Prologue
New York City
2024
Fable Ramsey shivered as she sat against the cold wall in a small alley on 46th Street and 9th Avenue. She pulled her knees to her chest and yanked her tattered blanket up to her chin, uncovering the only footwear she owned; the fake Doc Martens on her feet. She looked up at the night sky and saw a star twinkling at her. She smiled then scoffed at herself.
There weren’t any stars twinkling in her direction. If anything, they were laughing at her up there. She was the biggest fool who believed things would get better for her once she was free of her mother. But nothing had changed. She had no skills.
Kittie Ramsey had kept her from going to school, preferring to have Fable around to help her. She’d hidden Fable from any kind of authority, and on a few occasions after being hidden, her mother had forgotten to find her for days. They lived on the streets, refusing to go to shelters in case social workers started to ask questions about the dirty little red-haired girl pulling along a small suitcase with a broken wheel.
She had watched her mother swindle and cheat any one and any situation, and Fable had learned from her. At the age of nine she became an expert at three-card-monte and every otherstreet game. At thirteen, she’d been jumped at the back of an alley; beaten for the money she’d won on the corner. When her wounds healed, she began to practice self-defense. On the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, one needed to protect oneself. At eighteen she was arrested for pickpocketing. She was bailed out by some guy who’d hooked up with her mother and was doing her a favor, but it turned out he wanted his own favor from her and she wasn’t having it. It was the one thing Fable had never given up. Her body was hers. She’d rather rot in jail than let someone use her body to get out.
Unafraid of sleeping outside, she closed her eyes and settled in. Thanks to Bernadette, one of the waitresses from Tess’s Diner uptown, Fable’s belly was full. She’d met Bernadette one day while she was panhandling and the woman was kind enough to buy her lunch. She began showing up after hours, traveling to Fable’s little alley to bring her a bag of the latest special. She was like Fable’s very own fairy godmother.
Tomorrow, she was meeting Ms. Halstead, a new social worker—whom Fable prayed was also an angel sent to help her—about finding a job. After that, she’d be handing out flyers. Maybe she could make enough to be able to stay in the shelter. She’d love to get her own apartment but it was a dream for now and nothing more.
She settled in but then something rumbled beneath her. She opened her eyes to see if she felt it again. There weren’t any subways beneath her but there it was again. The strange rumbling. This time the vibration shook her and a resonating hum sounded in her ears.
She stood up, ready to run. What the heck was it? An earthquake? She looked around beneath the street light. The air appeared wavy, like when she warmed her hands near a barrel fire and she looked over the flames. She thought she should run, but she’d lived in four of the five boroughs her whole lifeand she’d seen plenty without running. But she’d never seen anything like a man appearing out of thin air right before her eyes. She blinked and gasped a little. What had she just seen? She doubted her eyes and backed away instinctively. Where had he just come from? He hadn’t been there a moment ago. Had she fallen asleep? She had to be dreaming, right? Her thrashing heartbeat in her ears proved that she was awake. But, what she just saw couldn’t be real. People don’t just appear out of nowhere. She almost didn’t see whatever was in his hand but it glowed like a blue flame and almost drew her out of her hiding place.
He was so focused on it, he hadn’t seen her when she ducked into the shadows along the wall. He looked out of place, like he’d been part of some kind of theater company or medieval society club. He wore a tunic-like shirt and pants with leather moccasin style boots. His hair was gray and hung loose around his bearded face.
He turned and looked directly at her even though she hadn’t made a sound and she was sure he couldn’t see her. When he took a step toward her, she reached for her bottle of mace. She should probably carry a knife, the way her mother had taught her, but she doubted she could use it on anyone.
“I can see you,” the man called out in a heavy British accent, breaking the silence as he came near. “Come out and put away that useless weapon you have pointed at me.”
No way! No way could he see her! She squinted trying to see him better and then sprayed him in the face with her mace. “Good luck seeing for a while, Mister.” She ran around him and then came to an abrupt halt when he clamped his fingers around her arm.
In his other hand, he clutched the glowing blue item and held his arm up to his eyes. “Wait!” he ordered as if she were under his command. “What year is this?”
“Huh?” she asked. What kind of problems did this guy have? “The year? It’s 2024.”
He let out a sigh of such deep relief, Fable thought he might pass out. “Then I’m in the right time.”
“That’s great, now let me go. I don’t want to hurt you.”
He didn’t do as she demanded. “Who’s the king here? I need to speak with him.”
“Are you for real?” Incredulously, she tugged her arm. “This is America. We don’t have a king. You need to take a right toward the U.K. mister”
He lowered his arm from his eyes but didn’t open them. The lids were already red and swollen. Fable grimaced looking at him.
“A right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Right. You need a passport and a plane ticket on British Airways and you’ll be all set.”
“Can I use this?” He waved the blue trinket in front of her face. Was it…a pocket watch? A sapphire pocket watch?
“To pay?” She obviously misunderstood him and felt foolish for asking.
“No.”
She wrinkled her brow at him. “How would you use a pocket watch to get to the U.K.?”
“How do you think I just arrived here from where I was?”
She really didn’t know! Her eyes must have tricked her. Of course he must have turned the corner and she’d missed his arrival. “Where were you?” she asked in a quiet, uncertain voice.
