To Bleed a Crystal Bloom - Sarah A. Parker

"What a pretty flower to keep locked in a big, rocky tower."\n Nineteen years ago, I was plucked from the heart of a bloody massacre that spared nobody else.\n Small. Fragile.\n An enigma.\n 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.\n Stay within. Never leave.\n Out there, the monsters lurk. Inside, I'm safe ... though at a cost far greater than the blood I drip into a goblet daily.\n Toxic, unreciprocated love for a man who's utterly unavailable.\n My savior. My protector.\n My almost executioner.\n I can't help but be enamored with the arcane man who holds the power to pull my roots from the ground.\n When voracious beasts spill across t