The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 2 by Bella Forrest (top ten ebook reader .TXT) 📗

At the back of one of the bottom shelves, hidden behind the bulk of a half-made cuckoo clock, Alex’s eye was drawn to a cluster of clockwork creatures, gathering dust. A series of mice, all identical—five of them, their intricate, glinting metallic bodies smothered in a thick blanket of fuzzy gray. Beside the last of them was a clean outline on the dirt of the shelf, where something had protected the wood from the dust. The sixth mouse was missing.

Alex reached into his pocket and brought out the sixth mouse. It was exactly the same as the other five, the same size, shape, color, and design. Someone had taken the mouse from here and sent it to him, with the message tied to its back leg.

“Natalie?” Alex called, diverting Natalie’s attention from a beautiful music box.

“Yes?”

“Could I borrow you for a second?” Alex asked. He wandered over to the workbench in the center of the room and set down the delicate mechanical mouse.

“Where did you get that?” Natalie asked as she drew herself up to the bench. Jari flanked Alex on the other side, peering over his shoulder to get a better look at the mouse.

“Over there.” Alex pointed to the missing spot on the shelf.

“It is beautiful.” Natalie ran her fingers across the fine metalwork.

“I was wondering if you could run your magic through it—see what happens. Like Lintz did with the owl,” Alex said, setting the mouse up onto its dainty feet.

“I will try,” Natalie said. She placed a hand against the top of the mouse, a glow appearing beneath her palm. Smoothly, the misty fluid rippled through the mouse’s clockwork, the cogs beginning to move as the mouse sprang into life, scuttling across the worktop. The ancient, dusty mechanisms creaked slightly as the creature ran the length of the bench. Natalie’s face was bright with delight while she watched the mouse dart this way and that.

“Can you control it?” Alex asked, watching closely.

“I can try.” Natalie moved her hand slowly, attempting to manipulate the magic inside the mouse. The mouse stopped, cocking its head at Natalie as it crept back across the workbench toward her, its golden tail whipping sideways as it moved. Natalie turned her index finger in a circular motion. The mouse followed, turning in a circle, lifting onto its hind legs. Natalie flicked her finger sharply, and the mouse went flying backward, only to come creeping back up to the young woman whose magic ran in its clockwork. It stood with its head cocked, awaiting instruction.

“I want to try something,” Alex muttered, standing to fetch one of the toolboxes from the shelf. He pulled out some tweezers and reached out a hand for the mouse, which rolled easily out of the way. It was then that Alex noticed the eyes—no longer the glittering black he’d seen the night it came to him, but a dark gold shade.

“Shall I take my magic out?” Natalie asked, though she seemed to be having far too much fun with the clockwork creature for it to end.

Alex nodded. “Please.”

Natalie beckoned the mouse toward her and placed a hand over the back of it, drawing the magic from the inner workings. The golden glow ebbed from within as the creature’s eyes turned back to a dulled shade of darkened silver, closer to that of iron ore, the life gone.

Natalie handed the mouse to Alex, who held it gently in his palm for a moment, eyeing the clockwork closely before setting it down on the table, tweezers poised. It took him a while, his shoulders hunched in concentration, as he removed the parts and reinserted them, inverting the clockwork as best as he could—hoping it would mean what he thought it would mean. Jari chimed in with suggestions as he watched Alex work, and Alex was grateful for the fresh pair of eyes. After a few minutes, he fit the last few pieces back together again.

“Do you think it will work?” Natalie asked.

“There’s only one way to find out.” Alex grinned anxiously. Slowly, he placed his hand above the mouse’s spine, as he had seen Natalie do with her magic, and closed his eyes, feeling the cold brush of his anti-magic as it gathered beneath his palm. Then he opened his eyes, seeing the curls of black mist and icy flakes flowing down toward the tips of his fingers when he touched the intricate clockwork of the mouse. Much like the golden flow of Natalie’s magic, the darker anti-magic rippled liquidly through the mechanisms, beginning to move them slowly; a few cogs turned, though the mouse didn’t seem to want to go anywhere. As he waited, a puff of smoke wisped up from the inside mechanics, the cogs jamming.

Alex lifted the mouse to remove his anti-magic before the thing broke entirely. As he drew it closer to his face, he saw the back leg twitch—just for a moment, a tiny movement, but enough. It twitched again, releasing another puff of smoke. Reluctantly, Alex removed the coiling black anti-magic, a sheen of frost licking the metalwork.

It was a small success in Alex’s anti-magical clockwork endeavors, but it was enough to give him hope. He just had to figure out the inverted mechanics; if he could do that, he knew he might be onto something. He sighed heavily, his frustrations returning as he slipped the mouse back into his pocket. Yet again, without a guide, without a teacher, without a textbook, it was up to him to teach himself.

Chapter 8

Beyond the library window, the sky was a muted heather color, the first stars just starting to peek out as night crept slowly in. In the soothing warmth of the cavernous room, Alex and Natalie sat companionably in their favored armchairs by the window, gazing out every so often to see the soft twinkling of the stars in the twilight, growing brighter as the sun receded into night. Beyond the manor’s boundaries, his hometown