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

his odd quirk of leading him by the hand, but walked alongside him. It was strange, in a way. He felt settled in Spellshadow in ways that he never had before. It was easy to fall into the patterns of this place, the consistent classes and the easygoing teachers, and forget the dangers. Perhaps that was the point.

Jari led Alex out of the door into the gardens and along the scattered remains of a path, snow and gravel crunching under their feet. Before long, they came to a little bench by the great ivy-shrouded wall.

Aamir was sitting there, staring down into a steaming mug in his hands. He was wearing navy blue gloves and a puffy coat that for all its bulk somehow made him look smaller. His cheeks were gaunt, his eyes shadowed from lack of sleep. He hadn’t even bothered to sweep the snow away from where he sat.

He looked up as Alex and Jari drew closer, and nodded in his solemn way.

“Hello,” he said. “I suppose you are here to berate me again?”

“No,” Alex began, shaking his head.

But Jari, who did seem to want to berate Aamir, launched ahead.

“You have to start coming to class again,” he said.

“Why?”

“For appearances.”

Anger flashed in Aamir’s eyes, and he rose swiftly to his feet.

“I’m sick of appearances,” he said, and his normal calm melted along with the snow around his feet as a ripple of heat swirled off him. Alex took a step away from the raw fury in the boy’s eyes. “I’m sick of smiling and playing along. We can’t all just go willingly to our graves, you know.”

“There’s a difference between preparing for the worst and actively calling it down on yourself,” Jari retorted, and now there was heat in his voice as well. Crackles of angry electricity danced over his hands, his hair lighting up with sparks.

“Oh, is there?” said Aamir. “Because it seems like I can’t do anything that’s mellow enough for you. You want me to go to class, do my projects, and graduate like a good boy, isn’t that right?”

“You know I—”

“You just want me to ride this out and hope for the best!” Aamir yelled, taking a step forward. “You don’t care about what happens to us! You don’t care about me! All you care about is that everybody is fine and happy and fits into your tiny vision of ‘okay’!”

Jari stood very still, but the magical electricity that surrounded him seemed to glow with rage. It flickered, but he said nothing at all.

Aamir, emboldened by Jari’s lack of response, continued.

“Have you ever stopped to wonder how it feels for someone like me? Someone looking at that date coming closer and closer?” he cried. “It’s January. I’m set to graduate in May.”

And then Alex saw it. That little date next to so, so many names.

May 7th.

He stood stunned as he realized the implications. Aamir was right—the students who had graduated were not likely off making their way in the world. And what had been written next to Blaine’s name? Not matured enough. A chill unrelated to the snow ran through him.

Not matured enough for what?

Alex snapped out of his reverie as Jari let out a roar of fury and punched his hand forward, toward Aamir, whose mouth was opening to continue his tirade. While the physical blow fell short of the mark, a bolt of electricity shot from his knuckles and caught Aamir’s cheek, sending the boy spinning to the ground. Aamir had barely hit the snow before he was up again, his own hand out, sending a wave of fire tearing through the air toward Jari. The smaller boy ripped it in half with fingers alight with energy.

“Stop it!” shouted Alex, alarmed, but his roommates ignored him.

“You dare tell me who I care about?” Jari said, his voice a frozen ruin of its usual cheer. “You dare tell me what I worry about?”

Jari batted aside another flame, then lashed out with a foot, sending a ripple of burning light through the air. Aamir stumbled back, but seemed to repel the blow, this time with sheer magical force. He snarled, stepping toward Jari, then heaving his fist upward. Mirroring the motion, the earth under Jari’s feet snapped upward, smashing into the boy’s jaw. Jari was pitched into the air and landed heavily in the snow with a cry of pain.

“Jari! Aamir, stop!” Alex tried again, now stepping toward Jari. “You hurt him!”

“Then show me!” Aamir bellowed, as though Alex had not spoken. “Show me you care! Because honestly, I cannot see it. You don’t try to support me. You merely hold me back.”

Jari rose shakily to his feet, wiping a line of blood from his mouth, and Alex froze before he reached him, apprehensive, looking up as the air shifted. The sky overhead darkened to an angry gray, and the wind grew sharp and fierce all around them, heavy with the metallic scent of a storm. In response, flames burst into life around Aamir’s arms and legs, sending a spiraling column of orange tapers skywards, the heat blistering even at a distance. Alex watched the two glaring at one another.

“Oh no,” he whispered.

They lunged at one another, and Alex moved without thinking.

Hurling himself between them, he spread his arms, one toward each of his oncoming friends, putting one hand into the storm, the other into the flames.

The cold took him at once, freezing the spit in his mouth, sending him toppling with a gasp into the snow, which felt warm by comparison. Everything grew violently frigid, and he spasmed, crying out, coughing up ice and snow and rolling uncontrollably back and forth.

If he’d been able to, Alex almost might have laughed. He could wield an incredible force to combat these magical energies, yet it led to him lying helpless in the snow, weakened and frozen half to death by his own legendary power.

His vision blurry with pain, he heard frantic cries above him. Jari and Aamir had extinguished their magic in an instant, and