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

to get to know them.  Sometimes, it was the people she barely knew that caused her the most pain at death.  So many had fallen around her, yet she, with all of her blood lust and spiteful intentions, still stood.
    “Nameh, there’s nothing you could have done,” said a voice from around her.  She didn’t know who the voice had come from, but it didn’t matter.  The person was not what she was focused on, but the words.
    “There’s always something you can do.”  Her voice came shakily through gritted teeth, she wondered if the others could hear the heavy restraint in her voice.  She heard Seth’s weak laugh, which surprised her.
    “You were practically dead, and dragging yourself across the floor.”  She turned to see the smile flash across his face, and could not keep one from her own.  Simply being in the presence of the group was easing the self-hatred that now twisted at her throat.  The somber tone resumed, and there was a stifling silence.  She felt sorrow and doubt, but she felt no tears come; she knew that there would be tears in the eyes of the others but that didn’t change anything.  She hadn’t cried in so long, it felt as though her tear ducts were calloused over.
    “Alright,” she said softly, her eyes in a glazed stare, focused on nothing, “let’s get out of here.”  Her words struck dead against the floor, nearly as empty and devoid of feeling as the pit in her stomach.

              The sickly yellow light gave Nameh’s skin an unbecoming look of jaundice.  Her dark eye makeup was smeared down her face from sweat, where it mingled with the blood and silver glitter.  Black, red, and silver, like some moonlit rose, she thought.  Her thoughts scoffed at the concept, a moonlit rose?  More like some black angel of death, wrapped in a shawl of silver and painted with the vibrant life of scarlet blood.
                  Her dress was only slightly tattered, perhaps she could mend it, but then again, she would probably never need it again.  Images of death danced through her mind, tracing graceful pirouettes across the inside of her eyelids.  The hot steam from the shower welcomed her more readily than an old friend, embracing her with its dewy fingers.  She could feel the grime melting from her before she even touched the water.  She went through her mental process as the crystalline needles struck her skin and burned at her wounds.  She blocked out the memory, sealed it over with detachment as she always did.  Reason ticked through her mind, once again giving her the reason for the loss.  It’s for the greater good , she told herself, if you don’t get over this, what good are you going to be in battle?  You hardly even knew them…  She felt the stony silence of her heart, and eased back into comfort of sorts.  Still, these deaths would haunt her for a time.  She had never succeeded in making herself completely cut off from emotion as she sometimes wished she could be, but the blood of all those she had watched die accumulated over the years, seeming to dilute her sorrow as more and more filled her.
    She could hear Mira pacing outside the door, restless from the experiences.  Her heart ached for her friend, who hadn’t been forced to deal with as much loss as she had.  At this point, Nameh knew the procedure, and that this was nothing she couldn’t cope with.  She dried her hair, stepping out of the small shower; the bristled ends brushed against her back.  Her oversized t-shirt and warm flannel shorts lay across the towel rack.  She pulled them on; relishing the shallow level of warmth they brought her.  If only they could do more than scratch at the surface of her bone-deep chill.  She almost smiled at the irony of the angel paint splattered across her black t-shirt. Almost.
    She moved the pure white towel from her hair to her face, where she wiped away the remnants of mascara that soap had failed to cleanse.  She tossed the towel