Page 2 of Twisted Fates
“May the successor have an easier time than I,” he said, and the door closed beside him. The turning of the Wheel of Fortune was meant to create strife. Through adversity camegrowth, but the new Legacy Wizard did not need to suffer as he had.
The car moved forward, and Elias leaned his head back against the luxurious leather seat. He had done all he could for his successor, whoever it would be. He just hoped it was enough because the Death card hardly played fair.
Sure, it probably meant he was dying, but it most assuredly had another meaning as well. The world would need the new wizard sooner rather than later. Things were changing. Energy had begun to flow in a different direction.
May the gods help the new wizard because whoever they were, they would need it.
Chapter one
Damian
Isat stuck intraffic again—unfortunately, a product of my job. Luckily, my passenger didn’t mind a little music and even asked me to turn the sound up when Jim Morrison began to play. They were my dad’s favorite songs, and after he passed, I transferred his playlist over to my own.
Traffic was always backed up on I-5, but today was worse. I glanced in the mirror, and the woman I’d picked up thirty minutes ago didn’t appear disturbed. Unfortunately, the longer the journey took, the less money I’d be making.
“I’m going to try a back route. It normally takes longer, but there must be a few wrecks ahead of us, so it’ll be faster than just sitting here.”
The woman didn’t glance up, just waved her hand, indicating she didn’t mind the route change. It took another five minutes to get over to the exit lane and another ten to reach the exit. Luckily, no one else seemed to be taking this exit.
They didn’t know the secret of going through Anderson’s parking lot to get to one of the outer roads. I thanked my father, who’d driven a cab in Seattle for forty years, for that valuable little secret.
I kept my eye on the passenger as I navigated around the back parking lots and eventually onto the road that skirted the downtown area, taking me to the neighborhood where I was supposed to have dropped my passenger off by now.
Nothing bothered her, so I kept my mouth shut and navigated the busy side streets until I got to the Queen Anne neighborhood. When I hit a heavy patch of fog, I slowed down and once again glanced in the mirror to make sure my passenger wasn’t freaking out. Tourists were sometimes surprised at how quickly a fog could settle in this close to the water.
The woman was still focused on her phone, so if she was a tourist, she didn’t seem overly concerned. As the fog grew thicker, I began to worry. I couldn’t remember the last time it’d been this thick. We always tended to have a little fog this time of year, but this was next level.
I probably should’ve pulled over, but I was just a block away from my destination, so I risked it, driving slowly through the streets, which luckily were empty. My phone announced I’d arrived at my destination, and I quickly sighed.
“I think we finally made it…” I stopped short when I turned around and saw the woman was gone, like,totally gone.
When had she gotten out of the car? I shook my head.Passengers. I found a safe place to park and pulled in, afraid someone would rear-end me if I remained in the street. I also did not want to move on until some of this fog cleared, which would happen when we began to get a little rain.
I’d been a hired driver for five years now. Dad had wanted me to work for his taxi company, but to be honest, I liked my company’s policy of letting me drive my own car. It also afforded me a little more freedom. I loved that I could pick someone up, and all the financials were handled for me. Dad’s taxi company had begun switching to similar programs, but my company was still more efficient.
After sitting in the car for a few moments, I got a ding on my phone, telling me I’d gotten an excellent rating from the woman who’d disappeared. “That’s good, at least,” I said out loud and smiled at the nice tip she’d also left. The tip was good enough to forgo another passenger for an hour if I had to.
I logged out of the system and decided to find a nice coffee shop. The fog was beginning to seep into my bones, even if it was outside the car. There’s a reason why we Seattle folks liked our coffee so much.
If anything, the fog seemed to thicken as I stepped out into it. What the heck was going on? I wondered as I crossed in front of my car, heading down the sidewalk. I pondered how strange the fog made everything look, almost as if I’d stepped back in time. I couldn’t see the cars parked along the streetand could barely make out the stores. Unfortunately, they all appeared to be closed as well.
I finally came to a small place that sat squatly between two larger buildings. I couldn’t be entirely sure, though, with fog this thick. I could barely make out the words Magic Shop and only because they were a bright red script on a white background.
I almost walked by because the last thing I needed was a felt top hat or a wand that threw out fake flowers, but just as I was about to walk past the door, a loud roar echoed around me. Now, clearly, it was a stupid foghorn, but damn, in this fog it sounded ominous.
Almost instinctively, I reached for the shop’s door and sighed in relief as the knob turned in my hand, showing it was open. I quickly scurried in, shutting the door behind me.
I looked up, scanning the interior. I’m not sure I’d have called it a magic shop. That wasn’t what this seemed to be at all. Instead, it looked more like somewhere you got your palm read or bought crystals to keep negative spirits away.
I immediately felt safe and warm, though, and having just faced what was clearly an unreasonable fear of fog, especially in the freaking city of fog, I happily began exploring.
The shelves were typical for an older bookstore. There was ample dust, but in a comforting, “this is a real bookstore” kind of way.
The aisles were narrow, but even that felt comforting. I chuckled when I saw the quintessential rack of crystals. Myheart leaped when I saw the coffee counter. I didn’t hesitate to rush over, then realized the damn thing was closed and from the look of it had been for some time. “Damn,” I said.
“Careful what you’re damning, young wizard,” a voice came from behind me. I turned and saw a handsome older man with a sly smile.
“Um, sorry, I-I just wanted some coffee.”
