The Mistletoe Maiden (A Bound by Ravens Short Story). A Bound by Ravens Novel

She was marked at birth as an omen of bad luck. He will die unless saved by luck in love.  It is said that enemies who meet beneath the mistletoe will call a truce for the day. But friends? They will be blessed with good luck. Not one soul desired my company, though, let alone friendship, for I was ill marked by the fae before I drew my first breath. Still, when I happened upon a tree spirit dying of a bullet wound beneath a bough of mistletoe, I no longer cared about the unhappiness his kind had caused me or the war between our people.
My conscience couldn't let him suffer. Even if the only way to save his life was to bargain with the Old Crone around the riverbend. And her price was steep. To heal him would cost me a broken heart after knowing the truest love for one year and a day. If I let him die, I'd never know love but I'd be freed from this cursed life in all other ways. No matter what I chose, I would know misery. This was my luck. But it didn't have to be his.  THE MISTLETOE MAIDEN is a 13, 000 word short story set twenty-five years before BOUND BY RAVENS, and follows the love story of Farris Leith's parents, a secondary character in THE HEARTBREAK SHOW and the final MMC in the Bound by Ravens Novel series.  This short story is SPOILER FREE and can be read before any book in the Bound by Ravens series.