After the Sunflower Experience (Coming in 2026)

An excerpt from After the Sunflower Experience:

Everleigh climbed the tallest diving platform once again. She’d been diving for half an hour already, and her thoughts were starting to clear a bit. To organize. Soon, she’d know her clear path forward. She’d know what she needed to do.

 Walking out to the edge of the platform was second nature to her. She had no fear of heights. No worries of vertigo so high above the clear water below. She turned her back out, positioning herself on the very edge, weight settling on the balls of her feet.

Inhaling a deep breath, she dropped her shoulders in place as she straightened her back. She allowed herself one last glance over her shoulder at the water below as she imagined the reverse dive she would execute. An inward double somersault. Pretty basic once you got the balance at the start of the dive figured out.

 As Everleigh brought her head back into position, something caught the corner of her eye. At the edge of the pool. Not something—her knees bent as she prepared to propel herself up off the platform—someone.

Just as she initiated the dive sequence, it clicked in her mind that Ryker was standing down at the edge of the pool looking directly up at her. Her footing slipped. Everleigh lost her balance. The best she could hope for was an ugly, uncoordinated splash into the water below.

The worst she could hope for was—

 Her body pitched forward, her shoulder crashed hard onto the ledge of the platform, pain shrieked through her arm. The side of her head slammed mercilessly onto the surface.

And suddenly, the world went dark.