Akra's Demons: Ravens Of War, page 1
Akra’s Demons
Ravens of War
Book 5
Elle Boon
Copyright 2020 Elle Boon
All rights reserved.
Cover art by: Tibbs Designs
Akra’s Demons
Ravens Of War, Book 5
Copyright © 2020 Elle Boon
First E-book Publication: 2020
Cover design by Valerie Tibbs
All cover art and logo copyright © Valerie Tibbs of Tibbs Design
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Thank You
Royally Twisted
Other Books by Elle Boon
About Elle Boon
Dedication
I’D LIKE TO SAY THANK you again to all of my Bombshells and my entire team...without all of you loving my Ravens this book wouldn’t have been possible. Akra has a part of me and I hope you all read this story and can find a little joy in between the heartache too. Remember, sometimes things need to be a little broken and put back together to become better, more solid, just like all of us.
This story is dedicated to anyone who has ever felt as though they had lost everything, but then after the dust settled picked themselves up and came out swinging. Life is full of ups and downs, sometimes more downs than ups. However, if I’ve learned anything it’s that there is still beauty and goodness...you just have to dig a little deeper to find it. Find your happy, dig a little deeper and grab onto the beauty in life, love hard, be wild, and dream big.
XOXO,
Elle Boon
Chapter One
AKRA’S ORIGINS, FIFTEEN Thousand BC...
Pain truly did come in many forms. Some came with the lash of a whip. Others the back of a hand, while some came from those who were supposed to love you. It was the latter that cut deeper than even the sharpest knives. Those are the ones you never recovered from even after the blood dries, the wounds heal, and there’s nothing left but the scars left behind.
Cakra struggled to understand what was happening. “Kumiko, what’re you doing?” She stared at her twin sister not comprehending what she was saying. They’d grown apart in the last year since Cakra had been slated to marry the Sultan her father had chosen for her, a man she was head over heels in love with. Kumiko, on the other hand, was to be wed to another Sultan, one who they’d only met once, but her sister didn’t agree to the match. Of course she’d not said a word to their father, the Sultan.
“I’m not going to be the one to marry the Sultan of Brunei, you are. It’s not fair that you got all the attention since birth because you came out of our mother two minutes before me. Now just because of that happenstance of birth, you think you get to marry the perfect man, while I’m to be shackled to some bastard who thinks a female is meant for nothing but breeding? I don’t think so.” She tossed her long blonde hair behind her shoulder, looking around the room with disdain, although it was filled with many things, it was far from clean, and yet her sister always wanted more.
Another difference they had. Where she preferred to keep her room tidy and clutter free, her sister demanded things from their father only to dismiss them once they were given.
“I have a plan, Kumiko.” She held out her hands, moving toward her sister. Her voice barely above a whisper to keep anyone from overhearing. She’d known her younger sister hadn’t wanted to marry the other man and had been working to figure out a way to get her out of the situation. “The guard’s our father has tasked to take you to Brunei agreed to divert you to the Sultan of Filipino Provine Sulu. I know you have feelings for the ruler there. He will be glad to take you for a wife. Once he and you wed, father will have to accept your union.” She stopped in front of Kumiko.
“Ah, the great Chahkrah has a plan, does she?” Kumiko rolled her eyes.
Their names each had a meaning that was known to their entire tribe. While her own was one any would be proud to have as it meant the sun, Kumiko’s meant companion child. Her sister liked to pronounce Cakra’s name with a sneer, thinking to hurt her with words. As a child, it had worked, making Cakra cry. Now as she listened to Kumiko say her name with such venom, she shrugged it off, knowing her sister was scared.
That wasn’t the only difference in the two of them, which caused a chasm that only grew as the years passed. Her sister felt as if her own name was a slap in the face. As if she had no purpose except to be a fill in should something happen to Cakra. Nothing made Kumiko happy, except perhaps when Cakra failed at something. However, those instances were few and far between.
“It will work, Kumiko.” She tried to reason even though she could see it was a lost cause. If it wasn’t her sister’s plan, it wasn’t a good one, not in the younger girl’s eyes.
Kumiko laughed, pushing Cakra away, forcefully. The action caught Cakra off guard, sending her falling onto the hard stone ground. She cried out at the pain, her hands taking most of her weight before she landed on her knees.
She looked over her shoulder, seeing a smile cross her sister’s face, making her look more sinister than Cakra had ever seen her before. “I don’t understand what is wrong with you,” Cakra said, tears making her voice crack. She hated to show weakness to anyone especially her sister.
“Aw, what’s the matter? Is the great Queen to be not so mighty?” Kumiko asked, circling her. The scarves of her skirt hitting Cakra in the face.
Cakra got to her feet. “I see there is no point in me trying to speak with you. I’ll see myself out.” She turned to leave, wishing things to go back to how they’d been when they’d been children.
Another grating laugh reached her just as something slammed into her from behind. “I’d say I was sorry, but we both know it would be a lie. Now, be a good girl and hush,” Kumiko said.
