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

by Maiga Doocy

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.

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

“Very well, if you don’t want to say it, I will. This is a love spell.”

“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.”

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.

“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.”

If it’s harm that you’re looking to avoid, you might consider that more people could suffer for your absence than some supposed bit of negligence you’ve yet to commit.”

“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.

Oh, how I loved him. So much so that it was like a living thing, growing through every crack in me. Too hardy to kill.

“You have a rebel heart, Leovander Loveage. You will never be anyone but yourself.”