The Witch of Wren Hollow
When a crooked sparrow delivers a forbidden letter to village hedge-witch Wren Applewhistle, the quiet life she has built grinding comfrey and yarrow comes crashing down. Her mentor, Cordelia Applewhistle, stands accused of witchcraft by the powerful Lord Saffron Briarwell, who claims Cordelia vanished his youngest child through dark magic. Wren knows her teacher would never harm a soul, but proving it means venturing into the heart of the cursed Briarwell estate , a place where the gardens whisper, the ancestors watch, and a malevolent spirit named Aldous Briarwell guards a secret older than the village itself. Armed only with her mortar bowl, her prickly familiar Butterball, and the reluctant help of a sentient scarecrow named Pim Snapdragon, Wren must brew her way past spectral wards, a meddling house-elf called Biddy, and the ruthless examiner Morgrim, who has come to certify Cordelia's guilt. As the deadline for her trial draws near, Wren discovers that the curse feeding on the Briarwells does not want justice , it wants a new host. To save Cordelia from the pyre, Wren must break the cycle that has claimed every generation, even if the remedy demands a sacrifice she is not prepared to make.