Page 52 of Extraordinary Quests for Amateur Witches

As the five continued their winding journey deeper and deeper into the Iceweave Palace’s caves, they began to hear voices.

They’d caught up to some of the other parties.

Each corner they skirted revealed a new group of witches.

Most seemed to be nonchalant, participating purely for fun.

A few even carried flasks with them, clearly not wanting the celebratory vibes to end.

A few of them saw Kieran and his companions, but they simply waved and moved on.

Soon, though, they caught up to the more serious competitors.

As the five made their way down one passage, they overheard a shouted greeting, quickly followed by a pained yelp, one tunnel over.

Kieran immediately tensed, holding tight to Sebastian.

The sounds of muffled expletives and explosions came through the walls.

Luckily for Kieran, Delilah had been able to wrap his calf well enough for him to walk on his own, which made it easier for them to sneak past. All the while, he kept an eye out for chestnut hair.

Seeming to read his mind, Sebastian whispered, “I don’t think Hélène would try anything here. The passages are narrow, and they’re outnumbered. They’ll wait until they have a better opening.”

“Have you seen any sign of them?” Kieran asked.

Sebastian paused, worrying at his lip with his teeth. “No, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t here. Stealth has always been their weapon of choice.”

“Comforting,” Briar muttered under her breath.

“Hey,” Delilah said, coming to a halt. She pointed up ahead. “Hold on. What’s that?”

Kieran tore his eyes away from Sebastian and followed Delilah’s finger upward.

There among the icicles was a small handle-shaped piece of metal.

Ribbons of greenish light danced around it, seeming to disappear around its edges.

Kieran tilted his head as he took a step closer, examining it.

Indeed, as he traced the aurora, they all seemed to be disappearing around it.

“Good eye, Delilah,” Kieran said. “Maybe we should check it out.”

“What if it’s another trap?” she asked, cocking a brow.

Kieran bit the inside of his cheek and rubbed his chin as he considered. This was the first place he’d seen the aurora act like this, like water flowing into a basin. If his theory was correct that the magic was being drawn somewhere, he had to imagine it would look something like this.

“I don’t think it is,” he finally decided. “I know that’s probably not the most comforting assessment, but I really think we should try.”

“If there is a trap,” Briar started, stepping into a balanced, ledrith-ready pose, “I’ll do my best to stop it.”

“Appreciate that.” Kieran glanced between Delilah and Sebastian and asked, “Can one of you boost me up? We should see if it opens to anything. If it does, I have a good feeling it’ll get us to the Crown.”

Sebastian nodded, dropping to a knee and interlocking his fingers to make Kieran a platform to step on. Delilah joined at his side to help while Briar kept her eyes peeled on the tunnel. After a moment’s hesitation, Kieran stepped up. Sebastian grunted as he hoisted him upward.

Even as he swayed a bit, Kieran managed to thread his fingers through the handle. He tightened his grasp as Sebastian’s hand vanished beneath him. As his entire body weight pulled down on the handle, he felt something give way.

Which was how he wound up dropping to the floor, hand still tight around the handle, as a set of icy stairs unfolded above him like the entrance to an attic.

Kieran landed on his feet, his calf throbbing. He managed to stay upright as Sebastian’s hands went to his hips to steady him. The stairs, meanwhile, hung there, ready to be ascended.

“Ow,” Kieran said, wincing. When Sebastian started to say something, Kieran added, “I’m fine, really. Maybe a bit bitter that they didn’t think to put in a nice stepping stool here, but fine.”

Seaweed chirped, eyes wide as she straightened up on Kieran’s shoulders. A second later, he heard the echo of voices. Sebastian’s hand went to his knife while magic began to spark at Delilah’s and Briar’s fingertips. Kieran froze, unsure what to do.

“They’re coming around the corner,” Sebastian whispered. “Get up the stairs, now!”

Kieran didn’t need further prompting. Wincing at the pain in his leg, he dragged himself up the stairs, Seaweed on his heels, as the voices grew closer. He’d just reached the top when one of the new voices rang out.

“Hey!” a stranger called. “Look what we have here!”

“Go!” Sebastian cried. “I’ll hold them off!”

Kieran scrambled the rest of the way up the stairs, barely able to move out of the way as Seaweed, Briar, and Delilah followed.

Below, Kieran heard a shout. He spun around to find a flash of green light colliding with Sebastian’s arm.

On impact, it sizzled, and Sebastian spat a curse.

