Galilee Rising
Galilee Falls Trilogy #2
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Love in the time of superheroes...
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -Confucius
The
year since Galilee Falls lost its reigning superhero Justice has not
been kind to Joanna Fallon. She's lost her best friend, her boyfriend,
her badge, even her mind. The city of Galilee Falls hasn't fared much
better with supervillain related crime skyrocketing to cataclysmic
proportions. Deliverance for the city arrives in the guise of The Royal
Triumvirate--King Tempest, Lady Liberty, and Lord Nightingale--who vow
to be the heroes the city needs. Salvation for Joanna appears in the
brilliant form of Dr. Jem Ambrose, another lost soul in need of saving.
But salvation comes with a high price. When Emperor Cain, an old nemesis
of The Triumvirate, decides he will stop at nothing to make sure there
is no city left to defend, it is up to Joanna to rise not only for her
city, for her new love, but for herself as well…
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Excerpt:
His last words were, “I love you.”
“Joanna?”
My tear
filled eyes fly open, and I spin around. Jem stands a few feet away, concern
radiating from his every pore. His hair is a mess, wild and his clothes
rumpled. No glasses either. He came in a hurry. Not like him to forget the
details. “Joanna, please get away from there. It’s dangerous.”
I turn back
to the abyss. “I was just thinking. About last words.”
“Last
words?”
“Yeah. I
read the most common are, ‘Oh, shit’ or ‘Oh, God.’ Justin’s were, ‘I love you.’
He looked me square in the eyes and told me he loved me. He’d said it in
passing a few times, the usual, ‘You’re my friend, I love you,’ type of thing,
but deep down I never really believed him. If he loved me then he should love me, you know? Like I did him. But
at that moment, his last moment, I finally became a believer. Because that’s
what love is, right? Putting someone before yourself? For twenty years he loved
me, and I think I just now realized he loved me a hell of a lot more than I
loved him. If I even really did love him. Maybe I’m just not capable of it. Two
people were on that fence, and the thought
of letting go never even crossed my mind. Not even for a millisecond. But it
crossed his. Because he was good, and strong, and capable of the biggest love
of all. And he’s dead. And I’m here. It should have been me.”
“No,” Jem
says forcefully. All of a sudden he’s next to me, grabbing and turning me
toward him. “No.”
“Anyway you
look at it, his life was worth more than mine. I die, a few people are sad for
awhile, but they move on. He dies, the whole city implodes.” I wipe a tear off
my cheek. “Who the hell am I? I’m nothing. A traumatized alcoholic who ruins
everything and everyone she comes into contact with.”
“That’s not
true.”
“It is. I
hurt everyone I care about. Justin,
Harry, Lucy. I make everything worse. I mean, why the hell would God let me
live when such better people die? Rebecca, Daisy, my dad, Justin. It-It-It
doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it
doesn’t. That’s why it’s the eternal question: why him and not me? Why does a
murderer go free while an innocent man is convicted? Why does my brother draw
breath but Uma doesn’t? There is no answer, Joanna. I’ve searched for it all my
life and haven’t found a clue. And believe me when I say if you let that
question take over your life, it can nearly destroy you. Pursuing that question
allows guilt to guide your life, and that is no way to live it.” He closes his
eyes. “Believe me.” He opens his beautiful
eyes again, looking square in mine. They’re brimming with sadness and hope.
“You-You turn around and survey your life, your goals, and you don’t recognize
them. Or yourself. But you continue looking because the quest is all you have.
And you’re alone. So alone for so
long with only that guilt to drive you that when someone wonderful comes along,
so wonderful you actually begin to imagine another life for yourself full of
love and joy, it rocks you to your core. You’ve seen the dawn after a million starless
nights, and it’s beautiful, but
you’re afraid it’s just an illusion. That it’ll be taken from you, or that you
never really saw it, and you’re alone again once more with that ache. I don’t
want that for you. Justin wouldn’t either. You survived. You’re alive. So live.”
I can’t
hold back a moment longer. I fling myself against him, wrapping my arms around
his torso in a hug. His limbs envelop me as I finally allow myself to burst
into tears right against his pulsing heart. It beats so fast and strong against
my cheek. Our limbs melding, his warm body feeding my cold one, his smell of
stale sweat mixed with faint cologne, all of it bliss.
We remain
like this for one perfect second before I sense him gazing down at me. I pull
apart to look up but don’t dare meet his eyes. His hands move to my cheeks,
cradling my face. His thumbs wipe my still falling tears, and I place my hands
over his. “Please tell me I’m not crazy,” he whispers desperately. “Please tell
me I’m not imagining this. Please tell me you feel this too. Please.”
I want to
speak, but the words won’t come out. Everything becomes real when you say it
out loud. Somehow I find the courage to gaze into his eyes, the sadness
brimming in them shifts to awe and something else that scares me to fucking
death. I leap away. “I-I have to go. I-I can’t…I’m sorry. Bye.”
Like the
fucking coward I am, I sprint off that rooftop as fast as I can, down the
stairwell, and out of the hospital before all my resolve fades. I can’t take
much more of this. I can’t keep this up. He just needs to…no. I stop at the
edge of the dark river to catch my breath. No more. This needs to end one way
or another. I’m done.
I quit.
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Jennifer Harlow spent her restless childhood fighting with her three brothers
and scaring the heck out of herself with horror movies and books. She grew up to
earn a degree at the University of Virginia which she put to use as a radio DJ,
crisis hotline volunteer, bookseller, lab assistant, wedding coordinator, and
government investigator.
Currently she calls Northern Virginia home but that restless itch is ever
present. In her free time, she continues to scare the beejepers out of herself
watching scary movies and opening her credit card bills. She is the author of
the Amazon best-selling F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad, Midnight Magic Mystery series and
Justice, the first in the superhero thriller trilogy. For the soundtrack
to her books and other goodies visit her at www.jenniferharlowbooks.com
Find Jennifer and her books
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