The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 4 by Bella Forrest (best e book reader android TXT) 📗

smothering the false images the fog had created. Steadily, he worked his way through, dissipating what was left of the red haze, feeling that it had affected her more fiercely than the last time for some reason. Perhaps she had simply absorbed more of it; it was hard to say.

Eventually, he removed the strands of his anti-magic from her mind. He held Natalie tightly, watching as she blinked awake, the milky sheen gone from her eyes, revealing the glimmering dark brown beneath. Unsteadily, her knees buckled, but Alex was there to catch her before setting her gently on the ground. Cautiously, he folded up the small rug around the bottle at its center and moved it to one side, wanting to keep it out of everyone’s way until he could get a better idea of what was so different, and potentially so harmful, about this essence.

The others were watching him curiously, in the wake of what he had done to dispel the demons from Natalie’s mind, but he ignored them, turning back to her.

“How did you find this place?” Alex asked Natalie, his voice gentle.

She glanced up at him, her whole body shaking. “I think it was necromancy that brought me here,” she whispered. “The red fog… it made me hear the voices of people crying, people screaming. Not the prisoners… other people. They were ghosts. They wanted my help… I followed them down here. Everyone was dead…” Her voice caught in her throat as she trailed off.

Alex looked at the bundled-up bottle of essence on the side and knew which ghosts she meant.

“You’re safe now,” he said. “The ghosts are all gone.”

Natalie drew her knees up to her chin, her face a pale picture of fear. There was regret in her eyes too, and Alex had never seen her look so vulnerable. As the others fussed around her, filling her in on what had happened, Alex could detect a wariness still in their demeanor. He didn’t blame them; she had been truly frightening. However, his attention was focused elsewhere.

Leaving the others to Natalie, he went to the narrow entrance, pulling back the velvet curtain, and opened the door with a shiver of trepidation. The sight that emerged from the gloom was an unmistakable one. He had seen it twice before. To Alex’s delight, an antechamber stretched away into a darkened distance, the room much smaller than those he’d seen at Spellshadow and Stillwater, but still full to the brim with smoky black bottles of essence. The dim red light he knew so well, pulsing within the black glass, shone brighter here. It was a different kind of energy altogether—he could feel it, even from the mere threshold of the chamber. He still hoped that, somehow, they’d be able to use it to build the portal home.

Touching them was a challenge, however. Even with his anti-magic in full force, he found the bottles hard to handle. Vivid pulses of light forced their way into his head as he picked each one up, the memories within going off like an explosion in his brain, searing his synapses with white-hot light that felt like scorching blades in his skull. He shoved the bottles back onto the shelves—the potent pulse of each one he had touched was starting to give him a headache.

Still only marginally deterred, he picked up another bottle and plucked out the stopper. As soon as the substance within touched his palm, an explosion went off in Alex’s brain. It was unbearable, voices screaming at such a pitch he thought his ears might implode, people howling, a million memories all rushing at once, pin-balling around his head. He couldn’t think, worried his own mind would be lost in the fray. It was hard to extract himself from the onslaught of sound and vision, and worse than that, he could feel the burn of the essence itself against his flesh, searing it.

Forcing his eyes open, he saw that his hand was glowing, and knew it couldn’t be a good thing. Thinking fast, he dove for the four-poster bed and frantically wiped his hand against the comforter. A lot of the essence came off, seeping down into the cloth with a scorching hiss, but the rest remained, as Alex battled the visions in his mind. It took all the concentration he had left to conjure strands of his anti-magic and feed them into the remaining essence, compressing it gradually until the visions began to ebb away. Over and over, he fed layers into the essence, like applying lotion to a sunburn, trying not to summon anything awful in the meantime. Slowly but surely, the last of it dissipated, though it left him feeling as if every cell in his body were on fire.

His hand was bright red, a few livid burns crisscrossing the skin. Bending his fingers, he winced. The wound was tender, to say the least. Caius had been right; this essence was no good. If he couldn’t wield it, being what he was, he dreaded to think what such potent energy could do in the hands of his friends.

“Dude, are you okay?” Jari asked, walking up to Alex, concern etched on his face.

“Looks like Caius was right about the essence,” he admitted grimly, lifting his burned hand.

“You shouldn’t have been so—here, let me help,” said Ellabell, coming forward. Twists of golden magic flowed through her hands, and she touched them to Alex’s damaged palm. Instantly, snow gathered around his hand, the cool flakes soothing the seared skin beneath.

Two figures appeared in the doorway of the room, snatching Alex’s attention away from the pile of snow forming in his palm. It was Lintz and Demeter, returned from their hunt.

“In all my years at Kingstone, I never knew this was here!” Demeter exclaimed, peering in. “I might’ve known there’d be a secret entrance or two hiding away in this place. He’s probably got tons—I imagine it’s how he manages to come and go as he pleases.”

“How did you find us?” Alex asked,