Short Stories 366:340 — “Four, Eggs, Sugar and Magic,” by Daniel de Lorne
[image error]This short story was a freebie I received for signing up for de Lorne’s newsletter, and it’s a cute holiday story, sweet in the whole but served with a thick wedge of angst. The story hits the ground running, with compassionate—and fledgling witch—Will baking some cookies for the local queer shelter and trying to work some luck, love, and health magic into the cookies to give the kids an edge. Unfortunately, an ill-timed received text from his ex fouls his mood—and the magic—which he doesn’t realize until his hunky roommate has eaten one of each of the cookies and starts to suffer calamitous luck almost immediately.
Realizing that the love cookie is next, and more terrifying, the health cookie after that, Will comes out to his roommate as being magic between bouts of terrible luck, and tries to get them to someone who will know how to reverse the spells before it’s too late. And then the love cookie curse hits, and it all hits the fan. We learn more about Cal, Will’s ex, and there’s a lot to learn: the man was an emotionally abusive asshole, to put it mildly, and things get more complicated when the love curse whammies the roommate and Will, but ultimately, as this is a holiday romance, the fellas find their way through the disasters, fix the broken magic, and have a few romantic revelations along the way.
As I said, this was cute and fun alongside the buckets of angst. My only sad note was Will deciding that magic wasn’t for him at the end—that felt like a Cal-Will thing to decide, if that makes sense, a decision from someone who thinks they can’t learn to do better because they’re hopeless or something. That said, I’d happily read another tale of another year’s holiday hijinks (maybe a spell working too well?), which probably colours my take on the tale.
This story was a part of the Dreamspinner holiday advent calendar package, and given Dreamspinner’s refusal to pay authors and ongoing troubles throughout 2019-2020, I’m not going to suggest you pick this title up from them, but rather check out Daniel de Lorne’s website and sign up for his newsletter.
