A magical adventure for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers and Nevermoor, about three witchlings who must work together to do the impossible if they have any hope of earning their full powers. Every year, in the magical town of Ravenskill, Witchlings who participate in the Black Moon Ceremony are placed into covens and come into their powers as full-fledged witches. And twelve-year-old Seven Salazar can't wait to be placed in the most powerful coven with her best friend! But on the night of the ceremony, in front of the entire town, Seven isn't placed in one of the five covens. She's a Spare! Spare covens have fewer witches, are less powerful, and are looked down on by everyone. Even worse, when Seven and the other two Spares perform the magic circle to seal their coven and cement themselves as sisters, it doesn't work! They're stuck as Witchlings—and will never be able to perform powerful magic. Seven invokes her only option: the impossible task. The three Spares will be assigned an impossible task: If they work together and succeed at it, their coven will be sealed and they'll gain their full powers. If they fail... Well, the last coven to make the attempt ended up being turned into toads. Forever. But maybe friendship can be the most powerful magic of all… With action-packed adventure, a coven of quirky witchlings, Claribel A. Ortega's signature humor and girl-power vibes, this middle grade Latine witch story is truly a modern classic.

Valley-centered short story in Claribel A. Ortega's newsletter for Valentine's Day 2023.

Seven Salazar is a Spare. And now, she's the most famous Spare in the Twelve Towns, along with Valley Pepperhorn and Thorn Laroux, her two best friends. After being named the new town Uncle, she's undergoing intense training to learn how to use her abilities to communicate with animals. But Seven has a secret: the only creatures’ voices she hears clearly are those of monstruos. Something is terribly wrong with Seven’s magic. Meanwhile, it's the Golden Frog Games, a week of magical competitions among the Champions of the twelve towns, and Thorn is competing in fashion design! But when Thorn's competitors start to get turned to stone, suspicion lands on Thorn and the other Witchlings. Despite their fame, there are still many in the town who think that only the Spares would sink so low to win. Can Seven overcome the problems with her magic and find out who is stonifying the competitors . . . before Thorn becomes next victim?

From New York Times bestselling author Claribel A. Ortega comes the third book in the spellbinding Witchlings series! Since the end of the Golden Frog Games, a cure for the stone hex victims still hasn't been found. And Seven and Thorn want nothing more than to find a way to heal their friends. When the Black Moon Ceremony arrives earlier than expected, Seven and Thorn take it as a chance to welcome any new Spares into their coven. But rather than welcoming a few Spares like they thought—all the witchlings in the ceremony are chosen to enter the Spare coven! Confused, and with so many new witchlings to look after, Seven and Thorn decide to split Seven will focus on finding a cure for the hex and Thorn will try and figure out why there are so many Spares this year. But the rising number of Spares is met with anger from the Hill Society and unfair rules that ban Spares from using magic! And with Seven's growing powers she is drawn deeper and deeper into the cursed forest and closer to the monstruos that live there. Can Seven and Thorn find a cure for the stone hex and stop the Hill Society's unfair treatment of Spares, for good?