The Raven Wars, Book Two: Prologue

Below is a chapter rewrite from Book 2: The Raven Wars of The Raven Dreams Trilogy. If you’d like to read the original series, you can get it here.

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Book 2: The Raven Wars

Prologue: Isaak

The darkness was warm against his skin, like walking through the center of an invisible fire. The air was thick. Isaak’s lungs contracted, making breathing impossible.

What if I go the wrong way and face something worse than death?

He stilled, terrified by his own thought. Each breath came with a struggle, and every exhale echoed like a scream in the black void that surrounded him. He trembled on the inside, despite the hot sweat on his skin. Something else was calling to him, beckoning him into the fiery darkness. A feeling that he belonged here.

And someone is here with me.

He held his breath, unmoving, and listened. There was nothing at first, but slowly… and quietly, a low thrumming pulse surrounded him. His body involuntarily relaxed. The thrumming grew louder, as if it sensed his response. Ahead, the thick blackness lifted enough for Isaak to see the outline of a great shadow… faint… far away.

The urge to move toward this massive shadow pulled at him from his core. A small voice in his head told him to fight it. To not walk through this dark, unknown place. But this voice was overpowered by something else. His feet moved, one after the other, toward the shadowy mass far in the distance. The ground scorched beneath his feet, and he wanted to run away, back to his unconscious self asleep in bed. But a force entered his thoughts and removed the fear.

He felt more at home here than he ever did in Amortera, though he didn’t know why. His body also didn’t feel like his, yet here it was, creeping deeper into the unknown.

Why does it feel so relaxing?

With determination, Isaak moved forward, the burning at his feet no longer a concern. The thrumming echoed throughout the void, and the massive shadow ahead was brought to light with an orange flicker.

The heat had a direction now. It pushed from ahead, contained, focused. The thrumming changed, too. It bounced off surfaces he couldn’t see. He reached out to one side, and his hand found stone. He was in a tunnel.

After what felt like an eternity, the tunnel released him into open space. The shadow ahead became a bridge with iron spears rising on either side, a black pit yawning below. His breath quickened.

“Come,” a deep voice spoke, reverberating through the cavernous belly. The voice spoke again, deeper this time, nearly a growl. “Come, my boy, you are needed here.”

Pulled by this call, whether by choice or force, Isaak couldn’t decide; he stepped onto the bridge. The air cooled. He leaned over the edge, hands on the poles, and a wall of heat slammed up into his face. He jerked back. There was nothing down there. Just black, and the thrumming, rising from somewhere he couldn’t see.

When his foot landed on solid ground at the other side, the fortress that was just a shadow moments ago lit up. Isaak wanted to turn, to run. But the pull deep within his body won out. An invisible force stopped him. Without his consent, his feet dragged him toward the fortress.

“Who are you?” he asked aloud, his body leading him unwillingly to the one place he didn’t want to go. “Why am I here?”

“You belong here,” the voice answered in a low drone. “You’ve belonged to me since that night.”

Isaak approached a ledge overlooking an expansive underground city cast in clouds of smoke. It stood fierce and bold, several levels high. The blackened earth looked like stone, but Isaak knew better. The earth pulsed with the same evil that ran in his veins since that Tempest attacked him. This place wasn’t created by nature. It was forged by shadow.

Dark, ethereal, cloaked figures… not walking, floating in the hundreds, swarmed the city.

“Come,” the voice beckoned again. “You belong here.”

A pull in Isaak’s chest urged him forward. His mind fought against the voice.

I don’t belong here. I need to go back home.

But with each step he took, he wondered if maybe he did belong here after all. He passed through the front gate of the fortress.

I should wake up any time now.

Maybe it wasn’t a dream. Maybe the darkness had finally won.

Book One of The Raven Dreams rewrite is complete.

• Read all the chapter shares and behind-the-scenes from Book One and Book Two here.

• If you’d like to read the original version of The Raven Wars to see how the story evolves and changes in the rewrite, you can get a copy here.

If you’d like to explore my dark feminine novels, you can do so here.

Remote shadow work readings are open. Book here.

Some journeys ask us to go deeper than we expected. If you’re in one of those seasons, I’d be honored to sit with you through the cards.