Kieran caught a glimpse of an angry red burn on Sebastian’s gold-toned skin.

Kieran held out a hand. “Sebastian! Come on!”

Sebastian’s eyes met his for a moment, and he nodded.

Gritting his teeth, he grabbed a knife from his belt and launched it at someone.

Then, as they let out an agonized cry, he scrambled for the stairs.

A second bolt of green light narrowly missed hitting him in the side.

His hand snagged Kieran’s, warm to the touch.

With a grunt, Kieran used his full strength to haul Sebastian up the final stretch.

The two fell backward as another flash of green light hit the stairs where Sebastian had been seconds before.

While voices ricocheted around the tunnel in a cacophony, Briar’s eyes glowed blue.

Just as Kieran spotted the edge of a boot heading for the stairs, Briar held out a hand.

A vine shot out of the light enveloping her fingers.

It hooked onto the bottom step and, when she wrenched upward, yanked the stairs back up into place.

It slammed closed, and the voices below went quiet.

“Fuck that,” Briar whispered under her breath, still holding the vine in her hand.

She dropped it, and it coiled around a nearby ice spike.

Kieran hoped it would hold if other witches tried to grab the handle and yank the stairs back down.

Briar, meanwhile, rubbed her shoulder as if she might have pulled something. “Ouch.”

“Agreed,” Sebastian said, grimacing. To Kieran, he said, “Thank you for that. Saved me another magic acid burn.”

“Anytime,” Kieran replied, chest still heaving from the effort. Seaweed chirped, rubbing against Kieran’s uninjured leg supportively.

“At least there’s some good news,” Delilah said. Everyone craned their necks to look at her, and she pointed upward. “Look.”

In his panic, Kieran hadn’t had much of a chance to look around at the room they’d entered. All he’d caught sight of before was the same aurora light in a bigger, wider space than he’d been in before. Now, though, he realized he’d been right to bring them up here.

The cavern they found themselves in was massive, with a soaring ceiling that went up three stories.

The room was domed, and the ceiling was covered in more icicles, all shining with ribbons of light.

The ground was the same packed snow as in the rest of the ice caves, the only evidence of the entrance they’d come through a faint circle in the snowpack.

At first glance, Kieran didn’t see any other ways into the room or—more disconcerting—ways out.

As he tilted his head to look for doorways or passageways, his eye caught on something glinting. While he had noticed the icicles at first, he had missed the one with a faint, silvery band around it.

A silvery, gemstone-dotted crown that drew the ribbons of light toward it.

Kieran jumped to his feet and pointed. “There! That’s it!”

While everyone spun to look, he ran toward it, Seaweed at his side chirping excitedly. The Crown was about two stories up, certainly too high for him to reach. If he could just knock the icicle down, or maybe hover a few feet in the air…

“Why don’t we use fire?” Briar asked, pointing to the ice. “We can melt the ice until the Crown slides off and falls right into our hands.”

“Smart.” Kieran waited until Briar caught up to him to ask, “Remind me how to cast that spell with ledrith?”

“Watch,” Briar said, placing her feet apart and holding her hands at her sides. Over her shoulder, she added, “Delilah, you too—we could use the help.”

Delilah gave a nod, as did Kieran. He copied his sister as she swung around, kicking herself upward, and sailed through the air.

As she punched, a bolt of fire shot at the Crown.

Instantly, the icicle began to melt, water dripping melodically against the floor.

Kieran watched Delilah cast the same spell, and the Crown slid partway down the icicle.

All you have to do is try, Kieran reminded himself. No one’s going to call you less of a witch if you can’t manage this.

He took a deep breath, ran the movements back through his mind again, then gave it his best effort.

While he was shakier than Delilah and less confident than Briar, as he punched upward, a bolt of fire exploded from his fist. It hit the icicle, melting away the last of it that was holding on to the Crown.

Soundlessly, the Crown slid off the icicle, plummeting toward the floor. Kieran ran to snag it out of the air.

Which was exactly the moment that a massive boom echoed through the room.

Kieran yelped, jumping back as the Crown clattered to the floor. Shards of ice and snow exploded into the air on the opposite side of the cavern. The sparkle of snow in the air began to clear, revealing the cause of the explosion.

Someone had blown a hole in the far wall.

“Well,” a familiar voice called out. Elias Barclay stepped into the cavern with a broad smile on his face, his eyes immediately locking with Kieran’s. “Looks like we’re right on time.”