When Wishes Bleed (When Wishes Bleed, #1)

by Casey L. Bond

Fate, I knew all too well, was real. He wasn’t an obscure concept of destiny, or a dream of what the future might hold. And he certainly wasn’t luck or a wishing well. He was sentient and very much alive. I was Fate’s daughter, and he lived inside me.

Children would ignore their own experiences and feelings if adults pressed them hard enough into the straight and narrow line. It was how prejudice and ignorance were perpetuated through the generations.

Heavy was the head that wore the crown, though many coveted the weighty circlet.

Besides, every girl, witch or not, dreamed of becoming a princess. Not with crowns and gowns, but princess of the heart of someone she loved, and who loved her in return. Witches only hoped to tolerate their hand-fasted for a year. What would true love feel like? Love that knew no boundaries...

Tauren had more magic in his person that I had learned in all my years. He was like an undine, luring me into troubled waters and coaxing me to take his hand, only to drag me into the depths, never aware that I was slowly drowning, never caring if I ever tasted the air I desperately needed again.

Tauren’s mouth gaped open. I’d never seen the sea, never seen a ship when the wind left its sails, but I imagined it would look much the same way Tauren did. “Sable, no. Undo it.”

She sacrificed herself to save her brother, and Fate rewarded valor. He rewarded selflessness.

“The earth belongs to all of us. We’re a part of it; not just bodies dwelling on it.”

The only constant in life was change itself.

Tauren watched attentively, his eyes taking in every movement. When they combed over me, it felt like a caress instead of a perusal.