Afterlight Books

In the perpetual twilight of Neo-Verona, two corporate empires are at war. From the sterile, bio-perfected towers of the Apex, the Kappel Corporation promises a future of flawless, secure living. Below, in the smog-choked, neon-bleeding Undercity, Montague Industries thrives on illicit cybernetics and raw power. Their feud is a quiet war of data-hacks in the sky and a brutal, bloody conflict in the streets.

Juliet Kappel is the pristine face of her family’s dynasty, a princess in a gilded cage of armored glass. Publicly, she is perfection personified; privately, she is Sanctuary, an anonymous poet on an encrypted city forum, raging against her beautiful prison. Romeo Montague is the brilliant, reckless heir who traded the boardroom for the back alleys, his body a canvas of unsanctioned military-grade chrome. Online, he is Revenant, a cynical voice of rebellion cutting through the city’s digital static. Their worlds are designed to never touch, but on the forum, their minds collide—a shared spark of wit, frustration, and vulnerability that quickly becomes an addiction neither can quit.

Their first meeting is a betrayal of everything they’re supposed to be. In the rain-lashed ruins of a maglev station separating their two worlds, the digital avatars give way to flesh, blood, and the shocking insignias of their warring families. The animosity is electric, but the connection is undeniable, pulling them into a secret, desperate affair conducted in the shadows. Their rebellion isn't just in their whispered words, but in the illicit, shocking thrill of touch in a world that has forgotten what it means to be human.

But in Neo-Verona, secrets are a currency that always comes due. As the corporate war escalates and the city’s factions demand loyalty written in blood, their forbidden love places them at the epicenter of a conflict that will not be contained. In a city that rewards perfection with a cage and rebellion with a grave, can a love born in static survive the coming silence?