Page 21 of Extraordinary Quests for Amateur Witches

Kieran awoke sitting in a hot bath.

He sat up with a start, eyes darting around.

It took him a moment to realize he was in Briar and Delilah’s bathroom, seeing as their room was the only one on the ship with a bath.

He glanced down and found he was still in his underclothes.

His wrists and ankles were wrapped with angry red marks that stung as Kieran moved.

He held up his arm and realized that the shape of the kelp fronds had been pressed into it.

When he gently touched his neck, he recoiled as the raw skin stung at his touch.

The kelp hadn’t cut him, but he was definitely going to bruise.

Not to mention the absolutely seismic headache rocking his skull.

But, he reminded himself, I’m not dead. So that’s a win.

He stood shakily and stripped off his wet underclothes before grabbing one of the clean towels that Delilah kept under the sink.

After drying off, he tied it around his waist so he could head back to his room and put on eight or so sweaters before burying himself in a pile of blankets and, hopefully, napping for the rest of the day. Maybe then his headache would go away.

As he went to the door, it occurred to him that the Hilt was nowhere to be seen.

“Shit,” he whispered. “Shit!”

Without thinking, Kieran flew from the bathroom and, finding Delilah and Briar’s room empty, ran in search of one of his shipmates. He darted onto the top deck—empty as well. He did, however, quickly discover that they were no longer docked in Raven’s Roost: They had taken off again.

Kieran took the stairs two at a time before bursting into the dining room. He skidded to a halt in front of the table, where four pairs of eyes turned on him at once.

“Ah,” Sebastian said. At the sight of a towel-wrapped Kieran, the boy’s face went from stony and unreadable to wide-eyed and bright in a second. “You’re…awake.”

His eyes drifted from Kieran’s face down to his bare torso before immediately flicking back up again.

Kieran’s entire body seemed to blush bright red all at once.

Ariel and Santiago were also at the table, trying and failing to contain their laughter, while Briar pressed a finger into her temple as if this was the most exhausting day of her life.

Delilah was nowhere to be seen—at least for a second, until Kieran heard her voice behind him.

“Oh, you’re up! I was just grabbing some ice packs to put on those red marks all over you to try to bring the swelling down.”

Kieran turned to find Delilah holding two cheesecloth bags wrapped in twine in each hand. Which was all fine and good, but now he was nearly naked in front of the entire crew, looking as if he’d gone absolutely out of his mind.

Before he could linger on that thought too long, he cried, “The—the Hilt! I had it when I was in the water, but now I can’t find it—”

“I put it in your sock drawer,” Briar said.

When Kieran glanced back at her, it occurred to him that everyone sitting there was in the middle of eating lunch.

From the looks of it, Santiago had whipped up some of his classic paella, which explained the pleasant spicy scent in the air.

Almost instantly, Kieran’s stomach growled.

“Wh-what about Hattie and the spirit?” Kieran asked.

“Hattie was doing a ritual when we left to honor all the souls you released from the lake,” Delilah explained. “It sounded like they’d been trapped down there with the spirit for a while now. Once you removed the Hilt, they all floated to the surface and vanished.”

Kieran thought back to the lake. “Is that what all those little fish monsters were? Ghosts?”

Delilah repeated, “Fish monsters?”

“Oh, right. Long story.” Kieran waved a hand as if to dismiss the thought. “I’ll tell you later. And the spirit?”

For whatever reason, at the mention of the spirit, Santiago rolled his eyes melodramatically. Ariel covered their mouth with a hand to stifle laughter, while Delilah bit back a smile.

Before anyone could explain their reactions, Kieran heard a series of little chirps from down the hall.

He turned just in time to see a small, scaled otter creature bounding toward him.

It was about the size of a house cat, with a long, thick tail that moved like a serpent.

The spirit took a running leap, and Kieran barely had time to hold out his arms before it landed in his embrace and nuzzled him under the chin.

“She jumped into the rowboat right after you passed out,” Sebastian explained. “Hissed at me every time I tried to move her. Looks like you have a new friend.”

The spirit chirped again as Kieran absently scratched her under the chin. She had no scales there—just short, velvety fur. “But what about Raven’s Roost? Isn’t the lake spirit supposed to grant their wishes?”

“Doesn’t seem like she wants to do that anymore,” Delilah said. She came to Kieran’s side and gently patted the spirit between the shoulder blades. “Right, bud?”

The spirit chirped excitedly, pressing her forehead against Kieran’s breastbone.

