“I’m traveling. I have been. The magic that I’m capable of is strong, but destructive. In the same way you set things on fire, I destroy. The tremors in the throne room were from me, Eva.”
“Daddy,” she reached for my face, sliding each palm along my jaw. “What have you been telling me for years? Control. Think before you act. Think about where and what you’re doing, don’t just let it take you there.”
I smiled down at her, shaking my head. “What am I going to do with you?”
She sighed and shrugged, dropping her hands to her side. “I know everyone is in line to kill Troy. There’s practically a waiting list. But it’s going to be me, Dad. I know it. He knows it. That’s why he’s been trying to prevent my birth for all of these centuries. I’m his ending… but I know I can’t kill him here. Killing Troy here would change everything, all of history. I understand that. But what if we just bring Meredith and Eric to Troy?”
I listened to her logic, so proud as her words sank in. “God, you remind me of your mom right now.”
“Well?”
I nodded. “It makes sense. But it’d take a lot of magic to bring us all to the past.”
“Well, between you, Chris, and me, I know we can do this.”
“It has to be in Icepond. We can’t battle them on Earth, not with magic. Our world’s not ready for that, and it won’t be quiet.” I gazed at her, resigned. “I’ll try tonight. If I can succeed in taking Mom to another part of our lives in the past, then I’ll know.”
“I love you, Dad,” she hugged me, and I patted my hand over her curls, kissing the top of her head.
“Love you, babe. Stay here. No magic. I’ll make sure Logan takes care of you.”
She snorted. “I can take care of myself.”
I found Roam pacing in her room, and the moment I closed the door she was in my arms. “Where’s Eva?”
“She’s safe. For now.” I kissed her, comforting. “Troy left you alone?”
“With the guards at the door. He’s in bed with some maid, I’m sure. I don’t want him near Eva-…,”
“She’s safe,” I repeated. “I’m going to try something. Hold my hands, okay?”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to try to take us to another life. To the past. I don’t know if I can do this, but I need to try before it’s too late.”
She nodded, gripping my arms. “What life? They’re all so scary...,”
I laced my fingers in hers, feeling the magic at the top of my spine.
“Trust me.”
“Don’t I always?” She whispered, staring up at me. “Your eyes…,”
“Don’t let go.”
I reached deep into my mind, pulling from the past, focusing on one particular moment. The crisp leaves smelled like autumn, and the night sky produced cold rain that dampened my face. I opened my eyes, blinking.
We stood on the porch of my house in Ohio. Roam stared at me, in her Madison High School Swim Team sweatshirt and jeans, the thin printout of the ultrasound photo in her hand.
“Roam?” I murmured, watching her face carefully.
“Why here?” She looked down at the photo, her face falling, anguished. “This time hurt so much, West.”
“I’m sorry. I know,” I covered her hand in mine, crumpling the photo before backing her up to the post on the porch. “I love you so much, baby,” I heard myself say, even as I lifted her into my arms and tucked her against me. Her hands went to my face, her fingernails drawing over my unshaven jaw, and I tasted her mouth again for what felt like the first time. Her arms went around my neck as she responded, parting her lips, inviting me in.
She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I squeezed her thigh, pressing her back against the wooden post.
“West,” she protested, sighing shakily. “As much as I want to make love to you… and then shove a screwdriver in Troy’s neck…we really need to go back and get Eva.”
I stilled, breathing heavily, staring down at her. “Hold on to me.”
“Not going anywhere,” she promised with a small smile.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for just a little while longer?”
She shook her head. “My heart hurts. Even though it’s my mind, this body… this heart hurts too much. I just want to cry.”
Her small words, coming from her seventeen-year-old mouth, left me broken. I held her against me, pulling from the magic again to take us back to the castle.
Instead, my memories took over, and we appeared in our house in North Carolina. She stood across the bed from me, slowly looking down, focusing on the pregnancy test in her hands.
