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Read an Excerpt From The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong
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reactor_feedRead an Excerpt From The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong
An almost-mage discovers friendship—and maybe something more—in the unlikeliest of places…
Published on September 16, 2025
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<h2 class="post-hero-title text-h1">Read an Excerpt From <i>The Keeper of Magical Things</i> by Julie Leong</h2>
<div class="prose post-hero-description prose--post-hero">An almost-mage discovers friendship—and maybe something more—in the unlikeliest of places…</div>
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<p class="post-hero-author text-xs font-aktiv uppercase font-medium [&_a]:link-hover">By <a href="https://reactormag.com/author/julie-leong/" title="Posts by Julie Leong" class="author url fn" rel="author">Julie Leong</a></p>
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Published on September 16, 2025
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<p>We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from <em><strong>The Keeper of Magical Things</strong></em>, a cozy fantasy novel by Julie Leong publishing with Ace on October 14.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-pullquote has-text-align-left"><blockquote><p>Certainty Bulrush wants to be useful—to the Guild of Mages that took her in as a novice, to the little brother who depends on her, and to anyone else she can help. Unfortunately, her tepid magic hasn’t proven much use to <em>anyone</em>. When Certainty has the chance to earn her magehood via a seemingly straightforward assignment, she takes it. Nevermind that she’ll have to work with Mage Aurelia, the brilliant, unfairly attractive overachiever who’s managed to alienate everyone around her.<br><br>The two must transport minorly magical artifacts somewhere safe: Shpelling, the dullest, least magical village around. There, they must fix up an old warehouse, separate the gossipy teapots from the kind-of-flaming swords, corral an unruly little catdragon who has tagged along, and above all, avoid complications. The Guild’s uneasy relationship with citizens is at a tipping point, and the last thing needed is a magical <em>incident</em>.<br><br>Still, as mage and novice come to know Shpelling’s residents—and each other—they realize the Guild’s hoarded magic might do more good being shared. Friendships blossom while Certainty and Aurelia work to make Shpelling the haven it could be. But magic is fickle—add attraction and it might spell trouble.</p></blockquote></figure>
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<p>“Mage Aurelia, have you traveled much within Eshtera?”</p>
<p>Aurelia’s jaw ticked, and too late, Certainty realized that may have been a poor opener, given all the gossip about her being tower-bound. “Sorry, I didn’t mean on assignment—I meant, um, in general. Are you from Margrave? I’m from Potshire, just a little ways west. A little farming village, you know; my da grows pears, mostly, except he said in his last letter that he’s also trying some cherries this year—”</p>
<p>With effort, she stopped herself from babbling. <em>Nobody cares about the cherries, Cert.</em></p>
<p>Aurelia gave her a sidelong look. “Yes,” she said stiffly. “I was raised in the Paper Quarter. My father is a Minister’s aide, and my mother is a royal alchemist.”</p>
<p>“Ah.”</p>
<p>A very different sort of childhood, then.</p>
<p>Certainty always assumed she’d be following her parents into farming. Until her magic showed up—and then, all of a sudden, there had been something bigger and grander to hope for.</p>
<p>Aurelia, on the other hand, had likely never milked a cow in her life. She’d probably had fine tutors, dancing lessons, music classes… cityfolk things. The Paper Quarter was in the Middle City, but the scholars who lived there were well respected and wealthy. Not nobility, but wielding enough coin and influence (which were one and the same, really) that they may as well be.</p>
<p>Certainty cast Aurelia a surreptitious glance. The morning sun lit her golden hair from behind, foregrounding sharp cheekbones and a proud chin. It was a profile that wouldn’t have looked out of place stamped onto a coin, or framed and hung in a gallery.</p>
<p>“So, Shpelling,” she said as the wagon rattled beneath them. “I suppose it’ll be a very different sort of place. Not what you’re accustomed to, I mean.”</p>
