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Whispers of Death
Abnormal
Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection
Reporting For Duty
A Paranormal Prison Short Story
Set in the world of the upcoming Raven Sentries of Shadow Island series.
Bee Murray
About
Dalia Rowan hates surprises. She hates them more than she hates snakes, her lying ex-boyfriend Landon, and all the stupid superstitions her grandmother has. Born to Raven Royalty, Dalia prefers to focus on the life that has been planned for her a future elite Raven Bodyguard. When she finds herself plucked out of her own bedroom on her birthday by The Fates and abandoned on Shadow Island, she refuses to accept this as her new normal.
Jace and Gage Anders are trapped. When The Fates dropped them on this god-forsaken rock at age twenty-five, they assumed they would be allowed to leave when their term was up. The Fates had another plan. A plan that traps them as forever-guardians of the maximum security prison Shadow Island. The magic of the Island forces them to spend long days and nights in their shifted form, stuck as Raven Sentries. With all hope of escape long gone, the Anders Brothers hope only for a miracle to break up the monotony of their sentence.
Will Dalia be the hope the Anders Brothers have been waiting for or will she end up being their downfall? Introduce yourself to this Raven shifter trio in Reporting For Duty, a short story set in the world of the upcoming paranormal prison series: Raven Sentries of Shadow Island by emerging paranormal romance author Bee Murray.
Reporting For Duty
Jace Anders, Raven Sentry Badge #658
Patrol Grounds, Shadow Island SuperMax Prison
My back cracks painfully as I perch on my ledge. The shifts have been harder the last few days and I can feel the strain in my wings as I stretch them out, struggling to hold them steady against the gale force winds that continue to grow in ferocity.
I scan the horizon for threats out of habit but it is just an exercise in futility. We haven’t seen another being in months. The magic of the island holds our residents in place and a successful escape has never been achieved. If we are being truly honest, it holds us in place too.
Everyone knows the grim reality: Shadow Island isn’t for rehabilitation, it’s a place to suffer for your sins until you die. It’s all part of the grand plan for justice, according to The Fates. If you ask my brother and I? We might as well be guarding an extra-haunted cemetery.
My brother and I have been the only Raven sentries assigned to the Shadow Island SuperMax for the last five years. We were dropped here by The Fates on our twenty-fifth birthday. Within two days, our mentors and former sentries had disappeared and we were stuck. The magic of the place holds us here and day after day, night after night, we stand watch.
Lately the magic has been stronger, forcing us to remain in our Raven forms longer and longer, our human sensitivities growing weaker and weaker. I still hold onto a small sliver of hope that The Fates will one day change their mind and either send us reinforcements or send us home. Gage has no such faith.
I shift on my bit of rock again, the electricity in the air tingling my senses, as I struggle to find a more comfortable resting spot. Clearly, a storm is coming in. Living out here, there are few things I hate more than storms. The wind makes it all but impossible to fly the perimeter and the constant rain splashing against the rocks ensures you are always wet, never warm.
The screams and calls of our prisoners rising in volume with the wind. Each battling the other for the last word in a never-ending screaming match at the end of the world. When you house the world’s most dangerous supernatural prisoners on a forsaken rock in the middle of the ocean, you really don’t want anyone getting more worked up than they already are. They are the only residents on this Island with nothing to lose.
An especially bright lightning strike illuminates the sky and my eyes widen as I catch a glimpse of a small shape falling through the storm, lit up in the sky with a trajectory that was clearly the Island. Our Island.
Traveling through lightning? Arriving in the middle of the night? Destined for the Outer Wall and not the Prison? That can only mean one thing: The Fates have sent us someone or something. Prisoners land in the center of the Island, but gifts from The Fates are always on the Outer Wall.
The pain in my back is forgotten as I strain to see through the rain and pinpoint the exact location where the stranger landed and excitement courses through my veins. For the first time, in a very, very long time, I could get to speak to another person other than by twin. For the first time, in a very, very, VERY long time, I have hope that maybe we won’t die here like everyone else.
With determination borne of desperation and the need to hear something, anything from the outside world, I launch my tired Raven through the storm and head towards the outer wall and the ever so small beacon of hope. A part of me smiles when I hear a small scream of rage float towards me on the wind, coming from the general direction.
Someone is definitely here.
Dalia Rowan, Raven Clan Rowan
The Ledge, Shadow Island SuperMax Prison Outer Wall
They say The Fates have a sense of humor. They conveniently forget to tell you that their sense
