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Chapter One

I was lost in an undergroundmore turned around at every corner A sea of dead-eyed zo upstrea on my last nerve

I didn’t re, or had I been gone fro? It had only been about four round, in an old pickup truck and with no traffic to speak of Was that long enough to lose ation skills?

I started to head down a flight of stairs, only to realize they went to the uptown tracks I needed don Morning co my frustration in their mindless, relentless journey to work

I caught s and headed back the way I’d co sound that sent chills up my spine It ay too early in the day to have to listen to a ht

Finally, I found the right set of stairs and headed down to wait for a train I checkedlate because I didn’t technically have a job I wasto see if my old company would take me back, and for that, I didn’t have to be there precisely at the start of business hours They weren’t even expecting me

A train pulled into the station, and I let et pushed on board by the flood of cos about New York, but this wasn’t one of the or less crohile I’d been gone The coedto the financial district of lower Manhattan, a fen hipsters, a couple of fairies, and an elf Once upon a time, the fairies and elf would have startled me, but now they were just part of the landscape

One of the fairies smirked—not at anyone in particular, but rather in that way that generallyor thinks she knows so sensation ic

I tried to play it cool as I casually glanced around the subway car, looking for any sign of lassy-eyed look, but was that fro caffeine levels, or was he under the influence of a spell? My question was answered when he lurched forward and took the wallet out of a nearbyas the thieffairy

I grabbed the unwilling pickpocket’s arm and said into his ear, “Hey! Do you really want to do that?” The thief blinked, lost his glassy-eyed look, and stared in shock and horror at the wallet he held

Before he could do anything, the victied toward the pickpocket, shouting, “Thief!”

The thief’sto come up with an explanation, but he still hadn’t spoken by the time the wallet’s owner reached hilassy-eyed stare and,jerkily like marionettes, they blocked his path

Ifairy as a fight broke out and then spread from the enchanted people to the rest of the car In the chaos, I squeezed between fighters, took the wallet out of the still-shaken thief’s hand, and then wor a roundhouse punch and sidestepping a uided attempt at a karate chop

I had to tug on the victiet his attention before I could drag hiht want this back,” I said

He started to thank lassy-eyed and before I could react, he had his hands around er and stronger than I was, and I suspected his strength wassomeone I kneas an innocent victim, but I preferred to breathe, so I kicked him firmly in the shin, then jabbed his ankle with the heel of my shoe