Raven: Black Rose: Raven, #3

By R T Green

When Satan's little helper gets real, everyone feels the heat!

In this book, Raven and Mika discover the horrifying message of the black rose. It's very bad news for Mika.

Once again the guys have to travel through time, and face up to some very dangerous characters. This time it is Mika's life at stake, and it's down to the others to save her.

When they find themselves up against a Voodoo high sorceress with nothing left to lose, and three famous pirates in a very precarious situation, it becomes clear nothing is going to be easy.

'Black Rose' is a swashbuckling, nail-biting adventure set in the dangerous world of early-eighteenth-century Jamaica, where Caribbean pirates still rule the waves, and mystical dark forces seem to be lurking in every shadow.

"Raven is a perfect blend of romance, comedy, action-horror and fantasy. Full of moments to make you giggle, and then reach for the tissue-box!"

Check out the series, and everything else we do, on the rtgreen website.

 

*Raven does contain some scenes of a mild sexual nature.

Enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wise Owl
• Release date: May 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201229238

R T Green

The RTG mission in life is simple... to not be like everyone else! ‘Going Green’ has taken on a new meaning, in the book world at least. Whilst we applaud the original meaning (ebooks are a perfect way to promote that) we also try to present a different angle to it. The tendency these days is that if you don’t look and read like everyone else, you don’t sell books. Maybe there’s some truth in that, but we simply don’t do it. The RTG books have been described as a ‘breath of fresh literary air’, and, by those discovering us for the first time, ‘unexpectedly good’. We know many readers prefer the same-old same old, and that’s fine. It’s just not what you get from the RTG stable. Those who know about such things said it would take five years to become a proficient author... I scoffed at that. They were wise. It took six. It’s one reason why even today we remodel existing books, and will always do so. Right from the early years the stories were always good, but were put into words less well than they could have been! These days we have several series and a few standalones, the hit Daisy series most popular amongst them. In everything we do, the same provisos apply – Never the same book twice. If we can’t think up a good story, it doesn’t get written. The RTG brand is about exciting and twisty plots, a fast pace which doesn’t waste words, and endearing (sometimes slightly crazy) characters. We can never please everyone, but it works for us, and, it seems, for those who appreciate our work. Enjoy! Richard, Ann and the RTG crew

Book preview

Raven:

Book 3

Black Rose

New Edition

R  T  GREEN

RTG Logo.png

Other books...

The Raven Series –

Raven: No Angel!

Raven: Unstoppable

Raven: The Combo – books 1-3

The Daisy Morrow Series:

The first one – The Root of All Evil

The second one – The Strange Case of the Exploding Dolly-trolley

The third one – A Very Unexpected African Adventure

The fourth one - Pirates of Great Yarmouth: Curse of the Crimson Heart

The fifth One – The terrifying Tale of the Homesick Scarecrow

The sixth one – Call of Duty: The Wiltingham Enigma

The seventh one – Christmas in the Manor Born

The eighth one: The Shanghai Shadow

The ninth one – Some Like It Tepid

The tenth one – Waltzing Matilda

The eleventh one – The Wiltingham Incident

The twelfth one – The Pointing Finger

The thirteenth one – Here Comes Santa Claus!

The fourteenth one – The Witch of Scraggy Bottom

The fifteenth one – The Coronation Complication

The Throwback Prequel: When Daisy Met Aidan

The Box Set – books 1-3

The Second Box Set – books 4-6 plus the Prequel

The Third box set – books 7-9

The Sandie Shaw series:

Book 1 – Murder at the Green Mill

Book 2 – Christmas in Chicago is Murder

Book 3 – An American in Windsor

Book 4 – Springtime in Chicago

Book 5 – Murder on the Miami Express

Book 6 – The Family

Book 7 – Murder Most Olympic

Book 8 – Two Sisters, One Ghost

Book 9 – The Sergeant, the Flapper and a Crossword

The Mega Box Set – books 1 - 6

The Starstruck Series -

Starstruck: Somewhere to call Home

Starstruck: The Prequel

(Time to say Goodbye)

Starstruck: The Disappearance of Becca

Starstruck: The Rock

Starstruck: Ghosts, Ghouls and Evil Spirits

Starstruck: The Combo – books 1-3

Red Mist –

Season 1

Episode 1: Falling

Episode 2: Phoenix

Episode 3: Jealousy

Episode 4: Fearless

Season 2

Episode 5: Phantom

Episode 6: Desperation

Episode 7: Unbreakable

Episode 8: Evermore

When Billionaires Collide

Somewhere Only She Knows

Timeless

Ballistic

Cry of an Angel

The Hand of Time

Elsie: Mean Street

Wisp

Copyright © 2023 R T Green

All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The ‘Raven’ Series

Book 3: Black Rose

The Raven

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

You may like to know about another RTG series, which is also just a little outside the box!