<p>“I’m a mage, not a spoiled lapdragon.” Aurelia’s words were clipped, but her tone was cool, not angry. “I will do the work before me, whatever that entails, Novice.”</p>
<p>Not a great start. But Certainty was nothing if not persistent. “My friends all call me Cert, by the way,” she offered.</p>
<p>Aurelia glanced at her, then away again. If Certainty didn’t know better, she’d have said the mage looked discomfited. She wondered if Aurelia was thinking about what Certainty’s friends had called <em>her</em>.</p>
<p>They rode silently for a short while. The wagon wheels clattered energetically through the streets of the Middle City. Shops were just opening, and apprentices and hired workers called out jibes and greetings to each other, some pushing heavily laden carts across the cobblestones. One portly shopkeeper—a wine merchant, Certainty thought—shouted imprecations at the men carrying heavy barrels into his store.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until the wagons had made their way through the fragrant Flower Quarter and down the gated ramp to the Lower City that Aurelia spoke again.</p>
<p>“Interesting name.”</p>
<p>“Pardon?” Certainty was looking around at their passing surroundings. The Lows, with its drinking alleys and ramshackle sleeping-houses, really wasn’t meant to be seen during the daytime—or when sober. Unless, of course, you were one of the thousands of laborers or servants who had no choice but to live there, in the hopes that working in the Middle City might one day lift you out of such poverty. It was always shocking to remember that this place, too, was part of the great and enlightened capital city of Margrave. Certainty always thought that she’d much rather be poor in the countryside than poor in the Lows—but luckily, it wasn’t a choice she’d have to make. Not while she was still fed and sheltered beneath the Guild’s wings, anyway.</p>
<p>Aurelia cleared her throat. “Certainty, I mean. Your name. It’s… interesting.”</p>
<p>“Oh. Yes. My parents liked the idea of naming their children after virtues they wanted us to have. A first birthday gift to us, of sorts.”</p>
<p>“Us?”</p>
<p>“My little brother and me. He got Aspiration, but everyone just calls him Asp.”</p>
<p>“Ah. Charming.”</p>
<p>“You think so?” Cert grinned at Aurelia. “Well, it fits him well enough. He wants to be an apothecary, of all things… Not a knight, not a soldier, but an <em>apothecary</em>. Decided it at six years old when a traveling master came through Potshire with all his little bottles and vials and healed Ellie Haspen of her ague.”</p>
<p>“How old is he now?”</p>
<p>Certainty’s smile faded. “Fifteen.” Which was quite nearly too old to be any kind of apprentice at all. Most masters only took on younger apprentices so that they’d get enough years of work out of them before they’d be tempted away by a pretty girl or a paying job.</p>
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<p>But she shoved the thought away. She just had to finish this assignment and collect her circles; the first year of a mage’s stipend was always paid out immediately. One and a half months, the High Mage had said the assignment would take. There was still plenty of time for her to keep her promise.</p>
<p>“And does your name suit you, too?” Aurelia asked.</p>
<p>“Not really.” She laughed a little self-consciously, swaying as the wagon turned toward the city gates. “I’m not certain of very much at all. But I suppose Doubtful and Questioning didn’t quite have the same ring to them.”</p>
<p>Aurelia’s lips quirked at that. Only for a moment, and then her face went back to the same composed formality as before— but not until Certainty had already seen it. <em>So you </em>can <em>smile</em>, she thought triumphantly. But her victory was short-lived.</p>
<p>“Novice, I understand that your ability allows you to speak with objects. If we’re to work together, I’ll need to understand the nature—and the limits—of your magic. What exactly can you do?” “Um. Well.” Certainty fiddled with her robes. “I can touch something—just objects, nothing living—and understand it.</p>
<p>What it is, what it does, what its purpose is. And I can convince it to do things, sometimes.”</p>
<p>“Transformation?”</p>
<p>“Not quite.” Certainty wrinkled her nose, thinking of the time she tried to talk a hand mirror into becoming a salad bowl. It’d been so offended that it cracked right down the middle. And she’d certainly never managed to transform anything into gold, or Asp would already be a master apothecary, and she’d be wearing much nicer boots.</p>
