Shadows to Stars Chapters 1 and 2
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The supernatural cat grins as you draw near the bar trying to avoid touching any of the bustling Fae who seem to be pointedly ignoring you.
"If you're wondering why no one in this very obviously Fae pub is freaking out that a human is here, it's because I made you invisible." Pale smoke puffs from beneath Pangur Ban as he flips onto his back, ghostly feet wagging in the air.
"Read this tale of woe. I'll be back at the end with my fully detailed proposal and an introduction."
The little bell over the door to the Wyrd Sisters Apothecary chimed, and Selina forced herself not to sigh. Another teen waif. Another problem to avoid. She flipped the Enya cassette to side two and straightened her spine.
She watched the girl drift from spell books to crystal bins. Her hands trembled as she thumbed through one book after another, eyes unfocused. She hovered before the gleaming stones, picking up bright crystals, turning them over as if searching for something, but never truly looking.
Not a shoplifter, they always moved with sharper focus; their eyes ever tracking you. No, this one had the haunted look of someone adrift. Selina had seen her kind before. Runaways were drawn to Wyrd Sisters Apothecary like moths to a lantern, seeking shelter, searching for meaning.
The plight of runaways and outcasts was sad, but Selina had long since learned to avoid entanglements. She’d spent years perfecting the art of keeping others at arm’s length, a lesson carved by abandonment and betrayal. At best, people disappointed. At worst, they destroyed you.
She didn’t have the bandwidth or time for another teen drama. Tonight, she had a shift at the Fae pub, Fògradh Lodge, where dealing with the Folk required her full attention. She eased herself from behind the counter. Humans were problematic, but Fae could be worse.
Taking a deep breath, Selina pasted on her warmest smile, tucked a stray bit of hair back into her ponytail, and approached. “Is there something I can help you find?”
The girl flinched, dropping the rose quartz in her hand. It clattered across the floor. “I’m so sorry.” Her halo of tight black curls bounced as she scrambled to recover. “Um... no. Just looking.” Her small, winced smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Selina retrieved the stone and returned it to the bin. “It’s fine. They’re rocks, not glass.”
The teen stepped back, tugging at the sleeves of her red hoodie. Her clothes looked too clean, for the usual runaways. Strange. Stranger still, she crackled with residual magical energy, like she’d tangled with the Fae.
The girl’s dark brown eyes flicked up to meet Selina’s. “Do you mind if I use your phone? It’s a local call.”
Selina paused, fingers tapping against the counter. A beat passed before she nodded toward the phone. “Sure. Over there.”
“Thanks. I’m Charlotte, by the way. Charlotte Holloway.” Her lips flickered into another weak smile.
“Nice to meet you, Charlotte,” Selina said. “I’m Selina Leanabel. I’ll be at the register if you need anything.”
Charlotte hurried to the phone, shoulders hunched like she carried a burden. Selina busied herself behind the register but kept her peripheral attention on the teen, a tightness forming in her chest.
Stop that, Selina. Not your circus, not your monkeys.
Still, something about Charlotte tugged her heartstrings, and the residual magic pulled at her like static electricity.
Charlotte dialed, clutching the receiver in both hands. The call went unanswered. Her lips moved, whispering something Selina couldn’t hear, then she tapped the cradle and tried again. And again.
By the fourth attempt, Selina could hear the busy signal as the receiver tilted in her direction. Charlotte’s grip on the phone tightened. “C’mon, c’mon, Dad,” she whispered. “Please pick up.”
Selina sighed and stepped out from behind the counter. The narrow space and her full figure forced her to turn sideways to slide through. “It’s almost closing time,” Selina said softly.
Charlotte jolted, fingers tightening around the phone. The warm glow of the salt lamps cast shifting amber shadows across the shop. “The sign says six.”
“I keep the doors open for tarot readings after five. By appointment.”
“Oh.” Charlotte hesitated, then looked back at the phone. “Do you mind if I stay here until your client arrives? Maybe try again?”
With the line likely disconnected, another attempt would be useless. The girl was scared and alone. Letting her stay a little longer wouldn’t hurt, at least until Selina had to leave for her shift at Fògradh Lodge.
