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

were all sicknesses of the flesh—none of them had anything to do with infecting a person’s magic. He sighed, replacing his most recent disappointment on the shelf.

“Alex?”

He turned to see a head of brown hair poking up the stairway that led to his platform, a pair of glasses shining in the lantern light. Ellabell stepped up, giving him a curious look. “What are you doing here?”

Alex lifted his chin in greeting, gesturing to the rows of medical texts.

“Looking for something that might help Natalie.”

Ellabell smiled faintly. “You too?”

She walked over, pulling a book from the shelf next to him and opening it, adjusting her glasses with a prod as she skimmed the index. Alex watched her with interest.

“You’re here for Natalie?”

Ellabell nodded. “Whatever she has isn’t going away,” she said in a distant voice, her attention clearly on the book in her hands. “But she’s too bullheaded to deal with it on her own, so I figured maybe I could do something to help.”

Alex pulled a book of his own down, feeling reinvigorated. As Ellabell reached for another book, Alex said, “Tried that one already.”

Ellabell paused, glancing over at him, then nodded.

The two of them worked in silence for a time, occasionally comparing notes. Alex found the quiet studiousness of the girl to be soothing. There were no demands, no duels, no undead mice scrabbling at his chest. Just the two of them, and a silence that was not uncomfortable so much as it was natural, focused.

“You know,” Ellabell said as she turned a page, “I’m not convinced she’s sick at all.”

Alex glanced over. “She’s not faking it.”

Ellabell made a face. “I know that much,” she said. “I meant, I don’t know if what she has is natural.”

“How do you mean?”

With delicate ease, Ellabell flipped her book shut and swapped it for another, opening to the introduction and beginning to read. “Let it be understood that this text is meant to help with natural ailments of the flesh,” she read, “and not those magical afflictions that one arcanologist might inflict upon another. Those ailments of magic, or curses as they are colloquially known, do not fall under the purview of magical medicine and will not be addressed herein.” She shut the book again.

Alex considered that for a moment, his brow creasing. “You think someone cursed her? Who would do that?”

Ellabell shrugged. “Lots of people, I guess.”

“But why would they do that?” Alex asked, confused.

“Well, she’s a natural at magic,” Ellabell said. “She’s already surpassed most of the upperclassmen in control, and her projects are ambitious, to say the least. That makes her a natural target, unfortunately. Lots of the girls in the dorms are jealous of her. And she seems friendly enough, but she never really clicked with any of us. She’s always…well, hanging out with you.”

A sinking feeling entered Alex’s gut, and he swallowed. “I’m sure she doesn’t mean anything by it. And I know she likes all of you.”

Ellabell smiled. “Hey, I know she’s a good girl—we’re roommates, remember? She may not open up to me, but I can tell that none of the things she does are out of spite. Still, if you want to help her, I’m starting to think anti-magic would be the way to go.” She sighed. “Which, regrettably, we can’t use.”

Alex tried to contain his rising anticipation, casually composing his face into a series of neutral lines. “Aamir mentioned you researched it for a time.”

Ellabell nodded, sitting down with her back against the thin rail, the dizzying drop down to the library floor at her back.

“I most certainly did,” she said. “It was a bad couple of months when Jari Petra decided he was in love with me.”

Alex laughed. “He can be a bit much.”

“He filled my room with kittens.”

Alex paused. “When you say filled…” he began.

“I mean literally filled,” said Ellabell flatly. “I opened the door and was swamped by a deluge of mewling flesh and panicked claws.”

Alex burst out laughing, and Ellabell reddened, her glasses flashing. “It wasn’t funny!” she said, her hands balling into fists. “It took weeks to get the fur out of everything! I have scars!”

Alex waved a hand, trying to blink the tears of laughter from his eyes. “Sorry, it’s just…anyway. You were talking about anti-magic.”

Ellabell latched onto topic gratefully.

“Yes,” she said. “I was.” She drew herself up with a cocky smile that set her glasses askew on her face. “I might know more about it than anyone else in the school, as a matter of fact.”

Alex grinned at her. “You were that desperate?”

“Full of kittens,” she reminded him with a grimace.

They laughed.

“At any rate,” she went on, “from what I know, someone with Spellbreaker blood and a great deal of experience would be able to undo a curse. It would be difficult even for them, but possible.”

“And, um,” Alex said, “how would one go about something like that?”

Ellabell, engrossed in her topic, hardly seemed to notice the question. Her eyes danced as she began to speak.

“Spellbreakers,” she said, “are a lot like mages.”

Alex paused, abruptly aware of the cold gnawing at his insides as his blood instinctively fought off the manor’s magic.

“They are?”

Ellabell nodded. “They contain a pool of essence. It just isn’t controlled by the same methods that normal magic is—our gathering and controlling exercises wouldn’t work for a Spellbreaker. Apparently, they operate in an opposite fashion, and the essence they produce cannot conjure realities like ours can.” She smiled triumphantly. “What it can do, however, is undo what our magic produces.”

Alex paused, weighing his next question. “Then…how would they use that to undo a curse?”

Ellabell deflated, then spoke wistfully. “No idea. I wish I had a real Spellbreaker to study.”

Alex let out an awkward laugh. “They’re all dead, though, right?”

“That’s what the records say.”

“Hm. Shame.”

Ellabell shot him a strange look. “I have to get going,” she said. “I’m supposed to meet someone. It’s been nice chatting, though, and good luck with Natalie. If she has been cursed, I hope you can figure out some