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 thevine 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 massiveboomechoed 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.”
Kieran barely had time to process what was happening before Sebastian was in front of him, knocking something out of the air.Kieran watched in horror as an arrow—sliced in two by Sebastian’s knife—fell to the ground at Kieran’s feet.Seaweed hissed at it, bristling.
From behind Elias stepped Hélène, their expression unreadable.While they had seemed pleasant yesterday, any warmth in their expression was gone.Now they wore all black, a crossbow held aloft.Their eyes went straight to Kieran as they prepared to fire another bolt in his direction.If they had any hesitation about putting a crossbow bolt between his eyes, it didn’t show.
Elias, however, held up a hand to stop them.As he did, more people emerged from the blown-open passageway—more mercenaries.Kieran counted as they entered: six in total.Which meant Elias had double the people they did, not counting Seaweed.
“Looks like you beat us to it,” Elias said, gesturing to where the Crown sat at Kieran’s feet.“I’m impressed.But then again, you do always seem to have something up your sleeve, don’t you, Kieran?It’s a pity you didn’t elect to meet me this morning.It would have been lovely to work something out.”
“You finished with your little speech?”Hélène asked, eyesunwaveringly on Kieran.“Because I, for one, would like to get this contract out of the way.”
“Hélène,” Sebastian said, stepping between them and Kieran.He twirled a dagger between his fingers.“Whatever he’s offering you can’t be worth the regret you’ll feel later.”
