Sara C. Snider's Blog, page 10

Hazel and Holly — Return to the Shrine

Previous: Summoning Visions

Holly, Hemlock, Hawthorn, Tum, and Elder returned to the Shrine. It looked weird seeing it in daylight. It looked like a normal building, old and slightly dirty, but not anything to be afraid of.

“Now, all of you keep your mouths shut,” Elder said. “I will do the talking, and you will all stand there and nod and look sufficiently ignorant, suppliant, or pathetic, as the need arises. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” both Holly and Hemlock murmured.

Hawthorn said, “I...

Hazel and Holly — Summoning Visions

Previous: A Reluctant Ally

Hazel got up from the table and backed away. Ash got up with her. She wanted to leave, but she dared not. She could not—not after leaving Holly and Hemlock the way that she had. They’d likely never forgive her for that.

“You’re lying,” she whispered, but the words felt hollow. Somehow, she knew her father spoke the truth, and that frightened her more than she wanted to admit.

Ash’s expression softened, as if he knew she understood. “You know that I’m not.”

Hazel cl...

Hazel and Holly — A Reluctant Ally

Previous — …Will Bring You Back to Me

Holly leaned against the wall in her room as she stared out the window. Dawn had broken, but she hadn’t been able to sleep. That had never happened to her before, being unable to sleep. She didn’t much care for it, truth be told. This was all an ugly mess. Hazel leaving to become a necromancer, and now them unable to figure out where she’d gone. Hazel was always the one who fixed things, just not lately. Lately it was almost like she’d become another per...

A Jaunt in Kraków

So, a couple of weeks ago we got a lot of snow. Like, blizzard amounts of snow. Buses got stuck, trains were canceled, people got stranded. It was the most snow Stockholm had gotten in November in over a hundred years. Madness.

Luckily this all happened the day before I traveled to Poland, and I’m only being partially snarky when I say “luckily.” Had it been the day of, I doubt I would’ve gotten to the airport at all. Trying to get there the following morning was certainly a little adventur...

Hazel and Holly — …Will Bring You Back to Me

Previous: A Love Tempered in Death…

Ash put out his arms, as if to embrace Hazel, but she moved back.

All words escaped her. It had been so long. She hadn’t seen him since the day he left, close to sixteen years ago. He had changed very little from what she could remember, yet a spell was not at work here. His face bore lines she didn’t recall, his brown hair now liberally dusted with grey. But he looked healthy. Vibrant. Somehow that made her angry. Her mother had died and here he was, look...

Hazel and Holly — A Love Tempered in Death…

Holly sat up on the bed and cradled her head in her hands. That man… could he have been her father? Holly never knew him, he had left just as she had been learning to walk—or so she’d been told. She’d never mourned his absence. Why would she? He was someone she’d never met and never loved. Why would she mourn someone she didn’t know?

But now, seeing a man that so clearly resembled Hazel, Holly, for the first time in her life, felt as if her heart had cracked with an emptiness she’d never know...

Hazel and Holly — Odd Possibilities II

Ripples warbled across the walls of Holly’s room. It was as if the sea on the wall bearing the pirate ship of cats had spread itself beyond the confines of its painted surface. Concentric lines extended and then contracted across every visible surface, again and again, hypnotic yet strangely anchoring.

She leaned back on her bed, nuzzling down in the covers as she tried to get more comfortable, when the rippling walls stilled for a fragile moment before they shattered.

She was back in the Gro...

Happy Halloween

If I’d been on the ball, I might have come up with a cool post for Halloween. As it is, you’ll have to settle for a picture of a creepy Victorian Halloween costume. If you click on it, you’ll be taken to website with more Victorian creepiness. You’re welcome. Oh, and I made a Pinterest Halloween board too, for funsies. I’d post a widget of it for a nice collage effect, but Pinterest doesn’t want to behave, and I can’t get it to work. So it’ll be an old fashioned link instead. If you want to...

Hazel and Holly — The Sea of Severed Stars

Previous: Enshrined, Part Two

Hazel walked towards the coach. The silver scrollwork and stars caught the flickering blue lights on the walls, making them look as if they had been wrought from water.

Verrin came up behind her. “I’m afraid there is one condition for this arrangement.”

Hazel turned and Verrin held up a black strip of cloth. “You will need to be blindfolded.”

Hazel’s heart quickened as her apprehension intensified. “And if I refuse?”

“Then you are free to leave by way of the fro...

Hazel and Holly — Enshrined, Part Two

Previous: Enshrined, Part One

Hazel waited in a dark, well-appointed chamber without any windows. She sat on a plush, deep blue velvet sofa, eyeing the blue and green flames that flickered behind glass sconces on the stone walls. The lights dimly illuminated tapestries woven into scenes of star-studded night skies, which gave the room a feeling of openness that Hazel had not expected. It was strangely comfortable there, and that made her uneasy.

The door opened and a man wearing a black robe...