Chapter 1

When they brought her into the emergency ward, she seemed like something too fragile for this world.

The young woman’s name was Elena. Even beneath the hospital lights — cold, white, and merciless — her beauty showed through the exhaustion and pain. Her face, pale and still, was framed by tangled dark hair that clung to her skin. A bruise spread across her temple like a shadow. Her eyes, when they fluttered open, were an astonishing grey, full of fear and confusion.

She had been in a car accident. The impact had thrown her body violently; her left leg was fractured in two places, her pelvis dislocated, and her right arm twisted unnaturally. Every breath seemed to cost her effort. The doctors worked quickly, but traditional immobilization methods weren’t enough — the fractures were too numerous, too complex.

That was when Simon Kellar entered the room.

Simon was an orthopedic technician, known in the hospital for two things: his gentle nature and his brilliant, almost uncanny understanding of mechanics. He had the mind of an engineer and the heart of a healer. His colleagues sometimes joked that he could build a perfect joint out of scrap metal if he had to.