商品簡介
The manuscript follows twelve-year-old Austin Madrigal, a thoughtful, imaginative boy living with asthma in the foggy coastal town of Rustic Bay. Austin's life is shaped by two overlapping worlds: the ordinary one of school, bullies, and the loneliness of feeling different, and a hidden magical world maintained by his family. In the Madrigal home, animals can speak in private, storms strengthen enchantment, and a fire-engine-red rocking chair--carved long ago from a mystical Galician oak--acts almost alive, sprouting branches and leaves to show its mood. Austin's closest companions are Shelbie, a blue-merle Corgi who can talk and is training as both a service dog (for Austin's asthma) and a search-and-rescue partner, and Tybar, a massive, striking macaw with increasing gold feathers and an old, wise voice. The family's aviary houses other talking parrots too--Sage, Sophia, and Jade--who function as a lively, opinionated council. Austin keeps all of this secret from most people, fearing that adults who don't believe in magic might label him unstable or try to cage and study his friends.
Rustic Bay's picturesque surface hides an unsettling undercurrent that Austin senses more than he can explain. Down Pebble Passage sits a large, dark mansion with a private beach and dock--an ominous landmark Austin watches from his window while scribbling stories into his worn journal. He observes a parade of sleek cars and boats and imagines secret meetings behind heavy curtains. His unease deepens when he sees a bright red Porsche pull into the mansion's driveway, pause, then turn around; he catches only a flash of a rose-colored sweater and shoulder-length hair. Later, during the town's Pumpkin Festival--where orange lights, tourists, and pumpkin-spice treats fill Main Street--Austin again thinks he sees a rose-sweater woman, appearing and vanishing in the crowd like a wraith. The repeated sightings leave him feeling watched, as if someone is tracking his family's secrets.
Under the magic sits a painful family conflict. The Madrigals once lived on a miraculous oceanfront horse ranch built into a hillside--a place that seemed to "answer prayers," where hay never appeared to run out and the house carried a protective, enchanted presence in its timber. The ranch was Elisabeth Madrigal's passion, home to prized Perlino Andalusian horses. But after Elisabeth's auto accident and hospitalization, her brother Ambrose used legal maneuvering to seize control of the ranch. He also placed Grandma Rose--keeper of old Galician lore and a White Witch--into a care home, and Rose's memory has begun to fade, taking parts of family history with it. Forced by money and law into a smaller bluffside house on Pebble Passage, the family brings the parrots, the rocking chair, and select ranch heirlooms with them to keep Ambrose from claiming or destroying what he doesn't understand. Ambrose's new wife, Gabby, is glamorous, sharp-tongued, and openly contemptuous of Elisabeth's hardship--yet her attention keeps drifting toward Tybar and the family's "odd" possessions.
At school, Austin's asthma and secrecy isolate him, but he has one steady friend: Bobby, a brilliant, awkward boy with taped glasses and a single mother who runs a law practice. Their friendship deepens when Austin discovers that Bobby's dog, Petey Anne, can also talk. Realizing magic exists beyond his household, Austin decides to trust Bobby with part of the truth: he reveals Shelbie and the parrots can speak, while deliberately withholding deeper family details--witchcraft, ancient inheritances, and anything that could draw predatory attention. The boys spend summer afternoons metal-detecting the beach, hunting lost coins and joking about pirate treasure. For Austin, those legends are not just tourist tales; they connect to the eerie sense that Rustic Bay's sand and history conceal something real.
The story pivots on Austin's older sister, Dianne, turning sixteen--a milestone in the Madrigal bloodline. Rose has long taught that certain women in the family are "White Witches," and that on a girl's sixteenth birthday a fairy crosses realms to grant a lifelong gift and help the new witch learn control. The household prepares with nervous joy, while Austin quietly fears having an asthma attack during the ritual. The candles are lit, the air feels charged, and shadows seem to flicker with their own intent. But the rite is disrupted when Ambrose and Gabby arrive uninvited, forcing their way into the celebration. Gabby gives Dianne an expensive dress and heels while insulting Elisabeth's life and finances. Then Gabby offers a second "gift"--a large green travel cage, big enough for Tybar--presented as a thoughtful item for the aviary. Austin accepts politely, but the cage feels like a calculated tool rather than kindness.
As tension rises, Lucas finally pushes Ambrose and Gabby out. In the hallway near the aviary, however, the couple lingers to whisper privately--unaware that parrots are expert eavesdroppers. Jade, the smallest and nosiest bird, overhears Gabby telling Ambrose that Tybar is "extremely valuable," that his gold feathers mark him as rare, and that she suspects he is connected to "that stupid treasure map" Ambrose has been hunting for at the ranch. She urges Ambrose to help steal Tybar when he is alone. The revelation forces a deeper family secret into the open. Tybar shares the true legend behind Rustic Bay's pirate stories: generations ago, a young White Witch loved a pirate and helped hide his treasure. When jealous villagers turned on her, she protected it with enchantments and created a magical map that can only be properly understood by someone with magic in their bloodline. Tybar himself was part of this history--an ancient spell disguised him as an ordinary macaw to protect him from capture. The map, the rocking chair, and timber from a mystical forest were carried from Galicia to America, and the ranch was founded on land tied to the
