Selkie: and the Wizard's Wish

By Carolyn Liu

Something’s fishy… It all goes into total chaos when fifteen-year-old Cathleen Sea falls through a portal to the legendary Camelot. At first, she is desperate to go home, but when she finds out that an evil wizard is on brink of conquering the whole realm, Cathleen and two other selkies jump into rescue mode to save the realm. Along the way, they meet friends and enemies, but nothing is stopping this trio from having a hair-raising adventure of the lifetime-not even a hungry polar bear!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Feb 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662906107

Book preview

Chapter 1: Secrecy

Cathleen was your average fifteen-year-old girl. She had normal friends, kind of normal parents (because the majority of parents are weird, right?), and went to a perfectly normal school. But something was missing from her life; her mother and father telling her certain things. They always seemed to hide stuff from her. She tried to pry whatever they were hiding from her out of them, but her parents dismissed her crossly, saying that it was none of her business. Cathleen tried again and again, but her parents dismissed her like she did something wrong.

Please, please, please just tell me what you’re hiding! begged Cathleen desperately.

Her mother pursed her lips together tightly and gave her desperate daughter the I told you a million times to not bother us look.

Cathleen, we are not talking about anything behind your back, her mother said, with a stern gaze. Just, please mind your own business.

Cathleen went to her room and locked the door. She pulled at her black hair in frustration and howled. Then, she had an idea.

At night, Cathleen snuck into her parents’ office, where they kept papers, packages, secrets, and the secret safe filled with Cathleen’s college money that she had saved. But the mischievous Cathleen had zero interest in the secret safe. She wanted secrets revealed. Cathleen planned to confront her parents the next day if she found anything useful to her search. She literally dove into documents, boxes, empty labels and tabs, and paperwork. Finally, she found a box hidden behind a curtain that practically blended in with the wall. The box had a large label with interesting words painted on it;

Do not open: Only valid to Mr. and Mrs. Sea.

That is quite strange, Cathleen said to herself. Mother and Father never owned anything so big and private!

Carefully, she opened the box. Inside was a book. A strange, dusty, ancient-looking book with no title. Cathleen blew off the dust and saw strange pictures and symbols. It had a seal on the middle of the cover, surrounded by pearls and crystalized sea foam. She opened it and read aloud quietly so she wouldn’t attract unwanted attention.

Chapter 2: The Mysterious

Looking Glass

A ve era– Cathleen stopped reading. How could she understand the strange symbols in the book? And what was its strangely written language?

She skimmed through more pages and put it in a satchel she had found and emptied. Cathleen planned to confront her parents with the helpful thing–if she found one. She then looked around the office. A black curtain with a tassel camouflaged against a dark corner in the wall was draped over something. Cathleen, the mischievous girl she was, became overwhelmed by her trademark curiosity and with a deep breath, pulled the tassel, not knowing what to expect.

A looking glass? Cathleen was surprised. The curtains flew to the side for Cathleen to see a pretty looking glass pressed against the wall. It was just a looking glass–a pretty one at that, so why did her parents need to hide it? She decided to find out, so she took a closer