Sorcery and Small Magics (The Wildersongs Trilogy, #1)

by Maiga Doocy

After four years at the Fount, I rather thought my father had overlooked the possibility that I could become a fully trained sorcerer and still amount to nothing at all.

You’re useless, Loveage.”

fun last name

“Leovander Loveage,”

actually a crazy name

Perhaps I should have felt a glimmer of remorse. Instead, all I felt was a savage sort of glee at witnessing the blemish in his otherwise perfect image, knowing I put it there.

sigh but class issues!

I did it to spite him, but really, I have always been my own worst enemy.

Was this a good use of my limited time? No. Was it at least a valuable exercise in the effect vocabulary can have on simple charms? Also no.

It was short and sweet, exactly the sort of spell Cassius had told me Grimm was drawn to.

so cassius is trying to fuck yall huh (not in the fun way). i was wrong about this but it’s still a funny comment

I derived petty satisfaction from having an excuse to order Grimm around (see how he liked it!)

i hope one of them is horny for being ordered around

And Grimm seemed to have a sixth sense for whenever I was nearby; if I walked into a room, he looked up. If I sat down three tables behind him in the refectory to eat breakfast, the meal would undoubtedly end with Grimm glaring at me.

i hope he thinks ur very hot and is annoyed at how much he wants you despite ur annoying ness

to ensure I wasn’t too distracted to actually sit still for said lecture.

magiced into having adhd

I barely even had to think about where to go anymore; the curse drew me to Grimm without effort. Like I was a compass whose true north just so happened to be a person.

gayyyy

Rivals were meant to be more exciting than this.

Contrary to his intent, this only made the prickle of unease running down my spine worse.

i’m glad you have good instincts

There is a particular thrill to exploring someone else’s home for the first time. It’s like peeling a curtain back from all your notions about who that person is, and instead seeing them as both who they are and who they want to be.

Grimm was casting my spellsong the way I’d always wanted to and could not.

And stay quiet.” Grimm looked at me. “We’re doomed.”

So much so that we almost didn’t notice the birds perched in the trees a little while later. There were five of them, with feathers black as night, sitting in a row on a branch. In place of talons, they had long-fingered hands that curled around their perch. Jayne steered us to the left, so as not to pass directly beneath them, but otherwise didn’t seem overly concerned.

CREEPY!!!

“It’s the ones with regular talons you need to watch out for,” she said, once we were well past. “Why’s that?” I asked. Jayne looked very pointedly down at my hands. “Because they’re still searching.”

oop!

then I woke up a week later with my hair turned gray and it was still raining.

ahhh origin story

With my words on his tongue, and the hum of the spellsong hanging thick in the air between us, I nearly found him beautiful.

Other than the wolf, who had flopped down on a pillow in front of the hearth,

BABYYYYY

“Oh, you really didn’t know. I thought you were being coy about the whole thing. Goodness, how delightful.”

No one who felt true love or caring for the intended target would be able to cast it, and yet those are the feelings it incites.

ooooooooo so if they fall in love it goes away or ?

a nest

nest. is this really okay? or are we spoiling this creature. at least my bedtime puppy is still where i left her. my bed was made at 8am

but now I almost thought it resembled disappointment.

!!!!!!

“If you can make rooms built of memories, surely you could open them all with the same door. I don’t understand why you would bother with all these stairs.” “You have no sense of romance, do you?” Sybilla replied, somewhat sadly. “There’s no point in building a giant, mysterious tower in the middle of the woods if you’re going to ruin it by being sensible about interior design features. Of course I could have just one door, but that’s not what I want. I want hundreds.”

Magic, like music, does not always need to be explained. It is enough that it exists.

“Are you trying to fix the curse, or me?” Sybilla tilted her head a little, looking me over. Her eyes were bright and somehow faraway, like stars in the night sky. “Why can’t it be both? I’m a good multitasker.”

It was a strange way to be wanted.

Someplace where I would not be tempted to use Sybilla’s reasoning as any sort of excuse for madness.

i wonder if his inability to do grand magic comes from the trauma of losing his mom? yk i was pretty close

and now he’d clearly been caught playing fetch with a creature that only resembled a dog in the broadest sense.

“Mysterious people don’t list off the traits that make them mysterious.”

I was suddenly wondering what it would be like to kiss Grimm.

yup yup

I’d already swayed forward slightly when I remembered: This isn’t real.

if you say sooooo

I leaned down and kissed her.

was not expecting that leo are you into gilfs?!

“The company was nice, too.”

awwwww

“Because I wrote the Grandmagic that killed my mother, and I think it broke something inside of me, and I’m afraid I’ll kill you too.”

oh fuckkkkkk

“Because a moment ago, all I said was your name and you spat back a whole monologue. You like to talk.

I still couldn’t look at a peach without feeling sick, never mind eating one.

ahhhhhh

I stretched my lips in a mockery of a smile. “Is this the part where I feel better, now that I’ve confessed? Or is this the part where you regret not turning me over to the Coterie when you had the chance?”

this is sooooo good tehehehe

I might have loved him for that, I thought, if I hadn’t already loved him anyway. I did my best to tuck this thought away where it was safe from all the rest. This scrap of affection was mine.

The bed was obscenely comfortable. I wondered if it had been this soft in reality, or if it was Sybilla’s memories that made the pillows fluffier and the blankets warmer.

you’ve also been lying on the floor the last couple nights lol

I’m not sure if I want to kiss him, or kill him, or just go someplace very quiet with him and ask if I could be allowed to pet his stupid, lovely hair.

tehehehehe

“Because of this, you idiot!” I shouted, and then I took his face in my hands and kissed him.

the gasp i just gasped

“The curse cannot be allowed to worsen.”

i feel like he has something going on here but he can’t be in love with leo so idk

“I hope someday to meet a version of Leovander Loveage who doesn’t believe everyone else’s well-being is dependent on what he denies himself. Come back to me, when that’s the case, and we will craft magic to make the world weep with delight.”

“Must you conduct yourself in a way that entices people to stab you in your sleep? I, the person who’s sharing a tent with you, will be quite peeved if we’re murdered simply because you couldn’t be polite.”

“Gracious, are you questioning my stamina? You needn’t. I may be good for naught but writing frivolities, but I’ve a strong right hand.”

“Please behave,” he said sternly, which did nothing to help matters and, in fact, illuminated rather more of my own inner psyche than I was comfortable being aware of.

yesssssss exactly what i want to hear

child. If I took advantage of the situation slightly by drawing the last notes out longer than necessary, just so I could linger with my lips nearly brushing the curved shell of Grimm’s ear… well, no one was to know but me. And perhaps Grimm, who looked at me a moment before beginning to cast.