The radio crackled. Suite 318. Two confirmed victims.Tyler pulled down his mask and checked his air tank one more time. Two hundred and thirty-seven times he had walked into burning buildings. Tonight would be two hundred and thirty-eight.The Grandview Hotel's east wing was fully engulfed. Black smoke poured from the third-floor windows. Guests scattered past him, coughing and stumbling toward the exits. Tyler moved in the opposite direction."Team, let's move," he called to Bryan and the others behind him. His voice was steady, even as the temperature around them climbed toward impossible.They took the stairs two at a time. The smoke thickened with every floor. By the third landing, it had become almost solid, so black you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face. Tyler moved on instinct and counting, his fingertips trailing along the wall.The heat was immense. He could feel it eating through the layers of his gear."Third floor, east corridor," Bryan's voice crackled in

The slap came before he finished the word divorce.Not telegraphed or dramatic, just sharp and efficient. Elena's ring caught the corner of his mouth, leaving a metallic sting."Don't," her voice turned to ice. "Don't you dare."For one foolish moment, warmth crept into Tyler's chest. Maybe she still loved him deep down?Then she opened her mouth."I have the Cambridge Ethics Forum in three weeks," she said coldly. "I'm the keynote speaker for a panel on modern family values. Do you have any idea what a divorce filing would do to that? To the coverage? To everything we've built?"The warmth died."Everything you've built," Tyler said quietly. "So this is still about you. Your image. Your career. Your business.""What else would it be about? Your wounded pride?" Elena sneered. "My work has helped hundreds of vulnerable people. That matters far more than your bruised feelings."Tyler almost laughed. What a fucking gaslighter.Elena's voice dropped to something quieter and deliberate, th

The six-hour drive felt longer than it should have. Tyler sat in the back of the engine, watching the sky turn from grey to orange as they got closer to Los Vangees. Smoke filled the air, thick enough to taste. Other firefighters sat in silence around him, their faces grim and focused.When they finally arrived at the command post, Fire Chief Rodriguez Hale was waiting. He was a lean man with deep lines around his eyes, the kind of lines that came from making impossible decisions. He looked like he hadn't slept in days."Listen up," Rodriguez called out, his voice cutting through the noise of trucks and radios. "The fire has surrounded much of this county. We have one evacuation road still open on the eastern side. That road is everything."He pointed to a map on the hood of a truck. "If we lose it, more than two thousand people get trapped. Nursing home residents, families in outlying areas, everyone. We need a firebreak along this eastern line to keep that road open."Tyler stepped

The nightmare came on the fifth night.Elena was lying in bed when Tyler walked through the front door. He looked exhausted but alive. His turnout gear was streaked with dirt and ash, and there were bandages visible on his arms and hands. But he had made it home.She sat up in the dream, relief flooding through her entire body. She opened her mouth to say something, an apology maybe, or an explanation. She wasn't sure.That was when his face changed.The skin on his face began to darken. It peeled back in strips, revealing blackened muscle beneath. His eyes sank into his skull. His mouth opened wider and wider until it was nothing but a gaping hole. The smell hit her then, the smell of burned flesh and death, and she was screaming, screaming so hard her throat tore open.Elena woke up in bed, her heart pounding so hard she thought it might break through her ribs. The room was dark. The house was silent. She was alone.She reached for her phone. No missed calls from Tyler. No text mess

Tyler's ribs were wrapped so tight he could barely breathe, but he kept moving around the emergency camp anyway. The doctor had told him to rest. Tyler ignored the order. Sitting still meant thinking, and thinking meant remembElenag the way Elena's face had looked when she was uncovElenag the bodies. She had actually cared. For just a moment, he had believed she really loved him.Then he had heard her laugh. That warm, genuine laugh that she reserved for people she actually wanted to be with. She had been talking to Matthew.Bryan found him carrying supplies to one of the medical tents."Tyler, you should be resting," Bryan said. His voice was exhausted. He hadn't slept much either. "The doctor's orders."Tyler set down the box of bandages carefully, moving slowly because of his injuries."I'm fine," Tyler said. His voice was flat. Empty. "I'd rather keep moving."Bryan watched him for a long moment. There was something knowing in his expression, like he could see through the lie."Di