Page 35 of Extraordinary Quests for Amateur Witches

“Maybe if we ask nicely, Santiago would let us raid his liquor cabinet. We could have a little party.” Delilah’s eyes moved to Sebastian.

“After all, I think I speak for everyone when I say you’re a member of the crew now, Sebastian.

And it might be nice to get to know each other better without blood or swords involved. ”

Sebastian’s face brightened a bit. “I’d like that.”

“Perfect,” Delilah said. A big smile warmed her face. “Not this evening, since we’re all exhausted, but maybe tomorrow after dinner?”

“Definitely,” Briar said.

“Sounds good to me,” Sebastian agreed.

Part of Kieran would have preferred to curl up in a ball and sit in the dark for the foreseeable future, but that probably wasn’t the best way to process his feelings. After all, he deserved to have a little fun with his friends after everything.

Finally, he nodded. “Count me in.”

The next day, Delilah went into full party-planning mode, searching through closets and storage containers for anything they could use as decorations.

Kieran did his best to help execute her vision, hanging strings of lights on the observation deck and helping to clean anything that hadn’t been addressed since they’d taken off.

He suddenly realized just how much of the cleaning his great-aunt Adelaide had done on their journey last spring, but with her absent this time around, it occurred to him that he needed to pitch in more.

That night, Santiago made an expansive dinner for the crew, breaking out a number of the dishes that had been served back at his family’s restaurant in Esperona.

They had plate upon plate of ham-and-manchego croquettes, chorizo-filled dates with a red wine glaze, custardy egg-and-potato pancakes, and fingerling patatas bravas with a garlic aioli.

Santiago even let them enjoy a sangria made with some of his favorite red wine.

Briar made a show of trying to fish the fruit out of her glass to eat while Santiago berated her manners, much to the delight of everyone else at the table.

It also gave Kieran the chance to sneak scraps to Seaweed under the table.

Kieran kept an eye on Sebastian all evening.

While he’d shared meals with them before, he’d always seemed tense—doing his best to deflect attention and eating as quickly as he could without seeming impolite.

Now, though, he actually smiled and laughed as Briar shoved her entire fist into her wineglass and Santiago shrieked as if he’d been touched by a hot poker.

A few times, he’d glance Kieran’s way and their eyes would meet for a split second before they both turned back to the conversation at hand.

Kieran mentally berated himself for staring.

It was hard not to, though. There was something enthralling about Sebastian’s smile, his rounded cheeks growing redder and redder with each glass of sangria.

Soon, his whole face was flushed, and his laugh had gone from a quiet chuckle to a full-throated howl.

And despite himself, Kieran couldn’t stop smiling.

When they finished with dinner, Ariel and Santiago excused themselves to head for the control room.

They explained that they were going to do some “route planning,” to which Briar responded by muttering, “Oh, is that what we’re calling it now?

” Kieran nearly snorted the wine he’d just sipped up his nose.

Once they were gone, Delilah stood on her chair and clapped her hands. “Everyone, downstairs! I snuck a few bottles of Santiago’s wine down there earlier and hid them between the couch cushions.”

The four of them cleaned up the table before snagging their wineglasses and heading to the observation deck, with its glass walls that looked out over the land below.

Seaweed was clearly tired of their loud chatting and refusal to feed her more; Kieran gave her one last bit of sausage before she vanished up the stairs.

Downstairs, they rearranged the chairs that had been set to look out the windows and arranged them in a circle.

While Delilah poured wine, Kieran set up the turntable he’d grabbed from the kitchen.

He thumbed through Santiago’s collection of records, eventually settling on one with a song he’d heard Sebastian hum once or twice.

“Oh, hey,” Sebastian said as the music kicked on and Kieran took a seat next to him. “I love this band. Did I tell you that?”

Kieran shook his head. “No. I just guessed.”

Sebastian’s smile grew, and Kieran turned his face the other way, hoping Sebastian wouldn’t notice the rush of blood from Kieran’s throat to his ears.

Delilah pushed Kieran’s now-full glass back to him across the table. As he took it, she cleared her throat, pulling Briar from the conversation she’d been about to start with Sebastian.

“I,” Delilah said, swirling her glass around in her hand, “think we should play a game. Something to get to know each other better, Sebastian.”

For a moment, Kieran didn’t recognize the look on Sebastian’s face. His eyes had widened just a bit, and a vein in his throat jumped as he swallowed. Then it occurred to Kieran what that meant.

