The Great Journey

Deadlines burn bright.
The Arbiter heralds judgment.
Countdowns signal death.
Pierce the Veil.

Everyone lives beneath a burning deadline. A clock of fire hangs over every head, counting down the years, the days, and, for some, the final hours before they turn to ash.

Juno Laval has spent his life at Helion Orphanage trying not to look too closely at the number above his own head. He tries not to look at the Veil either, a wall of living fog wrapped around the feet of the Arbiter. The towering stone giant waits at the edge of the world, where Juno’s brother vanished.

Chosen for the Great Journey, Juno is sent beyond the walls with Orphan 8, a squad of gifted young fighters as reckless as they are deadly. Across a broken world of cursed biomes, monstrous Corruptions, and dwindling hope, they must hunt for Essence, survive the wilds, and press ever closer to the Veil before more lives are lost.

But the farther Juno travels, the more dangerous the questions become. And beyond the Veil may lie the brother he thought was gone forever.

The Great Journey is Book One of The Deadline Saga, a YA epic dark fantasy adventure about mortality, loyalty, and the cost of chasing the truth, with coming-of-age stakes and slow-burn romantic tension.