The Wolf and the Woodsman

by Ava Reid

“Better to die young with a smile on my face than live a long life without laughter.”

But how did a perfect being create something as imperfect as humans, so prone to caprice and cruelty? And why does a perfect being demand blood from little boys?

“Do you call a hawk evil when it snatches up a mouse to eat? Do you call a fire evil when it burns your logs to ash? Do you call the night sky evil when it drinks down the day? Of course not. They are surviving, like the rest of us.”

stupidest prince who’s ever lived. All that talk of quiet obedience is for their benefit, not yours. They don’t have to go to the

effort of striking you down if you’re already on your knees.”

“Olacakla çare bulunmaz.” I furrow my brow. The words are similar in their cadence to Régyar, but for all their unexpected familiarity, I can’t understand them. “Is that Merzani? What does it mean?” “‘There is no remedy for what will be.’”

Creation can only exist alongside destruction, peace alongside pain. Wherever there is life, I will also be.’

“Would you let me destroy you, then?”

“It would be just as well,” Gáspár says miserably. “I should be struck dead, for wanting you the way I do.”

“What would you have me do?” he asks. “You have already ruined me.”

“That is the only way to truly believe in something,” Zsigmond says. “When you’ve weighed and measured it yourself.”

“If there is anyone I would damn my soul for,” Gáspár says, “it would be you.”