First Fall

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Storm’s the name.

Harper Storm.

There’s a lot of stuff that goes on in this world I can’t even begin to understand, much less form an opinion on. There was one thing I was certain of—I didn’t need a psychic to tell me that my mother’s obsession with controlling the future would catch up with me. I just hadn’t anticipated that when it finally did, it would come in the form of an expiration date.

Mine.

The first twenty-three minutes of the last normal day of my life started the same as every other. It was no wonder I was almost bored as I negotiated the hordes swarming the Embarcadero, blending into the crowd.

I smiled—that was the point, wasn’t it?

To be invisible.

I was caught off-guard when a young woman, no more than sixteen or seventeen, held my gaze as she zig-zagged through the sea of bodies. Her destination became clear as she reached me, blocking my path. Before I had a chance to side-step her, she asked to read my palm.

Annoyed, I shook my head, gave her a tight smile and tried to brush past when she grabbed my wrist, causing the cell phone I had been carrying to slip. I cursed as it bounced off the pavement.

It had cost me a month’s pay.

She bent to retrieve it, her eyes going wide as she started to place it in my palm. The one attached to the wrist she was cutting the circulation off to.

“Six seasons…” she gasped, dropping my hand before shoving the phone at me and disappearing into the crowd.

I shook my head and continued on to my destination, muttering under my breath, “Six seasons…for what?”