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

weapon, he could feel the weight of an actual hilt in his hand, cold like metal on his skin. The freshly forged blade gleamed as Alex swiped it through the air. Experiencing the sheer weight of the weapon, he held it in both hands as he cut through the atmosphere, feeling the icy rush and powerful vibrations that pulsed down his forearms with each slice.

He practiced for a while, getting comfortable with the weight as he whirled the sword around. Alex was surprised to see that the weapon maintained its shape far longer than any previous attempt had achieved. He liked the feel of it, imagining himself a warrior of old, taking down a Mage on the back of a savage beast.

Eventually, the sword disintegrated, but the bottle still lay unbroken on the floor. With his mouth set in a grim line, Alex held out both hands and turned them upward, moving them in a perfect mirror-image of one another as he created a crackling, violent, snapping ball of black energy, flecked with glimmers of silver. Raising the ball into the air, he snatched his fingers into fists, and the projectile hurtled toward the bottle on the floor. Alex watched in delight as it smashed with an audible crack of glass, the contents erupting in a wave of sour, blood-red liquid that seeped into the ground.

A small vengeance against the Fields of Sorrow, 1908.

Chapter 20

Alex yawned as he made his way back to the dormitory, tired after a brief spell in the library looking up the many uses of clockwork. Unable to focus, he had called it a day and decided to go for an early night instead. His muscles ached a little from his lunchtime sparring, but it was a good pain—it was the ache of progress.

As he opened the wooden door to the dormitory, he was surprised to see Jari sitting on the bed. Jari hadn’t spent any evenings in the dormitory since the curfew had been placed upon the manor, spending what few hours they were permitted elsewhere. Alex was often asleep by the time Jari crept in with a few minutes to spare before the curfew came into action, and he was usually gone again by the time Alex awoke in the morning. After being let down at lunchtime, Alex couldn’t help but feel a lingering annoyance toward his friend, and he struggled to muster a smile as he walked over to his own bed. Jari jumped up and wandered over, his brow furrowed.

“What’s the matter?” asked Alex, seeing the nervous twist of Jari’s hands.

“I need your help,” he whispered, glancing over at the door.

“With what?” Alex tried to stop the irritation from creeping into his voice. Of course Jari would only want to talk these days when he needed something.

“I need to break into the Head’s quarters,” explained Jari, his voice shaking slightly as he met Alex’s eyes with earnest. “The time has come. I have to be certain the Head is gone.” He mumbled something incoherent beneath his breath as Alex sank down onto the mattress.

“Does it make a difference?” said Alex wearily, trying to ignore the tense atmosphere of Jari’s desperation.

“It makes every difference, Alex. There is information we can gather to use against him. This might be our only chance, if he has truly gone.” Jari perched on the edge of the bedframe as he cast anxious glances in Alex’s direction.

Jari made a good point. The Head’s office was a source of untapped knowledge, Alex knew, as he recalled the bookshelf behind the Head’s desk, the one ringed in a glowing red protective barrier. Alex was stronger than he had been the last time he had broken the defenses. Perhaps he could break in more easily a second time, to pilfer whatever he wanted while they had the chance.

Alex remembered Elias’s teasing tales about rare books. If those books were going to be anywhere, they would be on that bookshelf in the Head’s office. Of that, Alex was almost entirely certain.

He heard the disappointed frustration of Elias’s voice once more, replaying in his mind, telling him to go and find the Head if he wanted answers. Even if the Head truly had gone, who knew what answers Alex could find left behind? The risk would definitely be worth the reward if he uncovered something about the Head or the history of the manor. Alex hoped he would uncover something within those secret tomes that would help him in his ongoing plot of escape or that might shed more light on who he was. If there were any Spellbreaker books in the manor at all, they would be in the Head’s office. The stolen books on the Havens might also be hidden there, locked away from prying eyes.

It was too tempting an offer to turn down, though Alex knew the stakes were high.

“Fine,” he muttered.

“You’ll really help?” asked Jari.

Alex nodded. “I could do with checking out his book selection,” he said with a half-hearted smile as Jari’s face visibly relaxed with relief.

“There’s something I might need too,” explained Jari, his tone secretive, though he didn’t elaborate as Alex waited patiently for him to say more.

“Like what?” Alex pressed, when Jari said nothing else on the subject.

Jari shook his head. “I’ll tell you if I manage to find it,” he said, the response frustrating Alex.

Trying not to let it get the better of him, Alex lay back on the pillows and took out the book on the Great Battles that he had stuffed down the back of his mattress. Absently, he began to read, going over the familiar names and skirmishes before he became aware of Jari’s eyes staring intently in his direction.

“What?” asked Alex, looking up from the page.

“Well, are we going or not?” said Jari sternly, a small black bag slung across his shoulder as he nodded toward the door.

“We’re going now?” replied Alex, shocked. He knew Jari had been planning something for a while, but he