The age of exploration has begun and the Guild Masters control the land. Fortunes await guild members who can venture the deepest within the Dark Wood, but for Erin his goal is simply to survive. When a botched con lands him in an deep expedition, he must struggle to solve the deadly mysteries that surround him or face the Guild’s retribution....

When she smiles nothing else seems to matter....

It’s always the eager that are first to go. All the bright-eyed recruits chasing promised honor and riches. It isn’t until their friends, the people they shared meals with just hours before, are cut down in front of them do they first become engulfed by their brutal reality. Most break realizing they weren’t the hero of their own story, but a stepping stone for another’s. Astonishingly few grow to...

“Gaaaah!” I’ve never understood Mare’s love of the irons. The screams, the blood, none of it ever bothered me. Maybe that’s what made me so good at killing. It’s the smell, the char of the flesh as it bubbles to the iron blazing white, it always makes my stomach turn. Mare just stares, the look of an artisan putting the final touches on their latest work. He’s always been this way, and it seems th...

Everything began to slow, my thoughts numbing from the realization of what was occurring. Whether from its atrocity or that I was its architect I’m still unsure. My mind drifted to the crows, gently gliding through the night sky catching the breeze from the 8 o’clock train as it made its way over streets below. They flew without care for what was beneath them, unfazed as they make their way forwar...

Everything is dark. Where am I. I...can’t remember. I’m...tired. There’s tapping on the window. The rain. I was…..driving. Someone….is saying something….crying. They’re too far away. Maybe if I just close my eyes….

“This is all your fault!” “I’m sorry...I’m worthless...I...I can’t do anything right.” Ack, my head. Why does it hurt so much. Wait, I’m in a car. There’s….two men in the front….fighti...

“Gaah.” Blaze buckled from the impact, clutching his ribs as hit the floor. “10 years Blaze. 10 years I’ve been hunting you down. 10 years you’ve run. No where to go now.”

Blaze winced in pain as he tried standing back up. “Tim, wait you don’t—.” “Shut up!” Tim leaped forward with a growl, his fist meeting Blaze’s jaw with a crack. His body surged with strength. “I was weak before, I couldn’t kee...

“Aaaaaaah!” Jack bolted awake at the sound of the scream, raising his head in a confused flurry. Mary was leaning up from her sleeping bag, rubbing her eyes awake. “What was that?” she asked fighting through a yawn. “I don’t know. I think that sounded like Julie” said Jack. “Crap, I told them not to leave any food out because of the bears. Quick help me find the bear spray and I can go make sure s...

“Tommy, mom says dinner is ready” Jake called up the stairs. He waited for a moment, but it was silent. He gave an exasperated sigh then made his way back to the kitchen.

“Where’s your brother” asked his mom. “I don’t know, probably under his bed hiding from the ‘spooky man’ following him everywhere” he said with a sarcastic chuckle. She looked at him, slightly scowling her brow.

“You know you u...