The Unicorn Hex

“Do you trust me?” There are three people: Dr. Omar Carter, Miss Soleil Carter, and Theodore Presley. There’s one hex, pouring the universe’s pain into Presley’s body with a click. There are two outcomes: Dr. Omar wins, or Soleil wins. No matter what, Presley loses. When an ill-advised liaison with a fairy saddles Presley with a debilitating bone hex, his boss Dr. Carter puts him on unpaid leave—he can’t be an effective bodyguard with a liability like that. But he’s Soleil’s favorite bodyguard, and she immediately vows to eradicate the hex and demonstrate her prowess at negotiating the unforgiving legalities of magic. Her first success is to relocate the hex’s trigger into her own body, making it impossible for anyone but her to subject Presley to its pain. Point to Soleil. Now it’s Dr. Carter’s move. Her father is gently, devastatingly livid at this risky use of magic, and to teach them both the folly of their experiment he mandates that Soleil snap her fingers once a day, setting off the hex for five minutes—then six, then seven. She is forced to watch Presley collapse in agony over and over, and Presley—well, he’s the one thrashing and vomiting in unendurable pain. Point to Dr. Carter. He is gently, implacably pleased. Soleil, however, is furious. Now, she will stop at nothing—no summoning, no torture, no violence is too steep a price to pay for victory in this family war. She disassembles every part of the hex’s logic and presses past the limits of Presley’s capacity to suffer in search of the solution that will demonstrate, once and for all, that Miss Carter gets what she wants. Presley is trapped: working for one of the powerful Families who control magic comes with the knowledge that leaving on bad terms means a horrible death. Neither his unshakeable loyalty to Soleil nor his rangy strength nor even his capacity for endurance can win him a path out of this nightmare. But all magic has a loophole. You just might not like the loophole when you find it. (note: this story explores themes of torture, psychological abuse, coercive intimacy, and suicidal ideation, and contains strong language)