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

“We wouldn’t make it ten feet. Finder is right there!”

“But what could he do to us? The gate is open, Alex! We could run!”

“He could enchant you again!” Alex said, holding her a little tighter. He wasn’t sure he could stand it if that happened. “And probably much worse. He’s powerful, Natalie.”

Natalie hesitated, then looked back up, peering through the ivy at where the gates now sat open.

Finder stood there, his hand on the shoulder of a young boy with pale skin and wide eyes. Finder eased the boy through the gate, guiding him toward the manor.

“I do not see him,” Natalie said, frowning. “Is he really there?”

“Yes, he’s right there,” Alex said, pointing to where Finder was ushering the boy with his ragged fingers.

Natalie paled, slumping back against the wall as the gates eased shut. The ivy swung over the bars again. The sky shifted suddenly from the blue of fall to a dusky, red-gold sunset.

Natalie stared at the boy as he walked into the manor, letting out a curse in French.

Alex frowned. Finder hadn’t entered the manor alongside the boy, but had stridden off to one side, cutting through the grounds with long, purposeful footsteps. His ripped robes trailed behind him like smoke behind a burning branch.

Natalie must have noticed Alex’s eyes tracing his path along the edge of the building.

“Finder did not enter, did he?” she asked, frowning at him.

Alex shook his head, his eyes narrowed, then came to a quick decision.

“Let’s follow him,” he said, jumping softly to his feet. “We’ll have to be very quiet, but this is a rare opportunity for information.”

Natalie looked reluctant, but stood too and reached for his hand, her irritation evaporated.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she whispered as they jogged as quietly as they could.

“Well, no,” he replied, “it might be a terrible idea. But I’m going after him. I’m sick of biding my time, hiding in this place. We have to take some risks. You can go back to the manor if you want; it could get dangerous.”

“No,” she said firmly. “I will go with you. I am not a precious flower, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Alex muttered, his eyes on Finder’s retreating form. He was heading around toward the back of the building.

They set off across the grass, Natalie’s dark hair swinging behind her in a streak as she danced silently over the scattered tendrils of ivy that reached for her legs. Alex kept hold of her hand.

The grounds of Spellshadow Manor were as eerie and derelict an environment as ever. As they passed through them, Alex thought he could see ghosts of places past. A great lawn, lined with magnificent figures of marbles with onyx eyes. A gazebo made of white iron, all intricate patterns and delicate workmanship. A stand of trees in neat rows, presumably an orchard of some sort.

But those places were gone now. The statues lay in rubble, the lawns coated with ivy and brambles. The gazebo was a mess of tangled metal, and the trees had grown dark and sinister looking, shrouded in a funeral veil of gray ivy that simply climbed over their branches in smothering loads.

Rounding the manor, Alex drew up short. There, tucked against one of the back walls of the manor building, was a small stand of stones, lined in a neat row upon trimmed grass. Alex just barely caught sight of Finder’s robe flapping behind him as he vanished into a cave-like passage that led down between them.

Natalie looked at Alex, and he jerked his head toward the opening. She nodded, creeping up to examine the row of stones.

“Graves,” she whispered as Alex drew closer. “Old ones.”

They weren’t just old, Alex soon found. They were ancient. The dates and names had been worn from their surfaces by time, until nothing but smooth stone remained.

They moved on.

The passage Finder had entered was a strange thing. There was no door, just a deep hole of darkness that led to a staircase which plunged down into the earth. Natalie stepped forward, and with a flick of her hand she conjured a small flame at her fingertip, casting a pale pool of light around them. She made to move farther in, glancing nervously back at him.

“Natalie!” Alex caught her arm just in time, gesturing to the thin golden line that crossed the hallway and pulling her away from it. “Aamir warned us about those lines. The blue ones we could probably risk, but the gold lines I’m not so sure about.”

“What will happen if we cross it?”

“I’m guessing something horrible.”

She fell silent, looking at the golden line with him. Alex could already feel the line’s hostile presence, beating cold as ice against his skin. He looked over at Natalie, who was edging away from the line with a cautious expression on her face. Well, they had come this far. And they might finally be close to some real answers.

He made his decision.

“I’ll go first,” he said. “But if something bad happens, you run, okay? Run back to the manor right away.”

She was shaking her head. “No, Alex—”

“It doesn’t make sense for both of us to get in trouble!” he insisted, and finally she relented.

He took a deep breath and moved forward. He hesitated just shy of the border, his heart racing, the chill air beating against his skin. He bit his lip, drew in a breath, then threw himself forward.

It hit him as though he had swallowed a gallon of ice water, and now he could feel it swashing about in his gut. He doubled over, his breath coming free in a great cloud of frost. Natalie leapt forward, her feet kicking up golden dust from where the line was writhing and twisting, its ends broken on the ground, as Alex continued to heave up frost and snow, his eyes bulging as he clutched his sides.

“Alex! Are you okay?” Natalie asked, rushing to his side.

“Cold,” gasped Alex, his teeth chattering as ice wrapped around them.

She held him