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

gardens, the men in the pictures on the walls, they are all gone. Students who surpassed them took their places.”

Alex shook his head slowly. “But that’s not a solution. You’ll still be stuck here. I mean, the teachers don’t leave, do they?”

Aamir shrugged. “It’ll buy me time. That’s what matters,” he said, looking tired.

“Who do you plan to challenge? How does it work?”

“Derhin, probably,” Aamir said after a moment of thought. “As for the how, I don’t know. I’m preparing for everything I can.”

Professor Lintz’s terrified face crept into Alex’s mind.

“I wouldn’t recommend Derhin,” Alex said quickly.

Aamir raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“I spoke to Lintz recently, and he seemed afraid of him. I think there’s more to Derhin than it seems.”

Aamir tipped his head in contemplation. “I will think about it,” he said. “But I still think he is the best choice.”

The two boys sat in silence for a long time.

“Jari seems very worried about you,” Alex said at last.

“He is an idiot,” Aamir muttered. Alex was silent, sensing that Aamir wasn’t finished. “He just doesn’t get it. He thinks things will work out, and they just…won’t. I can’t just sit around and wait for my fate to find me. I need to do something, you know?”

Alex thought of Natalie, led away by Finder. The black cat made of shadows. The Head, surrounded by impossible amounts of inky power. His own foot, crossing over that thin, forbidden golden line.

“I know,” he said, looking Aamir in the eye.

The weather changed with its customary abruptness, the rain fading away and leaving only the sound of the two boys breathing. They stared at each other for a time, then Aamir rose, throwing his shirt aside. Golden lines of power wrapped around him, and as Alex watched, he began to draw snow and ice out of the air. He swirled his hands, the storm gathering around him with little crackles of blue light.

“Tell Jari he is wasting his time,” Aamir said. “My mind is made up. There is no other option.”

Alex knew that feeling, and could not bring himself to dissuade his roommate. Perhaps it was a bad idea, and perhaps it would lead to Aamir’s failure, even his death. But if it were Alex, if he could, he would likely do the same.

Alex watched Aamir as power gathered around him. Then he turned, and clambered up the ladder and out onto the grounds.

The rain had been replaced by a gentle, wintry breeze, suffused with the smell of pine resin and salt. Alex drew in a deep breath as he looked around at the ruined gardens. Jari, it seemed, had left. With a heavy, worried sigh, Alex headed toward the nearest door into the manor.

He’d gone about twenty paces and was crossing under the crooked corpse of a half-fallen tree when he had the sudden feeling that he was being watched. He stopped, glancing around, but around him there was only the wind blowing, cool and sharp.

“Hello,” a voice purred from above him.

Alex jumped back, staring up at the tree’s tangle of leafless limbs. A shadow detached itself from the thicket, one claw dragging a thin black line over the rough bark.

“You again,” Alex said, narrowing his eyes and stuffing his hands into his pockets. “I’m in no mood for riddles today.”

The cat let out a cackle. “Feisty!” it exclaimed.

“Tell me your name,” said Alex, sticking his chin out. “Or I’m walking away.”

The cat’s tail dangled off the branch.

“Elias,” it said. “Nice to meet you, Alex Webber.”

Alex stared at the creature, not even surprised it knew his full name. He wasn’t as disturbed by it as he had been the first time, but he was smart enough to keep his guard up around it.

“And what are you?”

“What indeed,” said the cat. “That, kid, is an excellent question. I wish I knew.”

Alex regarded it, gathering his thoughts, determined not to let the little creature get the best of him this time.

“Homunculus,” he announced.

The cat was silent for a moment, then tilted its head. “Perhaps…”

“Who made you?”

A grin of inky teeth. “Elias made me, and I am Elias.”

Alex opened his mouth, a question on his lips, but Elias chose that moment to slide off his branch. As he did so, he seemed to liquefy, spilling down in a cascade that settled into the form of a long-haired young man of Alex’s height, made entirely out of shadow.

Elias looked Alex up and down, folding his arms.

“I’m not your enemy,” he said.

“Then what are you?”

Elias laughed, clapping his hands together. “A benefactor, of course,” he said. “This time I’ve come strictly to help.”

Alex stared blankly at him, and Elias’s dark face contorted, looking hurt. “Come now,” he said, “don’t give me that. I wanted to tell you something, really!”

Alex was silent for a time, thinking carefully before responding. “And that is?”

Elias smiled, and the expression was somehow even more disconcerting on his human face than it had been as a cat. His lips lifted a little too far, splitting his cheeks almost up to his eyebrows in glee.

“Finder is dead,” he said.

“I know,” Alex said with a huff.

Elias nodded. “I know you know. You’ve been looking for information about necromancy.” He turned away, examining his fingers. “I may know where you could find a book,” he said.

Alex tried to still his suddenly hammering heart. “Where?”

Elias laughed. “What would you do with it?”

Alex observed the shadow coolly. He didn’t trust this creature a bit, and didn’t want to give away the plan he had been formulating since the day before. But he thought of Aamir, throwing himself at the cellar walls, desperate to escape his fate. He thought of Natalie’s desperation the previous day. He thought of his mother, alone and devastated. Their lives might depend on this book.

“Why do you want to know?” he asked, folding his arms.

“Call it curiosity,” replied the young man, also folding his arms.

We have to take some risks, Alex thought, looking Elias up and down. And he will just find it out anyway.

“We