Hexed

Nicoli thought it was over.

After leaving an abusive relationship with another man, he is piecing his life back together when his former lover assaults him with an acid hex on the streets of New York City. Taken to the hospital, there is nothing he can do but sit in bed with his eyes bandaged and hope his vision returns.

A wounded soldier shares the room, recovering from grievous injuries he sustained in war. Though Bruno exists to Nicoli only as a voice, a relationship develops between the two men while they trade stories to pass the time. Hexes have disrupted their lives yet brought them together, and Nicoli wishes that he could only see the soldier that he is falling more and more in love with every day. A literary steampunk novella set in post-Civil War America, Hexed is 17K in length.