Page 61 of The Alpha and the Baker

Felicia

Quality Ingredients

“How do we want to do this?” I asked. “Pieces of paper? Show of hands?”

“Paper,” Slicked-back said, but at the same time two others answered as well.

“Show of hands.”

“Stones in front of our favorite.”

I blinked at them, smiling slightly. There was that discord I wanted. Fairies were so into contracts and the rules that I’d guessed the finer details would trip them up, so it was satisfying to know I was right.

“Shall we vote on the best way then?” I asked as innocently as I could, but not innocently enough, because Slicked-back practically snarled at me.

Well, he started to snarl. He coughed twice, then finished his snarl, but close enough.

“You mock us!”

“I have no idea what you mean.”

“All these delays and distractions! You are prolonging the—” he cut himself off with another few coughs, and I swore it was actually making him blush. “You—you!”

His growing tirade cut off instantly when a groan sounded from the ground beside us. Almost like they were one entity, all the fairies’ heads jerked in the direction of the noise. It was just a child, his eyelids fluttering slightly.

“He’s waking up!”

“Put him back to sleep, Obererion!”

“I will, I just—” He started coughing, and a different fairy knelt next to the kid and waved their hand over the kid’s face.

“Sleep, young one. Dream of happy things and pleasant memories.”

The kid’s eyelids stopped fluttering, but almost as soon as he did, another groan sounded from the bleachers. And then a yawn.

“What is going on?” Cell-phone fairy asked before she also started coughing. “I… I think I need to sit down.”

She did, right there on the grass. It was kind of amusing to see a tall, elegant and otherworldly woman in a designer suit just plop down right then and there.

But then, one by one, all of the fairies began to either cough or double over, their breathing becoming rough. A murmur sounded from the shifters, who no doubt were in shock and confused at the sudden collapse.

“Come on,” Cas said, practically appearing at my side out of nowhere. “Let’s get you out of here while they’re distracted.”

“It’s okay, babe,” I assured. “I got this.”

He shot me a look that seemed both horrified yet also full of wonderment. I probably looked like something evil, standing there smiling as the fairies collapsed to the ground and coughed like they had the world’s worst cold.

“What is happening?” Slicked-back asked, and I crouched in front of him. I knew fairies loved holding themselves above others, so I wanted to show him what it was like to be treated on the level.

“It’s simple, really,” I said, reaching into my pocket for a kerchief and handing it to him. “I don’t like using artificial dyes in my food if I can help it. I always feel like the color doesn’t have depth, and if you use too much—which is really easy to do—it ends up tasting so chemical.”

“Y-y-you?—”

“That’s right, my friend. I roasted a bunch of beets, Detroit Red, to be specific, then blended them and tossed them into my dehydrator until they made the perfect red powder to dye my red velvet cupcakes with.”

“Beets?” I heard Sal ask. It was pretty much the first thing any shifter had said since the whole competition started. “Why the hell does that matter?”

“That matters,” I said, standing as a look of utter horror settled on Slicked-back’s face, “because beets are incredibly high in iron.” I straightened fully as several shifters gasped, and suddenly everyone around me began to put together the pieces I’d been puzzling through for two weeks.

“And iron is what your people are allergic to, isn’t it? ”

“Now,” I continued, pulling another kerchief out of my apron pocket and handing it to the next closest fairy, who had tears streaming from their eyes with how violently they were coughing.

In truth, I didn’t like seeing them in pain or panicked.

It actually made me sick to my stomach. But the thing the fairies hadn’t realized was that I had had to fight and scratch and claw my way to where I was in life.

There was no limit to the lengths I would go to protect those I loved.

“I had no way of knowing if that would be enough. I figure you guys eat red meat and other things with trace amounts, and I read that living in our cities have given you a sort of natural resistance to iron. So, I also got some liquid iron supplements, which that I added to the icing. That’s why I chose cream cheese, by the way.

The depth and richness of the flavor covered up the slight bitterness of it.

Also, ya know, the one-hundred-percent cacao powder I use also helped.

It really is amazing what sugar and cream can cover up. ”

“So you’d kill us?” one gasped, and it was hard not to wince as they coughed and blood spattered the ground below them.

