Rule (Roam Series, Book Five) (30 page)

W
e dove, and I opened my eyes to see the white light of the portal immediately. As we moved through the light, the water grew warmer, and I knew we were entering Icepond.

The first siren attacked near Violet, and Logan snatched at her long,
tar-black hair, producing a knife to drag across her throat. The monster shrieked, gurgling through death as we continued toward what I prayed was the surface.

I barreled down through the portal, daring to glance at my
mother. Another siren bared her jagged teeth. My mom swam expertly out of the monster’s path, and my dad aimed his own knife before splitting the creature’s face.

Eric’s ship waited, and I gasped for air, finally feeling the warm suns on my face. My family climbed the ladder to the ship, and I
clung to the bottom of the ladder, demanding that I be last.

I nearly screamed as a slick skin of a seal breached the water, staring me in the face.

Within seconds, the being turned into Eric, who grabbed my upper arm. “Up the ladder. Hurry.”

I nodded, hastily scrambling for
the rope ladder. Eric followed behind me, stark naked. One of his crew members provided him with clothing as we reached the deck of the ship, but my natural curiosity dragged my gaze his way.

Natural curiosity… or
situational awareness.

My heart clamored to a stop.

A rudimentary, black sun tattoo burst at the very base of his back.

I thought back to the night I’d shot the
potential assassin, my first night in the castle. The same crude symbol that had been painted on the tattered piece of material in the insurgent’s possession sent me reaching for my gun.

As I
felt for my holster, I could already tell that the Beretta was gone.

“
Are you okay?” My dad held my mom. Logan stared at Eric.

Will reached for his gun… the gun I’d lost.

The gun Eric had taken from me.

“First,” Eric pointed the gun at my husband, and before I could stop him, he fired.

He fired, and I could feel the bullet tear through my husband’s skin.

Gripping my own heart, I felt to my knees.

“
No…
Will
,
no,
” I reached for him as Eric’s crew surrounded us.

Will held his hand over the wound in his chest,
shivering in shock. His face lifted to mine, disbelieving, as he pulled his hand away to stare at the sticky blood.

“Eva…,”

“You’re immortal,
you’ll heal… it will pass,
” I chanted his own comforting words, the same promise he’d given me after I feel from the balcony.

At that moment, West
turned to an approaching crewman, thrusting his hand forward and crushing the man’s windpipe. Another man advanced, and my dad caught his arm, breaking it while simultaneously drawing his gun.

Logan, already aiming his pistol,
shot a second crewman in the forehead.

“I’ll kill you!” I screamed, raising my hand in the air. Eric held his own hand out, and I felt his grip on my arm from across the ship deck. With his own magic, he jerked my hand behind my body, dropping me to my knees.

My mom started toward me, but other crewmen approached her with rifles, aimed to fire. Logan and my dad stopped moving as Roam shook her head pleadingly at the guards, and my dad was disarmed. Logan turned to attack, but when a rifle was pointed at Violet, he stilled.

Will raised his eyes to Eric, choking.
“Why?”

Wearing only black pants, his tattoos were now clearly illuminated in the sunlight. Two suns, flames, and a melting blue-green orb.

Earth
.

“
You left us. In that dungeon.
In that hell,
” Eric hissed, pointing his gun in my mother’s direction. My father growled and started forward, but Eric drug the weapon’s aim back to me. “For all of the years Troy kept you at his side, you left me- and Meredith- locked up.”

“I could not… get you out… my father refused-…,”

“Silence.” Eric snapped, and I felt his mind’s release on my arm. The ship started forward toward the castle, and I reached for Will.

My mother shook her head, pleading.
“If I’d known you were down there, I could have tried to convince Troy to-…,”

Roam’s words were
swallowed as Eric approached her. Her chin quivered, but she stared him down bravely. “You were in your own hell, where you belonged, you scheming whore. Now, you’ll go back and bring us our
king
.”

Roam took a
slow, even breath. Realization lit her watery green eyes. “You… don’t want him to rule. You want to kill him… again.”

“I want to torture him, as he tortured my family
… and my love,” Eric backed away from her, and I flinched as his hand circled my upper arm in a merciless grip.

Meredith.
He’s in love with Meredith.

Will’s breathing became less labored, and I knew he was healing. The
strange rapture of Eric’s touch began to weaken my senses, and I managed to lift my free hand, spinning a quick circle. The effects wore off as quickly as they came, and I turned my scorching glare his way.

“
If you killed my grandfather, there’s no way I can figure out how to go back into time- much less bring someone
here!
” I jerked away from Eric and dropped, holding Will in my arms. I tried to take his pain away, but every time I attempted a spell, I broke into tears. My eyes burning, desperate, I couldn’t think straight.

Focus!

“Lessons are best- and most quickly learned- when there is personal investment,” Eric’s voice, sinister and flat, sent a chill down the back of my spine.

He turned to Roam.

“Don’t hurt my daughter,” my mother froze, staring Eric down. “You can’t get what you want if you hurt her.”

“Agreed. These two, on the other hand- dispensable.”

He gestured to Christopher and Violet, and one of his crew members shoved them both forward. I watched my dad and Logan fight as weapons were pointed at their heads and shackles attached to their arms.

They are not immortal here.

Rage, in its purest form, sent me to my feet.

“
You will not touch them,
” I fired at Eric through clenched teeth. The sun burned against the back of my exposed skin, but I ignored the beads of sweat and saltwater dripping from my hair.

