Richard assured Lily they’d surely found more than enough evidence to put John Faust behind bars for life—if they ever caught him, of course. Lily pulled him aside for a moment to explain how iron worked on wizards, warning him that nothing else but constant sedation could keep John Faust under control. She wasn’t sure if Richard took her seriously, but he wrote it all down and promised to pass it on to the appropriate people.
After that, Sebastian got some burn cream and bandages for where the iron cage had left minor burns on his skin, and the two of them were left wrapped in blankets and sitting on the bumper of an ambulance. They waited there thirty minutes before their taxi finally arrived. An hour and a half, and a lot of money later, it deposited them at Madam Barrington’s house, where they retrieved Sebastian’s car. They would have to wait to get Lily’s car back from the LeFay estate some other time.
It was well past midnight, so they had to sneak into McCain Library, dodging a few campus security guards. When they finally stepped through the broom closet and into the Basement, Lily felt ready to collapse. But she stiffened her spine and did what needed to be done, helping get Madam Barrington comfortable and finding some food and water for Allen. Tomorrow they would need to figure out a way to sneak her mentor out of the basement and drive both her and Allen back to Savannah. Allen insisted that’s where she needed to be if he were going to treat her properly. Plus, during Allen’s captivity, John Faust had boasted about how he’d infiltrated the townhouse’s defenses, so Allen knew what to shore up to prevent any further “disturbances.” In any case, he doubted John Faust would bother them anymore.
“He’s h—headed off to England, y—you can be sure,” he said, his stutter having improved with a blanket, hot tea, and some digestives Lily kept in her office. “H—he wouldn’t have fled so readily if he, well, hadn’t already g—gotten what he was looking for: Morgan’s l—location. Remember, my brother is not exactly, um, malicious, s—so to speak. If we s—stay out of his way, I believe he will, hm, s—stay out of ours,” Allen finished, bringing his cup of tea to his lips very slowly and carefully. Despite the improved speech, he still had a bad case of tremors along with intense nerve pain in his extremities, most likely caused by the extreme amount of magic his body had been forced to channel. They were hopeful time would heal his wounds, but who knew if he would ever be the same.
Lily agreed with Allen’s assessment of John Faust, though it made her heart ache to know Madam Barrington would be so far away from home. Allen promised she could visit anytime but insisted he needed no help in nursing his patient. Personally, Lily thought his flock of enchanted hands would do a better job of nursing Madam Barrington than he ever would. She silently resolved to have her mother look in on them regularly, once she and Sebastian left for England.
For that was where they had to go.
Sebastian was skeptical at first, but even he couldn’t deny that they’d come too far to simply give up. If John Faust had gone to England to find Morgan, they would have to follow. Either to stop him, or to find her first. Thanks to Madam Barrington’s foresight, they had the copies of the diary and John Faust’s translation that she had made their first night at Allen’s townhouse. The originals, along with John Faust’s eduba, were mysteriously missing from the mental ward. Lily could only assume her father had taken them when he fled.
There was much planning to do, but all agreed it could wait until tomorrow. Everyone was dead on their feet. Lily made sure Allen was as comfortable as possible. He insisted it would do Madam Barrington more harm than good to be moved that night, so he would be staying with her in the Basement.
Sebastian drove Lily home, chuckling for the first time that night when he opened the car door and Sir Kipling bolted out, bounding joyfully up the apartment steps to scratch at the door and meow at them to hurry up.
He supported Lily as they made their weary way up to join her cat. At the door Lily fumbled with her keys, dropping them with a curse.
“Here, let me do that,” Sebastian said, stopping her from bending over to retrieve them. He was probably afraid she wouldn’t be able to get back up.
