Book One.
The world has become a different place since the attack on New York. People have been forced to accept a reality filled with superhumans, machine men, and alien races. Earth has become a playground for the universe with humans getting los...
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Juliette Stone knew coming here would be a mistake. The doctors had all advised them against traveling, mainly out of the country. They had chosen to risk it – well, Shelby had decided it was worth the risk, and after months of her being unresponsive to treatment, she had given into her sisters wish.
She fiddled with the heart-shaped locket that hung from her neck, twisting the chain until she felt the pinch of the metal against her skin before releasing it. The chain unwound, spinning fast as she listened to the sound of her sister vomiting in the bathroom.
Shelby had woken in the middle of the night with a high fever, her clothes and sheets soaked through with sweat. Juliette had helped strip her down and then the bed, taking the comforter from her bed and setting Shelby up with a cozy spot on the couch in their suite. It had taken them almost two hours to get her back to a healthy temperature. After that, going back to bed had been an impossible feat. Instead, Juliette had sat up, watching over her sister as she got more rest, wondering how much more time they had left together. It couldn't be that long, though. Things seemed to be progressing quickly.
And once Shelby...went – Juliette would be alone, entirely.
That thought utterly depressed her.
Juliette didn't want to be alone. Anytime she thought about what it might be like her throat would start to close up and she would feel this awful weight on her chest – it could only be labeled as dread. So, she didn't like to entertain those thoughts for long.
It made it hard not to be angry.
It just wasn't fair. Not that Juliette should've expected life to be fair.
It had one-two punched her and was still kicking her even while she was down.
Only five years had passed since Shelby had been diagnosed with AML, just five years since their mother had died in the attack on New York.
That had been a bad year.
Juliette had gone from being a free-spirited college student on the road to a nursing degree – to college drop-out working two jobs, sometimes three, to try and keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. It was still hard to believe somedays that at twenty she had become the sole caretaker for her ten-year-old sister.
In those five years, they had racked up quite a lot of debt. Shelby's treatments, medicines, and hospital stays had nearly put them under more than once. Others had claimed that luck was on their side, but Juliette didn't believe in luck. She believed in herself, hard work, and effort. The reason they had pulled through the hard times was that she'd given all of her time and energy to make sure they did. The callouses on her hands, the bag under her eyes, and the beginnings of an ulcer were evidence of that.
Honestly, the only reason they'd been able to afford this trip to Norway was, in part, because Shelby had saved her wish – and the other was Chloe. She hadn't been in their lives long – only a few short months, but she'd switched things up for them. In a good way.
