The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)(87)

As he began to climb up onto the ledge, a thud of magic jarred against the door, making the chairs and diagonal bookshelf shudder violently. Alex knew with a rush of panic that he had mere seconds. Ellabell’s residual shield would hold, but not for very long.

Hearing another blast, followed instantly by the sound of splintering wood, Alex stepped onto the windowsill.

Natalie was below him, her eyes closed tight in concentration. The others stood far away from her, and Alex could see why. A vortex whirled wildly in front of Natalie, swirling with a myriad of colors, from the brightest cyan to the deepest purple and all the colors in between. In the very center of it was a stationary ball of energy, glowing with a dark pink pulse that seemed to suck in all the light around it. Shadows poured into the radiance, pulled with magnetic force.

Alex glanced back to see a crack ripping through the surface of the doorway. He turned and jumped, dropping down onto the grass beside Natalie as the window closed behind him. A loud blast erupted from within the manor, shaking the earth beneath him.

“Now,” he whispered.

Natalie gave a barely discernible nod as she lifted the vortex up toward the window, the expanse of it growing wider, sucking in more shadows and more light as it rose up. Everything it touched was drawn into the glowing center, and it seemed the portal was no different.

Another explosion blasted through the earth as Alex caught sight of a shadow rushing toward the window. Hands seemed to fumble at the catch, before swinging it open. At that moment, Natalie surged the vortex forward with greater ferocity, catching the figure in the swirling magic. A blood-curdling scream pierced the air as the grasping magic reached for the strong power at the Head’s very core. He pulled away with a furious roar, stepping back from the window, though Alex was convinced he could see the burning glow of red eyes beneath the hood.

Alex looked anxiously at Natalie, his heart thundering. Although the portal resembled an ordinary window to the untrained eye, Natalie’s magic quickly seemed to sense there was something magical about it, and stretched toward it hungrily. Before the Head could come at them again, the pulsing epicenter floated from the middle of the vortex and burned with blinding ferocity against the dim light coming from the office above, sucking a dense stream of a dark gray substance from the center of the window. The vortex pulsated again, ablaze with opalescent fire as it engulfed the very last of the dark mist, pulling the portal forcefully from its stronghold and swallowing it whole, until the window was no more. In its place were dew-soaked fields rolling away into the distance; the manor wall and window were gone from sight, moved away under Natalie’s skillful hands.

Now that the vortex had folded in on itself, disappearing in a silent swell of energy, Alex wondered if the window would still look out on the lake, or if the Head would see something else now.

He was staring up at the sky where the window had been when Natalie crumpled before him. Her legs gave way beneath her, but Alex reached out quickly, catching her just in time.

“Natalie, talk to me. Are you okay?” he asked, shaking her gently as he held her.

Her face was pale and her lips were colorless. She looked dead.

Alex shook her more vigorously. “No…” he begged. “Natalie. Natalie, wake up!”

She whimpered quietly, her eyes blinking open with a painful slowness. Her face and her clothes were drenched in sweat, and her black hair clung to her skin in damp tendrils. Her mouth moved slowly, as if she wanted to say something.

“Are you okay?” asked Alex gently, as the others gathered around Natalie’s slumped form.

She nodded slightly. “It… was very… powerful… magic,” she whispered as a small smile appeared on her cracked, bloodless lips.

“You took the portal away.” Alex was impressed and infuriated with his dear friend, in all her recklessness. She had no doubt saved the day, but Alex wasn’t sure at what cost.

She shook her head slowly. “I… moved it,” she breathed, the smile breaking into a broader grin.

“Promise me you didn’t do something stupid,” Alex said, his voice thick with emotion. He knew he would not be able to forgive himself if she had used a piece of her soul to help them escape.

She laughed quietly. “Not… life magic… just big… magic.”

“Do you promise me?”

She nodded, wincing slightly. “I… promise.”

“I think we should get out of here. Wherever here is,” said Jari, saying exactly what Alex was thinking. Aamir, still unconscious, was slumped against the blond-haired boy.

“You took the words right out of my mouth,” said Alex as he looped Natalie’s arm around his neck, pain still surging through his body like an all-over stitch.

Ellabell stepped toward Aamir’s dangling arm and pulled it around her shoulders, propping him up between herself and Jari.

“Let’s go,” said Alex, with hesitant relief, as the five of them took off across the pitch-black field, lit only by the dim glow of distant stars.

It was foolish, Alex knew, to hope they had found a portal leading to the normal world. All around them, the air buzzed with magic. They were no longer at Spellshadow Manor, but they had escaped to somewhere utterly foreign to them.

They looked only toward the glitter of the lake ahead as the grass crunched underfoot. The thin crescent of a selfish moon was out, offering little in the way of visibility, giving no indication of what could be lurking in the dark, waiting for them. It didn’t matter. It wasn’t important that they could see, just as long as their legs could run. That was all Alex was certain of. They had to run—only time would tell how much of a head start they had.