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

“Anything broken?” he asked.

Natalie brushed off the damp seat of her pants. “I do not think so.”

“That was lucky,” said Alex, a worried look in his eyes.

Natalie nodded. “A close call, no?”

“Very close.” Alex sighed. “I don’t think we should try this anymore.” He helped Natalie across the derelict gardens, back toward the manor. She was limping slightly and leaned heavily against Alex as he walked with her.

“Neither do I,” Natalie admitted, wincing as she lifted a hand to her cheek. “The manor’s magic is far stronger than I thought,” she added, looking up at the sky, squinting to try to see the invisible barrier she had smacked against. It explained why he’d never seen any birds within the manor walls.

After dropping Natalie safely outside Professor Lintz’s classroom for their next lesson, Alex ran back to the library with his contraband book in tow, feeling responsible for the way things had gone outside. He had been so intent on finding a way to travel from the manor that he had pushed away all acknowledgement of the risks, putting Natalie’s life in danger.

Alex raced up the ladders to the farthest tower and pounded across the levels, pausing at a gap in a shelf. He shoved the pink leather book into the empty slot. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t the right place; it would eventually find its way back where it belonged.

As he made the slow climb back down, his gaze wandered to the sunlight beaming down on the lawn outside, glinting from the wall and glittering against the horizon where the real world lay. He wondered curiously if the travel techniques might be inverted with his anti-magical abilities so that he could twist the methods for his purposes. The gray ivy could prevent him from leaving, but he wasn’t convinced the invisible barrier could. He didn’t think anybody had thought in that much detail when designing the manor, of forging a barrier to keep Spellbreakers in. Then again, maybe they had. His people were the enemy after all.

The outside called to him, tempting him to try.

But what good would it do? Alex thought.

It would mean abandoning his friends and every student within these walls to save himself. The selfish notion left a bitter taste in Alex’s mouth, and yet it was undeniably enticing. It wasn’t as though he could fetch help, Alex realized; the manor was no place for non-magical people, and they wouldn’t even be able to get close to the school, should they plan to launch any sort of rescue mission. People might even lock him up if he started babbling about magical manors and wizards, thinking he’d lost his mind, wherever he’d been the past year.

His mother would welcome him home, though. Alex’s heart wrenched at the thought of her. She had been so ill before he’d disappeared. Who was to say she was even still alive, out there, waiting for him? Tears spiked the corners of his eyes as the morbid idea crept into his brain. He wondered if he’d know if she were dead—if some anti-magical part of himself would know, deep down, that she had gone. He had felt no such thing, at least to his knowledge, but he knew that didn’t mean his mother was okay. Maybe it just meant his anti-magic didn’t stretch that far.

A large part of him wanted to jump ship that instant, damning everyone else. He just wanted to make sure she was still alive. But he doubted whether he could have the best of both worlds. After all, he wouldn’t be able to find his way back to Spellshadow if he left. He thought of Natalie and Jari, despite their ongoing differences, their families and their homes and their lives before. Of Natalie’s family, especially, who had sent her away to America under the assurance that she’d be safe with Alex and his mother, only to have her disappear off the face of the earth.

Gritting his teeth, Alex knew he couldn’t just walk out, no matter how desperately he wanted to see his mother again. It was a tough pill to swallow, but there it was. Alex just wished fervently that time didn’t work the same out in the real world as it did within the manor walls—that a year to them was mere minutes to non-magical people. That would be ideal, Alex thought, hoping his mother wouldn’t have to miss him.

Magical travel and anti-magical escape would have to wait. However, one technique close to the end of the tome had piqued Alex’s interest. The section title read “Portals and How to Find Them.” It did not require a spell, as such, but gave a short explanation on their usage: ‘Often appearing as still passageways or doors with strange auras, these portals lead to other realms and destinations. Portals require a vast amount of magic to create and keep open, but many can be found by chance, usually those that have been forgotten. To use them, one need only walk through.’

Alex had committed the small section to memory, the words conjuring images of the shifting windows and the doors that led to nowhere within the manor. A slithering sense of despondency wriggled uncomfortably through his nerves, the realization dawning that it would take him years to check every single one. And by then, no doubt, it would be too late.

They had been duped again. It was so obvious to him now. He felt a bubble of rising resentment ripple through his body. How he loathed the Head for dangling such a tempting carrot of hope, only to swipe it away. Then again, Alex realized, that book would never have been in the library if they could actually have used it.

Chapter 13

A blast of black energy, flecked with shards of silver, thudded against the cellar wall, exploding in a burst of ice and snow. Alex grinned as he watched the ball shatter mere inches from