Rise (Roam Series, Book Three) (25 page)

The violinist began to play again, and I realized that applause had broken out all over the beach as onlookers attended our small ceremony. In seconds I was in West’s arms as he slowly kissed me, carrying me through the sand. When he stopped at the deck to lower me to my feet, I was lost in an indolent dream.

“
I love you, Mrs. Perry,
” he whispered, and my stomach tightened, fire coursing through every nerve ending. “And…
I will keep you this time.
”

“
West
,” I whispered, clinging to him. “I’m so afraid to be happy… please tell me everything is okay,” I begged between drugging kisses on the wooden stairs.

He pulled away, meeting my eyes assertively. “
It will be,
” he promised, his mouth returning to mine.

“Save it for the honeymoon,” Logan’s voice interrupted us as he carried Eva up the stairs, Violet close behind.
“Innocent eyes.”

“Daddy,” Eva reached for him, and West swept her into his arms, kissing her neck until she giggled delightedly.

“Where
is
the honeymoon?” Logan asked, wrapping his arms around Violet as she leaned against his chest.

“Chicago… a cruise?”
I lifted my eyes, and West glanced at his watch. His tuxedo clung to his body in the best possible way, and I longed to just sit back and stare at him.

“We’ll be leaving from Cherbourg, France, and getting off in Ireland.”

I listened to his words, the locations pulling at my memory.
Cherbourg… Ireland…

He watched my face closely. Finally, I took a backward step. “We’re going through a fountain?”

“Why not?” His eyes lit as they often did during a history lesson. “There’s nothing to worry about… and we’ll get off before it hits.”

“What hits?” Logan half-followed us. “Where are you going?”

“The
Titanic
,” I whispered, overcome. “We’re going on the
Titanic
.”

“If you can handle it,” West added, wrapping his free arm around me as Eva played with my hair. “I purchased two first-class tickets. And they look very real.”

“Are you freaking
serious
?” Violet shook her head, glaring at her father. “You finally have everything you could ever want, and you’re going through another
fountain
?”

“Vi-…,”

She interrupted Logan, color staining her cheeks bright red. “No! What is wrong with you?
You are not immortal now!
What if something happened and you couldn’t get off the ship in time? Are you going to ride the freaking thing down into the ice water?”

“There is a port of call in Cherbourg, and one in Queenstown. We get on, we get off.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I hear is blah-blah-blah-stupid-history-lesson!”

“I want to go,” I realized out loud. Violet stopped talking, staring at me in irritation. I imagined walking along the promenade deck in 1912, arm in arm with my new husband. “Not just the ship… to France, and to Ireland… and see what it was like, be there…,”

“I knew you would,” West grinned, gesturing to my arm and the coordinates. “The Buckingham Fountain in Chicago-…,”

“Ugh.” Violet stormed past us and threw the sliding glass door open so hard it rocked the frame. Logan turned to me, shaking his head.

“I’m with Violet on this one. Dumb. And also creepy.”

“You and I both know that she’s more than capable of taking care of herself,” West defended me, and I raised my eyebrows.

“I’ll be fine, Rush.”

“Whatever. Bring a lifeboat.”

He followed Violet into the house. “Can I have a popsicle now?” Eva asked, and I grinned at her.

West kissed her forehead, nodding.
“Anything, babe.”

Our scheduled flight for nine PM slowly began to weigh on my mind. I held Eva on the couch, watching her eyelids flutter softly while she slept.

West sat next to me on the couch, having finished carrying our bags to the door. He had insisted on a limousine to the airport, though I protested the unnecessary luxury.

I kissed him, reveling in the taste of his mouth.
God, I’ve missed you.
I rested my head on his shoulder. “Tell me about her.”

He sighed. “You were born in
Algeria, near Morocco. I found you in Morocco when you were twenty years old. You were an only child, and cared for your ailing mother.”

Surprised, I lifted my head. “I left my mother for you?”

“You remember what the numbers do… and the dreams. You couldn’t help what you felt.”

“Was I smart?”

He grinned. “That’s your first question?”

“You never know. Julie seemed pretty superficial, and Annie made sure there were encyclopedias in the house before a washing machine. Isa was a resourceful little bar maid.
Kind of a potluck of brainpower.”

He laughed
breathily, careful not to wake Eva. “You keep your mind when we travel, Roam, remember?”

I nodded, turning to stare at the dark window. “I wish I had a break from my mind. These new memories are… awful.”

Troy’s face rapidly surfaced, and I stiffened, gripping Eva tightly. She stirred in her sleep, and West reached for her, standing and shifting her into his arms.

“Let’s put her to bed and talk, okay?”

I followed him silently to Eva’s polka-dotted bedroom, tucking her into her bed with a soft kiss. Back in the living room, I nodded toward the long hallway that led to Violet’s room. “You think they’re going to be able to pull themselves out of the bedroom long enough to watch Eva?”

He froze, and I watched comprehension pass over his gaze as his neck tightened. “I have been s
o focused on you, I didn’t even- I should talk to Logan.”

I wrapped my fingers over his forearm, shaking my head. “West, they are both adults.”

He took a calming breath, moving back to the couch. According to the clock, we had less than an hour before the limo arrived to pick us up. “I want to talk about something difficult. Okay?”

I nodded, pressing my face against his chest. He gathered a long strand of my hair between his thumb and forefinger.

“I knew that Eva was the key three months before Logan came to find me.”

