Chapter 19 | Blood Magic

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CLARA AND HOLLY woke the next day to brilliant sunshine and a light refreshing breeze, and the classes were quick to end

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CLARA AND HOLLY woke the next day to brilliant sunshine and a light refreshing breeze, and the classes were quick to end.

Over Caelholme, the afternoon sunlight crept over the grounds around the shops, sky, and lake alike turned periwinkle blue and flowers burst into bloom.

Clara and Holly sat under an umbrella shed just outside the town's famous pastry shop, Greta's Sweetums. Clara was looking expectantly inside the shop as she craned her neck, checking if their order would arrive any time soon.

Inside, there were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable: Creamy chunks of butterscotch that changed color in every bite; hundreds of different kinds of chocolates in weird animal shapes arranged in neat rows that customers must be prepared to catch once it either leaped or flew; colorful candy necklaces which adjusted to the size of the neck; miniature candy cones; cans of slithering candy worms; cakes that could be ordered in towers or slices; and enchanted scrumptious beverages which kept on filling to the glass' rim.

"Your Highness, are you sure you do not want to eat inside?" Holly asked.

"No, the air is fresh. I like it here," Clara said, then she looked at Holly when she realized something. "Oh, do you... want to be inside?"

"Oh, no, no. I'm fine here." Holly waved her hand snappily for emphasis. "I'm just worried that perhaps you're uncomfortable and would want to keep chilled inside instead."

A breeze ruffled Clara's hair and the front door of Greta's Sweetums opened in a chime, and there was a great clutter. Clara looked over the rim of her smoothie glass and practically leaped off her chair out of excitement when servers flooded out in a straight line, holding silver trays containing their ordered sweets.

Holly's ears, on the other hand, went bright pink. But she was disheartened to tell the princess how improper she was acting because Clara was looking like an excited child whose first time it was to try out everything.

The princess' presence in the public was indeed unusual, and every server was apprehensive of punishment if there was anything the princess wouldn't like. But that would nearly be impossible to happen especially if her attention wasn't directed at them in the first place.

Clara had never had this many sweets laid out to her before. Ever since she was a child, Clara was always on a strict diet. Every meal she had was completely monitored. But now that she's away from her old mistress' radar and away from her parents, no one would stop her from enjoying a mouthful of these. Not wanting to miss anything, she got some of everything and paid the shop owner ten gold and three silver diriams.

"Y-You must be hungry, Your Highness, but you just had lunch not nearly two hours ago. Won't this... stuff upset your stomach?" Holly asked, hesitant to take a bite from the plate of greenish slimy cake Clara offered her.

"Who wouldn't starve just with the look of this deliciousness?" Clara took a large bite of a vicious, snarling pumpkin dessert.

Holly would have said, "me", but instead she took a sip from her vegetable smoothie, the only drink she would allow her body to take, and watched Clara devour her desserts happily.

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