The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 6 by Bella Forrest (motivational books for men TXT) 📗

It felt like five years had passed in the blink of an eye, as the group gathered together again at Stillwater House. A reunion was afoot, in celebration of Alex and Ellabell’s engagement. Much had changed, but the six friends remained as solid as they ever had been, regularly seeing one another, and keeping in touch through letters with those they couldn’t see as often.

Clinking glasses around the table that had been set up on the sparkling banks of the Stillwater lake, they toasted the happy couple, who kissed beneath the stars.

After realizing, in those first few months back in the real world, that it wasn’t for him, Alex had returned to the magical realm to take on the role of Spellbreaker teacher at Stillwater House. He explained to his mother where he was going, and though he went back home most weekends to make sure she was okay, his mother loved to visit the villa when the impulse took her. From time to time, he returned to Spellshadow to check on the colony of Thunderbirds that had settled there. They were thriving in the ruins of the manor, which had crumbled into dereliction without anyone to take care of it, and been reclaimed by nature. Alex trained a select few mages on how to ride the winged beasts, wanting to keep Storm’s legacy alive, even if there were no more Spellbreakers to uphold it.

Helena had taken up the mantle of Headmistress, in her mother’s stead, and had turned the place into a wonderful center for learning, producing some of the magical realm’s best and brightest mages, who never had to fear death at the end of their education. It was remarkable what she had done with the place, and they often had intercollegiate matches and competitions with Falleaf, to see who would come out on top. It was always friendly, and it was nice to see the arena being used for good, instead of evil.

Natalie returned from France shortly after her first visit back to the real world. Her family had believed the amnesia tale, but they had been a little reluctant to let her go and “study abroad,” which was what she had told them she was going to do. However, being the headstrong young woman that she was, she went anyway, though she kept in touch frequently, having to duck out of the magical world in order to call them. They’d gotten over the shock of it after the first year, knowing that she was safe and thriving.

Aamir and Jari remained in the outside world, both of them heading to Harvard to study engineering, where they shared a dorm for the second time in their lives. Aamir had never quite recovered from the mist that attacked him; his magic was always weaker after that, whenever he dared to try it, but in the real world he didn’t need it. Despite that, he visited the others often, usually with Jari by his side. Jari had simply never desired to come back to the magical world. He enjoyed his powers, but the realm still left a sour taste in his mouth. Alex could understand that, and though it was sad not to see more of his former dormmates, he was glad they were happy, out there, doing their own thing. By all accounts, Jari had been quite the hit with the ladies when they reached college, though Aamir had often had to rein him in when it came to wooing them. Even at college, a room full of kittens was too much—and way too expensive when they couldn’t be conjured out of thin air.

Ellabell, who was excitedly showing her sparkling engagement ring to Natalie, had taken an entirely different path. Knowing there might be young people out there, harboring magical powers, she had decided to take on the role of a kind of voluntary Finder, seeking out new recruits who might want to be taught in the ways of magic. Each time, she would lead them to the border between worlds, where she would make her pitch. Either Alex or Demeter usually went with her, so they could erase the memory of the potential student if they decided not to take up the offer. After all, they still wanted to keep the magical world a secret. Such a rare and wonderful knowledge would boggle the mind of an ordinary human being, and they didn’t want that on their consciences. If the student accepted, a scholarship letter was sent out, inviting the young person to study at a private boarding school for talented students, to ensure the parents didn’t worry. The parents were even invited along to visit, though Demeter and Alex usually stepped in at the pickup to make them believe they were traveling to somewhere else in the country, rather than a different realm. In just under five years, they hadn’t had a single slipup—a statistic the pair of them were hugely proud of, much to Ellabell’s amusement.

The friends talked long into the night, sitting around that table by the shore, discussing the memories that had brought them to this point. They talked of each other’s current lives, and how each of them had been shaped by the events they had endured. More than that, they talked about their friendship, and how it would live long into the future. An engagement brought people together, and it had certainly brought them all back to one another.

The path to get there had been a long, hard, brutal road, with so much loss and suffering along the way. Whenever they met at Christmas and Thanksgiving, they said a prayer for those who were no longer with them, wishing they could be. But there had been good times too, and with every year that passed, the bad faded, and the good pushed its way to the front.

Just as nature reclaimed beauty from dereliction, so life sprang from hardship… and