<p>“Enchantment, then? Can you embed spells in objects?” “Er, no.” She wished she could; skilled artificers could make a fortune crafting magical trinkets for the nobility, even outside of their official Guild work.</p>
<p>Aurelia was frowning. Certainty seemed to have exhausted the mage’s ideas of useful applications of her ability. <em>Tell me about it</em>, she thought crossly.</p>
<p>If Certainty were a competent enough spellcaster, the weakness of her specialization might have been fine; Eshtera always had a need for generalist working mages, even if they got the least-glamorous postings and were treated more like well-paid workhorses than elite sorcerers. And if she’d had a more powerful specialization, then she could have built her mage career upon that instead, weak spellcasting be damned. But here she was with neither—so becoming Deputy Keeper beside Mage Mortimer was as high an ambition as she’d ever dared to have.</p>
<p>Of course, to someone like Aurelia, it probably sounded like a fate worse than death.</p>
<p>“Well, I suppose being able to quickly identify the enchantments on these artifacts will be helpful for completing our assignment…” said Aurelia slowly. <em>But not much else </em>was the unspoken rest of the sentence. “Can you demonstrate?”</p>
<p>Certainty blinked. “What, now? Here?” “Why not?”</p>
<p>By then, they had already passed through the outer gates of Margrave; their wagon jounced along the wide gravel road leading south, and Certainty squinted against the brightness of the morning. It was strange to be confronted with the wide-open expanse of fields and roads after having grown used to the comfortable confines of the Guildtower. Even when she left the tower to venture into the city, she was still surrounded by noise and activity, market stalls and shopping strangers. Here, there was only space. Distance. She inhaled deeply, savoring the way the air tasted, unfiltered as it was by the presence of other people.</p>
<p>“All right,” she said. She tried to sound nonchalant. “What should I talk to, the wagon?”</p>
<p>“No, you already know its enchantment. Try this.” Aurelia’s hands went behind her neck, brushing aside her braid, and she unclasped a fine silver chain that Certainty hadn’t noticed her wearing. A small pendant dangled from it: a silver charm, finely wrought, in the shape of a closed book. “Tell me about this necklace.”</p>
<p>Certainty took it hesitantly, rolling the chain between her fingers. It was still warm from Aurelia’s neck. She pooled it gently in her palm and closed her fingers around it, trying to hide her nervousness. This was her chance to prove to Aurelia that she wasn’t entirely useless. Feeling self-conscious under Aurelia’s gaze, she shut her eyes, blocking out the glare of the sun and the movement of the wagon, and let her magic trickle into the necklace.</p>
<p><em>“What is your purpose, necklace?”</em></p>
<p>The necklace’s object-voice, when it responded, was a delicate whisper. It sounded like the clink of thin glass, the spritz of a perfume bottle, the shimmer on a watersilk gown. It sounded expensive.</p>
<p><em>“I am an enchanted necklace. I adorn. I distinguish. I en hance.”</em></p>
<p><em>“And what’s your enchantment?”</em></p>
<p><em>“I bear a spell of focus. I ward my wearer against distractions of body and mind. I remind them of what it is they strive for.”</em></p>
<p>Certainty frowned. <em>“Distractions of body and mind?” “Hunger. Thirst. Loneliness. Exhaustion. I dull their edges.”</em></p>
<p>She thought she could see how that might be useful. “<em>Show me</em>,” she thought.</p>
<p>The necklace complied.</p>
<p>Certainty felt the bloom of its magic first within her hand, then flowing through her body. The spell felt like being immersed in cool, still water; the world was suddenly quiet around her. Her body became distant, as if she were a being of intellect rather than anything so crude as a living, breathing thing. Like a knife on a whetstone, her mind sharpened itself against the spell, and her thoughts grew unusually clear. She considered what it’d be like to train her magic under such conditions. Which exercises she’d go through, in what sequence; how she could optimize their effectiveness…</p>
<p>Then the whispers began to snake through the channels of her mind.</p>
