Description
What if you found a book that writes the future-and your name is on its final page? Linguistics PhD student Malika Reed is barely holding it together. Six months after her twin brother's death, her dissertation is stalled, her academic career is in jeopardy, and the crushing weight of grief follows her everywhere. Then, at precisely 3:03 AM in a dusty Newark antiquarian bookstore, she discovers an unmarked leather-bound tome that will shatter her understanding of reality. The book's pages are blank-until she opens it. "She found the book at 3:03 p.m. and changed the world." What begins as an unsettling curiosity becomes an obsession as Malika watches the book record events in real-time with chilling accuracy-private conversations, distant tragedies, the secret thoughts of strangers. The book offers no explanations, no emotions. It simply records. When Malika uses the book to prevent a tragedy, she discovers its pages can be rewritten. When she meets enigmatic professor Nathan Cole, who seems suspiciously knowledgeable about ancient oracles, the book reveals glimpses of his future at her touch. And when the book shows her a page dated tomorrow for the first time, Malika must confront the most terrifying question of all: Is she reading the future-or writing it? As the book's power grows, so do the consequences of Malika's interventions. With mysterious forces converging to possess the artifact and reality itself beginning to unravel around her, Malika must decide: Will she surrender the book, destroy it, or embrace its terrible power and become something more than human?
Chapter 1: Burden
