The High Witch’s old fernery looked like something out of a children’s picture book, all sleek glass and smooth wood overgrown with ivy and speckled with winter-bloom flowers that served to make the exterior appear almost out of place amidst the snowy forest. The idyllic exterior only served to highlight the horror of what must have happened inside.
Seraphina and Alios stood back as Maxwell pulled a set of oddly shaped keys out of his pocket and fit it into the keyhole. There was a sound of many chimes shaking in the wintry breeze as the lock itself lit up in a series of bright green runes that flickered all the way up the mossy panels and newly polished glass. “A minor security spell,” he explained to Seraphina’s interested expression. “Mother set it up so that she wouldn’t be distracte
