ANMELDENThe purple bridge didn't just rest on the sand—it vibrated, buzzing loudly, like there were a thousand bees trapped inside it. June could feel the hum deep in her teeth. Her mother—or something wearing her mother's face—stood just a few feet away. The light rolling off her skin was so bright June had to squint. In one hand, she held a wooden stethoscope, battered and plain. In the other, a silver crown pulsing with cold power that made June's second heart pound wildly in her chest."Choose, June," her mother whispered, voice barely audible.Then the ground lurched. That huge metal building offshore groaned, and a gigantic wave of black water came tearing toward them, dragging chunks of ice and rusted metal in its wake."June, watch out!" Dante shouted.He threw himself forward, grabbed June by the waist, and yanked her back just before a hunk of ship wreckage slammed into the sand where she'd been lying. Water and grit splattered over both of them. Dante scrambled upright, legs shaky,
The silver thermometer didn’t just break—it melted, seeping right into June’s skin. The liquid wriggled like an insect, digging deeper and deeper into her palm. She gasped, backing away from the water, expecting blood or a wound, but her hand looked untouched. Her skin was flawless. All she saw was a faint purple glow pulsing beneath her flesh—a strange, second heartbeat that wasn’t hers.“June? What’s wrong?” Dante stepped toward her, worry etched into his face, pale and tight.He reached for her shoulder and she jerked away, his touch burning like a coal. She felt it now—inside her chest, behind her steady heart, another rhythm. Colder, mechanical, heavy. It sounded like the slow ticking of a giant clock in a house where everything was dead.“Don’t touch me!” June gasped, clutching at her chest, fingers digging into her medical scrubs. “Dante, the people... look at them!”All the villagers lined up on the beach were sitting motionless, frozen in the sand. They didn’t blink. They did
The golden door didn’t just swing open—it inhaled. A cold, silent wind tugged at June’s medical clothes, trying to pull her off that bridge of light and into the huge room. Dean Samuel stood completely still. His black suit didn’t move an inch in the wind. He watched June with those strange galaxy eyes, waiting for her mind to snap.“Look at them, June,” Samuel whispered, his voice smooth as silk sliding over glass. “No more sickness. No more heart failure. No more sadness. I fixed the human world by turning it into a library of souls.”June ignored him. Her gaze stuck to a statue only ten feet inside the door—it was her. The statue had the same face June wore the day she botched her first medical test: scared but desperate to be perfect.“Dante! Hope!” June screamed, spinning around.Dante hung frozen in midair, his face twisted in a silent roar of rage. Hope trembled, clutching the broken golden key so hard her knuckles had gone white.“Mommy, the statues are staring at us!” Hope cr
The mirror didn’t just show the Earth. It screamed—a billion hearts breaking at once.June’s hands trembled as she held the cold glass. In the reflection, a giant hand, pale and bony, woven from starlight, closed around the planet. Thick black thorns burrowed deep into the ground, sucking the green life from the soil.“Stop it!” June shouted. She hurled the mirror onto the golden sand.It didn’t shatter. It sank into the beach like a stone sinking in water.“You can’t stop a hand that’s been reaching for a billion years, June,” the old man said, still in his rocking chair, his wooden bowl of soup on his knees. “You’re a medical student. You know when a part of the body is rotten, you don’t just watch it. You operate. You fix.”“I’m not a surgeon yet!” June cried, spinning around, eyes searching the purple horizon. “Where’s Dante? Where’s Hope? If this is an operating room, where are the tools? Where’s the medicine?”The woman with water-hair stepped closer. Each movement filled the ai
The ocean didn’t just move—it screamed. When the World Tree crashed its first giant foot into the Atlantic, the water bolted. Waves shot out in all directions like animals escaping a fire. A fifty-foot wall of white foam battered the tree’s shimmering trunk. Up on the roof, June gripped a thick branch, her green-stained fingers digging so deep she thought the bark might bleed. The whole tree shuddered as it walked, and that vibration climbed right through her boots, through her spine, right into her skull.“Hold on!” Dante shouted. He grabbed June with one sturdy arm and Hope with the other, pinning them both against the wood. He held on like their lives depended on it—because they did.The World Tree marched ahead, focused and terrifying. Underneath, the village and land disappeared into pale mist. All June could see now was the blue glare growing in the ocean up ahead. This wasn’t a gentle sort of light. It was hard, sharp—like someone shone a spotlight right into a diamond.Then a
The sky didn’t just get dark—no, it turned this bruised, aching purple that made June’s skin prickle.Way up above the World Tree, the Reaper’s golden sickle hung in the air—a monster of a tool that’d nearly wiped out everything. Now the thing was being shredded. June saw it all through the tree’s clear walls. Hundreds of those little black shapes swarmed across the gold, moving fast. They acted like piranhas: silent, vicious, all teeth. There wasn’t any sound out in space, but inside the tree, the floor shook so hard it rattled her bones. It felt like a mess of tiny explosions firing off at her feet.“Dante, get Hope away from the walls!” June’s voice cracked with panic.She tried to stand up, but her legs went out from under her. The white marble plate over her chest felt heavier than her whole body. She dug her silver nails into the floor, fighting to steady herself.Dante didn’t hesitate. He scooped up Hope and backed away from the wall, keeping to the center. He never took his ey
The rain went from bad to worse—a full-on storm now. Water washed the blood from June’s hands, but the cold wind sank into her bones. She stood outside the hospital, clutching the Black Ledger so tight her knuckles hurt. On her left, the hospital where Dante was dying. On her right, a man in a whit
The warehouse doors exploded open with a bang, slamming against the wall. Night wasn’t dark anymore—flashing blue and red lights painted the wet ground, flickering like wild dancers. June just stood there, frozen. Her hands shook, but she didn’t drop the heavy black gun. Her white dress was a mess,
The air in the bakery didn’t just go cold—it felt like someone had died in there. June froze. Her heart slammed against her ribs, wild and frantic, like a bird trapped in a cage. She clutched her son, Leo, so close she could feel his own heartbeat pounding against her skin. Right in front of her st
Rain hammered New York like it wanted to drown the city. June tore down a dark alley, barely dodging puddles and piles of trash. Her lungs burned. Boots pounded behind her—loud, angry voices echoing off the brick.“She ran this way!” someone barked.She didn’t dare look back. She shoved past overfl







