The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)(57)

Alex glanced around the medium-sized chamber, feeling eyes on him, as he reached down to pull Ellabell to her feet. She shrank away from his hands with a whimper, not wanting him to touch her. He tried again, lifting her by the arms, ever conscious of the deafening scream inviting unwanted visitors, but she thrashed against him desperately, tears falling from her wide blue eyes.

“Hey, hey, it’s me. It’s only me,” he whispered in soothing tones, trying to calm her as he held her to him. Eventually, she stopped thrashing, her fists no longer pummeling his chest as she rested limply in his arms.

Suddenly, Jari appeared in the doorway, an expression of panic on his face. His face was pale and sweating, his chest heaving with exertion as he looked down at the sight of Ellabell clutched in Alex’s arms.

“We better run,” he gasped, as Alex heard the first echoes of footsteps on the flagstones behind Jari, gaining speed.

Gathering Ellabell up in his arms, Alex burst from the library and ran with her, Jari only slightly ahead of them as they raced through the corridors toward the main body of the building, hurdling over debris and clusters of tangled gray ivy that threatened to sabotage their escape. Alex felt a fleeting moment of frustration that he hadn’t managed to see the Head’s office, but knew there was no point worrying about it now. If it was the Head in pursuit, he would no doubt be seeing the inside of the Head’s office soon enough.

Glancing over his shoulder for the briefest second, Alex caught a glimpse of the figure running behind them. He was tall and dressed head to toe in black, with a pale, haunting mask covering most of his face. It wasn’t the Head, but it was someone equally terrifying. The black holes in the mask, where the eyes ought to have been, stared coldly and intently as two gloved hands lifted and sent glittering bolts of golden magic snaking rapidly after them.

Turning a corner, Alex placed Ellabell down and yelled for Jari to get her to safety as he held his own palms up and felt the tendrils of shimmering black and vivid silver slipping easily across his fingers in vibrant tendrils, made more powerful by the pulse of emotion rising through him. Pressing himself flat against the wall, he drew the anti-magic back into himself, feeling the strange tingle of it in his bloodstream as he peered around the corner, his heart pounding as he witnessed the figure gaining ground quickly.

“Stop!” called the figure, in a strict, sharp voice that wasn’t familiar to Alex.

Alex extended his hands and sent the blockade rushing toward the figure. It was densely packed with ice and snow, ripples of black and silver energy twisting and turning within the frosty interior, far stronger and more powerful than the one he had practiced in the cellar. It knocked the figure backward with a loud thud, its body hitting the stone floor hard. Watching the blockade disintegrate, Alex moved his hand in a rapid figure eight, creating a fog of condensation that rose up thickly from the icy remnants, distorting the escape route from view.

Alex didn’t wait for the figure to get up as he raced after Jari, who was a short way ahead with Ellabell’s arm draped around his neck. Taking up Ellabell’s other arm, Alex gripped her waist and ran, holding her up as they raced past the golden line that lay cracked and broken on the floor. Spying the dull, painted red wood of one of the empty chambers in the adjoining corridor, Alex headed for it and burst through the door, dragging them all inside. He gently set Ellabell down and touched his finger to his lips, ensuring she and Jari understood his meaning as he crouched low to the floor and crept back over to the door, placing his eye close to the keyhole to watch the hallway beyond.

He heard the figure before he saw it, the hurried beat of shoes hitting stone sending jolts of panic through Alex’s heart as he waited for the figure to come into view. The dark-clad pursuer passed close by the door without pausing to check it, permitting Alex to get a closer look. The figure looked tall and menacing as he ran past, with a distinct masculinity in the broadness of the shoulders, though his face was shrouded by a hood. Alex frowned as he sat back from the keyhole; he had never seen the figure before, and the notion made him wonder how easy it was to hide a stranger in the manor. Perhaps the Head was hiding an army in this labyrinth of a place.

Looking back at his fellow escapees, he noticed that Ellabell had curled up against the wall with her eyes staring out into space. He felt a wave of protectiveness for the curly-haired girl, wondering what on earth had happened to her.

“Ellabell?” he whispered, his hands reaching out to hold hers as she trembled uncontrollably. “Ellabell, what happened?” he asked, but she only shook her head and lowered her gaze.

Her entire body shivered, the blood drying and flaking from where it had trickled from the corner of her mouth down to the edge of her chin. Tears streamed silently from her big blue eyes as she clutched the broken spectacles in her hand, the splinters of glass pricking her skin until Alex took them carefully from her desperate grasp and placed them on the ground.

“Ellabell, tell me what happened. You can trust me,” Alex reassured her earnestly, squeezing her hands lightly as he spoke.

She shook her head, a choked whimper escaping her throat as she looked up to the darkness that crept across the chamber ceiling, her pupils darting rapidly as if she thought someone was watching her. Alex glanced up, following the direction of her gaze, but could sense nothing in the shadows that might want to hurt them.

Only when the coast seemed clear did Alex give the go-ahead for them to re-emerge, some hours later. Gently, Alex picked up the wilting, terrified form of Ellabell and carried her carefully back to her dormitory like precious cargo. Jari headed back to the boys’ dormitory at Alex’s insistence, leaving Alex to tiptoe through the vacant halls, checking around every corner to make sure he was alone. Nobody stopped him as he made the slow trek back to the girls’ dormitory, and he felt a keen sense of relief when he reached the door with the brass number twenty-eight on the front. He rapped quietly on the wood and waited for Natalie to open it.