by Sara Page
I try to sit up and shift my weight but stop as I feel a tender ache in my core. Looking down, I notice my belly looks a lot smaller. My eyes flick back up to Vis’ in alarm. “Did I give birth?
Vis smiles and nods his head, squeezing my hand reassuringly. “You did. Two healthy little girls.”
So many emotions flood me at once. Relief, joy, love and confusion, but the strongest is joy. I’m so happy, so thrilled, before I know it I’m crying and Vis is soothing me with kisses and wiping away my tears.
When I finally get myself back to order after much sniffling and a couple of tight hugs, I tell him, “I want to see them.”
Vis nods and smiles, “Of course.”
He’s gone for only a moment before he returns, kneeling beside my bed once more. “They’ll be here soon. Is there anything else I can get you?”
I look around the room. It’s extravagant and unexpected, looking more like a luxurious bed chamber than a room you would find in a standard hospital. The walls are covered in a thick blue wallpaper trimmed with gold and the floor appears to be some made up of some kind of glittering polished brown stone. I’m in a small but plush bed that might have rails but is covered in a plethora of plush blankets and pillows.
“Where are we?” I ask in awe. This doesn’t look like Terrea, and it definitely doesn’t look like the inside of a ship.
“We’re in Blackspire,” Vis says.
“But, how?” I sputter and Vis laughs.
“Are you sure you don’t remember?”
Slowly, I nod my head but before Vis can fill me in on the details the room to my door opens. In walks Beast and Striker, each carrying a tiny bundle in their arms with Warrick following closely on their heels.
Everyone is here. Everyone is safe, and we’re in Blackspire. I burst into another round of happy tears.
There’s much fussing as Beast and Striker take turns passing my daughters into my arms. They’re so beautiful. So tiny and beautiful and vulnerable. I kiss their foreheads and smell their dark hair. I press them against my chest and they snuggle up to my warmth.
With both of my daughters cuddled against my breasts, I lean back and just savor the moment. It’s so perfect, I even begin to drift off.
“She seems to be doing well,” are the words that wake me up.
I peek my eyes open to see a strange Ravager peering down at me.
“Good,” the Ravager says and it takes me moment before I recognize him. He’s the doctor that treated my father… Grogan?
One of the babies squirms against my chest. I watch Grogan reach his hand down and her little hand reaches out, grabbing his finger. Her little finger is such a light, pretty purple compared to his. “I still can’t believe it,” he says in awe.
“None of us can,” Beast agrees and then he’s smiling into my eyes. “Hello, Ameia. Did you rest well?”
“Yes,” I smile back at him but I’m so tired I feel like I could sleep for a hundred more years.
“Have you given any thought of what you want to name them?” Grogan asks, smiling down warmly at the little one as she tries to shove his finger into her mouth.
“No, not yet…” Beast answers.
Striker chimes in, “I was thinking Razor and Blade for boys, but I don’t think it will work for girls.”
Vis and Warrick are noticeably silent on the matter.
All eyes turn to me.
“What do you think, Ameia?” Beast asks.
I look down at my little girls, I really didn’t have much time to think of names for them but it just seems to come to me. “I’m thinking Esha and Ellany.”
“Ellany?” Grogan repeats disbelief.
The way he looks at me you’d think I just tried to tell him the planets are flat and space travel is simply our imagination.
“Is it a bad name?” I ask.
“No,” he says gruffly. “Not at all.” Carefully he extracts his finger from Ellany’s grasp. Ellany doesn’t seem to like this much and begins to cry, reaching for him.
“Shh,” I coo to her, offering her my finger. She grabs my finger and promptly shoves it in her mouth, quieting as she suckles.
By the time I look back up, Grogan is gone and all the guys are sharing a knowing look.
“What was that about?” I ask.
Beast shakes his head and approaches the right side of my bed, kneeling down beside it. “Nothing we need to worry about right now.”
I nod, accepting that and sink back into my pillows. I have a suspicion but I’m not going to voice it. At the moment it’s not important. Finding out what happened, though, is. I’ve been racking my brain, trying to put together the pieces.
The mood in the room sobers as I ask Striker, “What happened after you pulled me through that door?”
Each of them take turns filling in the details. After pulling me through that second pit, Striker and I came out the other side on the surface. At the time I was conscious, even though I can’t remember it, but I was starting to complain of pain so Striker carried me to the spot he was supposed to rendezvous with Beast.
Beast, however, wasn’t there. He had gone into the palace when King Zar started roaring. There he witnessed the King’s shades separating until nothing was left and the palace began to crumble down on top of everyone’s heads. The King’s legion broke ranks, fleeing the battle with no leader, and all that remained were Warrick and Vis who had turned and fought with the army from Blackspire.
Beast reluctantly admits he didn’t want to bring them back to Blackspire with us, but I called them mine and insisted. I threatened to cut off all his dangly bits and make him sleep on the floor forever if he refused to do so. I blush hotly upon hearing this but it does sound like something I’d do.
“They are mine,” I say clearly, just so they all know it.
Ever since Beast and Striker entered the room, Warrick and Vis have been hanging out in the background. I look to them and they move closer.
