A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

Clemmie moves into Matilda’s old room. Later, Francesca calls to ask Sera to break Albert’s magical contract with the Guild. Francesca says that as far as the Guild is concerned, Sera and Luke are no longer in exile. When Sera asks about Clemmie’s status, Francesca concedes that Sera can have whatever she wants if she agrees to help the Guild break Albert’s magical contract. Sera feels nervous, as though she has forgotten something, but she agrees to try to break the contract so that the Guild can oust Albert.

When she and Clemmie arrive at the Guild, Sera notes the stuffy portraits that depict the organization’s all-white, aristocratic former members. Both Francesca and Verity have tried and failed to break the magical seal on the contract. Sera agrees to try on one condition: She wants social change in the Guild. She accuses them of helping Albert rise to his current position, and she also accuses them of insisting on limiting membership to witches with a certain background, pedigree, and status level. In short, she states that the Guild has maintained an obsession with admitting only the “right families” and excluding those in racial, socioeconomic, and other minority groups. After concluding that the Guild has let the entire magical community down, she breaks the seal. Everyone but Bertram-Mogg votes to expel Albert immediately.

Francesca tells Sera that Albert knew what she was doing in Bertram-Mogg’s library on the night of the masquerade. She looks at Sera with pity, and Sera realizes that Clemmie lied to her about the events of that evening. She confronts Clemmie, who admits that Albert caught her that night and promised to break her curse if she would tell him what Sera was up to. Clemmie now admits that she told Albert everything. Feeling betrayed, Sera leaves without Clemmie.

The narrative jumps forward in time, two days after Sera and Luke return from the Guild. Jasmine feels that something is wrong, and Sera realizes that the inn is warning them. They send Theo and Posy to stay with Malik and Elliott. Suddenly, Albert arrives, his rage palpable and dangerous. He confronts Sera and hurls a lightning bolt at her feet. When Nicholas charges at him, Albert turns the young man into stone.

Sera recalls her nagging sense of having forgotten something and realizes that she forgot her love for the others. Now, without the protection of her love, Albert has the ability to hurt them. She shatters the stone encasing Nicholas and orders everyone inside, telling them how much she loves them. When Albert hurls a bolt at Luke, Sera bats it away. Just then, Clemmie lunges at Albert from the shadows, choosing her found family at the inn over him. Luke pounces on Albert, who sets off such an explosion that both Luke and Clemmie are flung backward. When Albert kicks Roo-Roo, Clemmie punches Albert in the face. Sera casts a shield between Clemmie and Albert and realizes what she must do to end this. She challenges Albert to a duel, declaring that the loser must leave the country. Luke can tell that Sera is up to something, but Albert agrees. The duel begins, and Sera uses telepathy to access Luke’s mind, asking him for the incantation to steal Albert’s magic. He recites it soundlessly, and she then implements it, taking all of Albert’s magic away and draining her own in the process. She feels that this is the only way to protect the people she loves.

Sera remains unconscious for two days. By the time she awakens, Albert is back at home. She is now a Guild hero, but her heart is broken. She tells Matilda that she wants to wallow, and Matilda guesses that this is the first rest Sera has had in years. Luke tells her that the Guild Cabinet has changed significantly. Howard is the only prior Minister who still holds his position, and Clemmie is the new Chancellor. Luke makes arrangements to drive Posy and Theo to Edinburgh twice a month for magic lessons with Verity’s friend. When Sera closes her eyes, there is just one single star left of her magic, but she is all right. All the old versions of herself reassure her that she is still here and will rise again like a phoenix.

Sera doesn’t know what will happen to the inn now that she doesn’t have the magic to sustain its spell. Jasmine reassures her that she and Matilda will make sure that the inn stays open and can still welcome anyone who needs it. Sera realizes that now that she has the freedom to do whatever she wants, all she wants to do is stay at the inn. The group goes to Clemmie’s oathtaking ceremony as the new Chancellor, and Sera assures her that she is still welcome to come to lunch next Saturday. Francesca is eager to be friends again, and Howard gives Sera a copy of a book that she loved as a child. When they get home, Sera sees wildflowers bursting from the snow-covered garden, a reminder that her magic will never be completely gone.