Slowly, my mind traveled back to the castle, and settled on the red chair by the window.
Three months…
the sound of Troy’s boots against the floor thudded through my memory, and I gasped for air. He tightened his grip. “You couldn’t… come… Eva could have been killed,” I managed, struggling against the couch to get away from him.

He let me sit up, and I backed away, counting slowly to find my breath again. “Roam… I know that you understand that, but it doesn’t take away the guilt that I feel, or the… betrayal… that you feel.”

“If you had put Eva in danger by rushing through, I would never have forgiven you.” I turned to him, finally finding the courage I’d learned in the castle. “You trusted me to fight for myself. I don’t feel betrayed… I’m thankful that you trusted me.”

“God, I love you.”

“I just want you to hold me… forever,” I felt the desperation in my voice, straddling my legs over his hips and hugging him to me with all of my strength.

He pressed his flat palms against my back, and I held his face, my lips hovering only moments from his. He reached for me, and I backed away teasingly.

“We only have forty-five minutes, and that is not enough time for me to thoroughly make you my wife.”

“Really,” I grinned, raising an eyebrow. “Now, I’m intrigued.”

His fingers slid over my lower back, his gorgeous face alive with smiles. “We finally have time… real time,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.

“You know…
in the beginning, when you texted me the years and the places I was born, you mixed up 1790 and 1912.”

Leaning back against the couch, he grinned. “I was a little preoccupied that evening.”

“With what?”

“I couldn’t stop thinking about the way you figured out the order of the coordinates.
The mirror-reflection. I think that was the exact moment,” he touched his lips to mine, speaking into my kiss, “…that I fell in love with you.”

Grinning,
I nipped at his lower lip. He responded by trailing his fingers over my jaw, brushing his lips over mine once, and then twice. His adoring kiss reminded me of the day that I gave birth to Eva, and I threaded my fingers through his dark blonde hair with a sigh.

“What was my name, in 1912?”

“Amina.”

He called you Mina…
I pulled away suddenly, my face falling.

He narrowed his eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“I wish I didn’t remember Troy.” I pressed the back of my head against the couch, closing my eyes tightly. “Will told me that long ago, when this all started, he called me ‘Mina.’ I can’t run away from thoughts of him and I hate it. When I took a nap with Eva today, I dreamt about him, at the pool in the high school. On my wedding day.”

He sat up, and I could feel his muscles tensing through the couch. “What? Are you sure it was him?”

“Oh, it was him. The floor of the pool was a mirror, and we spoke to each other. He was just as nasty as ever. Thankfully Eva woke me up before he drowned me again.”

“Roam,” my heart thudded at his expression. “You shouldn’t dream about him.”

“I can’t help it!” I cried, tears quickly rising.

“No
… if he’d dead, the dreams of him killing you… end.
That is part of the prophecy.
”

I stood, whirling around as West moved behind me, catching me before I fell over the chair. “Is he alive? Is Troy alive?”

“I don’t know,” he gripped my forearms, reaching for me, but I shook my head. “Asher said that if I touched you, time reversed there. I don’t know if that can
bring back the dead.
”

“
Oh my God,
” I covered my mouth, remembering the blood dripping from my face as I carried the sword through the castle. I knew I was going to vomit.

Making it to the bathroom adjacent to the kitchen just in time, I bent over the bowl. He wrapped my hair into his hand, continuing to brush my shoulders with his fingertips.

“
I know.
” He slid against the wall in the bathroom, pulling me into his arms while I broke into tears.

“
Of course turning back time will bring back the dead! West, the
Peterhof Fountains…
they are intact. The explosion never happened, in this version of our life. All of the people who died… are alive today.
That is bringing back the dead.
”

Time jerked, skipping forward as it had in the castle during my very worst moments.

I found myself in Eva’s room, checking the locks on the windows. Logan’s voice sounded from down the hallway, and I moved to the kitchen in their mid-conversation.

“…
not to touch her!
Their
time reversed when you touched her, in the other land?”

“Does that mean that he’s
the king again? If time reversed, then Will…,”

“He did the right thing.” I rolled my diamond wedding ring around my finger absently, turning to Logan. “You know I can fight, and you know much I love my child. To keep me from her, for the rest of my life, would be unforgivable.”

“Even if he hadn’t touched me, Icepond would still continue to burn. Eva would be in danger until her eighteenth birthday… or whenever Will finally realized there was nothing he could do but
kill
her. I won’t spend another lifetime cowering from Troy.”

I reached for my phone, dialing Morgan. Violet turned to Logan,
her blue eyes moistened with tears.

“You’ll be alone in Afghanistan.”

“I’m not sure that you’re fully aware of how Marines work,” he said gently. “I’m not alone.”

“Morgan,” I began speaking into her voicemail. “Troy may be alive. Tell Jason. Protect dad.”

“I have to call my mom,” Violet ran for her bedroom, and I looked at West evenly.

The anger in his soul shone through his shadowed gaze. “I’ll cancel the flight.”

“No,” I pulled the browser up on my iPhone, searching. “I want Troy as far away from Eva as possible. Chicago is pretty far... 1912 is farther. He has my coordinates.” Finding what I was looking for on my phone, I pressed my thumb to the screen. “He knows I can’t go back to 1977 or 1955. 1912 is next. We need to get to Chicago… and wait. If we go through the fountain for a day or two, only minutes will pass here… long enough, hopefully, to lure him away from North Carolina.”

“
If
he’s coming,” Logan added, turning to West. “What resources do you have to keep me from getting arrested if I’m UA?”