Page 16 of Sugar & Sorcery
“Zelda.”
I knew the true nature of her contracts: a wish for a sacrifice. And always, a price heavier than promised. No one walked away happy from her pacts, only shackled. I unfolded the parchment: an invitation, penned in goose quill.
Dear Arawn, you must have received my carrier pigeon, or should I say my poisoned apple delivery. In any case, I am hosting a ball on the first day of winter, for the harvest. It is time to bury the hatchet and for you to come to your senses. I alone know who you truly are and possess what you most desire.
Signed, your dearest Zelda.
My fingers tightened. I crumpled the letter and tossed it into the gaping maw of a Spirit. It choked immediately and collapsed in the grass with dramatic flair.
“You’re going to ignore her again?”
I could no longer. Not after she had sent her army to ensnare me. My gaze slid back to the confectioner. “Humans are weak. She will never have the strength to be of any use to me.”
“It’s not as if you have a choice. Zelda has recruited almost every confectioner,” Yeun fretted, hovering near the girl. “No one wants to work for you. Those who tried are?—”
“Dead. Yes, I noticed,” I snapped. “Incompetents with weak hearts. And this one is not ready.”
Confectioners were meant to serve us. But finding one—one who truly fit—was near impossible. You didn’t simply stumble upon a soulmate by chance. And because a magic too powerful could not exist without balance, without them, our power collapsed. A thankless task yet an essential one.
And I needed a confectioner.
One strong enough to withstand my magic.
I despised the thought of depending on someone. Yet my steps carried me toward her. The Spirits drew back at my approach.
“Leave her,” I commanded. “She is not yours.”
They withdrew at once, rolling across the ground before dissolving into the mist of the lake, their red eyes the last thing visible in the distance. They clung to me like a plague, and for reasons unknown, they obeyed my orders.
“Do you know this curse?” Yeun asked, floating above her, his butterfly eyes wide. “It almost looks like a blessing.”
I knelt beside her, leaning over her crystallized form. “One thing is certain: it is not death she should fear.”
Her skin was like spun sugar crystal. I removed my glove, bringing my hand close without touching. Already, I could feel the cold radiating from her. Yet around her heart, a warmth lingered. Fragile but tenacious.
The judgment was merciless.
“Her curse will eat her from the inside. She has until the first day of winter, when the golden apples are at their peak.”
Yeun swallowed, turning a queasy shade.
“Those are only my suppositions, of course. I could be wrong.”
“Not in recent years,” he replied. “Poor child.”
I breathed in. The cold of my domain—though I no longer felt it—had frozen her entirely. Or so I supposed, watching the patch of her skin where Yeun’s warmth managed to render her a little more human.
“Your heat might be enough to pull her from this state.”
After all, the warmth of a will-o’-the-wisp could melt even the toughest metals.
“Will it be enough?”
I focused my magic, brushing the crystallized surface of her skin with the tips of my claws. A glacial shock shot through my nerves as I ripped it out of myself. My magic refused to flow freely. I had to wrench it, force it, as one tames a wild beast. And the more I pushed it, the more it bit back.
A violet glow spread over her skin like a poisonous bloom. My cursed touch seeped into the delicate frost of her being. A cruel irony. The more I believed in the value of a life, the more I destroyed it. But if I felt nothing, if I saw existence only as a hollow, meaningless beat, the curse lay dormant. All I had to do was never be foolish enough to care about anything.
“If she survives, it will be by her own will. Not mine.” And in a low murmur, I commanded, “Take her.”