<p>“<em>You need to work harder</em>,” murmured a voice that sounded strangely like her own. <em>“Your magic is too weak. You’re not good enough. You’ll never be good enough.”</em></p>
<p>“<em>Stop that</em>,” she thought at the necklace.</p>
<p>“<em>Cert, I’m disappointed in you.</em>” Her father’s voice now. “<em>We were all counting on you, you know.</em>”</p>
<p><em>“That’s enough—”</em></p>
<p>Then came Asp’s voice, as clear as if he were sitting right beside her.</p>
<p><em>“But Cert, you promised me…” “STOP!”</em></p>
<p>The whispers ceased immediately.</p>
<p>Certainty’s eyes shot open. Her heart was thumping hard, and her breaths felt ragged and short. The necklace’s enchantment was as powerful as any Cert had ever felt. It frightened her.</p>
<p>Aurelia was watching her intently. “Well?”</p>
<p>She swallowed. “It’s… it’s enchanted with a spell of focus.” Her expression must have said more than that, though, because Aurelia’s eyes tightened.</p>
<p>“Do you disapprove, Novice?”</p>
<p><em>Yes! It’s awful. Who wouldn’t? </em>She was still reminding herself that the voices weren’t real. But Aurelia owned the necklace—had been wearing the blasted thing, presumably by choice, although what that said about her Certainty didn’t know—so she hedged. “Not entirely. I’m just trying to understand… If you don’t mind my asking, why do you want to have a voice always criticizing you inside your own head? Do you really need that just so you can—what, get more work done?”</p>
<p>“My work is important.” Aurelia’s voice was stiff again. “This necklace helps me be the best mage that I can be.” She took it back and clasped it around her neck once more, where it vanished beneath her robes.</p>
<p><em>Huh. </em>Certainty searched for something safe and inoffensive to say.</p>
<p>“Um. The craftwork on it is lovely. Did you commission it from a Guild artificer?”</p>
<p>“No,” Aurelia said. “It was a gift from my parents.”</p>
<p>“I… see.” <em>Mother and Sons. </em>What sort of parents would inflict such a horrible gift on their own daughter? Rich ones, obviously, but more than that…</p>
<p>“It doesn’t speak constantly.” Aurelia’s tone was carefully neutral. “The voice of the necklace, I mean. Only sometimes.”</p>
<p>“Oh.”</p>
<p>Certainty didn’t know what else to say.</p>
<p>She couldn’t help but think of the fine carriage horses she often saw in the High City. Immaculately groomed and wearing tack that gleamed with silver and jewels, they high-stepped through the streets in perfect synchronization. The purebred horses were as much a symbol of their passengers’ wealth and status as the family crests inlaid on the carriage doors.</p>
<p>They always rode blinkered, of course, with cups of dark leather attached to the bridle such that they could only see straight ahead. The blinkers were meant to prevent the horses from startling, but Certainty had always felt bad for those fine, beautiful horses in their fine, beautiful harnesses, whose worlds were shrunk in half by scraps of leather, and who learned to only ever walk in the direction where they were pointed.</p>
<p>Certainty shuddered lightly and put all thoughts of the necklace out of her head. She held her hands in her lap, looking out at the landscape rolling by. She turned her face up to the sun and let her thoughts drift along with the breeze, imagining what the village of Shpelling would be like. Wondering what Dav and Saralie were up to back at the Guildtower, and thinking of her family, and whether her father had begun the season’s planting yet.</p>
<p>But all the while, as they traveled on, Mage Aurelia looked only straight ahead.</p>
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<p class="has-sm-font-size">Excerpted from <em>The Keeper of Magical Things</em> by Julie Leong Copyright © 2025 by Julie Leong. Excerpted by permission of Ace. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.</p>
<p>The post <a href="https://reactormag.com/excerpts-the-keeper-of-magical-things-by-julie-leong/">Read an Excerpt From <i>The Keeper of Magical Things</i> by Julie Leong</a> appeared first on <a href="https://reactormag.com">Reactor</a>.</p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/excerpts-the-keeper-of-magical-things-by-julie-leong/">https://reactormag.com/excerpts-the-keeper-of-magical-things-by-julie-leong/</a></p><p class="ljsyndicationlink"><a href="https://reactormag.com/?p=823978">https://reactormag.com/?p=823978</a></p>
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