The Secret of Spellshadow Manor by Bella Forrest (classic english novels txt) 📗

“Oh? What do you know?”

“I know Alex’s little secret,” said Jari.

Alex’s mouth went dry. “You do?”

Jari grinned. “He can’t do magic because he’s got something else on his mind. Or more specifically”—he leaned in conspiratorially—“someone else?”

“Oh, Jari…” sighed Aamir.

“Hey, it’s valid!” said Jari as he held up his hands. “When I had that crush on Ellabell Magri last year, I could barely muster any magic for a week, remember?”

“But you could at least produce something, even if it was pitiful,” said Aamir.

“I’m just saying,” replied Jari. “I think our boy’s problem isn’t of the mind. It’s of the heart.” He tapped his chest meaningfully.

Thinking quickly, Alex jumped on the opportunity.

“I think you’re right,” he said, and Aamir and Jari both turned to him in surprise. “I’ve been thinking a lot about someone—Natalie—but it’s hard to find somewhere to talk alone. If there were somewhere, maybe somewhere outside the manor, we could go…”

Aamir’s expression darkened instantly, but Jari’s face lit up like a Christmas tree.

“I know a place,” he said. “I can get you some time with her alone, away from prying eyes.”

Alex looked up at him, trying to keep the relief off his face. “I think that would be really helpful.”

“Great!” said Jari. “Tonight work for you two?”

Alex was about to reply in the affirmative when Aamir suddenly interjected.

“I will bring Alex to your romantic getaway, Jari.” He held Alex’s gaze for a long moment, his stare penetrating. “You can bring Natalie.”

Jari looked quizzically between Aamir and Alex, but then shrugged unconcernedly.

“Okay,” Jari said. “Let’s meet there after dinner.”

Chapter 14

The walk to the gardens was a strange and uncomfortable process for Alex. For one thing, he felt a little guilty for lying about his reasons for wanting to get outside. He still didn’t trust Jari or Aamir quite enough to confide in them, but he found himself wishing he hadn’t needed to fabricate a reason.

For another, the tall, severe boy at his side walked quickly and in complete silence, his disapproval coming off him in waves. He clearly had not believed Alex’s lie, and Alex had no idea why he had insisted on accompanying him. He didn’t even know if Aamir was really taking him to Jari’s “romantic getaway”. For all he knew, he was taking him straight to the Head’s office, though he felt that was in a different direction.

The hallways of the manor didn’t give any indication of what floor they were on, or which direction they were facing, so Alex found himself being led up a flight of stairs when he had thought they were already on the top floor of the manor, then down a flight of stairs from a hallway that looked like it was on the ground floor. Had he been trying to find the place on his own, it might have taken months of trial and error, opening doors until he finally found the one that led to where he wanted to go. They had likely been designed that way, intended to keep students trapped inside. The hallways didn’t move, but the illusions they created formed as good a maze as any he had ever known.

He focused hard on memorizing all the manor’s twists and turns, determined to remember the way out, but he was finding it far more difficult than he had imagined, and Aamir’s quick pace gave him little time to commit much to memory.

Finally, after several minutes of nothing but the sound of their footsteps walking down the long, empty hallways, and the stern gazes of the rows of painted wizards upon the walls, Aamir stopped before a door.

“The gardens,” he said dryly, throwing the door open.

Alex stepped outside for the first time in what felt like weeks, the fresh night air invigorating against his face. He breathed deeply, savoring the moment, feeling like liberation was just around the corner.

“Coming?” came Aamir’s voice, and Alex quickly descended a short flight of weathered stone steps to join him in the moonlight.

Glancing around, Alex soon realized “the gardens” must be an ironic term for this desolate place. If there had ever been proper greenery here, it had been long neglected. Untended trees grew wild, clawing at the sky with untamed branches that played host to the same gray ivy that seemed to blanket everything in the manor. Barren heaps of dirt might have once been flowerbeds, and what looked like old gravel paths now lay as flurries of scattered stones, as if they had been struck by a windstorm. Beyond the distant wall, the sky seemed to flicker, moonlight spinning out into a silvery cord that blended into sunlight in a sudden spray of gold.

Alex followed Aamir past blackened trees and benches reduced to shards of stone, over split, rotting logs, and around tangles of dry, thorny brambles. Aamir seemed to know exactly where they were headed, never slackening his pace, never glancing back to make sure Alex was keeping up. At least he really had taken him where he’d said he would, but it was far from what Alex had imagined. He observed his surroundings with mounting trepidation, sticking close to the older boy.

At last, Aamir stopped atop a small mound of earth overlooking a great field. In the middle of the field was a clearing, and Alex could see swirls of ash curling lightly in the breeze. Skeletons of toppled trees surrounded the place, looking as though they had all fallen outward, away from the clearing’s center. The moon’s pale light had a stark effect on the withered, upturned roots and the flat expanse alike, the shadows long and deep, the moonlit spots cold and still. Alex found himself shivering against the area’s hollow, haunted feel just as much as he did against the chill that had not yet left his bones.

After giving him a moment to take in the scene, Aamir spoke, his voice low and serious. He sounded strangely muted by the eerie landscape’s pressing atmosphere.

“What do