She put up her hands again, the stone floor coming up, or rather her body flying toward the uncompromising surface. This time she landed too fast, too hard for her hands to catch her. The impact jarred her harder than anything she’d ever felt. Her face slapped against the floor so hard she tasted blood, and feared she might have knocked out a tooth or broke a bone.
Fingers twisting in her long hair made her wish she’d worn it in a braid before coming to visit her sister. However, she had no clue what had awaited her when she’d made the trip to Kumiko’s suite. “What’re you doing?” she choked out, the coppery taste of her own blood filled her mouth, making her gag.
A heavy sigh filled the silence, making Cakra think she wasn’t going to answer. Her sister’s weight settled on her back; pain lanced her scalp as she twisted her fingers in her hair. Cakra knew better than to try and break free when she felt something sharp scrape her back.
“I’m going to switch places with you, sister. You’re going to be the one to go to the Sultan, and I’m going to marry Turi. See, it’s not fair I was never first all because of a stupid birth order. So now I’ll be you and get to find out what it’s like to be first.” Kumiko’s voice rose with each word she said.
“He’ll know you’re not me,” Cakra insisted.
Her head was forced backward, the blade she had felt on her spine now placed against her throat. “You think so? Why is that? Did you already give him your body, so you think me coming to him a virgin will tip him off? Newsflash, sister, I’ve already taken care of that with the help of Hori.”
The name of one of the farmers slipping so easily from Kumiko, along with the fact her sister had given him her body, shocked Cakra into silence.
“He was actually quite good. I’ve spent many dalliances with him since, learning ways to please a man and being pleased myself. It’s been a win-win for the both of us. His wife is a cold fish, he said.” Kumiko laughed.
A bell sounded off in the distance, letting Cakra know her time was ticking. Soon the guards would come to escort Kumiko to the courtyard where their father would be waiting to send her off. “Let me up, Kumiko, and we’ll pretend this never happened.” The aches, bruises, and the little cut she could feel on her throat could be covered up.
A knock sounded, three short raps, giving Cakra hope.
“Enter,” Kumiko barked.
Hori, the farmer her sister had been sleeping with rushed in, his eyes meeting Cakra’s for a moment then going above her. “Princess, we must hurry.” He held out his hands.
“Of course, love. Come, help me get her up.”
Cakra knew in that moment she had to fight, or she was never going to be the same again. She bucked and twisted, the skirts of her gown preventing a lot of movement, but she was able to turn around, knocking Kumiko sideways. The alarmed cry gave her a little satisfaction, but it was short lived as Hori rushed to help. The two of them backed her against the wall, her sister smiling a sinister twist to her lips making, Cakra’s stomach roll.
“Hori, plea
Kumiko placed her hand on his shoulder. “You won’t compensate him the way I do. Besides, I’m the one who will be Queen. What I can do for him will be greater than you ever could. Now be a good girl and just go along with us. Besides, didn’t you say the guards have agreed to take me to Brunei? If you like the Sultan there so much, then you can marry him.” She shrugged.
Time seemed to slow as both Hori and Kumiko advanced on her. She looked to her left and then her right, wishing she’d brought her ladies with her. “How about my ladies? They’ll know you aren’t me?”
Kumiko waved her hand. “Father doesn’t pay attention to the help. They’ll be traveling with you in the same manner as mine would’ve. Now shut up, I’m tired of your voice,” she snapped.
Her words made Cakra laugh since their voices were almost identical except the fact she wasn’t crazy like her sister clearly was.
“Hori, be a dear and give her the potion. I am done speaking to her.” Kumiko pointed her blade toward Cakra.
The man her sister chose to be her partner shrugged, his massive arms from the hours he worked bulged showing huge muscles. “Do not fight me, princess. I do not want to hurt you unnecessarily.”
Her sister growled, but Hori moved forward, and then a cloth covered her mouth followed by a sense of floating before darkness took her.
Cakra tried to make sense of where she was. Sweat covered her body which wasn’t strange since it was summer, but usually she handled it just fine. “What...what’s going on?” Her throat felt drier than the desert.
“Ssh, don’t talk, Princess Cakra.”
She tried to turn toward Bakra’s voice, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. Her tongue even felt swollen, almost as if she’d bitten it a couple hundred times. “Where are we?” Memories began to surface. Her sister and Hori and their plan for her to take Kumiko’s place. Surely she hadn’t gone through with it.
“Bakra, who is here with us?” she asked her friend. Although it had been frowned upon, Cakra and her ladies were more friends than princess and servants.
“Gerna, Menka, Hezra, Ezra and myself. We were told if we wanted you to live we were to keep our mouths shut and go with you quietly. Of course, we weren’t given any choice once they gagged us and then covered our faces with the traditional robes for traveling. Your father cried when you wouldn’t look at him. We all cried, but you didn’t lift your eyes. Kumiko...she told your father to let you go, and he kissed your head one last time then we were sent off.”
Cakra didn’t want to hear about that. Her worry was where they were now and how they would get home. Surely Turi would realize her sister wasn’t her. An insidious fear wormed its way through her. The Sultan of Brunei wouldn’t take kindly to being tricked. He wouldn’t care which daughter of King Chahkrahdahrah he got. “Bakra, how long have I been out?” she whispered.
