Page 201 of Sigils & Spells

And it landed, right in her last cup.

Maeve’s mouth fell open. She looked from the cup to me to the cup again, like she couldn’t believe it.

“Now what?” she asked, sounding more human than I’d ever heard her.

“Sudden death.” my voice came out a croak. “You have one more chance to get all my cups out.”

I still had five cups. Maeve narrowed her eyes and nodded. It seemed that it was true for her as well that the room, as gargantuan and imposing as it was, had narrowed down to this table, with the red cups and the shitty beer. Nothing else mattered.

Her first ball made it in without bouncing. I drank. Her second ball bounced once and made it in. I drank.

When her third ball plopped into my drink, the roller coaster of emotions I was feeling in this game plummeted.

Maeve smiled to herself. And threw another ball.

One bounce.

Two bounces, and the ball dropped to the floor.

The room went still. I was suddenly very aware of how many Fae Folk were in this room. How many bodies were standing so still that their clothes didn’t even rustle as they breathed? How many people had just watched Maeve lose?

She lost.

Maeve lost.

I was too shocked to even celebrate in my head. I won. I won.

You could be the smartest, strongest, most athletic person in the world, but there would always be someone who was better than you at something completely useless.

It wasn’t so useless now, was it?

I was free.

I did it.

I didn’t get the chance to celebrate.

Across the table Maeve was steaming. Smoke rose from her chest and from somewhere inside her a shrill screeching emanated like a tea kettle. I stared at her wide eyed, and like before, I watched her grow again. Her antlers twisted out from her head in tendrils and branches twisted from her skin, encasing her further, her hands, no longer human shaped with green skin, but wooden talons once more.

A sound completely detached from humanity emanated from the Fae’s throat.

“I. DO NOT. LOSE.” She screamed, her lungs so powerful it made the marble shake, the chandelier tinkling dangerously above us, some droplets of melted wax falling from the thousands of candles into the crowd.

The branches growing from the Fae’s body made her barely even humanoid anymore.

Oh my god she’s hulking out, I had just enough wherewithal to think before Maeve smacked the makeshift ping pong table with one of her now giant hands. The tale went flying, red cups and beer splattering over the crowd.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!” she roared, the horrible overlapping voices filled my head like bees and tar.

“You can’t!” I squeaked, skittering backwards, away from her. “I won! The contract! You signed the contract, you have to let me go!”

“The contract?” Maeve laughed. “It didn’t say anything about killing you once the game was over. I do not lose, Julian Sanchez, and I am going to enjoy feasting on your—”

“That’s quite enough of that.”

Maeve never got to finish her threat. Suddenly, Titania was between us. She bopped the tree monster that was Maeve right between the eyes. A moment’s delay, and then, it looked like Maeve was gone.

Poof, no more Maeve.

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