You have to get her out of there, West. She’s dying from the inside… out.”

He
exhaled slowly, slipping the pistol back into the holster. “I’ve known Eva was the key for three months. You have no idea how close I’ve come to just driving her there and charging through.”

“Do you know what she’s
been
through?” Logan demanded, thinking of all of the terrible nights that Roam had spent with Troy. “Why didn’t you?”

West closed his eyes tightly, anguish forcing his head down. “Daddy,” Eva tucked her head against his shoulder.

Logan stared at him. “I understand. Roam wouldn’t have wanted that, either.” He nodded toward Eva. “I came here only because I believed you’d do whatever it took to get Roam back… even if we have to use Eva to go through. Was I wrong?”