Free The Frozen Moon: Book Two of The Living Curse series + BONUS Full Version of Book Three! by J.D. Swinn Page A

voice cracked slightly, sounding softer than usual.  She missed the usual bite to it.
                  There was a grumbled response as she was placed lightly against the wall.  She tried to hide a cringe at the pain that raced up her back and neck.  More arms touched her shoulders, trying to help her get into a sitting position.
                  “Thanks, but I think I can sit up on my own.”  Her voice held certainty that her mind didn’t; could she sit up on her own?  The arms retreated, but she still felt the warmth of bodies near.  Now she could feel more pain setting in as the detached feeling faded; her left shoulder had surely suffered damage, and she’d taken a hit-probably a fall-to a hip.
                  “Don’t take it personally,” she heard Mira’s voice say, “she’s not big on the whole help thing.”  Nameh laughed in response to her friend’s truth, the laughter rattled in her chest, sounding sick and weak. 
    She hated weakness.
    “You don’t sound well,” said Cal with a worried tone.
    “I’m fine, it’s just my back and neck, I took a pretty hard fall.  Just have to walk it off, I think.”
    “Ha, walk it off.”  Cal seemed genuinely amused at this thought.  He cracked his fingers-yes, actually cracked his fingers, and placed their tips just inches from her neck.  His eyes closed and she immediately felt warmth flow down her back and neck.  It was as though she were in a hot shower and the water was trickling down her skin as well as beneath it.  When the warmth subsided, all the pain she had felt was gone, but the fatigue was still there.
    “So, a Healer,” she grinned, “impressive.”   It truly was impressive, she hadn’t met a healer before, but Cal struck her as the type.  She was beginning to think that all talents were determined by suitability to personality.
    “Why don’t we get her back to The Corner.” Talar said as more of a statement than a question.  She saw that he was now in human form, and looked ragged and tired.  In fact, everyone looked this way: smeared makeup and blood, torn formal clothes, and drawn expressions.
    “Wait,” she said.  “ Where’s Gwen and Eve?”  The responsive looks on their faces were not comforting.  The silence that followed added to the dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach.  As usual, Max was the first to form the words.
    “We…weren’t fast enough.”  He seemed as though he couldn’t say anything else, but that was all that needed to be said.  The feeling that filled her was what she had come to expect; sorrow was nearly absent, anger and rage threatened to spill over her control.  Her hands tightened into fists; she had promised herself that she would allow none of them to die.  Images from the short amount of time she had known the girls flashed through her mind.  Gwen in the deep blue dress she had worn, and Eve in the soft yellow.  The girls hadn’t been as slight as she or Mira, they were somewhat sturdier, she recalled.  The last image before her was that of Gwen’s eyes, the one thing she would never forget.  Their ghost blue hue now held more truth in the description than it ever had, the pale irises were the fuzzy and distant views of a memory.  The eyes seemed to plead with her, longing for the life that they could never again reclaim. She swore that she would die before any of them were taken, yet here she remained, broken yet thriving.  The weight of her silent promise laid upon her chest, crushing each breath from her tired lungs, and smothering any condolence she should have taken from the lives of those gathered in around her.
    The sorrow set in. 
    She felt the anger inside her pulling dangerously at the chains she had restrung, but she had no intentions of releasing it again.  Nameh didn’t know how many more friends she could let slip in and out of her life in the blink of an eye before she snapped.  She hadn’t even had the time