Page 1 of A Seer and Present Danger

CHAPTER 1

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I know what people think about Ordinary, Oregon. All that magic, all those gods putting down their powers and vacationing as if they were mortal, all those supernatural creatures living amongst normal folk?

I must be magic too, right?

Yes! Well, kind of.

Compared to my friends—Medusa, who can turn people into stone, and Jules, who is the strongest witch in town—my ability is minor at best.

I’m Piper Themati, and I can see little futures. Several little futures. Other seers can see the big stuff: storms, disasters, murder. Me? I know exactly when to refill a customer’s cup of coffee and how far to push it when driving through a yellow light.

“We’re full up and more outside,” I called back to the kitchen as I started another pot of coffee. I didn’t have to look into the future to know we’d need coffee from now until midnight. The Blue Owl diner was a popular spot between the valley and the coast because we had good food and great service.

“Ain’t life a beautiful adventure?” Buzz, the owner and cook, called back from the grill. Nothing ever seemed to bother him, which was part of why it was so fun to work here. He loved the Blue Owl as much as I did.

Buzz went back to singing along to the ’50s tunes and slinging food like he had six hands and a gold medal on the line.

Behind Buzz, Nat, our daytime dishwasher, tapped his toes behind, somehow keeping more dishes clean than dirty even in the middle of our Thursday noon rush.

The rest of today’s crew, Aggie and Shelly (both new hires), were serving up rib-eye, chicken, fries, and pies as quickly as Buzz could plate them. We needed one more person in the kitchen, but Buzz hadn’t put out the Help Wanted sign yet.

“Piper!” Buzz said, as I stepped up to the pass-through.

“Yes, Boss?”

“Break.”

“I can wait. We’ve got,” I waved, “a crowd.”

Shelly scooted up beside me. She was short, black-haired, and always smelled like bubble gum. “And throw off the rest of us?” She loaded her arms with plates of burgers.

“Don’t tip the domino,” Buzz agreed. “Get that break while the gettin’s hot.”

I laughed. “How do you even keep track of our breaks when you’re buried in orders?”

“It’s that big handsome brain of his.” Shelly winked and headed out.

I pressed my fingers to my mouth to keep from giggling. “Buzz, I think she likes you.”

“Who wouldn’t like my big handsome noggin?” He flipped four patties onto melted cheese and onions and covered them with a cloche. “Break, Pipes. Now.”

When he glanced up, he was smiling. But for a minute there, he looked more tired than my aching feet.

“I could cover the grill,” I said. “I used to run that place⁠—”

“—back in Utah, yeah, you’ve said. I’ve only been here six hours. I’m just warming up.” He waggled dark eyebrows and went back to singing about who put the bomp in the bomp-bah-bomp-bah-bomp.

That was my cue to get a skedaddle on.

I grabbed my Stanley thermos and bop-shoo-bopped out the back door.

The graveled area right outside the door ended in park-like greenery, beyond which was wetland full of trees and briars. The fuse box and dumpster were to the right of me. Off to the left was the old mossy picnic table Buzz had set up years ago.