“We know,” Warrick rumbles. Vis smiles, but it’s a pained smile.
He and I are going to need to talk in private later.
Surrounded by love and knowing I’m safe and protected, and in a very comfortable bed, I fight falling asleep again with Esha and Ellany in my arms. It feels like all I’ve done these past few days is sleep and I’m sick and tired of people telling me I need to rest.
So instead of resting, I enjoy my time with all my guys in one room. Talking with each of them, I try to warm them up and get them used to each other, but things still feel awkward and strained. To Beast and Striker I wasn’t gone for only a couple of days, I was gone for months. They searched for me, hopelessly. Striker scouring what he could of the Other Side while Beast jumped from wormhole to wormhole. They could feel me calling to them but each time they reached the place they thought I was located I would move. They cling to my bed rails, reluctant to leave my sides and I can’t rightly blame them. Most of the words out of their mouths are about how much they missed me and how sorry they were.
“Losing you…” Beast chokes up as he takes my face in his hands and kisses me deeply. When he finally pulls away he just shakes his head, as if the words hurt too much to say.
I know exactly how he feels. “Being separated from you was the worse feeling in the world,” I say softly.
Beast pulls me close again, his forehead pressing against my forehead. On my other side I feel Striker wrapping his arms around my shoulders, being careful not to touch the babies. “And I didn’t even get to forgive you before it happened,” I lean back and look to Striker.
“You forgave me?” Striker asks with disbelief.
“Yes,” I answer, fighting past my own throat tightening. “I just want to put all that behind us.”
Striker smiles and his arms tenderly squeeze me. “Me too.”
We hug and hold for the longest time, unable to stop touching each other. I wish our bed was bigger so they could sleep with me in it. We’re definitely going to need to get a bigger bed. I think I
even say as much some time before I fall asleep again.
When I awake they’re gone, the room is dark and my heart is racing with fear. It all just seems too easy and too good to be true. I dreamt Striker dragged me into pit but I don’t remember what happened after that because we never came out of it.
I’m still in the pit, and this is all just a dream to keep me content in my nightmare.
Fumbling around, I sit up in bed and switch the light on. I nearly jump out of my skin when I notice someone is standing close to my bed.
I shriek and the door slams open, bouncing off the wall. Warrick comes thundering in the room with an earsplitting roar. Down the hall I can hear shouts ring out and the babies crying. I look to Warrick then back to the side of my bed and the person standing there.
It’s only Vis.
Leaning close, he asks with a face full of concern, “What is it, Ameia? What’s wrong?”
I stare long and hard at his face. Was it just my imagination? It seemed so real. Hand over my heart, it’s a long moment before I feel calm enough to answer.
“Ameia?” Vis prods and stares into my eyes, his gaze willing me to tell him what’s wrong.
“I’m sorry,” I finally answer and try to shake the vision from my head. “It must have been just a bad dream.”
It had to be, I try to convince myself. That so didn’t just happen.
But for one terrifying moment I could have sworn when I woke up Vis was leaning over my bed, staring at me, but his eyes were no longer red… they were two swirling pools of darkness.
Queen of the Ravagers
Chapter One
“Knowledge is power, Ameia, and it’s time we take back that power,” my aunt Lorune states as she inserts the key into the locked door that leads to Blackspire’s Grand Library.
The Grand Library is off-limits, access forbidden to all but the King himself after Striker’s father stumbled across super-secret knowledge that gave him special abilities and powers. Abilities that he used to incite a civil war and take control of the Other Side.
Thankfully, Lorune’s husband, Keede, has the keys needed to unlock the library for us so we can search for clues to explain just what the hell is happening.
Celeste, who is Beast’s mother, and I await anxiously for Lorune to get the door open while Keede watches the hall.
If we’re caught, we’re all going to be in deep shit. Disobeying the king’s order is considered treason of the highest order. But it’s worth the risk. We’re out of all other options at this point.
There are so many questions, it’s hard to even pick one to begin with, but I’m hoping we find something, anything, in our search.
The past few weeks have been great yet challenging as I’ve settled on Blackspire. It’s been eight weeks since I accepted Warrick, claimed Vis, was rescued from the Other Side and gave birth to my twin girls, Esha and Ellany.
My daughters are the first Ravager females anyone can remember being born—ever—and some of these guys have lived for hundreds of years.
Which is both freakin’ awesome and freakin’ terrifying.
It seems this whole Beacon prophecy is coming true… but what does that mean for me? What exactly is it that I’m supposed to do? What do these big purple guys expect of me?
The door unlocks with a loud, audible click and Lorune motions for us to hurry inside. I’m first, followed by Celeste then Keede and finally my aunt.
Lorune shuts the door behind us and locks it. Keede remains by the door, standing guard. He’s agreed to alert us if anyone should come investigating.
“We don’t have much time but I think I know where to start,” Lorune says over her shoulder, rushing ahead of us.
She’s right, we don’t have much time and we’re taking a big risk as it is.
Currently, the majority of Blackspire is busy with preparations for the upcoming ceremony celebrating the births of my daughters. Everyone is so busy there’s no better time for us to do this. In fact, it’s probably our only chance.