It was gruesome, but they had been talking about executing Cas.

Not to mention, how many other shifters over the centuries had they punished unfairly?

I may have only been a human who just found out about their world, but if I had to be the one to bring justice to it, then so be it.

“I hope not, actually,” I answered honestly. “I want all of you to live. So that’s why I prepared something else.”

I walked back to my kitchenette and pulled a tray of grayish-black circles out of the fridge.

“These are activated charcoal macarons with a lavender-rosemary ganache. Oh, and I used moon water in the mixture. All things that are boons to your people, if I’m correct.”

“So what?” Slicked-back spat before coughing even more. Sweat drenched his brow, and his once-flawless suit was now crumpled and becoming more threadbare by the moment. “You poison us, then offer us the cure?”

“Exactly. But , if you want to have these lovely confections I made, you have to cede the competition. And don’t worry about there not being enough. I have more in the fridge—I just thought bringing out one each for you was more symbolic.”

“You cheated !”

“No sir, I just played your game. Remember what we added to the contract? That any ingredients that I could reasonably get my hands on were permissible.”

“But that was to make sure that?—”

“That you didn’t use all your magic finery?

I knew that was inevitable from the start.

” I sat down in front of him, holding the tray.

I knew he couldn’t snatch it from me or use enchantment to take them.

“And also remember the clause that each contestant had to give permission to eat their creation? You can’t touch these unless I say so.

And I won’t say so unless you all vote that I win. ”

I felt cruel in a way, but also a bit righteous. How many people had the fairies tricked before me? How many had fallen victim to manipulation or clever verbiage in one of their overwrought contracts? Maybe after me, they would think long and hard about taking advantage of another human or shifter.

“So, shall we do a show of hands?” I asked sweetly, holding one of the treats. “Who thinks that I am the winner of our little competition?”

They all stared at me, coughing and gagging, an unfortunate symphony of misery, but they only had so long. In less than a minute, the first hand went up, then another, and then another, until all twelve weakly held theirs in the air.

“Congratulations, human,” Slicked-back whispered. “You win.”

“ Fantastic ,” I said, grinning. “How about you have one of my macarons to celebrate?”

I hurriedly held it up to his mouth. Despite how much I didn’t like the fairies, I truly didn’t want to be responsible for their death. But what I didn’t expect was for a sudden cheer to fill the entire public market, and all of the fairies and I jolted.

Oh right, the McCallisters and the Ramirezes had been watching, completely silent. Somehow, I’d forgotten that they were there.

“You did it!” Cas cried, rushing forward and sweeping me up in a hug. But as much as I would have loved to melt into his embrace and stay there forever, I had some fairies to cure.

“I did,” I answered before handing him the tray. “Would you hand these out please? I’m going to go grab more.”

He nodded, but before we could fully disentangle, he kissed me hard on the mouth. “You are the single most incredible person I’ve ever met.”

And just as quickly as he’d snatched me up, he hurried to the next fairy, handing them the antidote.

When I reached my kitchenette, I put a little more hurry into my movements, no longer having to appear so incredibly calm and collected.

Part of me was still in shock that my plan had actually worked out.

I’d known from the beginning I could be risking my life off secondhand information, but even if it had been a long shot, it was worth it.

In the back of my mind, though, I had never expected to truly succeed. And yet, I had.

So what now?

Well, I supposed first we needed to save the fairies.

Once that was done, maybe the full reality that both the McCallisters and Ramirezes were finally free would fully hit me.

Because at the moment, it still felt too abstract.

Like I’d been working toward the goal for so long that it wasn’t possible it was completed yet.

“You really did that, didn’t you?”

I nearly jumped as I pulled my second and third trays of charcoal macarons out of my mini fridge. I was surprised to see Abuelita Ramirez there, giving me a look that was somewhere between reproachful and admiration.

“I just did what I had to do.”

And that was truly how I felt about it. I hoped that the shifters didn’t judge me, or even worse, fear me because of the lengths I’d gone to, but I figured it was necessary. The fairies had made it clear they didn’t care about what was right or wrong, just their damn contracts.