Author's Note: I have a new Constellation for you to read. It's a standalone story. The Constellations series can be read in any order.

San Francisco, 2007

Most patrons at Daedalus Bar had no idea the Speakeasy signs on various walls of the old saloon were anything but decoration.

The first time the Fog twins, Malyssa Fog and Dianthea Fog, entered the establishment, they were underage. Like, way underage.

In the second semester of their junior year, Malyssa and Dianthea wouldn't be allowed to drink for another four years. At this hour in the early afternoon, no bouncer guarded the door. No one was checking IDs, and Daedalus Bar was operating not as a drinking establishment but as a speakeasy underground magical education institution.

The girls followed the signs inside the pub space, a multi-tiered flatiron with a palatial inside, simultaneously dark and light. The afternoon sun, on its way down, angled in an aggressive glare right through the plate glass windows but didn't reach the deepest shadows.

The first speakeasy sign told them they were in the right place. Directly on the entry, a rusty brass historical plaque on the dark wood paneling read "Historical Prohibition Speakeasy." This wasn't enough to tell anyone that today this establishment allowed the meeting of magicians breaking the prohibition against teaching or practicing magic; to be in the know, you had to already be in the know.

Yet the signs gave directions.

The bartenders in period overalls and flat caps did not. No questions were asked, and no answers given; one buxom barkeep with impressive curves in her hips and in her infinitely long waves gave the girls a silent wink and turned away, polishing and stacking glasses at the end of a bar that reached along the other side of the flatiron's knife edge. A thousand amber bottles were lit by solar flare. There were no patrons.

Approaching the bar, the girls caught sight of the next sign. Underneath the stained driftwood countertop, between coat hooks, the next sign read "Speak Softly." One edge of that gilded rust plaque was square, the other a crescent. The arrow side pointed to the left. Toward the back. A set of dark walnut stairs with brass banisters led to a mezzanine level, a few tall counter tables visible on the balcony.

Hanging from the ceiling before the stairs, another sign said, "Soft Drinks Sold Here." It pointed to the right, away from the stairs — literally, a black and white sketch of a man's hand pointed. The girls stepped on up, heads arching as they got closer to the hanging sign. Underground bars would advertise — and sell — soft drinks, as opposed to hard drinks, during prohibition. It was a good signal to potential patrons that hard drinks could in fact be purchased within, because who was looking to buy soft drinks for a night out?

Following orders, the girls turned right. Malyssa led the way around the stairs after another sign that said "Blind Tiger, Have Your Tickets Out," an old prohibition era workaround that allowed the free serving of alcohol to customers who bought a ticket to see the exhibition of a rare animal, such as a blind tiger. Blind Tigers became a code name for speakeasy bars.

When the twins reached the back wall of the establishment, they came up to a full-length mirror. The two self-conscious teenagers took a moment to check for any makeup smudges, shadow blending flaws, or loose strands of their identical, elaborately hair-sprayed lengths of waves. A sign next to the floor-to-ceiling mirror read "SOFT DRINK FOUNTAIN HERE," and oddly, it didn't point anywhere.

Yet there was nowhere else to go.

The mirror corner seemed a dead end. Once the girls had finished checking their hair, they looked left, but didn't see another sign, only more empty table-clothed tables for two. The "Here" part of the sign seemed to be telling them to stay put.

It took them a minute before they noticed a hole cut out of the wall, all the way through the wooden sign in the middle of the 'O' in 'FOUNTAIN.'

As if it were a mouthpiece, Malyssa got close to the "O" and spoke softly into it, "We're off to see the wizard."

A voice whispered back, "Step into the mirror."

Thank you for reading Frost and Fog! This is a new book in the Constellations universe. What do you think? These are the characters from my novel Detective Fog. Don't worry, you don't need to read Detective Fog first to get this book. If you enjoy this book, though, definitely check it out!

The story continues right now! Turn the page, and leave a star as you pass on by⭐️✨