Page 117 of The Demon's Spell

“Exactly,” Cooper said, following Grant through the doorway.

The rest of us paused, but Cooper turned back. “It’s all right. The doorway won’t vanish. The stairwell and this forest are connected.”

Lucas grabbed my hand, and together, we entered the dark forest. Talia and Miles followed close behind. Talia’s jaw dropped as she took it all in. A stick crunched beneath my feet, and a pine scent filled my nose. I glanced back the way we came, and the stone archway stood in the middle of the forest like a portal. In the center of it, I could still see the stairwell, but on either side was nothing but forest for as far as the eye could see.

At first glance, it looked just like the forest outside the school, but when my arm brushed the needles of a spruce tree, they lit up with a cool blue color. A bug fluttered onto the luminescent needles, and it glowed the same beautiful hue.

“Looks like you found yourself a Fortune Fairy,” Cooper said. “These insects are said to bring good luck.”

“Good, because we’re going to need it.” Grant crept forward and knelt down to inspect a nearby plant. It looked like a tulip, but when he brushed its purple petals, the flower opened and whipped vines out of the center. Grant jumped back. “Ow, that hurt!”

“Watch the plants around here,” Cooper warned. “Back at school, your teachers harvest these magical plants, but here, they grow freely. Most of them are harmless, but some of them are touchy.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off it all. Black mushrooms grew up the sides of an old stump. They had purple dots that looked like amethyst crystals embedded into the fungus, which shimmered in the moonlight. Vines as thick as my leg twisted up the trunk of a large tree, and they seemed to pulse as if they were breathing. As we kept walking, I passed under an old, twisted apple tree with the most delicious-looking red apples hanging from their branches. When I reached up to grab one, I noticed they felt smooth and hard like glass.

“They’re inedible,” Cooper told me. “But they’re pretty to look at, aren’t they?”

“Gorgeous. I wish we could eat them.” I was eager to see what curious plants we’d find next. It was like stepping into a witchy Wonderland.

“How does all this grow here?” Talia asked.

“It’s a closed ecosystem—a bit like a terrarium,” Cooper explained. “It exists outside your reality, sort of beside it, so close that sometimes the realities touch. Sunlight bleeds through, as do the moon and stars.”

“It’s warm,” Grant remarked. “Does winter not happen here?”

“It does,” Cooper said. “But time moves differently here. In this tiny universe, it’s summer.”

Miles stared far out into the forest. “How big is this place?”

Cooper shrugged. “A few acres. It’s hard to tell where the forest begins and ends. If you walk far enough in one direction, you’ll end up right back where you started. Believe me, I’ve been here long enough to explore every inch of this place.”

“But you’ve never seen a Wand?” Talia questioned.

Cooper shook his head. “If it’s here, it must be buried.”

“This place is too big to go digging just anywhere,” Lucas said. “We need to narrow it down.”

“Maybe my grandpa marked it somehow,” I theorized. “Cooper, are there any strange rocks or trees around here?”

“There’s a boulder that way,” he said, pointing.

“That’s as good a place as any to start,” I said. “Lead the way.”

Cooper guided us through the forest, and Lucas conjured a witch light so we could see through the trees. It wasn’t a long walk before we came upon a large boulder as tall as my waist.

I walked around it, inspecting it from every angle. “There are no markings, but perhaps my grandfather didn’t need any if it’s the only rock in the forest.”

“It’s the only large one I know of,” Cooper stated.

“Then let’s start digging.” Lucas got to his hands and knees and began ripping apart the underbrush. Within moments, his hands were covered in a thick layer of dirt.

I knelt beside him and started digging. The ground was wet, and the dirt was heavy, but I continued digging deeper. When the ground became so hard that I couldn’t dig any deeper with my hands, I started moving outward, moving further and further from the rock. The Wand had to be here somewhere.

I didn’t know how much time had passed. At some point, Talia stopped digging and asked Cooper to show her around the forest. She didn’t go far, but I kept my head down and continued digging to uncover the Seer Wand.

Hours must’ve passed, because the sun was already starting to peek over the horizon when Grant plopped down on the boulder and gave a heavy sigh. “We need a break. We’ve been at this all night.”

He wiped the sweat from his brow and conjured his water bottle. He took a sip through the straw, then passed it to me. He looked exhausted, and I suddenly realized how tired I felt.

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