Fall (Roam Series, Book Two) (27 page)

“Nice shootin’.”

“Is this helping at all?”

I sighed deeply, pulling his coat tighter around my neck. “I just wish we could go into this music-montage, you know, like in the movies, where
Rage Against the Machine
plays and it takes me four and a half minutes to become a war-hardened samurai.”

A slow
smile touched his lips. “Me, too. I guess we’ll just have to cross realms and go to the mythical land the way they do it in real-life.”

I laughed, my breath puffing out in the dim, winter afternoon. The snowfall tripled, and I
watched him carefully pack the weapons up into their appropriate cases. After he closed the hatch of the Pilot, he moved around to the passenger’s seat.

“There’s something we need to take care of.”

I stiffened, accepting his kiss tentatively. He tugged at my hand, and I followed him into the snowy woods. The sun was creeping down into the hidden valley below at only four-thirty. “Please… nothing like Saturday… I can’t…,”

“No, this is something else.” The snow and fallen leaves crunched below our feet. Finally, we reached a clearing. I stepped back.

The Grand River rushed through his land, and at the clearing, white flowers bloomed in the middle of the snow. The sunset lit them to silver, and under the snow the scene looked fabled, as if painted off the page of my fairy-tale storybook.

“Christmas roses,” he explained. “I planted them
for you after your mother died.” His quiet words warmed me deep beneath the layers of his coat and my sweatshirt. “I watched you, at her funeral. It was worse than watching you have the nightmares. I couldn’t comfort you, and you were so young… and your dad was just broken.”

He drew me against him, and I pressed my face against his shirt. “It was cold that day… like today.
I saw Morgan turn to you and tug your coat around your face, buttoning the first button near your neck before she hugged you. I knew then that you’d be okay, and I respected Morgan from that moment.”

H
e took a step back, reaching into his pocket. I watched him kneel on one knee in the snow, taking my hands in his.

“Roam Eva Camden,” his eyes moistened at my middle name, and my breath caught in my chest. “
Of all the times I’ve asked to be your husband, I’ve never wanted you
more than this.
” He pressed his lips to the back of my hand in a courtly manner, his incredible blue eyes silently drawing me in. “
Will you marry me?
”

The ring that he held in his hand
was platinum, with a square-cut diamond that caught the sunset as the roses did. I nodded, unable to speak, as he slid the ring onto my finger.

“I’m going to require a
n official ‘yes.’” He repeated his words from the gas station in 1955. I nodded again, tears sliding down my cheeks on their own accord.

“
Yes
,” I agreed, my breathy laughter making him grin from ear to ear. He stood up, and I rushed forward to brush the leaves and snow off his pant leg. He laughed, gathering me into his arms.

His mouth was warm
on mine as the sun left us and turned the snowy night into bitter cold. He talked about the future the entire way back to his house. He’d marry me as soon as I graduated high school, and we’d try again for children after college. I listened, gazing at the ring on my finger through the darkness. His unspoken words were deafening in my mind.

If we made it home.

I spent the night with him, sharing West’s proposal with Morgan on the phone. She promised to cover for me for the night- after she finished screaming with excitement over the phone. “I’m researching wedding dresses tonight,” she promised.

Thursday night I spent at home. I wanted to keep my ring with me,
but not on my finger, so I threaded it through a silver chain from my jewelry box and wore it under my sweater.

On Friday, I watched West move through the classroom, passing out the
chapter tests that we were scheduled to take. The normalcy was almost laughable; by this time tomorrow, we’d be in another world, armed with weapons, and not knowing if we’d come out alive.

Logan
drove that morning to pick up Violet, and they were due to arrive around eleven that night. I asked Morgan to drop me off at West’s house, despite his request that I stay at home while he took care of Troy. When I asked him what he planned to do, his answer was both gratifying and horrifying.

He
wanted to speak to Troy, one last time, before he sealed him in a concrete grave.

Sitting at the kitchen counter, I watched him shoulder bags of Quickcrete to take into the basement.
“I still have no guilt,” I said, under my breath.

“Then maybe you’re more like me than I realized.”

In the basement, West had constructed a long, wooden box, deep enough for Troy to be completely submersed in the concrete tomb. “Can I help?”

“You can help by staying out of the basement.” He planned to inject him wi
th a tranquilizer before encasing him in the concrete.

I moved
the top stair, out of sight, listening to Troy’s voice as he rambled on. After almost a half an hour, West appeared at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” He held a syringe in his hand, focused on me. “He’s tied to the bars. He asked that
you
inject him. I told him to go fuck himself, but after further consideration, I thought maybe you’d like this opportunity… to end this.”

Closure
. I stood up, brushing my palms against my jeans.

“I do.”

I followed him down into the basement. Troy was tied to the bars in the exact same manner as he was when I stabbed him with the screwdriver. I took a deep breath, meeting his eyes. West handed me syringe. “In the neck,” he said.

Nodding, I moved toward him.
Troy watched me, unblinking.

“Roam,” he said softly. I ignored him, my hand shaking so badly I almost dropped the syringe.

“Last words?” I tried to sound taunting, but my voice wavered and cracked.

He nodded
, his eyes sunken; his skin was thin and hung from his face. “You can’t pass through… without me.”

I narrowed my eyes. “
Well, I don’t care for your company, so….,” my voice shook as tension tightened my chest.

“Do it,” West stared at the needle in my hand.

“I rule… there. You will be slaughtered the moment you pass through. Without me, you will die. All of you.” He looked at West. “We are not immortal there.”