She sighed again, told herself she wasn’t really getting involved, and gestured to the wingback chairs in the back corner of the shop. Their magenta velvet looked almost black in the dim light. “Go on, take a seat. Most comfortable chairs in Portland.”
Charlotte hesitated, then nodded, her shoulders drooping. She sank into the chair, curling in on herself like she was trying to disappear. “Thank you.” She sounded small. And terrified.
At a quarter past the hour, it became clear her client wasn’t coming. Selina glanced at Charlotte, who sat stiff and silent.
A twinge of guilt needled her. After her family had emigrated from Romania to France, she’d been this girl, scared, alone, and desperate for someone to help. No one had. Not even when the Fae took an interest in her.
She pushed aside the shimmery curtain. The scent of dragon’s blood incense wafted into the shop. “Looks like I’m stood up.” She tipped a hand toward the phone. “Want to try again before I lock up?”
Charlotte leapt to her feet and scurried to the counter. “Wait. No. It’s too soon.” She plunged her hand into her pocket. “Do a reading for me. How much does that cost?” She tossed a wad of bills on the countertop.
Selina patted the wrinkles out of her long skirt. “Twenty for a basic three card spread.”
Charlotte smoothed out the crinkled bills. “I have enough.”
I’m not leaping in head first. I’m only doing a reading. That’s it. Then the girl would go…wherever she went.
Selina pushed the money back. “On the house. Introductory special.”
Charlotte’s expression flickered with something unreadable, but she nodded and followed Selina behind the curtain.
Two more magenta wingback chairs flanked a small round table. Selina settled into one and invited Charlotte to do the same.
Charlotte sat and placed her hands on the edge of the table. “So do I have to pray to some pagan god or something?”
Selina seated herself. “No, but it helps if you’re relaxed.” It actually didn’t matter, but she guided the girl through a few deep breaths, encouraging her to exhale her tension.
When Charlotte opened her eyes, she seemed steadier.
Selina shuffled the cards. “What do you want to know?”
Charlotte shrugged. “I don’t know. My future?”
The cards slid over each other repeatedly. “Too broad. You came in here with something on your mind. Maybe go with that?”
Charlotte gulped and stared at her hands, silent. The only sound was the faint hum of traffic and the slick whisper of the cards. “I want to know why I can’t go home.”
Selina’s hands stilled on the deck. What an odd choice of words.
Charlotte swallowed. “And what happened to my dad?”
Selina wasn’t some charlatan. Under her hands, the cards revealed the truth. That was her gift, but it felt more like a curse. Prophetic magic ran through her bloodline, skipping generations, unpredictable as the Fates themselves. Three generations had passed without its manifestation before Selina.
The shuffling ceased, and she placed the deck flat on the table. “Cut the cards, please. Into three piles.”
A tear slid down Charlotte’s cheek as she made her three equal piles. Selina slid the box of tissues toward the girl and sensed her feet flat on the floor. “This card reveals the recent past that bears on your question.”
She flipped over the first card from the stack to Charlotte’s left. The Tower. With its grey citadel crumbling as lightning ripped it apart. A sharp pulse of dread hit her, like a taut string snapping inside. The only card in the deck that Selina loathed. How many times had her magic caused her world to crumble? She’d been the reason her family had to leave Romania, and her visions were why the Fae always sought her. Every time young Selina’s life had gone pear-shaped, that awful Tower card surfaced over and over in readings.
Charlotte’s finger tapped one of the screaming figures tumbling helplessly into the abyss below. “That looks super bad. What does it mean?”
Part of Selina wanted to lie. The Tower, like all tarot cards, held many meanings, but under her fingertip, it crackled with electric certainty. The sensation meant his reading carried the weight of a true oracle.That card was an ill portent, just as it had been in her past.
This poor waif stood at the heart of something vast. It could shatter her world. “Hard to say without the context of the other cards,” she lied.
Usually Selina revealed each card one by one, but she desperately wanted to be proven wrong. She flipped over the remaining two cards. “These are the present situation and the future outcome.”
The middle card caused her mouth to dry. An image of a horned creature stared back at her. He presided over two figures in chains. The Devil. Selina’s fingers pressed hard against the table, as if grounding herself could change what she saw. One bad omen was harsh. Two? That was a storm on the horizon.