I turned to the window, watching Eva and Christopher play on the swing set in the back yard with the nanny I’d hired to care for them. I remember this… Christopher is six, Eva is eight…
And Roam is suffering.
“It was negative,” she murmured, and I crossed the room, cautious, knowing this time, remembering the screaming fits, the horrible nightmares, and the erratic crying that she went through.
“Yes… I had the operation, Roam, remember? I had a vasectomy. You can’t be pregnant.”
She looked up at me. “West, it’s me. I mean… it’s me, I know we’re traveling. Through time.”
I exhaled a breath, dropping to the end of the bed. “I wasn’t sure.”
“Why here? I don’t even remember taking another test. What year is this? Did we think we were pregnant again?”
I watched the confusion in her eyes, sorrow weighing on my chest. “You were very sick. Confused. This was when I took you to the other doctor.”
“I kept seeing Troy… every night. He’d come into my bed.” Her trembling hands dropped the plastic stick, and began wringing at her waist. “He’d…,” she ran her hands over her flattened stomach.
“Shh.” I stood and wrapped my arms around her. “I’ll try this again.”
As the chamber became visible around us, she materialized in my arms, but the space between us was occupied by her very pregnant belly. She dropped her forehead to my chest, pulling at my hair as burgeoning tears threatened her ability to breathe.
“Baby…,”
“Our child won’t travel. We’ll be in our bodies, in the past. I knew this would happen. I knew it.” She broke down, and I swept her into my arms, carrying her to the bed. “I wish I couldn’t feel it move, I wish I wasn’t so far along. It’s just cruel,” she turned to her side, holding her stomach. “Time is cruel.”
I held her as she cried, soothing, cursing myself for taking her to that terrible fall, and then to the time she was most sick. Eventually, she cried herself to sleep, and I slipped out of the room, standing guard at the door.
Where could I take us? Where could I fight Troy, and Meredith and Eric, but still be in Icepond? I needed to have weapons, and the advantage…
The moment I realized, time seemed to stop around me.
The past, a time when Violet was alive, and Troy was there, and I had weapons and was ready to fight.
The masquerade.
Chapter Twenty
Eva
I managed to stay in the dark, windowless room for all of five minutes. As I reached for the door, I jumped as the knock met me from the other side.
“Open up, Eva.”
I unlocked the door, and Logan stepped in quickly, dropping the latch behind him. Sneering, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Hey, home wrecker.”
He blanched. “What…?”
I was short enough to begin with, but with Logan in this new body, I felt like I had to tip my head all the way back just to look at his eyes. “You slept with my mom?”
He scowled at me. “Grow up. Leave it alone.”
“I am grown up. I have a husband and a baby, remember? Kind of a queen?”
“Okay, it’s personal. Drop it, Red.”
“Just… ew.”
He glared at me. “Enough. I’m bringing you in some food, and I’ll come back and stay with you until t
he morning, or until West gets back.”
“Where is Troy?”
“Don’t worry about Troy right now!”
“I’ll keep myself covered, and lay low. Just take me out of here. I can’t sit here. I’ll go fucking crazy.”
“Listen to music.”
Waving my hand quickly in the air, I heard my frequency screech through the castle before The Rolling Stone’s Satisfaction began. Just as fast, I cut it off, glaring at him expectantly. We both heard the screaming and shouting from beyond the door. “See? It’s on surround sound. I don’t know why, I have no area control. And I don’t think these people are ready for Jagger yet. Where is Cole?”
“He’s guarding your door, Eva. He refuses to leave your side.”
I grinned. “Good puppy.”
“Listen to me,” he hissed, and I jolted, taken aback by his manner. Logan had yelled at me only once in my entire life, on the ship when I couldn’t save Violet, and hearing his tone again upset my stomach, knotting my nerves. “This isn’t a game! We can’t fuck one thing up here, or we no longer fucking exist, do you hear me? You’ll be gone, Will, your child, my girls- all of it, gone, if you kill Troy now or change this history. We have to get out of here, let the story play out on its own, and go to another time to get Troy.”
