Showing results for "What" in Dark Fantasy

For nearly four-hundred years, the Veil has protected us from the Fae of Alfheimr. In their absence, our lives have shifted from decadence and sin to survival and virtue under the guidance of the New Gods. I’ve spent my entire life tending to the gardens next to the boundary between our worlds, drawn to the shimmering magic like a moth to the flame. All of that changes the day the Veil shatters, unleashing the fae upon our world once again.

For weeks, he stood by my side, twisting his words into pretty half-truths. He enraptured me with his smooth temptation, leaving no corner of my being untouched. He consumed my mind and my body, then finally claimed my heart for himself. But Caelum’s true identity is terrifying enough to bring me to my knees. Then, I discovered the truth of who he is. Caldris is whispered in the Nothrek wind. The legend we only speak of with hushed words, in shuttered rooms, for fear of drawing his wrath once again.

Offering Mab my bound allegiance was the only way to save Caldris’s life—the only bargain I could make to keep us both from the Void. After cruelly murdering the King of Summer, her own brother, Mab became unhinged and there was no telling what she would do. Caldris is safe for now because of my sacrifice, but at a cost. Queen Mab only wants one thing from me.

Having survived the journey through Tartarus, I have embraced my destiny, and become the weapon I went there to seek. Having proven myself in the Trials of the Five Rivers, I have no choice but to claim my birthright from the father who would give me one last gift before abandoning me all over again.

Dante and Blays have a single hope of victory: the Spear of Stars, the long-lost weapon that may be capable of killing the lich. There's just one problem. Though they've learned the spear is real, they've also learned the nine parts of the weapon are guarded by the gods themselves. And they have no intention of handing over their prize. Alone in a strange realm, with no friends or allies, and a growing list of enemies, Dante and Blays' task looks doomed. Yet, they're the last line standing between the lich and the destruction of their whole world.

Wanting to go into business with his best friend, Evie, Calon never could have expected how his life would turn in an instant. Rushing into the burning home of a neighbor, the unthinkable happens, and our fearless main character dies a hero. Only...he doesn't quite make it to the afterlife.

In the last place John ever thought he would find himself, he discovers the scrolls of the prophecy that has haunted him for centuries. Armed only with the celestial key provided by the Archangel Gabriel, John must travel to hell - where no creature of heaven can follow - to unlock a box that no denizen of hell can open. Only an abomination can travel below, and all of creation urgently needs to learn the truth of their fate, as it had been foretold long ago.

Eine packende und atmosphärische Neuerzählung von Edgar Allan Poes Klassiker „Der Untergang des Hauses Usher“. Als Alex Easton, ein Soldat im Ruhestand, die Nachricht erhält, dass seine Jugendfreundin Madeline Usher im Sterben liegt, eilt Alex augenblicklich zum Stammsitz der Ushers in der abgelegenen Landschaft Ruritaniens. Was Alex dort vorfindet, ist ein Albtraum aus Pilzwucherungen und besessenen Tieren, die einen dunklen, pulsierenden See umgeben.

Lannick deVeers used to be somebody. A hero, even. Then, he ran afoul of the kingdom's most powerful general and the cost he paid was nearly too much to bear. In the years that followed, his grief turned him into a shadow of his former self, and he spent his days drowning his regrets in tankards of ale. But now an unexpected encounter casts Lannick upon an unlikely path to revenge. If he can just find the strength to overcome the many mistakes of his past, he can seize the chance to become a hero once more.

The world is a series of red tinted lights and painful bliss. An Underground Favorite, they used to call me. I wear the bruises they leave like jewelry. I never asked to be saved, but when that masked gothic heartthrob came in asking for me, I couldn’t very well say no—not that I had much of a choice in the matter. What started as a reluctant dream come true has dulled after three sexless years together in this sham of a marriage that continues to go nowhere. A girl has needs. So, what I’m doing isn’t so much cheating as it is problem solving.

Famine wracks second-century Rome. Food riots rage in the streets, and the emperor struggles to hold on to power in the midst of a burgeoning coup. He recalls the German Legion to Rome to restore order. Unbeknownst to him, a hidden evil slips into the city along with the returning Legion. As civil war boils over and black magics run unchecked, an ancient horror stirs from its dreams, rousing after eons of slumber.

As a sailor whose life is centered around canvas sails and the sea, the last person Isaac ever expects to find in a fairytale is, well...himself. Yet here he stands, on the edge of the River from the storybook his mother used to read to him as a child, watching it flow from one world to another as far as his eyes can see. Adding to this absurdity, he's been dragged here by a beautiful, green fairy with vines for hair and an explosive anger problem—yes, explosive. Also, he had to fight a vicious little old man and his air dragon to get to this point.

There are Lovecraft stories that roar with cosmic terror — ancient gods, unknowable entities, the madness of knowledge. And then there is What the Moon Brings. This short, haunting piece is not a tale in the traditional sense, but a dream — or rather, a descent. It belongs to that strange and shadowy corner of Lovecraft’s imagination where logic erodes, and we are left adrift in a realm shaped by mood, moonlight, and the whisper of things not quite seen. First published in 1923, What the Moon Brings reads like a surreal reverie drenched in symbolism.

It’s August in Alaska, and geology professor Jack Oswald prepares for the new school year. But when hundreds of huge holes mysteriously appear overnight in the frozen tundra north of the Arctic Circle, Jack receives an unexpected phone call. An oil company exec hires Jack to investigate, and he picks his climatologist wife and two of their graduate students as his team.

A man of 84, tired of life, meets an unhappy young woman on a chatline for suicides and they form a happy bond that unites them, with a happy ending of sorts..

In a military kingdom where the king is selected through a series of challenges and through combat, with 600 competitors in the mix, a human warrior struggles to reach the top of an alien society and claim the throne. With his inclusion in the tournament, the first human in centuries to participate, Marcus comes to uncover a deeper and more sinister plot by the king that could see an end to tradition.

The world trusted Kyosei Biotech. Their genetically-altered meat was marketed as a breakthrough in sustainable food, a way to end world hunger. But there was something they didn’t tell the public. Now, people are changing. First, it’s the little things. A heightened sense of smell. Skin that heals too fast. Strange cravings. Then, it’s the things no one can explain—claws instead of fingernails. Bones that shift overnight. Eyes that glow in the dark. And then, the disappearances begin.

What if men were treated like women? What if men had their rights taken away? This is a story of an alternate world where this is the reality.