Ignoring her half-hearted protests, he accompanied her inside, helping her to the bed and taking off her shoes when she just stared blankly at the floor, too weary to do anything at all. Pulling back the covers, he made her lie down and tucked her in, gently running his soft fingers across her cheek as he brushed her hair out of her face. Sir Kipling jumped up on the coverlet and picked his way over the lump of her body to curl up in his proper place: nestled against her chest where his purrs would lull her to sleep. She was already half unconscious by the time Sebastian switched off the light and turned to go, but she caught his hand.
“Don’t leave,” she mumbled. She didn’t really think about the request, she just knew she didn’t want to be alone. Not after tonight.
Sebastian hesitated but then gave in, lying behind her on top of the covers so he could curl his body around hers, head close and breath warm on the back of her neck. It took a few moments, but he finally seemed to work up the courage to put a protective arm around her, holding her tight. Sir Kipling didn’t protest the invasion of his space. In fact, he purred even louder, if that was possible.
“I’ll always be here,” Sebastian whispered in her ear, “for as long as you need me.”
“Promise?” Lily mumbled into her pillow, eyes heavy as she started to drift off.
“I promise.”
Lily sighed contentedly, nestled between Sir Kipling’s purring warmth and Sebastian’s solid strength. Maybe things would be alright, she thought. After all, where could she go wrong with these two? It was her last thought before she fell asleep, dreaming of double-decker buses, men in tall fuzzy hats, and lots and lots of tea.
To be continued in Book 4 of the Lily Singer Adventures: Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Legends
Keep going to read a preview of Book 4
LOVE, LIES, AND HOCUS POCUS: LEGENDS
Now in paperback, audiobook, and ebook
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Legends
CHAPTER 1 - A Hop Across the Pond
Lily sometimes wondered why health insurance didn’t cover the cost of cat ownership. It really ought to, since cats were one of the leading contributors to stress reduction and overall happiness in households across the nation. They were one hundred percent natural and had no harmful side effects—well, if you ignored the hair. She supposed, to be fair, it should cover dog ownership as well. But dogs didn’t purr, so they were at a distinct disadvantage in the stress-reduction department.
At the very least, she thought she should get some sort of premium discount, since Sir Edgar Allan Kipling—her snarky, obstreperous, talking cat—was solely responsible for preventing a variety of health complications over the past twenty-four hours. Heart attack. Anxiety attack. If-you-do-that-one-more-time-I’m-going-to-kill-you attack. The therapeutic effect of burying one’s face in a fuzzy cat tummy knew no bounds.
Not having a heart attack was a good thing, since the fate of wizardkind currently rested on her shoulders. Being a socially awkward introvert didn’t help, and she’d long ago admitted she needed all the friends and allies she could get. Which brought her back to the heart attack. It was an understandable concern, considering that her most powerful ally lay near death, afflicted by an unknown curse.
Madam Ethel Barrington was Lily’s friend, mentor, and instructor in the wizarding arts. Though the woman was more than a hundred years old by Lily’s best guess—wizards aged well, she didn’t look a day over seventy—she’d always been a pillar of wisdom and stability in Lily’s life. Now she lay cold and ashen as the grave, and Lily was trying very hard not to panic.
Lily sat by her mentor’s sickbed in her uncle Allen LeFay’s townhouse situated in the heart of historic Savannah, Georgia. Though one of the more modest of Savannah’s historic homes, it was nonetheless an impressive example of antebellum architecture with its high ceilings, wood-paneled floors, and
plaster walls complete with crown molding. Madam Barrington’s room was clean and well lit by sunlight streaming in from four tall windows, two each on the east and north walls. Privacy was preserved thanks to a handy spell that made it appear from the outside as if the curtains were drawn. Allen didn’t like mundanes nosing about, and there were plenty in this city full of curious tourists.
Despite the sunlight, however, and copious layers of warm blankets, Madam Barrington’s hand was still deathly cold as Lily gripped it between both of hers, keeping silent vigil beside the bed. Her heart felt as cold as the hand she clutched, and just as immune to the sunlight. Back aching, limbs stiff, and eyes stinging with weariness, Lily tried not to think too much as she watched the slow, almost imperceptible rise and fall of her mentor’s chest. But with nothing else to occupy her thoughts, like iron to a magnet they inevitably gravitated back toward the cause of this whole mess: her father, John Faust LeFay.
