Chapter 1: The Bandage and the Barrier
“You look like a monster! I can’t be seen with this!” He didn’t know that the monster wasn’t the woman in the hospital bed, but the man standing beside it—and the only person who could tame monsters had just walked into the room.
The smell of the burn unit was distinctive: antiseptic, saline, and the underlying, metallic scent of singed things. My room was private, a glass-walled box overlooking a gray Chicago skyline that matched the color of my spirit. I sat on the edge of the bed, my hands trembling as they rested on the white sheets.
My face was wrapped in thick, white gauze. It felt like a mask, heavy and suffocating. Underneath, my skin was a battlefield of raw nerves and fresh grafts.
“Stop shaking, Elena,” Mark snapped from the corner of the room.
He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at his reflection in the darkened monitor, adjusting the knot of his silk tie. He was dressed for a gala—a charity event for burn victims, ironically enough. A photo op he couldn’t afford to miss.