Sebastian was nervous.

“I…Of course,” he said, tone not betraying any of what Kieran had just seen flash across his face. It was strange: The more time Kieran spent with Sebastian, the more obvious it became when he was trying to follow a mental script. “Did you have a game in mind?”

“Ever heard of Empty Glass?” Delilah asked.

When the others shook their heads, she explained: “It’s pretty easy.

Everyone goes around and says something they’ve never done.

If you have done it, you drink. The first one to empty their glass loses, and they have to answer one question the other players come up with truthfully, no matter what it is. ”

“Sounds easy enough,” Sebastian agreed. His eyes slid to Kieran. “You wanna play?”

Kieran’s throat had gone dry. He had to clear it before he said, “Y-yeah, I’d love to.”

Across from them, Delilah and Briar exchanged a knowing look that Kieran couldn’t even begin to explain.

“Why don’t you start, Sebastian?” Delilah prompted. “Tell us something you’ve never done. It can be anything.”

“All right.” Sebastian cleared his throat, straightening in his seat and tucking his shoulders back. His eyes wandered the room for a moment before he said, “I…had never been on an aeroship before this one.”

Kieran took a drink, as did Briar. Delilah cocked an eyebrow and asked Briar, “When did you go on one before we picked you up?”

Briar shrugged. “When I was on my own, between running away from Wrenlin and meeting you all. I did a little traveling around Celdwyn to try to avoid the Pelumbras’ hunters. I stowed away on an aeroship at one point when I needed to get far away from them quickly.”

“You never told me that,” Delilah said, her jaw hanging open and an accusatory note in her voice.

Briar laughed. “I’ve got to a keep a little mystery, don’t I?”

Delilah just rolled her eyes.

“Me next, right?” Kieran said. They nodded at him, and he put a fist under his chin and looked up as he tried to decide what to say. Should he say something that would help him get to know Sebastian or try to make Delilah and his sister lose? Choices, choices.

Maybe I can do both, he decided.

“I,” Kieran finally said, “have never slept with anyone.”

Delilah’s and Briar’s eyes slid toward each other, then back as they both took sips of their drinks. Delilah muttered, “Starting off strong, I see.”

Kieran, meanwhile, was focused fully on watching Sebastian at his side. Much to his surprise, Sebastian left the glass on the table untouched.

Before Kieran could say anything, Delilah’s jaw dropped. “Really?”

“I was homeschooled,” Sebastian explained with a shrug. “Didn’t have a lot of time to meet people my age. And my father kept me busy with training when I wasn’t doing schoolwork—”

“Training for what?” Kieran blurted out before he could stop himself. I really am too nosy for my own good.

Sebastian shrugged again. “Oh, just general fitness, mostly. My father cared a lot about keeping us healthy.”

If Kieran hadn’t been looking, he wouldn’t have noticed the tiny flutter Sebastian’s fingers did as he said it. He narrowed his eyes. Why would he lie about that? Was he training for something else? Or was he just doing other things with his free time? Weird.

“All right,” Briar said, moving on to her turn before Kieran could ask any more questions. “My turn. I have never been invited to a formal ball.”

“But we went to the Pelumbra one last spring,” Delilah pointed out.

“Sure, but we crashed that. Whole different story.”

Delilah nodded her concession while Kieran and Sebastian both took sips of their wine.

Kieran explained: “My family let me attend their balls as a child, but only the masquerade one, so no one would ask questions about who I was. Plus, there were so many of my cousins running around that no one ever questioned the spare.”

“Why would they want to hide you?” Sebastian asked, forehead wrinkled.

Kieran worried at his lip with his teeth for a moment.

“They wanted to keep our curse a secret from people outside the family. If a witch who could smell magic—like Delilah—smelled it on me and figured out I was a Pelumbra, it would have been a massive scandal. But my mother wanted me to have a bit of normalcy, and she won that argument with my father. So they used the crowds and masks to their advantage, and I got to go.”

Sebastian let out a low whistle. “Your family sounds…challenging.”

“Understatement of the century,” Briar said, a snorting laugh escaping her.

“What about you?” Kieran asked, hoping to deflect attention from himself. “Did your family go to a lot of balls?”

Sebastian shook his head. “My father was occasionally invited to them for his work. He brought me along. Hoped to introduce me to people in case I took up the family business.”