It had been less than twenty-four hours since their…confrontation. Though to call it a confrontation was a bit of an understatement. If you asked her best friend, Sebastian Blackwell, he would have described it as an epic battle between good and evil. Which was why she rarely let him explain things: he liked to exaggerate. She supposed he deserved a break in this instance, however, since he had gotten his butt soundly kicked by her half-sister Trista. The young mundane was a veritable expert in armed and unarmed combat and had unfortunately been brainwashed by their father to help him in his grand plan to “save” the wizard race and bring about an age of “benevolent” wizard rule. So from Sebastian’s perspective she supposed it had been an epic battle. He’d had to use every bit of his fae magic—acquired in a trade, as was the witches’ way—along with his own natural wiles to eventually run her off.
And that was the other reason Lily preferred to think of it as a “confrontation.” They hadn’t won. Oh, they’d rescued Allen and freed the other wizard children John Faust had been raising as his brainwashed minions. And John Faust had fled, along with Trista and her wizard half brother, Caden. But they hadn’t won. Madam Barrington had been almost killed by one of John Faust’s curses, and their adversaries had escaped with knowledge of Morgan le Fay’s location. Morgan was one of the most powerful wizards from the past two millennia—and Lily’s ancestor. There was no telling what kind of power John Faust might obtain from her, whether she was still alive or not.
What with John Faust getting a head start, her mentor being fatally ill, and knowing she had to go to England and fix it all, alone, it was a testament to the power of Sir Kipling’s purr that she hadn’t lost it already. Alright, so, not quite alone. Sir Kipling would be coming, and then there was Sebastian.
“How’s she doing?”
The soft voice behind her made her jump, and she turned to make shushing motions at Sebastian’s bright-eyed, boyish face as it poked around the door into Madam Barrington’s sickroom. Turning back to the bed, she gently released the ice-cold hand she’d been holding and laid it on the covers, trying not to think how like a corpse her mentor looked. It was the blue lips and grey skin that did it, and the fact that her breathing was so shallow it seemed nonexistent. To make Madam Barrington more comfortable, Lily had taken down her strict bun and combed out the grey hair to cascade over her shoulders. It was the first time Lily had ever seen the older woman’s hair down. It made her look more vulnerable. More human.
With a sigh she moved away, pausing to pet Sir Kipling, currently stationed in a catloaf on the older woman’s chest, where his warmth and purring would do the most good. Then she slipped out of the bedroom—the last room at the end of the hall—giving Sebastian a weary shrug as she quietly answered his question. “I can’t see any change yet. Allen seems sure his antidote will at least get her conscious, but I can’t help worrying. What if she doesn’t wake up? I can’t bear the thought of leaving before we know she’ll be okay.”
Though she fought to hold it back, moistness formed in the corners of her eyes and threatened to spill down over her cheeks.
“Hey, hey. It’s gonna be fine.” Sebastian assured her, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze, then leaving his hand there. While its warmth was not unwelcome, what she really wanted was to wrap her arms around him and bury her face in his collar. That was out of the question, of course, so she compromised by leaning forward slightly to rest her forehead on his chest and taking deep, slow breaths to calm her emotions.
While she was eternally grateful for his friendship and knew she couldn’t have gotten this far without him, he did create his own set of problems, though not exactly the ones you’d expect. The fact that he was a witch was a non-issue, even though witches and wizards were traditionally rivals. Being born with magic, wizards tended to distrust and look down on witches for their wheeling and dealing to acquire magic for themselves. But Lily and Sebastian had long since decided to ignore the traditions of their elders. The fact that he was a ne’er-do-well who considered rules to be more like guidelines was, surprisingly, not a major problem, either. He had a good heart and always meant well, even if he drove her crazy.
