Book excerpt: The Dark Shore, the second novel in Kevin Emerson’s Atlanteans series, continues the story of Owen Parker, one of the powerful descendants of the highly advanced Atlantean race. Owen, Lilly and Leech have escaped Camp Eden, but the next step on their journey to find Atlantis and protect it from Paul and Project Elysium involves crossing the perilous wastelands of a wrecked planet. And unlike in EdenWest, where bloody truths were kept hidden beneath the surface, out here, the horrors live bright beneath the poisonous sun. With treachery at every turn, Owen has no choice but to bring his wounded clan to the dark shores of Desenna, the city built from the ashes of EdenSouth, where the followers of Heliad-7 dwell. Desenna’s blood-soaked walls may hold the key to Owen’s journey in the form of the third Atlantean, as well as a deeper understanding of the true purpose of the Three, but there are also secrets lurking in the shadows, waiting to be unleashed, and once they rise, there may be no escape. The Dark Shore combines sizzling romance, action, adventure, and powerful scenes of physical and emotional sacrifice in a way that is sure to satisfy lovers of dystopian fiction in the vein of The Maze Runner trilogy.