Novel River Oaks Novels & Stories

River Black River held the candelabra in her hand, holding it aloft, looking around the huge room. It was so big, it dwarfed her living room back at her parents’ house. Everything was draped in white cloth and for a moment, she felt lost in that room too. It had no windwos and seemed to be below ground, in a basement level, though she wasn’t entirely sure. It had been a disorientating walk in the dark mansion. River hoped it was nicer during the day. Less confusing. In truth, she hoped that when she woke up, she’d be inside her tent, safe and sound and all this would be a strange dream.

After all, when Adrian had once said during an attack that he could not bear to see anything that belonged to the prince consort, Mother had ordered the peach grove planted specially for Father to be cut down. She had thrown away the poems and paintings Father had poured his heart into. She had even tricked him out of the residence and burned every item he had left there. Among those things had been the marriage contract between Father and Mother, the only keepsake Grandfather left behind, and the jade scepter Father had given Mother as his own love token.

His gaze bored into River, his lie trembling beneath the weight of Winter’s gaze, whose patience was as thin as the ice over a raging river. River dipped into a low bow, the parchment crumpling further in his clenched fist, its inked deficits a weight heavier than gold. He straightened, his pale green eyes masking the storm within, and turned, his cloak sweeping the floor as he strode from the courtroom, his thoughts fixed on packing for Oshea to confront the new Alpha who had ignored his summons. The iron doors thudded shut behind him. River’s boots echoed through the frost-kissed corridors, his mind already racing toward his quarters to prepare for the perilous journey back to Oshea.

Better be ready than sorry. "Are you serious, Ophelia? Let me tell you this in case you don't know. River of Flames is the most dangerous part of Rousiana. Based on the history, no one has survived that deadly place yet. Once you enter the River of Flames, there is no turning back for you. It is either you will be burned there or you will be imprisoned in endless flames forever. Decades ago, the most recent one, a witch cursed a man and locked him inside the River of Flames. He never showed up after that. Everyone assumed that he died inside, but no one knows what really happened."