He smiled, turning to my mother. “
Roam will choose.”

Violet and Christopher struggled against the men, and I lifted my hand, pulling from every ounce of magic I possessed.
Do something!
Emotions clouded my thoughts, and I choked back a sob, trying to concentrate.
Think! A spell! Fire, music, anything!

“I won’t choose between
our children,” Roam’s horrified gaze shifted to West’s, and he roared at the chains on his wrists.

Eric’s eyes turned a garnet yellow, and his pupils shrunk to pinpoints. I grasped for
sanity, for control, unable to believe that I couldn’t use magic.
What is wrong with me?

“Shall we allow our queen to choose?” He turned the gun to me, and I stumbled backward. Will tried to climb to his feet, exhaling painfully. “
Your brother or your sister? Which will it be?”

The ship approached the dock, the castle ominous in the distance. “
If you hurt either one of them, I will rip Meredith apart while you watch.”

“Oh,
our fiery little queen… and where is your magic?” He chuckled, those demented eyes boring into me. “Feeling helpless now? Just as I took your magic away when you nearly set the castle on fire, I’ve taken it away now. You are merely a spoiled girl who’s fallen in love, ruling a kingdom that was never meant to be yours.”

“Your threats are bullshit, and I’m going to kill you. Magic or no magic,” I felt my fingernails cut the insides of my palms, knowing my nostrils were flaring.

“Allow me to teach you how to make a proper threat,” he took a step closer, and I curled my toes to hold my ground. “Show what you will do… but keep some guarantee.”

With that, he lifted my gun to Violet’s chest and fired.

The ship docked, Logan nearly broke his wrists pulling at the iron shackles, and Christopher dropped to his knees.

Violet turned to him, and then to Logan, blinking slowly.
A dark, red stain grew rapidly on front of her wet tee-shirt.

She’s not immortal here.

“
No!
” I raised my hand in the air, panting, screaming, and the earsplitting frequency rolled through a myriad of songs.

M
y mother held her breath; I knew she was struggling not to pass out. My father’s blank, shocked expression was my undoing.

“Fuck the music, Eva!
Unchain me!
” Logan roared at me, and I began to hyperventilate, dropping my hand from the air to run to Violet.

Will, now on his feet, caught me in his arms.

I knew the moment the light went out from my beautiful sister.

Christopher reared back and smashed the heel of his hand into one crewman’s nose, and blood
ruptured like a geyser from the soldier’s face. He retrieved the sword from the moaning man, turned, and I watched as he impaled the advancing soldier.

He suddenly writhed, dropping the sword as his fingers contorted at a strange angle. I turned to Eric, realizing he was using his mind to hurt my brother.

I organized my emotions, tucking away my broken heart and unleashing the wrath that was setting my insides on fire.

Pulling away from Will
, I centered on Logan. The chains around his wrist clanked to the deck of the ship. I expected him to attack, but instead, he ran to Violet and dropped at her side.

“No,” he turned to me, demanding, furious, his dark brown eyes swimming with tears. “Bring her back, Eva! Bring her back!”

“I- I can’t Logan,
I don’t… know how,
” my words chipped away at the thinning air through my sobbing breaths.

He gathered her lifeless body into his arms. Ringlets of white-blonde hair stuck to his dampened face as his shoulders
shook.

“And there we are,” Eric’s voice throttled my attention, and I turned to him
, tears rolling uncontrollably down my face. “You possess a hereditary magic, to give immortality, to manipulate the elements…
and to travel through time.
” He aimed the gun my way. “As did your grandfather. You’ll send the bringers of the prophecy back to the beginning, and they will return with Troy. I will have my revenge.”

“And if I don’t?” I demanded,
already knowing his answer.

Eric walked to Will, and I seethed, stepping between them.
“I will kill each member of your family… including your husband.” He grinned, a crazy grin, the kind that told me he was too far gone to hear me reason or beg. “I will live forever, with my queen. With Meredith.
You will give me your king’s immortality.
”

“What? No fucking wa-…,”

I stopped as he lifted his gun to Christopher. Two of his uninjured men shoved my brother forward while Chris bucked and struggled.

“I could keep him here, and stop the second sun from burning. Or, I could end him. And end the second sun all together. Your choice now, Queen Eva.”

The barrel of the pistol dug into Chris’s temple. I turned to Will, and he reached for my hand.

“Just do it, Eva,” he held his chest, breathing slowly. “Give him what he wants. He will not be around
much longer.”

Eric laughed from the center of his gut, his beady eyes sending
chills through my arms and down my fingertips. “You want this?” I managed, my voice breaking.

“Don’t fucking do it, Eva!” Chris growled, fighting against his captors.
I ignored Chris, my vision blurred through the non-stop violent flow of tears as my eyes kept fleeting to Violet’s body.

You will mourn.

“Yes,” Will managed. Eric slapped his hand at Will’s in a locking grip.

“And you want this?” I turned to Eric, imagining new ways that I would kill him- most of them involving dismemberment.

“Yes,” he hissed impatiently.

“It is done.”

Will, now mortal, leaned into me, and I wrapped my arm around him. Eric took a step back, his wicked smile chilling me to the core.

“Finally. Now, you’ll meet
my
queen.”

The walk from the ship to the castle left me emotionally destroyed.

Logan carried Violet in his arms, and I silently pleaded with him, feeling so inept.
I couldn’t even save my own sister… Logan will never forgive me.