Rule (Roam Series, Book Five)

by Stedronsky, Kimberly

  The tower in the far west side of the castle was more than a ten minute walk from the great hall, and as we passed each charred candelabra, I cringed.

  “Do you think he knows it was me?” I asked Will, stepping around a group of women rolling a giant, ruined tapestry into a burnt bundle.

  “Someone has claimed my granddaughter’s heart,” Asher’s voice carried through the wide hall, and I blushed seventeen shades of crimson. “No use hiding your feelings, lass. His majesty is the victim, I presume?”

  “Stop,” I protested weakly, forcing an unbearable glance at Will. He held a stern, but amused, grin.

  “I should hope, Asher, that today’s lesson will help my young wife learn to control her tempestuous emotions.”

  He nodded, his fingers furling and unfurling over the balled tip of his crooked cane. “Yes, yes. Come.”

  We followed him into a stone laboratory, and I quirked an eyebrow at the many cauldrons boiling and simmering at various temperatures. Giving Will a long, sideways glance, I lowered my voice. “Cauldrons? Are you kidding me?”

  “I have a gift for you, child. Come here.” He gestured to a long, wooden table, moving slowly to a thin, white box. “Do you know of the Adarna bird?”

  “You got me a bird? Is it alive?” I recoiled at the white box, and he chuckled, patting my hand.

  “No, young Eva. I have a feather for you, given willingly from the Adarna. The feather holds a singing charm that will lull you to sleep… or cure your afflictions. A sort of… aid, as you learn to protect your mortality here.” He gestured to my bandaged hand, and I hastily hid my arm behind my back.

  He opened the box, and I stared at the long, pink feather.

  “How does she use this?” Will asked, resting his hand on my lower back. The intimate gesture brought the memory of his kiss to my mind, and I involuntarily leaned closer to him.

  “Hold the feather in your fingers, and wave it across your line of vision.”

  Tentative, I reached for the quill, plucking it tersely from the box. “Just wave it like a fan?”

  “Yes. It shall only respond to your touch.”

  I pulled the feather through the air, watching the downy barbs flutter lightly.

  Warmth began in my fingertips, traveling through my arms and over my body. I closed my eyes, and Will caught me just before I lost consciousness.

  As I came to, my grandfather was unwrapping my bandaged hand, speaking to Will. “She is healed. Only she can control the feather.”

  “You could have warned me that I’d pass out,” I mumbled sleepily, turning into Will’s chest. “I’m exhausted.”

  “The Adarna enchantment will weaken you for some time, child. Use it with care.”

  He dropped my hand and began walking toward a desk. I lifted my eyes to Will’s, too tired to speak.

  “And her emotions? Our kiss; the fires, the castle?” He prodded, shifting me to a more comfortable position in his arms.

  Asher chuckled, continuing toward the desk. “Perhaps you should not kiss her.”

  Will’s tested patience was evident with the twitch in his jaw. He nodded politely to my grandfather, carrying me, and the feather, from the tower.

  “Maddening old man,” I heard him grumble, pressing a quick kiss to my forehead. “I will help you, Eva.”

  “Please take me… to your room. I don’t want to go back into the hall… with the cursed room.” The lulling sway of his walk was similar to a car ride; I stopped resisting, finally closing my eyes and letting the enchanted sleep come.

  When I woke, candles lit the darkness. I recognized Will’s room immediately, turning from my face-down position on his soft pillow.

  He gazed at me, smiling warmly. “Hello.”

  “Hi… ew,” I started to speak, realizing the trickle of spittle at the corner of my mouth when it was already too late. “I am the worst queen ever. What queen drools? Jesus Christ.”

  “Ah, Eva,” he chuckled, smoothing my hair away from my face. “You are so innocent when you sleep. I am… weakened… by your charms.”

  I smiled slowly, languidly, stretching. “How long have I been sleeping?”

  “A few hours. I’ve asked that dinner be served here for us, and then we shall depart for your world.”

  “Oh!” I remembered our plans, excitement forcing me to sit up quickly. “We can eat there… please, let’s just go,” I urged, scooting to the edge of the bed and wiping at my cheek with the back of my hand.