The stark image of a figure pinned beneath ten blades announced the unwelcome addition of the ten of swords as the last card representing the outcome.
Charlotte leaned forward to study the cards. “Good thing this is all fake, right? This looks like the worst possible reading.” Her words suggested disbelief, but the slow rise of returning tension to her shoulders betrayed Charlotte’s anxiety.
Selina held up a hand. She really didn’t want it to be true. “Let’s draw a clarifying card.” She flipped over a card depicting two dogs howling at a golden orb in the sky with a woman bound in front of several swords and laid it adjacent to The Devil. The Moon. No help there. If ever a spread screamed ‘Fae are destroying my life’, this would be it.
Charlotte studied Selina with brimming eyes. “This is all part of the act, right? Just tell me whatever this means.”
Selina leaned forward, her eyes softening. “No act. The cards say what they say. The Tower speaks of a shattering upheaval. Something’s been tearing apart the foundations of your home, perhaps your family’s life. In the present, The Devil, suggests the cause is some binding force, controlling the situation with devastating consequences. Last, the future, the Ten of Swords, represents the future, and speaks of an irreversible betrayal. And the Moon means hidden forces are at the root of it all.”
She paused while Charlotte stared at her, breath suspended. Selina had only seen a spread this ominous, this hopeless and dark once before.
The one she’d done for herself shortly after her family’s arrival in France had been similar, and in six short months young Selina’s parents had perished in an anti-immigrant bombing. It seemed Charlotte was on the cusp of a similar loss.
Selina should walk away. The girl had managed the situation this long on her own; she’d eventually figure it out. Selina had. And look how well that had turned out.
Besides, family situations were very far out of her wheelhouse. But I am in the unique position to help with this girl’s Fae problem.
Still, the police were likely better equipped to help the teen. Selina’s heart broke for Charlotte. The specifics were unclear, but that spread meant girl’s father was definitely not okay, and she clearly could not go home.
Tears flowed down Charlotte’s face. “It’s not real. Just hocus-pocus.”
Selina pushed her chair back. “Sweetheart, we should contact the police, they can take you home to find out-”
“No! I can’t go home,” Charlotte shouted.
A black, oily feeling slithered over Selina. That sounded like a child abuse situation. “We can call social services. They-”
Charlotte’s breath hitched, and her jaw dropped. “It’s not like that! My dad would never hurt me. He’s all I have. I just can’t go home. I tried. Over and over I tried. We live on Sauvie Island. Every time I get close to the bridge…It’s like…”
Selina reached across the table and grasped Charlotte’s hand to calm her. She instantly regretted it. The vision slammed into her like a train.
Selina never knew when her visions would crash into her, but each time, what they revealed came to pass unless someone intervened.
The Oracle yanked her to the outskirts of the city, to Sauvie Island, where a fell mist coiled around her ankles, thick as chains. Through the fog loomed a concrete skyscraper rising from the forest. It had no business being there.
Figures shifted in the gloom, some winged, some small with green, leathery skin. Fae. But there were others she had never seen before. They had vaguely human features, yet appeared primitive. Short, wiry hair covered their bodies. One of them tore into a stray dog, ripping raw meat free with sharp teeth, gulping it down in wet, ravenous bites.
The scene reeled.
She was inside a brick house. Thick dust coated every surface, claw marks raked through the drywall. Selina turned her head and whimpered.
Family photos lined the wall. A black man with gentle eyes sat on a faded blue couch, reading Green Eggs and Ham to a little girl with ebony curls and light brown skin. Charlotte. And her father. A stack of letters on the end table bore the name Ellis Holloway.
A blinding white light flared.
Charlotte stood over her, shaking her shoulders. “Wake up! Selina, come on.”
Selina groaned and clasped the girl’s hand. “It’s okay. I’m all right. This happens sometimes.”
Charlotte sank into her seat. “Seizure?”
Selina exhaled. “Not exactly.”
What she’d seen should not be possible. Those Fae she’d glimpsed were gentry. Specifically, the wicked Unseelie variety.
No one knew exactly when the Veil between this world and the Underworld thickened enough to seal the last gateway. The gentry trapped here built new Courts and reshaped power centers to mimic their lost home. And they kept their distance from humans. Pacific Northwest suburbia was the last place she expected to find them living.
