The Revelation of Light and Dark (Chronicles of the Stone Veil #1) - Sawyer Bennett Page 0,3

nerds,” I announce to my household posse. “I’m outta here. I’m thinking of grilling some burgers tonight, so I need to know who’s in.”

I’m the household cook. Long ago, we divvied up responsibilities and since I was the best at cooking, I became the resident chef and chief grocery shopper. Rainey, Myles, and Adira have a system worked out for cleaning the house, and they all three chip in to cover the groceries.

“I’m out,” Adira says, and I figured as much if she has a job interview after work. “I’ll just grab something downtown.”

“I’m in,” Myles says, his attention now back on his laptop. Adira brings him the bagel she’d just prepared. He ignores it like he did the one before it, but that’s just the way he gets wrapped up in his work.

“I’m in, too,” Rainey mutters as she sips at the coffee she just poured. It takes her a while to wake up and function. She works in the mall as head of the makeup section in a fancy department store. Unlike me, she has a college education. Like me, Rainey’s happy doing what she’s doing and not aspiring toward a more ambitious and lucrative career. Deep down, she’s just waiting to land the right rich man who will keep her in lavish comfort, and I can respect that ambition.

I wolf down the rest of my bagel and coffee, grab my backpack by the side door off the kitchen, and head out to my car.

Since this is my house, I get privileges of parking in the gravel driveway that runs right up to the detached garage that serves as Adira’s room. The only real perk is I’m a few feet closer to the door. Rainey and Adira park on the street, and Myles has never owned a car. He either takes the bus or bikes wherever he needs to go.

I love my car. It’s a Subaru Forester in the coolest metallic gray-green color I’ve ever seen. It’s eight years old, and I got it for a great price. It’s been a trusty mode of transportation, and even though traffic in Seattle is some of the worst in the world, I love driving the jam-packed freeways into downtown. It helps me polish my skills of observance, calm steadiness, and the ability to make dangerous maneuvers without hesitation by slipping into the next lane when needed. Not sure when I would ever need such skills outside of driving the Seattle freeways, but they’re nice, shiny, and ready for use.

I’m less than a mile from 99—also known as Aurora Avenue—which is a straight shot south into downtown where I work. It’s roughly an eleven-mile trip that can sometimes take me an hour, depending on rush-hour traffic. It’s my time to gear up for the day, though, and I jam to the prince of Seattle, Kurt Cobain, as I make a mental list of tasks I need to accomplish at the coffee shop.

Just before I cross the Aurora Bridge, it starts to rain, and my hands go white-knuckled on my steering wheel. I flip on my windshield wipers, grimacing each time they lift as they make a horrible squeaking sound. While I love the rain of the PNW, it makes the metal grating of the Aurora Bridge slippery as hell and causes my anxiety to go sky high when I have to travel over it. It’s the thing I hate about my city the most and all of my daredevil, rush-hour traffic maneuvers grind to a halt as I slow my speed down to a near crawl, clearly pissing people behind me off.

As I inch across the bridge, I ponder that what I do love about Seattle can’t be found in tourist attractions or guidebooks. It’s the cultural diversity that attracts me to stay here despite the bad traffic and rainy weather. It’s the environmental conscience of most of the residents, a shared love and commitment to keep our planet healthy and whole. It’s the vibrant art scene and gorgeous scenery that’s unparalleled. Sure, call me a granola cruncher, but there’s not a lovelier place in the world to live than my city, especially on a clear day when you can see west across the Puget Sound to soaring views of the Olympic Mountains, or the even clearer days when Mount Rainier shines from the south with its snowcapped peak. I’ve heard that it can even be seen as far away as Oregon and British Columbia, but I’ve not seen that with