For every choice that we make, there is a world where the opposite happened. Those worlds are guarded by an ancient family known as the Rikers. They were chosen to watch over those worlds and keep the balance in time. When an old version of Earth begins to fall into chaos, two Rikers must travel through the portal to save this world of pirates, kings, and gold. Luc and Callum are brothers who are as different as the worlds that they protect. Still, they both find their selves pulled deep into the matter of humans. Luc finds himself the right hand man and lover to the darkest pirate on the sea. While Callum finds a prison with an unlikely inmate, his new home. The ideas of freedom, from those in power, love toward another, and a desire for a purpose beyond protecting the portal fill both brothers. Even if they find a way to work together, will they be able to save this world and their futures?
“He is dead,” exclaimed a young woman dressed in a dark, swamp-green gown, with an odd bird-looking hat on her head. Her whole outfit was something that no ordinary woman would dare to be seen wearing. The snakeskin pointy-toed shoes on her feet looked like those that a witch from a children’s story would wear.
“Lower your voice, Iorwen. If they hear you, there will surely be trouble,” a small, chubby man, who held a shocking resemblance to that of a bulldog, begged in a frantic whisper. He could just see this woman dying before him if one of those guards heard the words she was speaking.
* * * *
As if trying to prove him right, the woman, Iorwen, let out a hyena type laugh, not worried at all if the guards or the governor had heard her voice. She felt relief after so many years and was dying to let it all out. “He is dead.” She laughed at the bulldog man’s facial expression that was a mixture of frustration and pure panic.
* * * *
The bulldog man could only shake his head at Iorwen and tried once again to get something in her head, though for the last few hours, there had been no luck. “His death will not bring an end to those pirates. They are out of control and now, without a leader they’re sure to be even worse. Can you imagine that? Pirates running around killing everyone, taking over our town, and stealing every item from our homes? It will be a nightmare without Davy Jones to have a few laws in place for those pirates.”
* * * *
Iorwen flinched from shock by the words that had just left the man’s mouth and roared so loud that it was harmful to the ears, “Two hundred pirates or two million, it does not matter. The army and the navy are both able to destroy those barbarians. Nothing can prevent our victory at long last. I doubt even God himself could...”
“Hold your tongue, Iorwen,” the bulldog man demanded in a voice filled with overpowering authority that it never held before.
Such authority, that Iorwen found herself silently staring at her green snakeskin shoes, unable to look up into the man’s eyes. Eyes, Iorwen was sure, that at the moment were filled with anger and, even worse, disappointment. She did not want to face the punishment if she were to push the man too far.
The minutes that passed before the bulldog man finally spoke again felt more like a year to Iorwen, who remained staring at her shoes, avoiding all eye contact.
“He was...is an extremely dangerous and powerful man. One who has spent years living with dark men and harsh environments. Jones was a king to the pirates who heard his stories. Pirates looked up to the man that could never be caught or defeated. They desired the treasures and women that he got in his many victories. Captain David Jones’s next in line will arrive and things will continue as they always have, that’s for sure. Do you understand, Iorwen?”
Hearing her name and feeling no anger, she daringly shifted her gaze away from her shoes to the sharp blue eyes of the man.
“We have no true proof of this. I, like everyone else, would love for this to all be over and true peace to finally be here. But for all we know, the next pirate king could be hiding away waiting for something Davy left him but he will...”
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