The hospital room was too white, too clean, too sharp against the chaos of my life. The walls hummed with fluorescent light, the air smelled faintly of bleach and iodine, and the beeping monitor above my bed tapped out a rhythm that wasn’t mine.
But Valen was here.
He stood by the window, back turned, a silhouette cut in shadow and moonlight. His shirt was wrinkled, his collar undone, his hair damp from the rain he must have walked through to get here. He didn’t speak,he didn’t move,he just stood there, one hand gripping the windowsill like he could crush it, the other shoved into his pocket as though holding himself together.
The fire,my apartment,my life, reduced to ashes. I could still smell it,the smoke clawing my lungs, the sting in my eyes, the sound of wood collapsing and glass s