Motes of dust fill the air, stirred up by our hurried footsteps. The library is a dark labyrinth of looming shelves and cabinets stuffed with books and parchments.
So much knowledge just rotting away, all because one guy had to abuse it…
I have no difficulty seeing in the dark because my eyes are still red, increasing my night vision. They’re not quite as bright as a Ravager’s eyes, but it’s bright enough to make me definitely look less human.
Lorune has been sneaking in for some time, ever since she first heard of the prophecy, and it seems like she knows where she’s going.
Celeste, on the other hand, seems to be having some difficulty maneuvering the labyrinth of shelves and chairs. After she stumbles, nearly falling, I offer her my arm.
She smiles at me with gratitude. “Thank you, Ameia.”
I nod my head and smile back. “You’re welcome.”
It’s still hard to wrap my mind around the fact that this petite, dark-haired woman is Beast’s mother. She’s an inch shorter than me and so pale and delicate she reminds me of a fragile porcelain doll I had as a child. How she ever birthed such a gigantic purple alien such as Beast, I’ll never know. Clearly, he inherited all of his beastly traits from his father.
Without Celeste or my aunt Lorune, I would be truly be lost here.
I thought I’d finally get some answers and explanations now that we’re safely on Blackspire. I assumed, maybe naively, that there would be no reason for my mates to keep hiding stuff from me. They know I’m not going to leave; I’m not going to run. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. But more information hasn’t been forthcoming, even after all I’ve experienced. If anything, they’ve shut down even more.
Both Lorune and Celeste have been very sympathetic to my plight, after all, they’ve been enduring the same thing for years now.
The time for believing ignorance is bliss is over. My daughters are in danger; I can just feel it in my bones.
I have to know.
I’ll tear this entire library down to its foundation to get my answers.
The Ravagers, their existence, their origins, their history and their lore, most of it has been lost or forgotten. How can such a thing happen? How can an entire race, a race as advanced as them, have no written history or past?
The only explanation that makes any kind of sense is that something terrible must have happened at one point. Something catastrophic enough to wipe out the memories and history of an entire race.
“The Devour—,” Lorune starts and stops, clearing her throat. “I’m sorry,” she apologizes. “Striker’s father ransacked the place the last time he was here. But there seems to be only one area he focused on. In my searches, I’ve had the best luck there.”
She leads us through a weaving maze of shelves all stuffed full of books left to deteriorate with no one to take care of them. One would think with so many books, there would be a wealth of information stored here, but the books were not written by the Ravagers or for them.
The books are all from other worlds, a collection of alien and human literature to fill the void left by the lack of their own.
Gathered in the very back corner, surrounded protectively by a wall of shelves, is a table covered with stacks of books and a couple of small lamps. Skirting the edge of the table, Lorune leans over one small lamp and flips it on.
At first the light is harsh on my eyes and I turn away, blinking away tears as I adjust to the glow. Turning back around, Lorune flips on the other lamp. With a sigh, I squeeze my eyes shut this time until the sting passes.
I really hate that my eyes still prefer the darkness. Especially because much of Blackspire is illuminated and brightly lit for the human women. It’s nothing like the Other Side or the Black Palace.
If I didn’t know any better, if the technology wasn’t so much more advanced, I would almost think I was back on Terrea.
Lorune waves Celeste and me closer. Now that there is light Celeste no longer needs th
e aid of my arm to walk.
Splitting up, I go to Lorune’s right while Celeste comes up to stand by her left.
Grabbing a book, a puff of dust hits the air as Lorune drags it closer. She throws it open and begins to flip through pages. Once she finds what she’s searching for, her finger stabs the page, pointing out a passage for us.
“This is the book I’ve had the most success with. It’s an Old Earth book, and it’s in remarkable shape for its age. Hundreds of years old yet all the pages are intact. It’s not dated or titled but it was clearly written during the first Enlightenment.”
Lorune gives us a second to let that sink in before she shares with us what she’s learned. We both nod, encouraging her to go on. Time is of the essence here. We only have a couple of hours or less.
“The beginning of this book talks a great deal about the forming of the universe. Like many of the books I’m familiar with, it explains how at first there was darkness and then an intelligent creator created light to balance it.”
Both Celeste and I nod, it isn’t anything groundbreaking or new to either of us.
“What’s interesting, though, is the book goes into great detail about the balance between the light and the dark, and discusses them as if they’re more than abstract ideas. The passages are written as if light and dark are things or beings capable of action.”
“So you think it’s describing Ravagers and Humans?” I ask, and squint down at the words on the page.
“Yes,” my aunt nods. “Ravagers as the dark and Humans as the light.”
I nod. I suppose it makes sense.
“According to the book, the balance in the universe was broken.”
“Oh?” Celeste asks and all three of us stare down at the book with new interest.
Lorune flips through a couple of pages and then points out a new passage. “It begins here. For pages and pages, it details how darkness discovered a way to cross the border separating it from light, destroying the balance. The book calls the darkness insatiable, saying it swallowed up the light until little was left.”