Would you like a free mega-bundle?

The RTG Brand

The ‘Raven’ Series

'RAVEN' IS A ROMANTIC comedy with a hell of a difference!  It will make you smile one minute and tug at your heartstrings the next. Raven is the kind of gutsy, spirited character who throws herself into life but often gets lost in the game, sometimes without realising!

On her journey she’s joined by a host of great characters, some funny, some crazy, some dangerous. The series is also notable for taking you to places you can Google!

We like to blend fact with fiction. Never more so than with this book... most of the characters and locations are real, and so are the events you’ll read about here. We’ve tried to keep to the facts history will attest to!

Once again the guys have to travel through time, and face up to some very dangerous characters. This time it is Mika’s life at stake, and it’s down to the others to save her.

When they find themselves up against a Voodoo high sorceress with nothing left to lose, and three famous pirates in a very precarious situation, it becomes clear nothing is going to be easy.

‘Black Rose’ is a swashbuckling, nail-biting adventure set in the dangerous world of early-eighteenth-century Jamaica, where Caribbean pirates still rule the waves, and mystical dark forces seem to be lurking in every shadow...

If you can spare a couple of minutes to write a review, we would very much like know what you think.

Enjoy!

Richard, Ann and the RTG crew

Book 3: Black Rose

The Raven

A FREEZING DECEMBER fog shrouded the world in a dirty white blanket of ice crystals. Not a breath of wind disturbed the night air. The mellow light from the deck lamps hardly penetrated the murk, but where it did manage to reach, it served only to add an extra layer of ghostliness to the already-spooky ambience of the garden.

Every tree, every bush, every blade of grass was cocooned in a silent, sparkling coat of white. Nothing moved to break the stillness, and not one light shone from the windows of the house, its occupants long since asleep.

It was three in the morning after all, but the raven knew she couldn’t end her vigil until the light of dawn began to penetrate the fog. The fog that wasn’t making her task any easier. Perched on the railings on the deck of Mika’s log cabin, she couldn’t see the house... or anything more than twenty feet away. She was relying on her heightened senses to warn of whatever danger may be approaching.

She’d not moved for hours, ever since the fog had swirled over and blotted out her world. She knew the house was just a mile from the sea, and knew at this time of year in Norfolk sea mists rolled in suddenly, often with little warning.

But she also knew that despite its very earthly appearance, this particular fog could be a far from natural occurrence.

She’d first felt the unease five days ago. That wasn’t unusual. Her role in life was to keep a watchful eye on the keeper of the tablet, and the premonitions of impending danger made an effective early-warning system.

This time was different. Very different.

The premonitions always came with images... sometimes as clear as day, sometimes a little blurred around the edges. Even so, they were pictures of something. Five days ago, when the dread of unease first thudded into her, she tried to focus on the images. There were none to focus on.

Just a dirty fog that was clearly meant to conceal everything.

It was a sign that whatever was lurking in the shadows was immensely powerful. Powerful enough to hide itself from those whose job it was to protect the tablet. In the raven’s short but full life, that had never happened before.

It had hardly ever happened at all.

She’d flown straight to Mika, but not revealed herself. She wasn’t sure why. The most likely reason was that morphing into the little girl they called Mini-Raven, and running in shouting, ‘Something bad is going to happen, but I haven’t a clue what it is’, seemed a little pointless. And embarrassing. It would for sure have put a damper they didn’t need onto their fight back to a normal life.

After the trauma they all went through three weeks ago, being told there was another one on the horizon was something they could sure do without.

So her vigil became a secret, lonely one. Each night she’d kept a watching brief, a beady eye seeking any warning signs that danger was close. All had been calm, just as normal as it should be.

