Her hair was long and light golden, and it shone with a light that seemed to be coming from within. She wore a long silver dress, and on her collarbone rested a silver pendant depicting the three phases of the moon. She looked as if she wasn’t of this world, and then he remembered he was no longer in his own world, so to call this woman otherworldly was simply stating a fact—and perhaps wasn’t as remarkable as it seemed in that moment. Though James had a feeling even by this world’s standards this woman would be remarkable.

“Hello, James, I am Circe, the queen of this land. You are most welcome here,” she said, instantly putting him at ease as she motioned to have him enter through the magical vortex.

“Please, come in. I will send someone out to fetch the cake,” she said, laughing at the size of it as James got out of his carriage. James hesitated before walking through the vortex. He had heard so many stories about the women of the Dead Woods, and even though he had encountered things he thought he never would in this lifetime, he was still awed by the magic of this place. “This way; I assure you it’s safe.”

Circe walked him through what might have been the most beautiful grounds he had ever seen. In the center of the courtyard was a fountain with a statue of a gorgon surrounded by dancing nymphs. This didn’t look like a dead place to him—it was lush, and full of the same beautiful golden flowers he had seen along his way. They sparkled like sunlight, casting a magical glow on the massive stone mansion that was adorned with statues of gargoyles, dragons, and harpies.

The mansion itself was strange. To James it looked as though the solarium was an addition to the stone section of the building, which looked ancient and foreboding, while the glass-dome solarium seemed to shine with hope and love, almost as if the person who had it built meant to transform this place into something quite different from its original owner’s intentions. James loved old architecture, but this was more ancient than any he had ever seen, and he was intrigued that the stone creatures that were residing on almost every available perch seemed alive. He knew they were simply carvings, but he felt something stirring within their stone visages. Maybe his imagination was simply running away with itself, but he could see deep cracks where it had looked like the creatures had dislodged themselves, only to return to the resting place. But even with these eerie stone creatures he thought this was a beautiful place, with its shining glass dome and a garden of flowers that looked as if they were lit by the sun even in the black of night.