In the week of
nightmares about the horrors that might wait for us on the other side, I’d never imagined that West could die. I turned to him, watching his expression go from irritated to furious.

West
grabbed my wrist and thrust the needle forward into his neck. Cringing, Troy stared at me, his eyes never leaving my face. “Not your problem when you’re breathing concrete.” West growled as he held his thumb over mine, forcing the tranquilizer into his bloodstream.

“I didn’t warn you… clearly… about your baby…
for the water,” his pupils began to dilate. “You will be massacred by my army. They guard… the door.
Roam
…,” he blinked slowly, unfocused. “
You will fall.
”

His chin tipped to his chest.

I stumbled backward, the syringe sliding out of my fingers and striking the ground.
My nightmare, in the room of mirrors…

You will fall.

My sister... Jason, Violet…

Logan.

“It’s logical, what he says,” I stared at West, wide-eyed. “If we were so hated in the kingdom, for treason, we’re walking into a massacre.”

“Even if we took him with us, he’d betray us the moment we crossed over.”

“Not if we have something he wants,” I backed to the cold, concrete wall, covering my stomach, almost expecting it to still be rounded and hard. Concave once again, it had already returned to the way it was... before. “We’ll trade him… Laurel… for me.”

“No.”
He continued pouring the powdered concrete into the box.

“Can you protect me?” I watched Troy’s slack body hang from the bars. “Once we get Laurel back, can you save me?”

He stopped, dropping the bag into the box and standing up straight. His forearms tensed, the numbers darkened above his muscles. I saw his mind working, and his jaw stiffen. “
Goddamnit!
” He glanced back at Troy, and then to me.

“West…,”

“Roam… if he’s telling the truth…,” he walked to me, and I lifted my face to his. “He warned us once. I don’t know why. I can’t lose you… and I owe it to Violet to save her mother.”

“I will convince him to cooperate. I will tell him that my life is
… over… without my daughter, anyway,” I took a cooling breath. “And when we cross and get Laurel, that I’ll stay with him.”

He brushed his
hands against his sides. “I just gave him enough drugs to kill an elephant. We’ll sleep tonight, and leave in the morning.”

When Logan and Violet arrived, West began laying out weapons, clothing, and bags for all of us. Morgan and J
ason pulled in around midnight.

West spoke to all of us, his eyes focused on me.

“Once Troy has Roam,
I will not stop until I get her back.
None of us are guaranteed to leave there alive. If we are taken over by his army, and we are stripped of our weapons, I will fight with my hands.
I will not stop.
Anyone who wants to leave, this is it- this is your last chance.”

I
waited, my throat constricting. When no one moved, West nodded.

“We’ll leave by
eight.” He continued loading bullets into a large duffel bag.

The evening grew somber.
By three AM, I could barely keep my eyes open.

Logan finished packing the heavy magazines into his own bag, moving to me on the couch. “Cam, you need to sleep. Morgan and Violet are already in bed.” West had two other bedrooms upstairs.

Jason tried on a pair of thick, combat boots. “If I remember right, if you slept over with Ally and went to bed too late, you got a little crazy in the morning.”

“Crazy meaning evil,” Logan agreed, and I laughed softly, closing my eyes and resting my head on Logan’s shoulder.

“Remember when you two were convinced you could stay up for two straight nights over Christmas break? When was that…,” Jason looked upward to the ceiling, as if remembering. “Sixth, seventh grade?”

“We did it,” I defended tiredly, and Logan smoothed my hair, smiling.

His fingers threaded through mine. West watched us, zipping his bag and placing it next to the door. “Logan, I’m going to take her upstairs. Would you finish up here with Jason?”

“
Yep.” He squeezed my hand. I managed to climb to my feet, walking to the stairs.

My head barely touched the pillow before I was out.

The ice castle again.

Logan kneels next to me in a imposing throne room, wearing the thick, velvet clothing I’ve come to recognize from this place. My hands are bound, and so are his.

Troy sits before us, maliciously drawing
his fingertips up and down a sword handle.

“Brother,” Logan’s v
oice is very much like his own now, just slightly deeper. “I beg you, forgive me. She is a witch. She enchants.”

I glare at him.
Coward!

“That, she is.” He slowly rises to his feet, walking to us with the sword. The strange lighting in the castle reflects off the sword, throwing bright beams around the floor where I kneel. “Roam, do you deny conspiring for my death?”

“Cut me loose,” I order, my dark, blue gown pooling around me. “Cut me loose, and give me a sword. Make this even.”

“Bitch.”

He slaps me, again the left side of my face.
He is right handed
, I realize, making a mental note. The pain is like before, but this time, Logan does not try to stop him.

“
That is your downfall. You will never be my equal. You will never rule.” He hisses, spittle touching my swollen lips with his proximity to my face. I turn my face to the side, cringing.

“
West!” He shouts, pinching my chin and forcing my face back to his. From the shadows near the throne, West emerges.

His heavy boots
strike the cold, slate floor, and I lift my eyes to see him. A crest adorns his surcoat, and I focus on his thick gloves. “Majesty?” He responds to Troy.

“
Release my brother. As for my queen,” he spews the word queen like vomit from his mouth, “Sixteen lashes… one for every year of her wretched existence.”

I watch West unsheathe his sword, slicing through Logan’s ropes. Logan is on his feet and at his brother’s side in moments. West turns to me, and I hold out my hands, waiting.