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“Why don’t you try it if you’re so skeptical?” she finally asked.
After I finished rinsing off the last pepper, I set it on the side of the sink and wiped my damp hands against my jeans, shaking my head.
“They’re too spicy.”
“How do you know that?” Endora challenged.
“Agn—” I cut myself off, not wanting to say his name aloud. “I was told that by someone.”
“Agnan told you that?” Endora laughed. “I bet he did.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why are you saying it like that?”
“He wouldn’t want you touching them because they’re cleansing,” she said again. “They’ll rid your soul of whatever nonsense he’s infected you with. They’re detoxifying, healing.”
I eyed the enchantress in disbelief, but Endora didn’t smile. “Try it if you don’t believe me. The peppers are cleansing.”
“Please stop saying that. They’re just peppers.”
“Then try one. If it doesn’t do anything, you have nothing to worry about,” she insisted.
“They’re spicy. I can’t handle spice.” I faltered, trying to think of a time when I’d eaten spice in my life. I couldn’t think of what spice tasted like.
“Did he tell you that, too?” Endora asked, stepping even closer. “Or do you know that for yourself?”
“Of course I know that…” I trailed off, confusion overtaking me.
“It sounds like you’re not sure.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know!”
“Then maybe you should find out,” she pressed urgently. “Isn’t it time you got out from under Agnan’s hold on you and learned who you are without him?”
I grabbed for one of the vegetables and took a bite before I could overthink it, waiting for my mouth to erupt into flames. Instead, a succulence flooded my tastebuds, trickling down my throat as the seeds exploded on my tongue.
My eyes grew large, and I stared at Endora, but before I could speak, I gasped, a plume of black smoke spilling from my lips.
“Ugh,” Endora growled, extending her hands. In a flash of white light, she eliminated the plume as quickly as it had come out, waving her hands as a putrid stench enshrouded us. “Gross.”
“What the hell was that?” I choked, grabbing my throat. Seeds sprayed over the floor from my mouth, and Endora grimaced again.
“The cleansing I was talking about,” she sighed. “Some of it. Well, a fraction of it. It’s not that simple, obviously.”
I took another chunk out of the pepper and waited for more dark smoke to emanate from my body. Frustration mounted inside me when nothing happened now.
“Is that it? Is that the end of it?” I went to take another bite, but Endora grabbed the pepper from my hand.
“Stop! You’ll make yourself sick if you eat too much.”
“Did I get it all out?” I demanded. “Am I cured?”
She sighed heavily and gave me a pitying look.
“No. It doesn’t work like that, Mirielle. You can’t get it all out in one sitting. That’s why the faeries in Steelshire eat some every day. This isn’t a one-shot deal. There’s no magic pill that’s going to cure you of the damage that took years to build. You have work to do.”
Shame and disbelief wracked through me, my knees giving out suddenly as I grabbed to steady myself on the counter, dizziness overtaking me.
“That’s why,” she concluded, nodding wisely.
