Rise (Roam Series, Book Three) (14 page)

“
I must warn you- if you touch me, you will be sorry,” I threatened, positioning myself to run for my sword. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

His voice weakened my knees. “
What did I tell you about witty chit-chat?
”

Catching me with one arm, he pulled the dark mesh hood over his head, and I held my breath as
he gazed down at me adoringly.

“
West?”

He
lifted me up and against him, lowering his lips to mine.

His mouth hovered as his fingers slid over the back of my neck and into my hair. I closed my eyes, cupping his face in my hands, my fingertips tracing his lips and skimming his jaw. “
Roam
,” he whispered into my kiss, pressing my back against the wall gently. My heart pounded in my chest, relief leaving me gasping for air. His deep kiss twisted my body into a hurricane of wanting, stirring a need that had been buried for months.

Is this real? Am I hallucinating?

I don’t care.

“
You came back
,” I cried, and he pulled his face back to meet my eyes. His hands traced my sides as the lyrics to the love song spoke our words for us, the vibration of the bass in the walls deafening everything but West’s voice.

“I will
always
come back,” his fingers settled at my waist, and I watched the storm in his clear, blue eyes as he touched my stomach, over my corset.

The baby.
“The morning we left… we made love… this is your baby,” I gripped his wrist, flattening his fingers over my middle. “Knowing I had part of you, with me… has kept me alive.”

Understanding swept over him, and he crushed me to him, burying his face in my hair. “It wouldn’t have mattered.
I love every part of you.
”

As the music swelled, I pulled away nervously. “What are you going to do?”

His voice lowered to a baritone hush as his lips touched my ear. “Violet has Eva in the secret room- the sword room. When the next song begins, it’ll be the signal that Will is waiting for. 
You have to go with Violet and Eva.
You’ll be safe. Logan and I are going to kill Troy.”

I balled his sleeves into my hands, shaking my head. “No… West, they’ll kill you both, you’re not immortal here, you’ll die…,”

“Hey,” he pressed his lips to mine again, and then to my forehead. “Trust me.”

“
I can’t let you go!”

“If anything happens to me, you get Violet and Eva to the door. Protect our children,” he gripped my face, the green paint smearing on his thumb. “
I love you, baby.
”

“
I love you,
” I deteriorated in his arms, fear stealing my ability to breathe. “God, I love you,
I love you,
” I whispered.

“Go. Go now,” he pointed to the hall as
the song came to an end. I nodded, turning from him and running toward the arena.

The floor pulsated as the first clamoring chords of Rage
Against the Machine’s
Killing in the Name Of
began.

I froze.

Remembering my words in West’s woods as I tried to learn how to shoot, I broke into a run.

I just w
ish we could go into this music montage 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.

The sword room was dark and empty, moonlight spilling over the floor.

I can use the sword.

The rush of adrenaline sent me to the keypad, and I punched each
reverse digit of my birthday with force. The case slid open, and Violet held a gun out in front of her as a small, red-headed toddler peeked from behind the shelves against the wall.

“Roam?”

“Protect her,” I lowered to one knee, holding my arms out to my baby. Without hesitation, she darted to me, curling into my arms.

She knows me.

“Mommy?”

“
Oh,
Eva
.” The scent of her hair triggered the memory of the infant I’d once held in my arms, and I struggled to keep my resolve. “Stay with Violet, sweetheart,” I crooned, pressing kisses to her velvety cheeks. “
I love you with all of my heart.
”

“You’re a fairy princess,” she
backed away, touching a flower in my hair. I pulled the decorative, emerald-and-diamond encrusted flower clip from my temple, holding it out for her.

“
You
are,” I corrected, unclipping the belt that held the gown around my waist. I threw the costume to the floor, wearing only the brown, leather pants, corset, and boots. “Violet, do not open this door. If they don’t have the code, they don’t come in. No exceptions.”

“Okay,” she nodded quickly as I climbed to the lower cabinet in two steps, reaching for the
Kenauri-Rak from its high, mounted position in the case. “What are you going to do?”

I unsheathed the sword before jumping down to the floor.

“I’m going to end this.”

Securing the secr
et room, I ran for the hallway. The music washed with gunfire and riotous screaming that echoed throughout the castle. Several soldiers barreled toward the weapon room; I turned and locked the keypad.

“Your majesty,” one soldier drew his sword, holding it out before him. “There has been an uprising. You are to come with us.”

I held the sword carefully, lowering myself to attack. “You will surrender,” I ordered. “Throw your weapons on the ground.”

Mentally, I counted the members of Troy’s army
flanking the hall.

Seven
up.

“
Treason
,” the soldier hissed, his mesh mask darkening the phantom-like façade of his presence.

“
Well. You had your chance.”

Squatting beneath his blade in a flash, I
sliced through his legs.

As he dropped to hi
s knees, I positioned the sword before cutting his neck.

Blood gushed from the separation of skin and cartilage; he hit the floor before the remaining soldiers advanced on me.

