Seth stood and watched the nightmare creature as it tore its past master into bloody shreds and tried not to let the gripping fear show on his face. He could feels the man's life force, his memories, his talents and hard won skills filling his own mind and body and turning him into something much more than the lowly soldier he'd been just mere moments before.

A sound fills the Wolverns ears, familiar, yet one that never should not exist in this place of endless night and cold. The sound, the boys heartbeat, rang out loudly like a dinner bell calling all of the hungry creatures of this place to the feast. It had finally found one it could work with, one that had enough enemies to keep it satisfied, but now he was on the wrong side of things and in danger of being taken away. The Wolvern began to run towards the sound, it knew there were much worse and older things than the dead here, things even it avoided, they too would be waking from long sleep and starting the hunt. It just hoped Seth could stay alive until it arrived. Seth had attempted to save his friends by hurling himself into the unknown of the Land of the dead, it was a place he only knew through lore and tales told to him as child. The land he arrived in was far from those tales and a much darker and more dangerous place. The sun never rose, the cold and the dark lurked with living intent and the things that lived here hungered for his life and flesh. Take the Darkness is the second book in the series Soldiers and Gods by Julius Schenk.

“I feel it, but it terrifies me. Seth, what do you think my gods would think of what I’ve done? I’ve killed so many in my life. Not enemies who came for me, but people who had things I wanted. Once I killed my language teacher because his lessons were boring and he had stale breath. What judgement can I expect other than torture and, at best, lasting death?” Seraphina asked “What choice have we got?” Seth said. Once again. Seth found himself at a crossroads. He was stuck in what was now a very lovely prison. The sun shined brightly and the land of the dead had changed overnight, or rather over day. The sun had risen and life had risen with it. Sandy shores, grass covered hills, trees that looked like they might grow leaves and human beings who looked lost, but like people should. Still, he was stuck here and didn’t see a way out of it, expect to take one of the many boats that waited on the river, and find out what was on the other side of the grey fog.