“Ah, she is awake. Good, it is time. Bring them to me.”
Before Cakra could get her bearings or even figure out who the speaker with the gravelly voice was, she was being jerked forward. Bright sunlight nearly blinded her with its intensity. She tried to lift her arms to protect her face from the harsh rays, only to come up short as her mobility or lack thereof was made clear. “What is the meaning of this?” she demanded. Her father had taught her to not show fear when faced with an adversary.
The female who’d spoken stopped, turning quickly. In a face that looked like it had been melted by fire, she pressed a bony finger against Cakra’s chest. “You best learn your place, little girl. The Sultan learned of your duplicity and lack of...shall we say purity before your trip. He has decided he didn’t want a used female for wife. Even one who is so fetching. Instead he’s made a bargain with the devil.” She cackled.
Cakra’s heart began to pound so hard she was sure everyone could hear. “You’ve made a mistake. I’m not my sister. Or rather, that’s my sister who...who you’re speaking of. I’m not like that,” she tried to explain, her words falling on deaf ears.
“Of course you’d say that. You think we are stupid because we are nomads, but our Sultan has eyes and ears everywhere.” She flicked Cakra’s hair with her hand. “Now silence, or I’ll have your tongue removed.”
From the dark look, there was no denying the woman would take great pleasure in doing just that. Cakra tried to moisten her lips, but she felt as though she’d not had any liquid in days.
The woman turned and barked out an order for them to follow. Minutes turned into more than an hour with the sun beating down on their heads. When they reached a tent in the middle of nowhere, smoke was billowing up from the center of the enclosure. Why anyone would be cooking when it was so hot she had no clue. Truth be told, she didn’t want to know. If she could have a moment with the Sultan, she was sure she could convince him of her identity.
The flap to the tent opened, giving her a small look at what was inside. A look she wished she hadn’t seen. She backed away, not realizing the error as the man who stepped out enjoyed fear, fed off it in more than one way.
“Ah, you brought our little lambs. Very good, Yael. I am pleased with you.” He raised his hand, motioning the woman forward.
Cakra flinched as the woman named Yael, which meant mountain goat, actually seemed to purr as he, or rather it, petted her. Cakra wasn’t sure if she was awake or dreaming as the being lifted red eyes, pinning her in place with just that stare.
“Ah, yes, Master will be very pleased. Come forward, little lambs, for it is time.” Long red fingers bent and waved toward them.
She wanted to turn and flee back toward the way they’d come, but her hands were secured behind her back by something heavy, connecting her to Bakra. Her feet began moving even when she hadn’t consciously made the decision to do so. “Who are you?” she asked.
“Ah, who, not what?” he inquired with a voice as deep and dark as liquid smoke.
His question was accompanied by a smile showcasing teeth that were not like her own. Or like any other being she’d come across other than beasts. “What is it you want from me?” She straightened her spine. A daughter of a king didn’t kneel before anyone, nor did they cow to the likes of those lesser than her.
In a flash, the beastly being was in front of her. His hands were wrapped in her hair, jerking her head backward. “Oh, you’ll be kneeling before beasts so much lower than yourself in no time. You think you’re better than me, but where I’m taking you, you’ll be the low bitches on the floor.”
“Master, are you in need of sustenance?” Yael asked.
“Silence,” he yelled, his head spinning to glare at the female while his body stayed in place. If that wasn’t freaky enough, his teeth seemed to grow...in number and rows. When he faced Cakra he flashed a toothy smile that held no warmth. “I think I’ll start with one of your ladies. Bring them in.” His forked tongue snaked out, licking over his lips.
Menka whimpered. “Please, sir, don’t hurt us.”
Cakra tried to turn around. She wanted to stand in front of her friends, be the one to protect them. They were more than just her ladies; they were her confidantes, her friends. They didn’t belong out in the middle of nowhere about to suffer whatever lay ahead because of her sister. “Please, whatever you plan to do to me, I...I’ll go without a fight. But please, leave my people go free.” She barely got the words out of her parched throat.
Again, the beastly being flashed in front of her, making her stumble into him, his red skin burned her where she touched, making her cry out. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You don’t want to harm yourself now do you? Leave that to me.” He laughed, reaching forward and gripped Cakra’s jaw with one huge hand. Searing heat scorched her, then he bent, covering her mouth with his. She gagged, his kiss unwanted, but then he bit her tongue. Copper filling her mouth, her own blood making her gag.
The sound of him slurping brought her eyes open to find him watching her as she struggled, the burning pain forgotten. Or maybe she’d lost too much blood. Cakra wasn’t sure. Her ears were filled with a rushing sound, almost as if she were under water. The red beast smiled showing off red stained teeth that were no longer beast like. He raised his free hand, black claws raked across the wrist of the hand he was using to hold her face in place. His blood pooled, the stark difference was even more evident when he didn’t bleed red like her, but an oily black. “Now you will take from me and become one of mine.”