This night the fog came. As it rolled across the garden, the dread had suddenly become worse. Was it that five days ago she had received an image after all? A picture to tell her something hidden inside the fog was the danger?

She couldn’t be sure. But until the fog had dispersed, she couldn’t rest either.

She shook the ice crystals from her feathers. Still the unease was getting the better of her, so she spread her wings and flew into the freezing air, needing to do something to break the monotony and the concern. She couldn’t go further than a few yards from the house, but maybe a brief flyaround would help.

Or it might make it worse. The only thing to make it worse would be seeing something dreadful that really was for real. That was why she was supposed to be there, after all.

She climbed fifty feet, above the fog layer. Someone had thrown a blanket of cotton wool over the village. The only things peeping above it were the two big oak trees on the village green, their dark leafless branches spearing into the clear moonlit night like the twisted arms of death itself.

She turned away, and swooped back into the fog. So dense it swamped her senses, flying above it was even worse... it felt too far away from those she was watching over. She circled twice around the house, and then traversed the garden from corner to corner.

Nothing seemed to alleviate her unease, but there wasn’t anything to justify it either. It was just fog... stifling, freezing all-too-earthly fog.

Even so, she wouldn’t leave her cold, frosty perch again until the light of morning.

Then the next day, as the daylight faded to evening, she would do it all again.

Chapter 1

‘I WISH YOU DIDN’T HAVE to go.’

Mika let out a sigh of agreement. ‘Believe me, so do I. But Madeline is... well, Madeline. And literary agents get well pissed off when you tell them the book you’re contracted to write isn’t being written anymore.’

Raven handed her the makeup bag, in a reluctant kind of way. ‘So I guess demanding a meeting at eight in the morning is her making a point?’

Mika zipped the lid on the overnight case, and nodded thoughtfully. ‘She knows I can’t get to London at that time in the morning, so I’ll have to go down the night before.’

‘Bitch.’

Mika pulled them close, and kissed Raven softly. ‘It’s called a power-play. But I’m beginning to think bitch is a good word to describe her.’

‘So what are you going to do?’

‘Not sure yet. See what she has to say, and how she says it. Then I’ll decide.’

Raven walked slowly to the dressing table, shaking hands involuntarily moving things that were perfectly fine where they were. ‘I’m so sorry... sorry I’ve caused all this upset.’

She felt loving hands around her waist, gentle lips kiss her neck, and a soft voice whisper in her ear. ‘I’m not sorry. Not one bit. The flesh-and-blood version of you is far better than any words I could ever have written.’

She turned and buried her head in Mika’s shoulder. ‘But if I’d never become flesh and blood, none of the mortal danger and life-threatening stuff we’ve gone through would have happened.’

Mika eased them apart, locking their eyes together. ‘Hey, no more of that kind of talk, ok? We both know when I first started writing a book about she-devils, the you I thought was fiction had always existed. Somehow our worlds came together... and that has to be down to destiny, not my magic words, and not some kind of morphing you instigated.’

Raven found a smile. ‘So you’re saying my argument is bullshit?’

‘Yes. Total, utter crap.’

‘Fine. I’ll use tonight to see if I can discover a few brain cells then.’

They hugged and laughed together, and headed into the living room so Mika could say goodbye to Honey and Ginger. A minute later the sound of a car horn told them the taxi had arrived. Raven’s face creased into a fearful kind of sadness as they held each other in the doorway. ‘I still wish you weren’t going though.’

‘I know, baby. I did ask you to come with me, but I think I already knew it was too soon for you to face the big wide world... especially the centre of London!’

Her head lowered. ‘Yeah, way too soon. I just hope... hope nothing bad happens while you’re gone.’

‘Hey, I’ll be back within twenty-four hours. And I’m meeting Rudy too, so I can drag him kicking and screaming to stay with us for a couple of days, so that’s all good isn’t it?’

Raven nodded like a little girl saying goodbye to her mother on her first day at school. ‘Just phone me every hour, on the hour, ok?’

‘Am I not allowed to sleep?’ Mika grinned.

‘Maybe between the hours of midnight and two... no more.’

