A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

The next morning, Luke drives Sera, Nicholas, and Posy to see an ornithologist. Sera is still trying to figure out how to get a phoenix feather for her spell, and Nicholas is sad because Verity has not allowed him to return to work yet. Luke reminds Sera that the spell is “adaptable” and that the ingredients will need to be objects that are important to Sera herself. Luke plans to take Posy to the arcade, although he dreads it. He and his sister are similar in many ways; they share sensory sensitivities and have an extreme dislike of crowded places, but they differ in their ability to tolerate the noise and flashing lights of the arcade. When they get home, Sera tries a cardinal feather that the ornithologist gave her, but the teapot rejects it.

As the days pass, Luke is struck by the inn’s fairy-tale quality, which he feels has no place in the “real world”; he is “calmly, icily, resigned” (137), waiting for the peace to end. One morning, Matilda brings a goat to the inn—despite Sera having expressly forbidden goats—and it destroys the garden. Jasmine worries about Sera’s response to this disaster and sends Matilda and Nicholas to find the goat’s owner so that Luke can repair the damage.