“You ridiculous cat. Why must you bother everything?” she lamented to herself, picking up the fragment. Examining it, she was relieved to see it was barely damp at all, with no damage to its markings. A glance under the desk revealed her errant pet, who was now cleaning his paw with supreme unconcern, pausing occasionally to blink at her.
“Cats,” she grumbled, settling back down in the patch of sunlight. She needed to get more deciphering done before the daylight weakened and she had to start thinking about bed. Nine a.m. came early, and she wanted to look, and feel, her best for an appointment at a prestigious university museum.
* * *
Lily woke Wednesday morning, not to the sound of her alarm clock, but to the soothing vibrations of a purring cat. She had an uncomfortable feeling she’d overslept but was distracted from it by the warm, heavy ball of fur settled comfortably on her chest.
Groaning, she tried to push him off. “Kip, you better not have turned off my alarm again.”
Sir Kipling, however, didn’t want to move. He dug his claws into the sheets and resisted her groggy attempt to dislodge him. “Well, if it weren’t so loud and annoying, I wouldn’t have to take matters into my own paws,” he protested.
“It’s supposed to be loud and annoying to wake me—”
She froze, going cross-eyed in an attempt to see the feline perched atop her. Her muddled, half-asleep brain tried, and failed, to make sense of what she’d just heard. It had sounded like meowing, but also like words. She stared at her cat and he stared back, eyes half-lidded.
“Did you…?” She paused, giving her head a shake to dislodge the cobwebs in her brain. “I thought I heard…good grief, I’m imagining a conversation with my cat. I need a hot shower.” She sat up for real this time, her movement threatening to spill Sir Kipling onto the bedcovers.
Twisting with cat-like agility, he launched off her chest and landed on the edge of the bed in a dignity-preserving move, then turned to lick his mussed fur into submission. “A hot shower won’t fix your problems,” he commented between licks.
Lily stared, speechless, no longer sure of her own sanity.
Sir Kipling paused his ministrations to look at her. “If you insist on sitting there being shocked, you might as well make yourself useful and pet me.”
“I—” She stopped, then tried again. “You…talk?”
A smug look was all the reply she got.
“Wait, that’s not—since when?” Lily was still shocked, but her brain at least had started working again. She’d adopted Sir Kipling as a stray kitten during her last year of college and had never gotten the slightest inkling he was anything but a normal cat.
“Since now,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“Don’t be silly. Cats don’t randomly start—” she paused, suddenly suspicious. “Was it that fragment of tablet? Wonderful. Just splendid. What did you do?”
He sniffed archly. “You’d think you weren’t happy to talk to me. Well, good morning to you, too. I’m just fine, thanks for asking.”
Lily rolled her eyes. He was perfectly healthy but probably wouldn’t cooperate unless she mollified him. Typical cat.
“I trust you’re well this morning? Did whatever you got up to last night damage anything vital?” She couldn’t resist a bit of sarcasm, but he ignored it.
“Now that you mention it, there is this place on my back that’s been itching all night—”
“Sir Edgar Allan Kipling,” she interrupted in a voice that brooked no nonsense. “To the point, please.”
“Well, if you insist,” he said, taking his time to stretch and yawn before continuing. “I did nothing at all. I was just minding my own business when that piece of dirt you’ve been staring at—”
“You mean the clay fragment?”
Sir Kipling stopped, ears tilted back in annoyance. Lily closed her mouth. After a deliberate pause, he continued. “Yes, the piece of dirt. It started glowing and then…well, let’s just say interesting times are coming, and someone thought you could use a little help.”
“What? What’s that supposed to mean? What’s coming? Who are you talking about?”
“Well, I could answer your questions, but then you’d be late for your meeting.”
Glancing at her alarm clock, she yelped and jumped out of bed, heading for the shower. She had barely thirty minutes to do what normally took an hour, and she would have to skip breakfast.
Hand on the bathroom door, she turned and glared at her cat, who had settled comfortably onto the warm spot she’d just vacated. His eyes had closed, as if in sleep, and all four paws were tucked under him, making him look like a fluffy loaf of bread—a catloaf.
“This isn’t over, Sir. You and I will be having a very long conversation when I get home.”
She didn’t wait for his reply as she rushed into the bathroom to get ready.
* * *
(Don’t want to stop reading? You can continue the story HERE)
Afterword
Thanks so much for reading Lily and Sebastian’s first adventure! 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.
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Also by Lydia Sherrer:
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Universe
* * *
The Lily Singer Adventures:
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Book 1: Beginnings
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Book 2: Revelations
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Book 3: Allies
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Book 4: Legends
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Book 5: Betrayal
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Book 6: Identity
(Book 7 coming in 2021!)
* * *
The Lily Singer Adventures Novellas:
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: A Study In Mischief
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus: Cat Magic
* * *
Dark Roads Trilogy (Sebastian’s Origin)
Book 1: Accidental Witch
* * *
Other Works:
* * *
Ashes of Hope: A Post Apocalyptic Dark Fantasy Short Story
Acknowledgments
Many overflowing thanks to the people who made this book happen. There were my faithful beta readers, who never complained about my ridiculous deadlines. Also to “blame” is my good friend Reggie Van Stockum, who first told me I should publish and lent me his copy of Writer’s Market (he had no idea the maelstrom he was unleashing upon the world). Then there’s my wonderful editor, Lori Brown Patrick, who took a chance with me. Much thanks to my exceptionally skilled and patient cover artist, Tony Warne, and my ever-helpful fellow authors, Robert Turk, Terry Maggert, Jessica Sherwood, and editor Alexandra Birr. I’m also indebted to Joseph Hagan; Maria Bowden and Richard Pow
ell; and Brent, Karen, and Sylvia Hinton, whose generosity helped make this book happen. Most special thanks to my wonderful parents and sisters who have spent hours reading and editing my attempts at writing, never once discouraging me from doing what I love. And lastly, to my beloved husband, who, one cold winter night over a year ago, helped me conceive this story and has been my sounding board, biggest fan, and greatest supporter ever since.
About the Author
Award-winning and USA Today-bestselling author of snark-filled urban fantasy, Lydia Sherrer thrives on creating characters and worlds you love to love, and hate to leave. She subsists on liberal amounts of dark chocolate and tea, and hates sleep because it keeps her from writing. Though she graduated with a dual BA in Chinese and Arabic, after traveling the world she came home to Louisville, KY and decided to stay there. Due to the tireless efforts of her fire-spinning gamer husband and her two overlords, er cats, she remains sane and even occasionally remembers to leave the house.
LOVE, LIES, AND HOCUS POCUS
The Lily Singer Adventures Book 1: Beginnings
* * *
Copyright © 2016 by Lydia Sherrer
All rights reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-0-9973391-0-9 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9973391-1-6 (ebook)
Published by Chenoweth Press 2016
Louisville, KY, USA
No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Under no circumstances may any part of this book be photocopied for resale.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover art by Molly Phipps www.wegotyoucoveredbookdesign.com
Interior illustrations by Serena Thomas
Love, Lies, and Hocus Pocus Beginnings Page 19