To Snap a Silver Stem (Crystal Bloom, #2)

by Sarah A. Parker

Truth is, I fell in love with a ghost. Now I’m gone and still ... haunted.

Heart in my throat, I pause, waiting for the feeling to pass, but it just sits there like a soft “Hello. Yes, you’re fucking crazy.”

He’s the ailment, yes ... but also the remedy I wasn’t expecting. A punching bag that absorbs my blows with unflinching stoicism. How much will he take before he bursts at the seams?

“A smart woman once told me that everything is nothing if you’re in pieces.”

“Clutch thy pearls, High Mistress …”

Promising yourself to another shouldn’t mean you lose yourself in the process.

Today’s small dose of it might cost me my life. But I’d rather die by the sword of my own decisions than be stripped of the ability to make them.

What I regret is letting her believe she doesn’t hold my cold, crippled heart in the palm of her hand. Because she does. She always will.

“But that didn’t stop him.” It would never stop him. “Because he was hers—forever—even though he knew his love was lethal.” He was hers.

“You’re going to go to war with him? Over me?” He doesn’t blink or flinch. “I’d strike the fucking world down for you.”