His eyebrows furrowed. He’d never had a pet before, much less one that was a former lake monster and wish granter.

He had no idea how to care for her, but then again, she seemed both sentient and powerful enough to do that for herself.

Maybe she just needed a friend. Kieran could certainly use more.

“Well,” he said, “I guess we’ll have to think of a name for you if you’re going to be traveling with us, hmm? How about…”

“Seaweed?” Briar joked, gesturing to the red marks on Kieran’s neck.

“Perhaps a bit dark,” Santiago started. “Although, accurate in that that creature killed dozens of townsfolk —”

“Oh, come on,” Delilah argued, wagging a finger in the spirit’s direction as if tempting her to pounce on it. “She was all mixed up because of the Hilt’s magic—she wasn’t in her right mind. I don’t think she’d hurt a fly now.”

“You don’t know that,” Santiago argued, shooting the creature a look. “Best-case scenario, that creature is going to creep into our beds at night and eat our toes. I don’t want to consider the worst case—”

“As long as we stay on her good side, I suspect we’ll be fine.” Kieran chuckled. “Right, Seaweed?”

The spirit nuzzled closer to Kieran. She made a noise somewhere between a cat’s purr and a squeak, and Kieran added, “Aw! See? We’re friends now.”

“Fine,” Santiago grumbled, “but I’m not feeding it, and when it gets peckish for toes, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Anyway,” Ariel said, drawing the group’s focus away from their new friend, “we’re heading south toward the Mirrorveil Woods now—it should take us a week and a half to get there.”

“Any sign of Elias’s mercenaries?” Kieran asked.

Ariel shook their head. “Not since the lake. Sebastian’s cutting the fuel lines on those boats meant they were still trapped out there when we left. Gave us a great head start.”

Kieran offered Sebastian a small smile. “Thanks for that.”

“Of course. Anything to slow Elias down.” Sebastian nodded, his eyes once again drifting to Kieran’s bare chest before snapping back up to meet his eyes. “Hopefully, it…helps.”

Seaweed hopped out of Kieran’s arms, exposing his torso again. Well, he thought, glancing down at his slim form and nearly hairless chest, this has been properly humiliating.

He cleared his throat, crossing his arms over his chest. “In that case, I might just…go get dressed.”

Delilah held out the ice bags. “Take these. You were shivering when we first brought you back, hence the hot bath, but if you’ve warmed up enough, you should really give them a try.”

“Thank you, Delilah,” Kieran said as he took the bags. “You’re a lifesaver. I’ll, uh, be back shortly. Ideally, a bit more decent.”

With that, he turned for the stairs, the spirit on his heels, and told himself that he was imagining Sebastian’s eyes burning a hole in his bare skin.

Kieran spent the rest of the day napping on and off in a cocoon of blankets, Seaweed curled up against him like a cat.

His head still hurt, but the silence was helping.

As he lay there under the blankets, watching the sun shining through the white sheet he’d pulled over his head, he kept thinking about what he’d seen in the lake.

There was his mother, of course, but that was a whole other ordeal to unpack.

Instead, he thought of all the spirits who were finally released from their watery grave.

Where had they gone? Into some kind of afterlife? Did their families know they were free?

He hoped so, genuinely. Even if he hadn’t gone to Raven’s Roost specifically to help the townsfolk, it still felt good to know he’d done something for all those people.

Maybe he’d just barely managed to channel his magic into Hattie’s breathing contraption to do it, but he had, hadn’t he? He supposed he was something of a hero.

Maybe his magic wasn’t a total loss after all.

That night, after most everyone had gone to bed, Kieran lifted Seaweed off his lap, set her down on a bed of pillows to sleep, and went to the kitchen to make himself tea.

Back at the Witch’s Brew Café, he’d occasionally mix his own tea blends for customers.

He’d gotten quite skilled at finding good pairings for blends.

This time, he took dried chamomile flowers, sweet and bitter fennel seeds, and licorice root and crushed them together using a mortar and pestle.

Then he combined them in a small cheesecloth pouch and placed it in his mug.

When the water was boiling, he let it cool for a moment so it wouldn’t burn the flowers, then poured it over the teabag, added honey and a few drops of vanilla extract, and took a quick sip.

Once he’d decided it was to his liking, he headed up the stairs toward his room.

As he passed the study, he saw a flash of red hair—his sister—then paused when he realized there was no Delilah.

That’s odd, he thought. I almost never see Briar without Delilah these days.