  “You are certain?”

  “Yes, please, please, let’s go,” I clasped my hands together pleadingly. “I just need to change.”

  “Your maids have brought all of your clothing and belongings into my room. This shall be our room now.”

  Our room? My eyes darted back to the bed, and then to the settee. “But… you won’t sleep on the couch?”

  “We will practice sharing a bed in your world… where your magic is not as potent.”

  “Sleep in the same bed with you, in the same world that my dad lives in?” I laughed sarcastically. “Wedding ring or not, he will freak.”

  “We shall see.” I started to get up, but he held my shoulders. “Wait, little one. Lay back,” he ordered. I did as he said, balling the comforter into my fist as he pushed my gown up and over my legs.

  “Will…,”

  “Hush. I am checking your wounds,” his fingers surrounded my thigh, and I closed my eyes as a knot of wanting tightened in my stomach. Efficiently, he nodded. “They are healed. The feather’s enchantment is very valuable. Dress, now,” he urged, and I nodded, taking a deep breath.

  “I can’t wait to see them,” I murmured, hurrying to the dresser. I found my own clothes right away, grabbing for a pair of jeans and a vintage, Guns N Roses tee-shirt. “I hope Logan and Violet are there. I can’t wait to see Rose…,”

  “Eva,” he protested softly as I flung my gown over my head, dropping it to the floor.

  “What? I have on underwear. It’s like a bikini.” Casting him a teasing glance, I cocked my hip to the side. “You just had your hand inches from my charms, Will.”

  “What is this…?” He stood, drinking up my body with his gaze. His hand spanned my abdomen, his fingers touching the small, silver stud in my navel. “A piercing?”

  His hand on my bare stomach stole my breath, and I clenched my thighs together, reaching for him.

  He stepped backward quickly, shaking his head. “Ah, no, Eva. Put on your clothes before I send this castle into flames.”

  Grinning, I wriggled into my jeans. “Yes, my lord.”

  He spoke to his advisors on our way out of the castle, and Eric watched me as I shifted impatiently at the door. I sent a defensive look his way, ignoring his intense gaze.

  Finally, we were steps away from the inclined plane. I gripped Will’s hand firmly in mine, waving politely at the guards.

  “Ready?” He asked teasingly, and I smiled.

  “So ready.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  As we disappeared through the door, I gasped at the cold, November breeze. The morning sun was perfectly clouded with scattered snow, and I shivered in my thin sweatshirt.

  “Would you like to call your father?” He gestured to my iPhone, and I accepted it eagerly.

  “I had no idea you had this! Yes,” I powered the device up quickly, waiting for my father to answer.

  In seconds, his anxious voice nearly doubled me over. “Eva?”

  “Hi Dad…,”

  I heard his relieved sigh, and my mother’s voice. “Yes… it’s her. Are you in Pennsylvania?”

  “Yeah, and Will-…,”

  “I’m getting a flight for you now… is Will with you?”

  “Of course he is.”

  “Good… okay, hold on… wait, just talk to your mom while I do this-…,”

  “Eva?”

  My heart broke at my parent’s frantic voices, and I took a calming breath as Will wrapped his arms around me. “Mom, I’m really fine. Happy. W
ill’s great. We’re just home for Thanksgiving. Just like regular people.”

  She broke into sobs, and I heard my father’s voice again. I handed the phone to Will while he relayed flight information. Turning toward the river to check my emotions, I gazed at the bridge. They are so worried… how am I going to leave them again?

  “This way, love,” Will ushered me toward the parking lot. “Your father has organized every detail. We must wait for the taxi to the airport.”

  “You look really nice in jeans. I think I should proclaim them acceptable in Icepond. It’ll be my first queenly decision.”

  He smiled. “I’m sorry,” he said, gesturing to the taxi approaching. “Your father said that Thanksgiving was yesterday. But your sister and Logan are still there, anxiously awaiting our arrival.”

  I shrieked with excitement, chattering about leftovers and our traditional Friday game night after Thanksgiving. At the airport, I had to lead Will through the boarding process. Narrowing my eyes at his driver’s license, I lifted my confused gaze to his.