“I know!” I shouted back at him, irritated with his words. “Dad and I just talked about it. We’re jumping out of here, and going to bring Meredith and Eric to Troy. The Troy we can kill.”
“And to a time when Violet was alive.”
I softened my tone, nodding and lowering my eyes. “Yes.”
“My girls are in that castle?”
“Yes,” I repeated.
He stared down at me, and his brown eyes lit with realization. “Then we can take them, too?”
I mind raced. We can take them…? “Wynn and Rose? Yes! Yes, we can take them too, Logan! But we don’t know what we’re walking into…,”
“I’ll make sure we do, and that they’ll be safe.” He turned suddenly for the door, and I raced after him.
“Wait! I’m hungry, I’m coming too-…,”
“Eat, fast, and then back here. Understand? I’ll be standing with Cole the entire time. Don’t speak to anyone, don’t look at anyone.”
“GOD.” I rolled my eyes, shrugging. “Fine. Let’s go.”
The moment I settled down at the table in the servant’s kitchen, I cringed at my plate. Flashing back to the farm that I had stayed at with Will in England, I sniffed the food cautiously.
“Eat,” the old serving woman ordered me, and I shot her a defiant stare.
“Fuck you, hag.”
She was startled, and Logan’s booming voice throttled her rebuttal. “Leave the maid alone.”
The woman dropped into a nervous curtsy, hobbling out of the kitchen.
“Thanks,” I mumbled, and he spoke again, under his breath.
“Watch your mouth, Eva. Don’t make me go find your dad.”
“I’m not a child!” Even though I feel like one. I covered my stomach, thinking about Perry. I’d seen her for all of a few minutes, and the feather had completely erased all evidence of my body having gone through the terrible labor and surgical delivery. Logan must have seen my expression, but it was Cole who spoke this time.
“Hard to eat with worries, darlin. Easy now.”
His calming voice, combined with his accent that reminded me of most of my friends in North Carolina, made me smile. “Thanks.”
I did eat, and another soldier came to get Logan for some reason. Reluctantly, he sent a stern look my way, and then to Cole. I ignored them, knowing Cole was still standing guard at the wall behind me.
Managing to eat half the meal, I lost my appetite (which rarely happened) and stood. Not two steps toward the stone archway that led back toward my father’s chamber, I froze.
Troy stood directly in my path.
“My knight has tired of you so quickly?”
My heart sped up to a painful pulse. I have my magic. I have Cole. I have Logan, wherever he went… A new wave of panic hit, and I stiffened. I have all the knowledge and skills of a trained assassin. Calm the fuck down. “Your majesty,” was all I could muster, resisting the litany of insults and threats burning my tongue.
I recognized his minion from the throne room hulking behind him before flicking my eyes back to the floor.
“Do you know why I have come down here, to these quarters, maid?”
I bit my tongue.
“I come for entertainment.”
Cole shifted against the wall, and I knew that he was ready to launch at him in a moment’s notice.
“Do you sing, maid? Do you dance?” Troy chuckled, circling me slowly, and I tasted blood as my teeth clamped down on the insides of my cheeks.
He was my age, maybe a little older, and definitely not as menacing as the man I’d met at the fireside in the Romani camp. Taking a breath, I raised my face to his. “No. To both.”
“Hmn, what are you good for, then?” He stopped right behind me, and I felt his hot breath on my neck. All the hairs on my arms rose painfully, and my throat constricted. No magic. Only if absolutely necessary. Don’t alter this history.
“Nothing, your majesty.”
“I disagree,” his fingers crept over my waist, and I stiffened, moving slightly. His man raised his sword at me, and suddenly another soldier was at his side, aiming a sword in Cole’s direction. “You are mine for this night. Come willingly.”
