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

When he knocked at the door of room twenty-eight, Alex was greeted by a bleary-eyed Ellabell. She rubbed at her face, trying vainly to paw her hair into some semblance of order.

“Alex?” she said, squinting at him and fumbling with a pair of glasses.

He faltered. He had forgotten, in all the excitement, that it was the middle of the night. He gave an awkward wave.

“Yep, it’s Alex,” he said. “Sorry to wake you.”

Ellabell tried to draw herself up straighter, her eyes narrowing.

“How did you get here?”

“I found a girl by the entrance,” Alex replied. In truth, he’d figured out his way back here alone, and if there was magic in place to stop boys from entering, it hadn’t deterred him.

“What do you want?”

“Just looking for Natalie,” he said quickly. “Have something I want to show her.”

Ellabell stared at him blankly. “And you two claim you aren’t dating?” she said after a long moment.

“Ella,” he intoned, drawing out her name through a smile.

“Alex,” she countered, unmoved.

The two glowered at each other for a moment, then Ellabell rolled her eyes, yawning. “Natalie is sleeping, and she damn well needs it after the scene she caused.”

“Scene?”

Ellabell quirked an eyebrow in surprise. “Yeah, at the Head’s speech. She threw up all over Petra and caused a huge commotion. I had to haul her back here myself. Weren’t you there?”

“Had something to do.”

Ellabell grunted. “Well, you can talk to her in the morning.”

Alex frowned. “Can’t I—”

“No,” said Ellabell. “You cannot. You can see her in the morning. Them’s the rules. Now go, get out of here. I’m tired.”

She shooed him away with a couple sleepy waves of her arms, then shut the door in his face. Alex huffed, feeling the weight of the stolen book heavy under his jacket, and made his way back down the hallways toward his room.

Even though he was no longer in the Head’s forbidden wing, he found himself on edge. Everything he learned about the manor only made it seem stranger and more dangerous. What had Finder meant about ‘having a duty’? What had he meant when he said he had killed Alex’s kind?

Spellbreaker. But the Spellbreakers had died out, hadn’t they? Could he be a—

“Webber.”

The word cut into his reverie, and Alex stumbled to a halt, feeling his blood freeze in his veins. He turned slowly, and was met with the sight of Professor Lintz. His portly form was little more than a shadow as he stepped forward out of the dark, his eyes narrowed.

“What are you doing out at this hour?”

Alex swallowed, all too aware of the weight of the book against the inside of his jacket.

“Just going to check on Natalie, sir,” Alex said. “She’s sick, you see, and—”

“And she was sick at the speech. Yes. I was there.”

Lintz’s eyes scoured Alex with a critical gaze, a thin tongue darting out to wet his lips. That look said it all.

You weren’t there.

“I’m patrolling the hallways,” Lintz said, shrugging and looking away down the darkened hallways. “Seems some student has been creeping around out of bounds. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“No, sir,” said Alex, hoping against hope that Lintz wouldn’t hear the lie in his voice.

Lintz’s eyes flicked back to him. “Then what’s that you’re hiding?”

Alex’s jaw locked. His legs tensed, although whether to run or to fight, he did not know.

“Your pockets,” Lintz said, gesturing. “Turn them out.”

Alex frowned, then turned out his pockets. A few coins, some crumpled notes, and one illicit screwdriver.

Lintz looked at the tool, then reached out and plucked it from Alex’s hand.

“You know these aren’t supposed to be out of the lab,” he said, his tone disapproving.

Alex stared at his feet, praying that the man wouldn’t demand to search the rest of him. “It makes me feel safe,” he mumbled, hoping this would ring true.

Lintz huffed, then looked back down to the screwdriver.

“Safe, huh?” he said.

With a brusque motion, he handed the tool back. Alex took it with a blink of surprise, looking up at the professor.

Lintz wouldn’t meet his eyes. He was looking away again, down the hallway.

“I need to keep patrolling,” he muttered. “Get to your room, and stay there.”

Alex nodded and darted off into the night. The screwdriver had turned out to be useful in quite a different way than he had ever expected, but he was more grateful than ever to Aamir.

His room was quiet when he entered. Jari and Aamir had already turned in. Aamir lay on his side, while a showered Jari was sprawled over his bed with one bare foot drooping off the edge, his oversized, striped pajamas hanging heavily off his thin limbs. Alex smiled, then went to his desk and retrieved a pair of scissors.

Pulling his pillow from its case, he made a quick incision into the side and stuffed the book inside, carefully fluffing the stuffing back out around it. Reversing the pillow so the damaged end was on the interior, Alex slotted the pillow back into its case, then lay down. It was stiff, but not horribly so. It would have to do.

Alex awoke to the sound of someone hammering on the door. He sat up, rubbing at his eyes as Aamir slid from bed and made his way over to answer it. The door swung open, and Alex had a clear view of a tired, disheveled, and distinctly upset Professor Derhin, holding a shining lamp.

Before Aamir could say a word, Derhin had shouldered his way inside, looking around with hawkish eyes. Jari’s eyes fluttered open just in time to see the professor bent over him. He yelped, scrambling against the wall.

“What the hell?” he cried.

Derhin took one more look around the room, his lamp splashing light across the walls.

“An artifact has gone missing from the Head’s office,” he said shortly. “A book of some value.”

Alex kept his eyes locked on Derhin, resisting the urge to check on the pillow in which he had hidden the stolen book.

“A book, sir?” Aamir said, pushing