  “The morning before we left, West provided me with all the identification I’d need for this world.”

  “I think my dad is in the mob or something,” I dropped next to him on the seat, holding my growling stomach.

  The flight lasted less than forty-five minutes. Riding the descending escalator at the Jacksonville airport, I gripped Will’s hand, nervously waiting for my parent’s faces to come into view.

  I saw my mother first. She pushed past the crowd exiting the plane, throwing her arms around me. “Mom-…,”

  “Eva,” she cried, her eyes the brightest green I’d ever seen them. Her top lip was swollen, so I knew she’d been crying the entire way to the airport. My dad pulled us both into his broad arms, kissing the top of my head.

  “You’re safe? No one is hurting you?”

  “I’m fine, Dad,” I promised, suffocating under Violet’s sudden attack.

  “You are the shittiest sister ever. I can’t believe you didn’t call me before you left.”

  “Vi, things were just crazy, and-…,”

  “Shut up,” she sniffed, pushing me away only to drag me back into her arms. “I love you.”

  “Morgan and Jason are coming,” Logan balanced the sandy-blonde haired baby in his arms, kissing away her fingertips as she desperately reached for the sunglasses on his head. “How long are you staying?” He asked Will.

  “A day,” he answered.

  “Thank you,” Roam turned to hug him, and he accepted her embrace. “Thank you so much, Will.”

  “Then we’ll enjoy every minute,” West promised, his dark blue eyes comforting more than any words spoken. “You’ve married him?”

  “Yes,” I lifted my hand, and Violet’s jaw dropped to her chest.

  “Holy- what the- what is that, nine, ten carats?”

  “Eva,” Wynn held her arms out shyly, and I hugged my niece, grinning. Her shoulder length, auburn hair was parted on the side and straight, despite both of her parent’s curls, and her big, brown eyes sparkled intelligently.

  Quiet and thoughtful, she was the complete opposite of me, and often I’d gotten in trouble for being the ‘bad influence’ when we were younger. Logan always defended me, telling his daughter that she was responsible for her own decisions and actions… even if those decisions involved blue hair dye and a do-it-yourself piercing kit.

  “Hey.”

  I looked past Wynn, watching Christopher walk to me slowly. “Hey,” I answered warily, remembering our last conversation. He was three inches taller than I was, at only fourteen, and tugged at his baseball cap absently.

  “Having fun being queen?”

  “It’s nothing new,” I retorted, and he fought back a grin.

  “Let’s go home,” West guided us toward the doors. I reached for Rose, but her wide, blue eyes immediately filled with anxious tears.

  “She’s Daddy’s girl,” Violet pressed a kiss to Logan’s cheek, and he wrapped his arm around me.

  “She’ll get used to Aunt Eva,” he promised.

  I talked non-stop on the way to the beach house, riding with my parents and Will while Christopher rode with Violet and Logan. I answered question after question about the castle, the kingdom, and when I began speaking about the shooter, my dad nearly veered off the road.

  “Who is behind this?”

  “She took him down single-handedly, West. With my Beretta, from nearly one hundred feet.” Will brushed his thumb over the back of my neck, and I shivered.

  “That’s my girl,” he murmured, still unconvinced. He dropped the subject, and I knew it was because of my mom. The conversation would surely continue later between Will and my father.

  I nearly ran from the car to the beach house, my heart thumping at the familiar plaque above the center window. Roam West. “Do you have leftovers from dinner yesterday?”

  “I don’t know how she’s so skinny. She eats like a pig.” Chris shuffled in behind me, and I made a face at him.

  “You try the castle menu for three days and see if you’re not starving,” I snapped. He turned to me as if he was about to say something, but my dad gave him a severe look.

  “Upstairs?” Will asked, and Roam nodded.

  “Violet and Logan are down here, closer to the kitchen for the baby. You both have the rooms upstairs.” She turned to my dad, and he sighed with controlled irritation. “West, they are married.”

  “She’s seventeen.”

  Hypocrite, I thought, glaring at my father. “Eighteen in… well, a few days. And we… aren’t…,” I stumbled, trying desperately to redeem my reputation for my father. “In name only, remember?”