Time skipped once again. My thoughts drifted to the endless
Guitar Hero
battles with Logan over the prior summer, and my mind focused on each brightly lit chord of the song. In the end, the powerful strength of my fingers (which Logan attributed to my constant wringing) would prevail over Logan’s home advantage with his old Playstation 2…

...a
nd I would win every time.

I stared at the hallway, blood dripping from the blade of the
Kenauri-Rak.

Seven down.

Turning for the great hall, two women dressed as foxes ran from me, breaking into earsplitting screams as they saw me round the corner. I caught my reflection in the mirrored atrium; blood mixed with the green paint on my face, and streaked my cheeks like macabre tears.

N
o guilt.

Bursting through the double doors, I rolled beneath a soldier poised at the entrance.
With speed, I managed to gut him before he had time to raise his sword. Another soldier advanced, and this time, I raised the blade high over my head, slicing vertically.

Throat to navel.

“Jesus Christ
…
Roam
?” West’s incredulous shout drew my attention to the left; he held an AK47, picking off soldiers amongst the blaring music and terrified victims.

I spun on my heel, severing the lower back of an aggressive soldier advancing on West.
West watched me before lifting the rifle to the man’s forehead and firing. As the soldier hit the ground, I glanced down at his blood-spattered face.

Gregory.

“
Troy is mine,
” I mouthed, turning toward the throne.

As if he could hear my silent words over the metallic
guitar bass, Troy’s eyes met mine from the platform. He held a sword himself, tearing away his mask.

With a menacing step forward, he pointed
the sword directly at me.

An invitation.

Music
… red, blue, green, yellow…
kneel, roll, kill,
drop
. Blood dripped from my hair as I moved my fingers over the grip of my sword, recalling the colors of the buttons on the game guitar.

Logan’s voice at my ear.
“Roam,
go
!” He shouted, shoving a magazine into his heavy gun. He thrust the rifle against his shoulder, firing at the approaching, intoxicated soldiers.
It’s only a matter of time before the sober ones show up,
I registered, as West stood before me.

His
hands gripped my shoulders as he shouted over the angry music. “
Don’t go after Troy alone.
”

He turned, fighting back to back with me as I ran the
sword through the soldier that had knocked Logan out the first, horrible night we had arrived.

As
the man reached for the blade buried in his stomach, I yanked it backwards, removing at least three of his fingers.

The
soldier dropped to one knee before falling over, and I stepped over him, climbing the three stairs to the altar. Troy stood behind the thrones, his hand up in the air as four guards started toward me. “Don’t touch her!” He shouted, pointing at West and Logan on the floor. “Fucking
kill
those two,” he snarled, reaching for me.

The blade of my sword
disappeared through the air in a blaze as I slashed at him. He jumped backwards, grinning. “Ah, you found the Rak. No doubt my son had something to do with that.”

“No talking- just
die
,” I lowered and tried for his shins, but he raised his own sword, the curved blade similar to my own. I anticipated the move, striking at him from below.

The moment my sword
cut across his left hip, I smiled.

He
seethed with pain, still defending himself against my attack. I spun the sword, going right for his chest, but he blocked, sweeping his leg at mine.

I fell hard, flat on my back, but still gripped the sword in my hands. Before I could move, he towered over me, crushing his boot to my wrist.

“
Stop
,” I cried, bones snapping in my arm and forcing me to release the sword. The moment I did, he flung the Kenauri-Rak at the throne, aiming his own sword at my neck.

Sweat trickled near his temple. “I will lock you up like an animal until the day that I can get my child
out of you
.”

Blood, either my own or someone
else’s, dripped into my eyes. I blinked at his face now blurred by the fluid. “
It’s not your child!
” I screamed, loud enough to be heard over the gunshots and chaos.

He roared, rearing back with his sword and driving
the blade through my shoulder.

I felt nothing for a long second…

Suddenly, the searing agony erased my breath.

Strange burning, followed by an excruciating sting, swarmed through my shoulder and down my arm.
As the blood cleared from my eyes, I watched him reach for the Kenauri-Rak. I tried to move, but his blade pinned my flesh to the wooden riser on the stone floor.

Reaching down, Troy grabbed a fistful of my hair. He tugged me upwards so that the sword, still skewering me to th
e wood, ran through my shoulder. Positioning himself over me, with the strength of a thousand demons, he slammed my head back down against the floor.

Blood, in my ears, in my mouth…
Focus left my eyes, and I forgot how to breathe.

“
The end
,” Troy hissed, sweeping the sword over his head and targeting my neck.

I watched
, my vision blurred, as the soft tissue from his temple separate in slow-motion. The bullet hit diagonally, behind his eye. Before I could comprehend what was happening, he was falling to the ground.

West fired two more shots to Troy’s head.

I tried to sit up, but a strange chill settled over my limbs, making them too heavy to lift. West knelt next to me, his face directly over mine. “Oh God… Roam,” he reached for the air above me, but Troy’s saber impaled through me to the floor. “I’m sorry,” he cried, yanking the sword upwards.

I registered
some pain but made no sound; he slid his arms beneath me, lifting me against his chest.

“I’ve found him- but we have to hurry.”
Will’s voice.

“I’m going
to get Violet…,” Logan’s words.

Silence
.