Strange Fates (Nyx Fortuna) Read Online Free PDF

my aunts. It kept him alive, but it also kept him crazy.
    He flipped the bottle top over and over and I noticed the Parsi logo, or Parcae—another word for the Fates. My aunts were nothing if not subtle.
    I tensed, waiting to see if my disguise had held. I’d dyed my hair, turning its normal brown to the color of black licorice. Just to be certain, I’d paid a bloody king’s ransom for an occulo spell, which would hide my identity from anyone looking for me. The essence of what made me me would be concealed. The medicine woman I’d bought it from was the last one in America who could work an occulo spell.
    It was impossible to hide the magic coursing through my blood, but the medicine woman had assured me that a casual observer would see a low-level magician from the House of Zeus, nothing more. “But you must be careful of the eyes,” she had warned me.
    “You changed the color,” I objected.
    “The eyes hold the secrets of the soul,” she replied. “That is something a spell cannot conceal.”
    Sunglasses helped to conceal my eyes. I wore them whenever possible, but it worried me that the spell wasn’t foolproof. Would it hold or would I find myself running from the Fates’ Tracker again?
    The spell held and Gaston paid for his purchases and left without giving me a second glance.
    I added a lottery scratcher to my purchases. I would need all the luck I could get. The ticket was a winner, so I turned it in and pocketed the cash.
    I’d obtained the occulo spell after Gaston found me last time. Despite the frigid weather, I was sweating as I remembered our last little visit. He had hunted me down on the beach on a remote island in the South Pacific. It belonged to some celebrity who had probably forgotten he even owned it.
    I had been following a lead about a coral fish that the celebrity was supposed to have at his house on the island. The lead didn’t pan out, which meant I hadn’t found my mother’s charms. I was almost certain that my thread of fate was hidden in one of those charms.
    I’d decided to take advantage of the celebrity’s absence and take a little vacation on his deserted tropical island. I never knew when my aunts would lash out at the nearest innocent bystander.
    I had three aunts, all of whom wanted to kill me, but Morta was the one who wanted to make me suffer first.
    I’d been lying on the beach, watching the fish dart through the azure water, when a shadow fell over me. I’d thought I would be safe there. I was wrong.
    “Son of Fortuna,” Gaston said. “Time’s up.”
    “How did you find me?” It was too late to run.
    But Gaston didn’t try to kill me that time. He’d learned it wouldn’t work.
    Instead, he just gave me a particularly nasty smile. “You know what I want. Just give it to me and your aunts will leave you alone.”
    “I don’t have it. How many times do we have to go over this?”
    “As many as it takes,” Gaston replied. “Your aunts’ patience is wearing thin.”
    “Tell the Wyrd Sisters that I don’t have what they’re looking for,” I said. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell those hell-ridden hags.”
    He shrugged. “Suit yourself. I’m just here to deliver the message.” My aunts. The three Fates: famous meddlers, witches, and keepers of the threads of fate for the human and magical worlds alike. Nona spun the thread, Decima measured the thread, and Morta cut the thread of fate, which ended a life. Only the gods were more powerful than the Fates, and they’d faded away a long time ago.
    What many people don’t know was that there used to be a fourth Fate. Fortuna, the sister who added a bit of luck to the mix. Fortuna, the forgotten Fate.
    The human world was bereft of luck. Fate had killed luck and I had watched it happen. Her sisters had made sure my mother’s role as the fourth Fate had been obscured by time, wiped from history. They’d torn down her legacy as surely as the pharaohs of old Egypt had destroyed their