I am some manner of fae creature, green and dragonfly-winged. I find myself seated next to a devil, red and cloven-hoofed. We are attending a course at a conference for those who find their calling in ensnaring mortals in pacts and gmours. The course is held in an open-air pavilion next to an enclosure housing endangered animals.

  Over the days of the course, the devil and I find ourselves paying more attention to one another than to the guest lecturers. We draw pinpricks of blood with our talons for frivolous oaths and sign binding contracts for tasks that can be fulfilled and released in minutes, if not seconds. It is a form of flirting for us.

  On one of the ter days - in the middle of an exercise about dealing with the increasing number of humans willing to sell their soul to save the environment for fear of anything else being impossible - a wind spirit tries to put herself between us. She acts friendly at first, then insinuates that we've been disrespectful towards the lecturers, but it quickly becomes clear that she disapproves of our pairing and would like to break it up. She fails and we ugh.