To Flame a Wild Flower (Crystal Bloom, #3)

by Sarah A. Parker

From the moment I boarded that ship, I fumbled through the world like a newborn foal. I fed on freedoms that went against the grain of everything I’d hoped to achieve. I was sightless, gullible, impulsive. I promised so much and gave so little, then I tried to bow out. No wonder Zali slapped me so hard. I’m a selfish person with no shoes and no sense of the world, leaving a trail of destruction, self-detonating because my own actions hurt.

I mean, you said it not me

You’re not on top unless you’re a God, and even they can fall.

“We’ve both been forged by a conditional love that broke us into crumbs people still manage to choke on. Perhaps there’s something poetic in that? In us.”

My vision sharpens on the talon still lodged in my heart. Despite the prickly ache deep inside my chest, I find myself sadistically proud of her perfect shot.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HE'S SO SMITTEN

“Stop.”

FINALLY AHHHHHDKERVXHSIQURVDHR!!!!!

He lifts the shears and cuts. A soft wave of relief splashes upon me, and I release a shuddered sigh as a two-foot rope of hair flops limply in his hand. “This okay?”

This massive, formidable, powerful man who can claw his way back to life with a talon through his chest … he’s cutting my hair, so utterly focused I think the sky could fall and he wouldn’t even notice. A smile tips my lips, another tear slipping down my cheek. His gaze shifts, narrowing on my mouth, then up to my eyes, something flashing in the depths of his. “There she is,” he whispers—the words so quiet I wonder if he meant to say them aloud. If he even realizes he did.

I’ve been wearing a dead girl’s face all this time—Zane’s sister’s. No wonder I was so drawn to him. And I almost lost him, too. Just like I lost my brother.

“My love will tear you apart.” He digs his hand into the hair at the back of my head. “Then I’ll die a happy man,” he snarls, and crushes our lips together in a clash of desperate, wild abandon.

Love him today, hate him tomorrow. I’m not going anywhere. I flick him a smile, turn on my heel, and run.

“And no matter how much you distance yourself or try to wrestle fate in your favor, her you will not savor. The world will keep trying to kill her until you’re forced to seal the bond, cradling borrowed months before the final lines draw their fangs. Matters will be taken out of your hands.”