Once again, her unpredictable power had shoved her straight into Fae business.
Selina weighed her next words. If she told Charlotte the truth about her power and what she’d seen, she was no longer just an observer. She was involved. As ever, avoidance was the smartest move. Because she lived between human and Fae worlds, but she’d learned to stay on the sidelines for her own protection.
However, if she abandoned Charlotte now, human authorities wouldn’t be able to help her. Like it or not, Selina was probably the only person in the city with the right connections.
Silently cursing every god she could think of, for guiding Charlotte to her doorstep, Selina surrendered to her worst trait: her conscience. If she walked away, Charlotte would be lost. Selina would carry that guilt for the rest of her life.
Perhaps, though, she was overcomplicating her role. All she really needed to do was to enlist the help of her Fae lover, who owned Fògradh Lodge.
Selina rubbed her temples. “Oh sweet, it’s not epilepsy. I have visions.”
Charlotte threw her arms across her chest. “What, then? You think you’re psychic?”
Most people refused to believe Selina’s visions were real, but there was no time to convince the teen. So Selina tore the bandaid off at once. “Yes. Except I have no control over when or where they happen.”
Charlotte drew her chin back. “You’re serious?”
“I saw your father. Ellis Holloway. You live in a small brick house at the edge of town, on Sauvie Island. I saw a picture of you as a little girl sitting on a blue couch, your hair in pigtails while he read you Green Eggs and Ham.”
Charlotte stilled, grip tightening on her sleeves.
Selina leaned forward. “How do I know all this? Because I was there. The second I touched your hand.” She shook her head. “We don’t have time to process your disbelief.”
Charlotte’s world was falling apart. Selina didn’t want to shatter it completely. So she stopped there, unwilling to say the worst of it.
The skyscraper in the woods.
Ellis’s dusty, shredded house.
And the Fae.
Despite the vision and Charlotte’s plight, Selina resisted the truth of what she’d seen. None of this made sense. No existing Court would forcibly occupy a town already inhabited by humans.
And those feral creatures? They belonged nowhere.
Charlotte paced, running a hand through her hair again and again. “Visions? That’s impossible.”
Selina shrugged. “So is some invisible force preventing you from going home.”
Charlotte froze. “You’re right.” She collapsed back into her seat, looking hollow.
Selina sighed. “What do you want to do?”
A fat tear slid down Charlotte’s cheek. “Only thing I can do. Try to go home, and If I can’t, sleep in my car.”
Selina’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t think you’re going to have a different result, and if you did…” She hesitated. If Charlotte managed to cross the bridge, the Fae might harm her. But how could Selina tell her to give up on her father?
“I have to keep trying.”
Selina’s voice softened. “You really have nowhere else to go?”
“My mom died when I was four. We didn’t have any other family. It’s always been just us. Without him, I’m totally alone.”
Selina felt heavy. That look on Charlotte’s face. The way she hugged herself as though bracing for impact and looked at Selina like she was something steadying a world of shifting sand. Ten years ago that had been her.
The best she could do for Charlotte was to dissuade her from approaching the island. But she needed to see the magic herself. Feel it. So she could share the details with her lover, Hieronymous.
Hieronymous Aerkind was an ogre who owned Fògradh Lodge, the only Fae pub in the western half of the United States. It was a gathering spot, a refuge, and a place where Fae secrets changed hands. If anyone knew why powerful Fae were invading Sauvie Island, Hieronymous would.
Fate had a hand in bringing Charlotte to her doorstep. Selina met the girl’s wide, desperate eyes and her heart softened. “Okay. I’ll lock up, then I think we try to drive you home.”
Charlotte blinked, stunned. “You’re coming with me?”
Selina tried a reassuring smile. “Guess I want to see what happens.”
Charlotte smirked. “I thought you were psychic.”
“By some cosmic joke, yeah. But whatever force gives me these visions never shows me the full picture.” She grabbed her coat. “Just enough to get me into trouble.”
***
"So you've met Selina Leanabel up close. I'm hoping she has a true prophetic talent and is not just some sheister like everyone else. I have a very brief, hopefully fun little task for you, if you want to walk deeper into the story."
(to get the next chapters, you will need to click and choose a path in the last email I sent you!)