Once Upon a Witch's Death

Meg learns on her birthday that a curse sets her death in one year. Her mentor, the magician Faust, treats the deadline as a case to solve with contracts, investigations, and favors that cross guild lines. They take jobs that look routine and end up connected to the same old spellwork in different disguises. Clients include nobles who want scandal erased, hermits who want lost names restored, and criminals who treat magic as leverage. Clues point to the caster seeing the year as education, not punishment. Meg studies wards and bargaining language while moving from fear to agency. The pair catalog suspects and confirm methods until the pattern finally shows a way out that does not trade a stranger’s life for her own. Whether the curse breaks becomes less important than what she learns about limits, debt, and whose help you can accept without owing yourself away.