Free Rise (Roam Series, Book Three) by Kimberly Stedronsky

wait any more,” I choked, my entire body shaking. “I can’t let him… do this to me… these things … every night…,”
    “ Roam ,” he pulled my face away from his shoulder, holding my cheeks in his palms. I gripped his forearms, searching his deep, brown eyes.
    What’s happening to me?
    “ You’re always saving me ,” I lamented, tugging at his wide sleeves. “You have never stopped protecting me. Thank you for staying, ” I slid my hands into his thick curls and hugged him with all of my strength. “You’re my best friend in… every world.”
    “ Roam ,” he groaned, brushing my hair away from my eyes. “I will protect you until the day I die... or the day I can get you back to him.”
    “ I miss him, ” I screamed from the inside out, grasping at the rough material of his surcoat.
    “Listen ... Cam, listen ,” he held my face in his hands securely. “Once you two are back together, and we’re through with our marathon therapy sessions and find just the right dose of Zoloft, we’re going to look back on this like the nightmare it was- horrible, but over. I promise you.”
    I sat up, sniffing, looking down at him on the bed. “Do you still have the nightmares?”
    He closed his eyes tiredly. “Every night.”
    “Have you ever tried to control them? Change the outcome? I’ve done it a few times.”
    Logan reached up, gathering my long hair in his hand. “I don’t want to change the outcome. That’s why they are so terrible.”
    A sharp pounding at the door interrupted his words. He sat up quickly, hugging me. “I have to go.”
    “Logan, is Will going to help us? Should we trust him?”
    He glanced at the wall, and then back at me. “ I have to trust him. I have to get you out of here.”
    His unspoken words hung in the air as if he’d shouted them.
    Since West hasn’t come for you.
    Straightening his uniform, he hurried out the door as two new maids rushed in to help me undress.
    The various stages of healing cuts on my hips and thighs, if noticed by my maids, were ignored as they dressed me. Helena had seen them and I had simply shrugged, allowing her to think that Troy was cutting me each night.
    Had she confronted him? Is that why he had her executed? Or was it the diamond?
    I tossed and turned for hours, jumping at every noise. After realizing that I was uncomfortable without Troy next to me, I ran to the bathroom, reaching for my blade. This time, I chose my inner forearm again, knowing I’d have plenty of time for the cut to heal before Troy returned.
    After cutting twice, I held the toilet paper over the blood, staring at my knees. My abdomen was less rounded than last time at only eleven weeks, and I slid my fingers over my bare skin, longing to somehow tell West that it was his baby I carried.
    The bringer of the sun.
    Thunder began in the distance, muffled by the stone walls. As the storm approached, lightening streaked across the sky. I pulled my long, white robe over my thin nightgown, hurrying to the door.
    The cloaked guards at my chamber turned to me, and I covered my stomach. With their faces sheathed in the black cloth, they assumed a wraith-like appearance in the stone hallway. I took a deep breath, careful not to let them scare me. “I’m restless. I just need to walk.”
    “Yes, your majesty.”
    I followed the dark corridor, the castle utterly silent in the middle of the night. Once I reached the stairwell, I narrowed my eyes and turned back toward my room. I don’t want to wander the castle with these two.
    The guards resumed their position as I locked the door from the inside.
    Once I turned, my half-cry was stifled as a hand slid around my mouth. Warm breath touched my ear. “Don’t scream Cam, it’s me.”
    “ Logan ,” I turned to him, wrapping my arms around him.
    “ Shh … just get in bed, I’ll stay until you fall asleep.”
    “How did you know I couldn’t sleep?” Thunder shook the pane of glass in the window, and I jolted in his