bruised halo

Everyone loves Hayden Heath Zarco. Golden boy. Top of his class. The kind of person who can walk into a room and make it brighter simply by existing.

To everyone else, his life looks perfect.

It's a lie.

Beneath the carefully constructed smiles and pristine reputation lies a secret Hayden has spent years burying-a secret that has left him haunted by the kind of damage that never quite heals.

Then there's Vincent Cézanne.

The school's resident outcast. A boy with eyes that look like they stopped believing in happy endings a long time ago. Silver drapes his ears and tattooed fingers, and his reputation keeps most people at a distance. He's the last person Hayden should be drawn to-and the only one capable of seeing the cracks beneath the surface.

What begins as a secret quickly becomes something impossible to hide. For the first time in years, someone sees through him. As an unlikely friendship deepens into something neither of them can ignore, Hayden is forced to confront the truth he's spent years running from.

But some secrets don't stay buried forever-and when the past comes clawing its way back into the light, loving someone may be the most dangerous thing either of them has ever done.