When the Smoke Turns Silver

"Some hearts don't break-they burn."

Seventeen-year-old Violet Marlowe only wanted to get home before the streetlights buzzed on. But after a shouting match with her mother, she finds herself wandering the cracked sidewalks near the park, a grocery bag swinging in her hand. That's where she meets Ash-a boy with ink-black hair, chipped black nail polish, and a silver lighter that dances between his fingers like magic.

Ash doesn't smile. But he talks in poems. He reads books with bent spines and writes things he never shows anyone. He knows the music that makes your bones ache. And something about the way he watches Violet, like she's the only part of the world that makes sense pulls her closer night after night.

But Ash has his own secrets. The kind that crackle under the skin. The kind that could disappear like smoke if you touch them too hard.

This is a story about two broken kids.

One who's trying to escape a house that doesn't feel like home.
And one who might not have a home left at all.

Love doesn't save you. But sometimes, it sees you.