  “I shall take the library room, then,” Will turned to the stairs without another word, and I hurried after him.

  “Eva, you make your own decisions now.” I knew it took all of my father’s strength to speak those words as he forced a light smile.

  I nodded, continuing to follow my husband upstairs and into the library. “Will, I didn’t mean-…,”

  “Eva,” he assured me, brushing his hand over my curls once before turning to our bag. “We will show no disrespect in your father’s home. Please go to your bedroom; I’ll see you downstairs.”

  I nodded, backing to the door before turning for my room. The familiarity of my bedroom beckoned me, and I closed the door. Running my hand along my dresser, I stopped at the pictures of my family. My series of framed photos included my sister and Logan and Wynn, Dad and Mom by the shore, me and Christopher at the aquarium, Aunt Morgan and Uncle Jason… Grandpa Cam…

  My turntable and records made me smile; for years, I couldn’t get the songs in my head to offer the perfect scratch of the record. My mom and dad got me the record player for my seventh birthday. Finally, I learned to not only add sounds to my music, but also to add harmony to my music.

  One particular album stood out, with its vertical blue, orange, and green columns. I gathered it from the bottom of the pile, gazing down at Ben E. King’s grinning face. For my twelfth birthday, my dad surprised me with a signed copy of the Stand By Me album, knowing how much I loved that song…

  … but not knowing why.

  I sighed before sitting on my bed. Will.

  I hurt him. I watched the enormous diamond sparkle in the sunlight against my small fingers. I changed the rules, not him. He never wanted a real marriage. I waved my hand in the air, listening the confusing frequency of several songs before settling on silence. Reaching for my pillow, I fell back over my bed, staring at the decorative, crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

  He meant to rule with Gabrielle at his side, not me.

  He felt obligated to marry me… but he doesn’t want me.

  But all I want… is him. I want him to feel the way that I feel.

  “I don’t know what I feel.”

  And now, apparently, I was talking to myself. I growled, tossing the pillow at the headboard and moving to my walk-in closet. Game night was a Perry F
amily tradition; on the Friday after Thanksgiving, whoever cleaned the Thanksgiving dinner dishes got to pick the first game of the evening.

  After changing into a short, white dress with a matching, gray and white striped cardigan, I hurried back downstairs. One look at the Trivial Pursuit box on the kitchen table told me that my dad had attacked the dinner dishes first last night.

  “Oh come on… not Genesis.” I cringed at the dark blue box of trivia cards playfully. “I call Dad’s team.”

  “Too late!” Violet grinned, plopping Rose into my arms before I had a chance to ready myself for her finicky greeting. “Me, Wynn, Chris, and Dad are a team.”

  “She doesn’t like me Vi,” I stiffened, bobbing up and down animatedly as the six-month-old squirmed in my arms.

  “You have to make her like you,” Violet argued, kissing her daughter’s forehead softly. I bounced faster, and added a swaying motion.

  “You look so comfortable,” Logan kidded, saving me as he gathered Rose into his arms. “She’ll get to know you. Just hang in there.”

  “I’m offended,” my mom dumped a bag of potato chips into a bowl, pointing at Logan and me. “I expect you both to step up. I am not carrying this team.”

  “No, you’re going down, just like last time,” West grinned, sneaking up behind her with a playful kiss on the neck.

  She breathed a laugh, shivering. “West!”

  “Okay, barf,” Chris snatched the bowl of chips from my mother’s hands, moving to the head of the table. “Will, you can be on our team,” he offered.

  The relaxed, homey atmosphere sent pangs of longing to my chest.

  Am I really giving all of this up, for him? He’s just one man. Yes, I feel something for him, but is it obligation? That couldn’t be. I’d never felt obligated to anyone, for anything. Empathy, since we are both in the same situation?

  I turned, watching as Will walked toward the table from the stairs. He’d changed into a pair of gray pants another one of his signature, swoontastic white shirts. I need to take this man shopping, I thought with a smile. Though he does rock the romantic hero look.

  He looked my way before nodding to my brother. “Thank you, Christopher.”