Rise (Roam Series, Book Three) (2 page)

“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 in
to 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.”

Fear gripped my chest, making breathing impossible. “He told me he wouldn’t hurt me,” I said brokenly, tears welling.
The ache… the fever is coming back.

She sighed. “His idea of pain is… quite different from ours.”

Backing against the wall, I looked to the ceiling, wondering if there was a God here to pray to. The icicles mixed with the chandelier, casting drop-like bursts of light to the marble floor below. “And his army hates me?”

“He has prolonged their hatred for… generations.”

With that, she quietly left me alone.

The shower poured hot water, and I stood beneath the stream, ignoring the
array of soaps and shampoos and coughing until I felt like I’d throw up. Helena waited until I turned the water off, wrapping me in an oversized towel that matched the bathroom walls.

Back in the bed, I turned on my side, the smooth pillow case cool against my cheek. She urged me to swallow two more pills, moving to close the dark curtains at the window.

I watched her hand still in the air, almost reaching the braided, tasseled cord of the curtain. “Oh…,”

“What?” I breathed, another coughing spasm jerking my body violently.

She turned to me, her face filled with wonder. “It has stopped snowing. It slowed when the infant arrived two days ago, and now has completely… stopped.”

“How long has it been snowing?”

She drew the curtain, her voice empty. “All of my life.”

I stared at my hands curled against the sheet. She moved to me, removing something from her pocket. “You will bring the sun,” she whispered, pressing the object into my open palm.

Unfurling my fingers, I gazed at my hand against the sheet.

West’s ring.

Gripping the diamond, I closed my eyes.

“… the physician. She worsens with the hour.”

I stirred, blinking twice before bolting upwards and smacking my head against the colossal headboard.
Helena reached for me, patting my hand softly, and I welcomed her grandmotherly gesture.

Troy’s face came into focus, and I
cowered, hauling the sheets up to my chin. “Where is Logan?”

“I’m here, Cam,” his voice, like an angel
’s, sent a flood of relief through my body. I gasped, coughing spasmodically as I reached for him. He gave a sideways glance at Troy, who nodded once.

Logan moved to my bedside, holding me tightly. “I’m sick,” I wheezed, sniffling. He reached for a tissue, handing it to me.

“You’re such a baby when you have a cold.”

His familiar jibe was comforting. “
I need some Mucinex.”

“You’ll be awake for two days. You know what that does to you.”

“I don’t care. I can’t breathe,” I heard all of my t’s like d’s, my nasal cavity compacted.

“The doctor thinks it’s
developing into pneumonia.”

Troy
stood next to Logan, and I recoiled. “Logan has agreed to serve me. I have yet to determine if he is genuine in his fealty.” He gave Logan a pointed look, and Logan turned to me, handing me another tissue.

“I
agreed to serve him because he promised not to hurt you.”

“You’ll leave me alone?” I brushed at my nose with the tissue, the pressure adding to my growing headache.

Logan’s face changed to the controlled fury that I’d learned to recognize over our life together. “He won’t hurt you,” he repeated, disgust holding his gaze to the sheet, rather than my face. “Please… don’t fight him.”

“What?” I shook my head, rasping, brushing at my tears when Logan finally looked me squarely in the eyes.

“Just do what he says. Don’t fight. Don’t argue,” he swallowed hard as I shook his hand away from mine, slicing him with my heated glare.

“I will never stop fighting! You won’t touch me,” I broke into coughs again, my lungs constricting at the force of my hacking gasps.

“No, I won’t, not until you’re well,” Troy retorted, cringing.

“
You’re bringing their sun back,” Logan gestured to the window. “Everyone in the kingdom is… rejoicing. They want you to stay.”

“How am I bringing the sun?” I lay back against the pillow, too tired to continue the strange conversation any longer.

Troy’s eyes swept over my face. “Your baby lives, and she’s prophesized to bring the sun. The fools think
your
presence is heating our world.”

“Go away,” I moaned, turning away from him. “I won’t let you touch me,” I repeated
pathetically, a low rumble all I could manage in my chest as the urge to cough hit once more.

He
answered me with silence.

The next ten days left me weakened. Logan was not permitted to visit again, but Troy came in every day, near the evening. I dreaded the sound of the door, knowing his heavy-booted footsteps could mean that he would choose that night to attack me. Instead, he spoke about the sun, and how the melting snow and ice made the waters rise around the castle, and of the work being done on the bridge.

I stared at the window, silent, until he left.

As I began to feel stronger, I spent my days in the luxury of my prison, eating the meals that were prepared from fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats. The foods served were a cornucopia of the centuries, everything from swan meat and cheese to gourmet pizza. Helena explained that every time Troy returned, he brought things with him from the other world. The ideas, logic, luxuries, and politics were all variations of what my world offered, all adjusted to suit Troy’s rule.