The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)(54)

Slowly, Ellabell’s magic spread out in a glittering lattice across the pair of them, golden threads interlacing with other threads until a gleaming screen covered them entirely, lying lightly over their skin. Pulling her hands tightly inward, her face stern in concentration, she suddenly dimmed the radiance, and Alex couldn’t see them against the shadows of the hallway. The shield had worked, hiding Jari and Ellabell mostly from sight. It wasn’t foolproof, but it was better than nothing.

“Follow my lead,” whispered Alex as they moved through the empty manor, his eyes darting cautiously into the shadows ahead of each corner to scan for anyone moving about in the darkness. He didn’t want to come across Renmark by accident, or his new right-hand woman, Esmerelda. There would be no leniency from either of them if they were caught—Alex knew that for sure.

Eventually, they reached the entrance to the Head’s quarters, the golden line glinting menacingly from the floor, where it snaked up the walls and across the ceiling. As Alex paused, Ellabell removed a small square in the lattice of her camouflage, the shield glowing dimly for a moment as her face appeared in the gap. Alex wasn’t sure it was a good spot for a conversation, but he held his tongue.

“How are we supposed to get past?” she asked nervously. Alex could see Jari smirking behind her.

“Close the gap in your shield and turn around. This shouldn’t take long, but it might be dangerous, and I don’t want you to get hurt. I’ll call you when it’s safe,” said Alex.

Reluctantly, Ellabell wove the gap back together with glowing threads around her peering eyes, and he heard the sound of shuffling feet on the flagstones, as if the hidden figures were turning around. Alex squinted into the shadows, hoping they weren’t looking, before kneeling in front of the golden line. Concentrating hard, he conjured the body of a silver sword above his hands, feeling the twist and swirl of the energy as it sharpened the edges and gave weight to the blade. Remembering the tip from the notebook, he focused on the central pulse of the sword and flexed his fingers inwards until the weapon glinted solidly in the air. Only then did he dare to reach out and take the hilt in his hands, feeling the delicate balance and heft of the sword.

With a deft swing, he brought the blade down on the golden barrier, watching with surprise as it fractured in one clean break, each end rebounding off the blow of the blade and hitting the sides of the corridor walls, leaving a big gap in the center through which a person could slip through unnoticed.

For a moment, the hallway was still. Then, out of nowhere, an artillery of golden-tipped arrows and icy blades soared upward and turned toward Alex, glinting in the low light as they rushed in his direction. Alex dropped the sword and threw up a frosty shield around himself with one hand, the arrows smashing to pieces as they impacted. With his other hand, he grasped at the icy blades and snatched them from the air, hurling them into the slick stone of the walls, where they shattered harmlessly. His only concern was the noise they made as they hit the stone, the sound chiming in his ears as he held off a second wave.

Alex caught sight of something slithering across the floor from the point of the initial cut he had made with his sword. Tentacles snaked rapidly up Alex’s body, darting through the gap left between his shield and the floor. He could feel the bitter frost of the magical tendrils nipping at his skin as they wrapped about his neck, tightening and constricting as his hands passed helplessly through the golden vapor of them. They took hold of him, squeezing the air from his lungs, making it impossible to draw in another breath as they coiled tighter.

Panicking, Alex forged a small, glittering black knife with his hands, pinching the blade into a sharp point as quickly as he could before lifting it beneath the tendrils that strangled him. Concentrating hard on the central pulse of the weapon’s energy, his eyes bulging, he poured a layer of darker power into the blade, strengthening it as he felt the anti-magic meet the magic with a tense push of resistance. The tendrils’ magic didn’t feel exactly like regular magic; it was cold and defiant, more like his own. But the extra layer of force seemed to do the trick as the blade sliced savagely through the tentacles, breaking them apart until they shriveled away into small wisps of amber energy that floated downward through the air, disappearing as they touched the flagstone floor.

Chest heaving as he drank in the stale air of the manor, Alex made sure none of the attacks had reached the place where he knew the shielded Ellabell and Jari stood. Frowning, he wondered how much they had seen, secretly, from within their camouflage. Alex hoped Jari had kept Ellabell from peeking.

“You can come out now,” he said breathlessly, wiping the sweat from his brow as the shield fell away.

He could sense nothing in the way Ellabell looked at him that would suggest she knew what he had just done, but perhaps she had a good poker face. Alex wasn’t sure, but he was eager to move on, and gestured for them to walk through the first corridor.

Ellabell paused in front of the space where the golden line had been, her eyes darting suspiciously toward the walls as she stepped forward on tiptoe, like she was checking the temperature of a pool. Alex laughed softly as he watched her, his amusement fading as she turned and glowered at him. He held up his hands in mock surrender as he followed her through the gap and up into the unmapped shadows of this area of the manor.

Picking up the pace, they ran as swiftly as they dared through the hallways toward the main body of the Head’s quarters, Ellabell producing her shield every so often at the sound of something scuttling across the floor or a flash in the darkness ahead. The corridors remained eerily empty as they rushed through, pausing at corners, expecting the Head to appear at any moment and swoop down on them like a hawk. Nobody came.