When his hand slid into the bodice of my gown, I elbowed him in the ribs with all of my strength. His soldier was on me in seconds, and I raised my hand in the air, ready to shock the fuck out of all of them.
“Brother,” Logan’s urgent voice drew Troy’s attention.
“Spitfire. I shall tame you.” Troy’s arm encircled my waist, forcefully tugging me against his body.
“Your majesty-…,”
“Leo, you will retire to your chambers and get the hell out of my presence,” Troy snarled without looking at Logan, his eyes still transfixed on me.
The deafening silence turned my stomach.
Something was happening, some incongruity, some anomaly that was about to change the order of things. The electricity in the air was almost tangible, and as I looked to Logan, I knew.
I knew the answers that Logan had searched for since the day he learned of the prophecy.
He knew it too, and yet, still, as Troy’s hand dipped back inside my gown, even as I raised my hand in the air to use the magic that I knew would protect me, Logan stepped forward.
“Stop touching her.”
Troy jerked my neck to the side to lower his mouth to my throat, and then gave my breast a torturous pinch. He glared at Logan. “You dare order me-…,”
“West… and the queen…,”
No… I felt Troy’s hold on me loosen, and I managed to yank away from his grasp.
“What?” Troy demanded.
Logan stared at me, and I watched the understanding pass over his face.
This is why.
This is why he betrayed them.
Because of me. To save me.
“The queen sleeps with West, and has every night since you have been gone.”
“Guards!” He roared, and the crazed look on his face frightened the shit out of me. I flattened against the wall, watching with wide eyes at the sudden mayhem. “Seize the prince! Follow me to the queen’s chambers!”
Oh, God, oh God… “Logan!”
“Find Asher!” He yelled to me as the guards wrestled him into captivity. I turned and broke into a run, easily navigating the corridors of the castle as I remembered my way to Asher’s tower. Tears threatened as I struggled to think of what to do.
“He never intended to betray them,” Cole’s voice made me scream; I’d forgotten that he was there, and had been following me as we darted through the halls.
“Of course he didn’t! He… he did it to protect me,” I gripped my side, my tears screaming
for release.
“Eva,” Cole supported me, and I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands.
“He’s going to kill them! He’s going to kill my mom first, and then Logan, and then my dad,” I cried, and Cole tugged me forward, toward the stairwell in front of us.
“You have to use your magic to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he ordered, and I nodded, blindly making my way up the stairs through my blurred vision.
“Asher!” I pounded on his chamber, and as my grandfather slowly opened the door, I pushed forward. “He’s going to kill them, he knows,” I shrieked.
“The Fire Queen,” he murmured, awed, and I stomped my foot, clenching my fists.
“Yes! I’m the fucking Fire Queen! And you’re my grandfather, and we have to save them, now!”
“Eva,” Cole gestured to the tables; books splayed open across potion bottles, boiling cauldrons, and parchment manuscripts. “He’s working on it.”
Asher nodded solemnly. “I am. I knew this day would arrive. I will save them; I will send them to another place, another world…,”
I half listened, realizing what I had to do.
History cannot be altered, or we would cease to exist.
They have to die.
I had to get us out of this place before it happened; I’d sent them to these bodies, these past lives, and now I had to get them all out before Troy put them to death.
“Okay, well, keep up the good work,” I patted my grandfather’s shoulder before turning for the door.
“Eva?” Cole called, and I waved him to me.
“Come on! We’re done here!”
He followed me, incredulous, as my grandfather watched in our wake. “What’s the plan?”
“The plan is that I have to get you, me, Logan, Mom, and Dad out of here. I did it in the castle when I sent them here, I can do it again,” I ran as fast as I could toward the throne room, realizing that the people of the castle were talking and whispering frantically, stampeding in the same direction as I was.
“What’s happening?” I asked a woman as she barreled toward the great hall.
“The queen, the prince, and Sir West are all in custody; treason,” she croaked.
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