To Bleed a Crystal Bloom (Crystal Bloom, #1)

by Sarah A. Parker

The gentle bend is only kind to things that yield,

Death is gripping my insides with hands so cold they burn, but there’s a comfort in it. A safety that feels eternal.

I blink a few times, severing my sight of him in a gentle way. Because I deserve gentle. I deserve gentle when this man is so boldly destroying me.

I steal a glimpse of the woman in the mirror ... She’s a masterpiece; the most exquisite rose given shape and life and a fluttering heartbeat. She’s the sun and the soil and light that bathes the world on a beautiful day. She’s broken, lonely, and hiding from her past.

For the pain to make me wither. But death plants a seed in you, and my insides are already littered with shoots I can’t seem to hide from.