Conway Grimm used to be the darling of the literary world. Now he's a washed-up nobody with booze-stained divorce papers, a fat stack of reviews panning his latest book, and a bad case of writer's block.

And because he got desperate enough to accept a favor from one of the fae, now he's got one year to live—unless he can pay back the favor by writing a masterpiece that puts everything else he's done to shame. A book that doesn't just wow the critics, but leaves an indelible imprint on the global psyche for generations to come. Because the fae need him to do the impossible: make humanity fear them again.

This short story is 5800 words long. It can also be found in Mortal Creatures, a collection of stories about grief and magic.