Crystal Bloom

What a pretty flower to keep locked in a big, rocky tower. Nineteen years ago, I was plucked from the heart of a bloody massacre that spared nobody else. Small. Fragile. An enigma. Now ward to a powerful High Master who knows too much and says too little, I lead a simple life, never straying from the confines of an imaginary line I've drawn around the castle grounds. Stay within. Never leave. Out there, the monsters lurk. Inside, I'm safe...though at a cost far greater than the blood I drip into a goblet daily. Toxic, unreciprocated love for a man who's utterly unavailable. My savior. My protector. My almost executioner. I can't help but be enamored with the arcane man who holds the power to pull my roots from the ground. When voracious beasts spill across the land and threaten to fray the fabric of my tailored existence, the petals of reality will peel back to reveal an ugly truth. But in a castle puddled with secrets, none are greater than the one I've kept from myself. No tower is tall enough to protect me from the horror that tore my life to shreds. To Bleed a Crystal Bloom is a dark Rapunzel reimagining full of immersive imagery and breathtaking angst.

I want him to hurt. To bleed. I want him to snap, just like he snapped me. Once upon a time, my world was small and sheltered. Everything changed the moment I stepped over my Safety Line, barrelling towards a coupling with a man I hardly know. He wants me. All of me. Dunked in a charged political pit, I must secure the ships needed to quell the spill of murderous beasts still flooding the continent. But one wrong move could spur the war I've worked so hard to avoid. I'll wear the dress and the cupla and the shoes. I'll do it all with a smile on my face. Because everyone's watching. He's watching-hunting a fissure in my frosty shield, trying to scrape back the layers and see my ugly insides. He's unyielding. Unguarded. Changed. Why is he looking now when I've got everything to hide? Secrets sprout, truths bloom, and more than one of us will snap. Crowned in the crippling weight of my mistakes, I must atone. Even if it costs me my life. Fear was my overlord. Now, it's my prisoner. To Snap a Silver Stem is the explosive sequel of To Bleed a Crystal Bloom, a dark Rapunzel reimagining full of immersive imagery and breathtaking angst.