‘So demanding...’ They kissed, and Mika brushed away the single tear rolling down Raven’s cheek. ‘And nothing’s going to happen, ok? Honey and Ginger are here, so order a takeaway and have a great girl’s night in. That’s an order!’

Raven watched as Mika climbed into the taxi, and didn’t stop watching until it drove out of sight around the corner. Then she closed the door, quickly. Suddenly she felt alone. Mika was right, Honey and Ginger were there... but somehow she knew the night ahead was going to feel very, very lonely.

The four-minute ride to the station didn’t give Mika time to dwell on the sad look on Raven’s face. Once she found a seat on the train waiting at the platform, and settled back for the two-hour journey, there was plenty of thinking time.

Three weeks had passed since the tablet transported them home from Predjama, just about in one piece. Raven had suffered more than any of them, more than a body should be able to handle. They’d saved her from being lost to the dark forces by the narrowest of margins. Saved indeed, but it had come at a cost.

Raven hated herself for what she’d done. She’d had no control over her actions, but inside her head that didn’t make any difference. The trauma of what happened was going to take time to dispel, and it wasn’t being helped by the fact she couldn’t understand how anyone could ever love her again.

Mika closed her eyes, trying to shake off the vague feeling of dread that just wouldn’t seem to shake off. Raven had accepted the power of light and fire for the right reasons, so she could defeat Erasmus and save her friends, believing she could control her new powers. It was a naïve belief, both in the fact she could ever control it, and in the way the power was given to her.

Erasmus and his dark forces made sure she would become his queen of light and fire in the most abusive way possible.

For the first three nights after they made it home, Raven didn’t want to be touched. Mika insisted they share her bed, simply because she needed her to understand she was loved, and was safe. But if Raven had slept any closer to the far side of the bed, she would have been on the floor.

Longing to hold her close, and make sure she knew they both needed their love, Mika resisted the urge. Trying to force even the most innocent of physical contact would have sent things tumbling backwards.

If there was any further backwards to go.

However, as the days drifted by, the most feather-light of tender loving care started to make a difference. As their love slowly won out, Raven began to accept she wasn’t the most hateful person on the planet.

Taking away the trauma was a painfully slow process. In the last few days they’d spooned each other to sleep, and a smile that told Mika her spirit was still there began to light up Raven’s face once again. It was wonderful to see, but it was still going to be some time until that smile held no traces of self-doubt.

Mika caught a slight smile on her own face, and opened her eyes. The guy sitting opposite was watching her curiously, so she quickly wiped it away before he could spend any longer fantasising about why it was there.

Still the uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away. She cursed Madeline and her supercilious self-importance, demanding crack-of-dawn meetings for no other reason than to stamp her authority. Despite the words she’d spoken to Raven to reassure her all would be fine that night, she couldn’t be sure all would be fine.

The day they got back, she’d told Raven about the black rose. Both of the black roses. The one in the castle, which had died the moment she’d touched it, and the bud she’d picked from the bush in the scribe’s garden, which had also died.

They hadn’t told the others. Something they couldn’t understand was playing out, and they needed to work out how worried they should be before involving everyone else. Working it out was proving difficult. Even the tablet was no help. When Mika asked it to tell them about the black rose, the words that appeared on the screen were unhelpful. To say the least.

A black rose does not exist.

They tried rephrasing it, asking different versions of the same question. The tablet, in all its wisdom, didn’t have any different versions of the answer.

A black rose does not exist.

They both knew it was pointless, but googled all the options they could think of. Myths and legends abounded, but none spoke of a black rose that died when someone touched it. It was hardly surprising. None of the incredible adventures they’d experienced so far had borne much resemblance to any myth or legend.

Mika had kept one thing from Raven. The one thing that was most likely the reason for the dread in her stomach. She’d shown her the black rose she’d brought back from the scribe’s garden. Together they’d gazed at its dead but once-beautiful petals, wondering if it was some kind of message about horrors to come.

Although it was dead, Mika hadn’t thrown it away. Something had made her keep it, and place it in a small dish out of sight, in a drawer in the cabin in the garden.

Two days later, it had done what roses never do, black or otherwise.

Like the finest flour, but jet black in colour, it had turned to dust.

Chapter 2

RAVEN DID ENJOY HER girl’s night. An Indian takeaway and the Lost Girl boxed set took them