Page 14 of Sugar & Sorcery
Pieces of the shop vanished into shadow. The floor shook. Entire sections of wall evaporated, until only a tiny square remained where we clung to the wood, my companions and I.
“I knew it would end like this,” Aignan murmured. “You can’t trust them. Sorcerers are all?—”
The mist thickened around us, heavy, suffocating, sliding into my throat and stinging my eyes. And through it, pairs of red eyes. Spectral, skeletal branches hooked into my clothes while the roots dragged us ever deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
“I think I know where the shop is taking us!” I shouted, but the roar of the wind swallowed my voice.
The last thing I remembered was not Aignan’s voice trying to warn me, nor the twisted, sinister trees. It was my own hand.My fingers seemed woven from threads of sugar, as if coated in stardust. The cold sank deeper, biting, relentless, sharp as a winter blade. My hands, my arms, my face… my entire being froze into a fragile sculpture of crystallized sugar.
With all my heart, I hoped the Mist Sorcerer wasn’t as cruel as they said.
For my shop was carrying me straight to him.
Part II: The Castle in the Mist
5
They said the Mist Sorcerer lived among the eternal clouds, where shadows had taken form and curses found refuge. No one knew if he was a friend to darkness or simply its jailer.
ARAWN
“Lord Arawn!”
I grimaced. How many times had I ordered Yeun never to call me that? I loathed my name.My Lord.Master of All Magic. Your Highness.Those were titles I could tolerate.
To make matters worse, Yeun’s flame flickered between a sickly violet and a muddy brown as he darted frantically between the shelves of my private library. A low rumble rolled through the manor’s pipes, from the rooftop to the cellar, mirroring the clench of my jaw.
All I wanted was a little peace, sprawled on my couch, counting the cobwebs clinging to the ceiling. But, as always, Yeun had the talent of choosing the perfect moment to disturb me.
With a snap of my fingers, I slid an entire bookshelf across the floor, a wall of old grimoires forming an improvised barricade. I had trained myself to ignore this insufferable (and very much unwanted) butler, yet Yeun’s relentless devotion to my mental state was a plague I could never quite rid myself of.
The will-o’-the-wisp popped into view before me, quick as a newborn spark, though its days were numbered. “There you are! Sometimes I swear you avoid me on purpose.”
“Yet you always manage to find me.”
My gaze met Yeun’s, his flame shrinking. Will-o’-the-wisps descended from fairies—and fairies, unfortunately for me, were immune to magic.
“What is it this time?”
Yeun quivered in place, to the point of letting slip tiny flames, like beads of sweat. “The confectioner, my lord… She… she’s here!”
“Here?” I repeated, rearranging with idle gestures the books I had already read a thousand times over. “Impossible.”
No human could have crossed my magical barrier. Otherwise, I would have felt it.
“Fairies don’t lie!” Yeun protested, his flame crackling with indignation. “Your wards detect enemies. Maybe you just don’t see her as one, or?—”
“Tell her to leave,” I cut in. “We have no place for her.”
I had far more important things to do, like finding a better hiding spot to escape my butler.
“The tower is empty, my lord! Besides, you can conjure rooms at will and shape the castle however you please!”
Yeun waved his flames in protest, but I was already tuning him out. This was all his fault, after all. If he hadn’t interfered with that cursed job offer, none of this would have happened. First, I had never spoken like that. Second, I despised humans.So weak. Fragile. And this one in particular… I certainly had no intention of making a good impression.
“She’s… cursed.” Yeun snapped me from my thoughts.
In a single breath, every candle in the room snuffed out. All except Yeun’s flame, which burned brighter in the dark.
