The One Who Takes

By Drew Beck

The forest has taken Elias. Now it comes for Jonah.After the events of Book One, Daniel and Jonah return to the woods searching for answers, but the forest has already begun to change. Paths shift. Time bends. Shadows move with purpose. Something ancient has awakened, and it is no longer hiding.Jonah is the next to feel its pull. Strange echoes of him appear between the trees, flickering in and out of reality as if caught in a place he cannot escape. Daniel refuses to believe what he sees, convinced his brother is still fighting somewhere just out of reach. But the forest is not a maze. It is a ritual. And it is choosing them one by one.As the brothers push deeper into the shifting landscape, the truth becomes impossible to ignore. Jonah is not lost. He is being taken. The forest is closing around him, reshaping itself to guide him toward something waiting in the dark.Mara joins Daniel in a desperate attempt to break the pattern, but every step forward only tightens the ritual's grip. Distortions appear. Reality fractures. The boundary between worlds begins to thin. And when the demon finally reveals itself through Jonah's form, the message is clear.Jonah is claimed. The threshold is closed. The ritual is not finished.The Archivist returns with a secret he has carried for decades. He felt Jonah's claiming the moment it happened. He felt Elias before him. And he knows what the forest wants next. Daniel is not just a witness. He is the final piece.With the forest resetting and the demon's voice reaching through the dark, Daniel must face the truth he has been running from since the beginning. He was never just part of the ritual. He was shaped for it.The One Who Takes is a story of loss, identity, and the quiet terror of being chosen. The forest has two brothers. It only needs one more.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GKD8YMGR
• ISBN13: 9798245988177
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"