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

Ellabell shook her head, her brown curls bouncing. “She’s at one of her extra sessions with Renmark,” she answered stiffly.

Alex wasn’t exactly pleased to hear Natalie was with Renmark yet again, but still, he smiled, seeing the valuable opportunity he had been stupid enough to overlook until that moment. Ellabell was infinitely more knowledgeable about these historical matters than anyone Alex knew. She was the perfect person to ask.

“How did you get here?” she questioned.

“Well,” Alex replied smoothly, “you must know I have my methods by now…” He smiled, trying to act casual, before quickly moving on. “Anyway, forget Natalie—now I’m here for you,” he stated, and a frown passed across her arched eyebrows.

“Me?” asked Ellabell, sounding suspicious.

Alex nodded. “Yes, you’re perfect,” he said, and Ellabell’s cheeks turned an interesting shade of pink.

“Perfect for what?” She spoke hurriedly, lowering her gaze.

Alex realized what he had said and felt his throat dry up a little as he looked at Ellabell’s downturned face, noting her flush. He felt the sudden urge to touch her shoulder, encourage her to lift her chin so that she would look at him again, but didn’t dare reach out to do so, worried how she might react.

“You know all there is to know about magical history, and I need a bit of help with some magical history,” he explained, wanting her to meet his eye, for this awkwardness to be over.

“What kind of magical history?” she asked, peering over the top of her spectacles and leveling her gaze once more in his direction.

“I was hoping you could tell me some stuff about the great battles of the magical world.” He smiled, pleased to see the discomfort gone from her face and replaced with curiosity.

“Which ones?” she asked.

“Well, I stumbled across some books and thought they were pretty cool. I hadn’t really seen anything like them before, so I’m not sure what to make of them. They’re all about the battles between the Spellbreakers and the Mages, but not any I’d read before. I just wanted to learn a little more about the biggest ones. You know, the most important ones in our history.” He shrugged, hoping she wouldn’t see through his white lie. If anyone had read through the entire contents of the library, it was Ellabell, and Alex wasn’t sure he could pull the wool over her eyes.

“You’re really interested in magical history?” Ellabell frowned, giving him that look of suspicion he had come to associate with her. There was uncertainty too beneath the glint of her blue eyes, as if his concerns were valid and she didn’t quite believe his story.

“I really am,” he insisted.

“Fine,” she said curtly.

Alex was a little surprised. “You’ll help me?”

“Yeah, I’ll help you.” She stepped back into her dorm room and gestured for him to come in.

“Oh, we’re staying here?” Alex faltered, his voice catching in the back of his throat.

“Unless you want to go somewhere else?” Ellabell asked, an amused smile pulling at the corner of her full lips.

“Well, I was thinking the library, but I guess this is okay,” he said quickly, trying to recover his nonchalance as he stepped past her into the room.

The room was more or less the same as it had been the last time he’d been there to visit Natalie when she was practically dying from the chokehold of Derhin’s curse, but it looked a little more homey. A few more lights had been strung up on the walls alongside sketches and watercolor paintings of what Alex guessed was home for both Natalie and Ellabell. He didn’t dare ask, but they were pretty to look at. On the far window, cut-out shapes of multi-colored material clung to the glass, casting streams of vibrant light onto the floor and beds that furnished the sparse room.

“Welcome,” teased Ellabell, as she sat on the edge of her bed. Alex pulled up one of the desk chairs and sat down beside the window, feeling weird about sitting on one of the beds.

“So?” he said, trying not to sound too impatient as he waited for Ellabell to begin.

“So, you wanted to know about battles?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yeah. The biggest ones.”

“Well, there are a few big battles in our known history, but there is one very famous one. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘greatest battle of them all,’ if that’s what you’re interested in?” she began, looking to him for confirmation.

Alex was intrigued. “Sounds good.”

“It was the biggest battle in recorded history, and also, funnily enough, the last one. It happened in the winter of 1908, and is known more commonly as the Fields of Sorrow due to the number of dead. Huge losses on both sides, but it’s said that this was where the last Spellbreaker fell,” she explained, her voice enthralling Alex as he listened.

Fields of Sorrow rang a bell in Alex’s head, but in that moment, he couldn’t quite place where he had heard the name before. He almost had it, when Ellabell’s words distracted him from his thoughts.

“It was a vicious battle that raged for almost a fortnight, with severe casualties every day from both sides. Thousands of infantry Mages and Spellbreakers were wiped out within the first week, along with the beasts that served as cavalry and air support,” she continued, her memory an awe-inspiring thing as she recounted the tale, remembering it perfectly from whichever book she had absorbed the knowledge from. “Bodies were strewn across the battlefield, unable to be moved, as magic and anti-magic flew between the two sides. Now and again, they would charge one another, attempting to smoke out the strongest, but usually it was the charging side who suffered against hidden traps and buried clockwork ballistics.”

Alex was astonished, feeling the familiar spark of anger beginning to glimmer into life in the pit of his stomach. Frowning slightly at Ellabell, he wondered how it was that she had come to know so much. Curiosity encouraged the question to his lips.

“How do you know so much about