Woman King

Woman King - By Evette Davis


PROLOGUE

Most of you are probably familiar with the fact that San Francisco is a foggy city. What few people know is the real reason for the fog. San Francisco’s weather, despite what the nightly news might say, is controlled by a powerful spell. This spell conjures up the cool, wet fog to keep people from seeing what is really going on around them. The fog tumbles across the hills and mountains like a great grey-white wave, pressing inward until it erases San Francisco from view. On those days and nights, when most people can barely see more than the hand in front of their face, the city’s Others—fairies, witches, vampires and werewolves—can meet and attend to their business. In the darkness of night, the light muted, the air damp, it can be difficult to know if what you are seeing is real.

For the Others, there can be no trace of them or their activities left behind. The fog is their eraser, a privacy screen cast up to shield humans from an unsettling truth: They are not alone in this world, and they are not in control.

Besides its reputation for fog, San Francisco is also known for its colorful population. It’s no accident that so many outlandish people live there. The city is home to an enormous population of Others, alive and undead. That the Beat poets, the free-speech movement, the Summer of Love, the sexual revolution, and the gay rights movement originated in San Francisco is no coincidence. Amidst the tattooed, pierced and corseted, the Others are free to live their lives. In San Francisco, it is easy to hide in plain sight