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“Perhaps there is something else in the cellar⁠—”

“Hel-lo?” A faint trembling voice sailed toward us, coming from another chamber deeper inside.

We all turned toward the end of the cellar where the eerie blue light seemed brighter.

“Or, we could just leave?” Zee suggested. “I liked my plan the best—don’t get involved, walk away, live to fight another day, avoid creepy voices and stay alive. Let’s fuckin’ go.”

“The opportune moment to extract ourselves from events has long passed,” Victor explained.

“Well fuck, you didn’t say there was a time limit on checking out.”

While they muttered to each other, I approached the final door on the right, following the raspy voice. Was someone alive down here?

Standing on my toes, I peered through the little window, just like the last door, but this one was all misted up, obscuring whatever was inside. It had to be another frozen-person chamber, right? And if it was Eddie, then we may be able to save him. Taking hold of the metal loop handle, I gave it a twist and the door popped open an inch. More wispy condensation rolled out.

We hadn’t come this far to back away now. I had to know what was inside.

I pushed the door open some more, let the mist waft over me, and took a step inside.

“Eddie?” I whispered.

A figure took shape in the murk.

“Adam?” Zee’s voice tugged on half my attention, while the rest focused on Eddie emerging from the gloom. Wait . . . not Eddie. The figure wasn’t male. Tall, slim, and . . . sparkling? And the woman’s grin glistened with transparent icicle teeth.

“You’re not Eddie,” I yelped.

“Trespassers!” she screamed, unleashing a halo of bright blue light.

I leaped back and slammed the door on the sparkly ice witch. Oh-kay, time to go.

A heavy weight slammed against the door, rattling its hinges. She was not a happy witch.

I spun on my heel and made for Victor and Zee.

“Uhm, are we going now?” Zee asked. “What about the axeman?”

I grabbed his arm, dragging him toward the stairwell. “Let’s take our chances with the golem.”

The door exploded outward, flew across the cellar, and shattered against the wall, and in its wake drifted the sparkling crystalized woman wearing a dress of cascading blue diamonds—or a whole lot of ice, I couldn’t tell, and wasn’t sure I wanted to hang around long enough to figure it out.

She flicked a hand, and in the next moment Victor was between us. He grunted and stepped back, stumbling into me.

“Oh, hell no, bitch. You touch Daddy Vampire, you die!” Zee lunged as I caught Victor, keeping him upright as he wavered on his feet.

The ice witch flung another shard at Victor, but Zee’s tail snatched it from the air and flung it back. It smacked her between the eyes and shattered, stunning her. Zee poofed behind her, grabbed her around the waist, and tossed her back into the chamber. He plunged in after her.

I got a look at Victor, and the blood on his shirt.

“I’m alright,” Victor snarled, yanking an icy shard out of his shoulder. “But Zodiac may not be if she⁠—”

Zodiac poofed in front of us and spun, reaching over his shoulder to try and grab the stake of ice sticking out of his back. “Bitch stabbed me in the back!” Victor moved fast, yanking it out, then brandished the bloody stake as a weapon.

“Zodiac, are you able to continue to fight?” Victor asked him.

“Pfft, this ain’t nothing my god powers won’t heal.”

A hail of jagged ice erupted from the ice witch’s chamber. Victor shoved Zee to one side, taking several to the gut, and buckling as he took icy stake after stake.