No, the biggest problem was that she had finally, sort of, almost admitted that she loved him. She hadn’t spoken about it openly, but the fact that she had progressed from denial to semi-acceptance was a huge step for an awkward, controlling, up-tight introvert like herself. Of course, the most sensible thing to do would be to ignore her feelings and get on with the task ahead. The problem was, she didn’t know if she wanted to be sensible anymore.
Staring at the polished wood under her feet, she felt Sebastian’s chest rise and fall in a sigh of his own, making her uncomfortably aware of how close they were. Raising her head and stepping back, she turned to stare out the hall window that looked over the busy street below, giving absent, one-word answers to Sebastian’s concerned queries.
The whole relationship issue was made more complicated by this life-threatening adventure they’d been sucked into, clouding her judgment with worry and fear. Everything depended on her. With Allen recovering from his own injuries while simultaneously nursing Madam Barrington, Lily was the only wizard with the necessary knowledge to track down Morgan le Fay before John Faust. They might already be too late. Who knew how long it would take them to puzzle out her location from their copy of the ancient journal Morgan had left behind? John Faust, on the other hand, had already discovered her resting place, using a location spell he’d devised. A spell he’d channeled through her Uncle Allen, almost killing him.
They’d “confronted” John Faust too late to stop him using the spell, but at least they’d survived the encounter intact and had deprived her father of his base of operations. The old mental ward he’d been using as a magical laboratory was now an FBI crime scene where Agent Richard Grant—their contact in the agency—was busy leading the investigation against his illegal activities. Not that the FBI knew anything about John Faust’s larger plans. They thought he was just some crazy cultist wacko. Lily wished it were that simple.
The worst part was, she agreed with her father. Not with his methods, of course. They were deplorable. But his goal to repopulate the wizard race was a noble one, especially since most wizards were in denial about their slow decline and eventual extinction. Even her father’s vision of ruling mundane society, putting an end to their petty wars while using magic to make people’s lives better, was a laudable goal. Supremacist, racist, arrogant, and wildly idealistic, but still, laudable. If her father hadn’t been such a miserable excuse for a human being, she might have been tempted to join him. But having already been held captive by him and experimented on herself, she’d thoroughly and irrevocably burned those bridges. Her father was wrong. The ends did not justify the means, and no amount of future good could justify present immorality.
Lost in her own dark thoughts, she became aware of Sebastian again only when he gripped her by the shoulders and gave her a gentle shake. “Hey. Hey! Are you hearing me, Lil? You’re gonna be fine. You know why? Because I’m g
oing to help you. And so is Kip, and Allen, and your mom, and everyone else. You’re not alone. We’ll figure this out together, okay?”
Lily took a deep breath and nodded. She opened her mouth to say something bracing that she didn’t feel when she heard a weak, halting voice from inside the bedroom.
“Hello…Mr. Kipling. I do not suppose…you could…fetch some water…could you?”
* * *
(Don’t want to stop reading? You can continue the story HERE)
Afterword
Thanks so much for reading Lily and Sebastian’s continuing adventures! Don’t miss future books in the Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus universe by signing up to my mailing list at www.lydiasherrer.com/subscribe for new release alerts, behind-the-scene sneak peeks, book giveaways, and chances to help me out in the story-making process.
Reader reviews are essential to a book’s success by helping other readers discover stories they might enjoy. Plus, they are a great way to show support for your favorite author! Please consider taking a moment to leave a review for Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Allies on your favorite ebook platform.
If you want to explore more of the Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus universe, then come join my motley crew on Patreon www.patreon.com/lydiasherrer. You’ll get awesome rewards like exclusive monthly short stories (found nowhere else), snarky swag, and series spoilers.
Want to discuss story, characters, and future books? Check out my fan page on Facebook and join the fun.
You can also discover more backstory by checking out the Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Universe Glossary here on my website.
I’d love to connect with you online! You can find me at:
www.lydiasherrer.com
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Allies Page 28