Page 11 of Sugar & Sorcery
Crouched near the oven, I was waiting for my cupcakes to bake. I’d used up the last of my workable ingredients, but seeing the rainbow-tinted batter rise perfectly filled me with a small surge of pride.
“Hey, who stole my basket!? It’s not next to the cauldron anymore!” Aignan whined.
I glanced over my shoulder. “Baskets don’t just vanish. It has to be exactly where you left it.”
“No, it’s not!” he growled, leaping up onto the counter, fur bristling.
I set the tray down on the counter. The two Cursed froze at once, their big yellow eyes going wide, locked on the pastries.
“I really need to find you proper names,” I sighed, dusting a fine shower of matcha over my creations before placing delicate slices of strawberry on top. “Here, these are for you.”
The smaller one opened her gaping mouth, her face flushing, before spinning in place like a tropical fish in pure euphoria. The golem, meanwhile, stared at his cupcake for a moment, frozen, as if enchanted, then swallowed it whole in one gulp.
Aignan didn’t need to be asked twice and devoured his in one bite, a few crumbs instantly clinging to his fur. “Needs more icing.”
“You,” I said, pointing at the big Cursed, “will be Éclair. Because you leave a lasting impression… let’s say, substantial and satisfying.”
A fresh red mushroom sprouted from the top of his head, swaying as his eyes crossed to look at it.
“And you…” I went on, turning to the little thief perched on my grimoire, one of her tails idly flipping through the still-empty pages. “I’ll call you Chouquette: light, elusive, fleeting, but delightfully sweet and?—”
Without warning, Chouquette lifted the grimoire above her head. Her mouth stretched grotesquely wide—so wide it almost swallowed her whole face—and with a sharpsnap, she gulped the grimoire down in one bite.
“Chouquette! No!” I cried, lunging toward her. “Spit that out right now! That’s not food!”
A confectioner without her grimoire was like a cake without sugar. Unthinkable. I couldn’t let Nyla’s precious gift vanish into the gullet of a Cursed! I grabbed her and pried open her mouth, peeking inside. The grimoire was there, perfectly intact, sitting among a chaotic hoard of collected objects: spoons, vases… and was that a candlestick?
“She ate it?” Aignan choked, bounding closer. “Why do you leave things like that lying around?”
“I didn’t think she was going to EAT IT!” I snapped, struggling to keep Chouquette’s jaw open. “Help me!”
Aignan groaned but shoved his muzzle inside. “It’s a real mess in here! You could decorate a cottage with all this junk! And it stinks!”
“Aignan! The grimoire!”
With an exaggerated sigh, he dove back in and emerged proudly… with his basket clamped between his little teeth. “It was in there! She’d stolen it from me!”
Really? Who would even want his mangy old basket? Chouquette took advantage of the distraction to wriggle free and dart to hide behind the spice jars, her tails curling around her like a ball of guilt. I caught my breath, crouching down. I hadn’t signed up for any of this.
“You couldn’t have known, but this grimoire is very important to me,” I said, voice softer, holding a hand out to thecreature. “Next time you want something, you just have to ask me, alright? Sorry for yelling.”
Chouquette hesitated a moment, then one of her violet tails slowly curled around my wrist before she pulled herself out of hiding.
“That’s it?” Aignan protested. “Nyla never left me anything, and this thief gets away with a pat?”
I stood, guiding Chouquette back to the counter. “The grimoire is safe inside her stomach, or whatever it is. She’ll keep it for now. Right, Chouquette?”
She nodded eagerly and leaped onto Éclair. The big Cursed spun in place, trying to see her, until Aignan clapped his paws to show him where to look.
“Good thing Nyla’s never coming back,” Aignan grumbled, curling into a ball in his basket. “She’d be crushed to see all this.”
“She’s coming back,” I replied, arms crossed.
“She abandoned us!”
“I refuse to be as cynical as you,” I shot back, before turning to the Cursed, whose eyes still shone with a guilty glint. “And you two, you’re going to have to learn to hide if someone comes in.” I opened an old cupboard, its hinges groaning ominously. A cloud of dust rose. “This—” I sneezed. “—will do. Any objections?”
The Cursed shook their heads quickly, then let out small, sharp cries of panic.
