The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)(36)

“I believe congratulations are in order,” Elias whispered, his words like silk.

“Congratulations?” asked Alex, confused, wondering if Elias had been in the cellar watching them. He hadn’t felt the eyes of the mysterious creature.

“You disposed of that vile gray thing.” Elias grinned, a sinister quality in the pleasure of the words as they glittered in his endless black eyes, the whole of the universe seemingly compressed within two dark almonds. “You got rid of Malachi Grey, achieving what decades of your kind couldn’t.” He chuckled slyly. “Surely that has to feel good?” he said, his voice oozing like honey from the shadowy cavern of his mouth.

Alex shrugged. “I haven’t really thought about it,” he lied. He got the feeling Elias wouldn’t take too kindly to his admission of second thoughts over the death of Malachi Grey.

“And off the Head runs, like a scared little boy,” cackled Elias, the sound startling. It was hard not to hear the thrill in Elias’s voice. Alex couldn’t be sure, but he thought Elias seemed more excited about that than the actual disposal of Malachi Grey.

“So, the Head really has gone?” asked Alex, wondering if he might get a straight answer for once.

“That’s not for me to say,” Elias tutted.

“Well, has he or hasn’t he?” Alex pressed, trying again.

“Who can say?” Elias replied, the liquid slope of his shoulders rising in a shrug.

“Have you just come back to annoy me?” Alex snapped. “Where have you been, anyway?” He eyed the shadow-man curiously, looking for a hint of honesty on the peculiar, ever-shifting face.

“Oh, you know, here and there and everywhere. Watching this and that, getting under peoples’ feet.” Elias grinned, whipping his shape up suddenly into a wisp of black shadow before emerging against the post as a cat, his fangs pointed. Brushing his fluid form against the wooden frame, he stretched out, yawning loudly.

“You have just come back to annoy me,” muttered Alex, lying back on the bed to stare up at the ceiling as the cat pounced up onto the mattress beside him, peering down with those alarming onyx eyes.

“Oh, come now, there’s no need to be like that,” said Elias, the words rumbling at the back of his throat. Alex ignored him, watching the darkness play across the rafters.

There was a snap in the air, a dark mist swirling as Elias-the-man reappeared. The stars in his eyes seemed to burn as he glanced down at Alex, his smile ebbing. “In fact, I brought you some things, though I’m not sure I want to hand them over now.”

Alex sat up on his elbows. “You brought something?”

“I certainly did,” said Elias, delving into the dark robes of his shadowy cloak, his hand seemingly disappearing into the starry expanse of his chest, a sight Alex wasn’t sure he could ever get used to. From within the crevasse of his ribcage, Elias withdrew two books. He handed the first to Alex—a red, leather-bound book. “I thought you might enjoy this one more,” he quipped as Alex read the cover. It was a non-fiction book, similar in style to the Historica Magica, but the title simply read A Comprehensive Guide to the Great Battles by Reginald M. Boyd.

Alex smiled. “Another history book?”

“Of sorts. Much more interesting than the last,” sighed Elias. “And this. A rare thing.” Elias handed Alex another book. This one was a notebook, slim and black, with barely any pages inside and no title embossed on the front to hint at what was held within. “You might find this useful.” Elias smirked.

“What is it?” Alex asked, opening the middle of the notebook to find a scramble of symbols scattered across the thin paper, browning at the edges.

“A thing that took me great pains to acquire for you. A fitting payment for a job well done, ridding the manor of that hideous creature,” murmured Elias, a note of unexpected sincerity in his voice.

“You’re a veritable library of stolen goods,” joked Alex, turning the slender notebook in his hands.

“And who says they are stolen? The ingratitude! Anyway, you cannot steal something which already belongs to you,” said Elias.

“These are yours?” Alex frowned, perplexed.

“In a sense. Ownership is a vague principle when you can melt through walls.” Elias cackled, grasping the fluid bottom of his twinkling ribcage and pulling upward sharply, his flowing form folding back in on itself, imploding in a mist of eerie darkness.

“Elias?” called Alex, but the shadow-man was gone.

Each time Elias appeared to him, Alex grew more and more aware of how little he knew about the spectral shadow creature who was always slipping into the darkness, appearing as he pleased. It was hard to imagine Elias as anything other than a fluid being, and yet there was a humanity to him, albeit buried deep in the peculiar galaxy of his strange, shapeshifting body. When Elias had said ‘you cannot steal something which already belongs to you,’ Alex had believed him, picturing a human version of the slippery shadow holding those books in hands of flesh and blood.

The thought made Alex curious. What had Elias been before he was a shadow-man?

Sitting alone in the empty room, Alex flipped through the Great Battles book with some interest, but his eye was continually drawn to the slender notebook. Opening it up to the first page, the paper yellowing with age and worn by time, Alex saw nothing written there except a small signature in the bottom right corner, the ink faded… It read Leander W. He couldn’t stop looking at the signature, running his finger over it, feeling for any residual magic, but there was nothing. Pausing with the half-moon of his thumbnail beneath the W, Alex wondered if it was merely hope that made him think twice about the letter, or if it meant something much closer to home. Could it be? Leander W. Leander W…That W antagonized him, toying with him, as he read it over and over.