The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(102)

Alex got up and dusted himself off, shifting the bag of bottles carefully around to a more comfortable spot. He had no idea where they were, and the uncertainty unnerved him.

Aamir moved nervously toward Alex, his eyes transfixed by the satchel Alex held onto.

“What’s in the bag?” he asked.

The others looked toward Alex, their eyes showing surprise as they noticed the bulky satchel for the first time. Alex removed one of the bottles, holding it up to the light so they could see the dim red glow that burned in the middle of the black, smoky glass.

“Is that what I think it is?” Ellabell gasped.

He nodded. “It is. It’s life essence. Bottles and bottles of life essence—the currency that is going to see us home,” he explained with a hopeful smile.

“How did you get it?” Jari chimed in, his interest piqued though he was still snuffling slightly.

“I found where it was being kept. Alypia had the bottles in a little room, just to the side of her study.” He shrugged, looking intently at the glowing pulse within the bottle.

“Whoa. How did you get them from Alypia?” pressed Jari, really interested now.

“Using my powers. I just conjured a powerful spell that managed to keep Alypia at bay while I ran off into the chamber where they were stored and scooped up as many as I could. I kicked the rest over—they all smashed, and the essence drained away, back into the earth,” he murmured, feeling bashful beneath the intense gaze of their eyes.

“Were you the one who caused her to scream that way?” Natalie flashed a look of concern, clearly suspecting some of what Alex had done.

“Sort of,” he admitted. “I used two of the bottles and fed my anti-magic through the essence to make two of those beast things Derhin used against Aamir. They kept her occupied while I ran away.”

His friends fell silent, looking at him with a sort of awestruck fear. It worried him—too many people were looking at him that way these days. He only hoped what he had done to Alypia would be enough to keep her from following them for a while. The Head had managed to restore the portal at Spellshadow, and Alex guessed Alypia would do the same as soon as she was able to, but he knew those beasts would stall her for a while. Her ungodly screams had been evidence of their destructive powers against her. Still, as ever, the ticking hands of time clanged above them.

Shifting his muscles, he tried to stretch, wanting to get the knots and aches out. His whole body felt tired and a little disjointed, making him wonder if it was because he had used a small speck of his essence in his anti-magical conjurations. He didn’t feel any different mentally; he just felt shattered physically. Silently, he made a note to ask Natalie later, if that was what happened when you used strong, dark magic.

Suddenly, he jumped to attention as he became aware of a shadow in the darkness of a hallway, a short distance away from where they were gathered. Shuffling along the tunnel, a figure stepped out into the muted light of the courtyard.

Seeing who it was, their faces lifted in surprise, their eyes going wide. Alex wasn’t sure he could take many more surprises; his heart was still thundering from the panicked exit they had just made. Though, saying that, Alex had to admit this was one of the better ones.

“At last! I thought you’d never get here!” a voice bellowed from the shadows.





Epilogue





Elias lolled casually in the room above the portal, picking stars from his teeth.

Seeing Alex leave had pleased him greatly—he was starting to grow tired of Stillwater. He’d always hated it, even when he’d come through to study as a teacher, with all the beautiful people preening and primping, all obsessed with beauty. That wasn’t Elias’s style at all. Elias was more into the interior, magical beauty of a person, rather than the false, ephemeral outer shell. After all, the mortal coil could be shuffled off at any moment, leaving shadowy strands that simply would not behave, when faced with the magic of Stillwater.

He had been watching Alex with keen intrigue, though he had been unable to do much thanks to his unruly, disjointed body snaking off to wherever it pleased, at any given time, within the magical otherworld of Stillwater House. He loathed it, thinking far less of the fearsome Alypia for using such trite techniques to control everyone. Manipulation was easy, he smiled—you just had to know how to pull the right strings. Puppet master extraordinaire, that was Elias, and he relished the position.

Sadly, and much to Elias’s chagrin, the magic that affected everybody’s state of mind, making them giddy, smiling zombies, also wrought havoc on his ability to hold his transient, shadowy form together. Finding and taking that book from Alypia’s office had been no mean feat for a being that could barely keep his face from disappearing into the ether, and still Alex had dithered with it.

At least he rallied in the end, thought Elias smugly, slinking toward the windowless study, clapping the wispy fronds of what should have been hands together as he saw the royal mess Alex had made of the bottle chamber.

A royal mess indeed, chuckled Elias with starry-eyed delight, as he watched the scene playing out below from the safety of his dark corner. It called for popcorn, he mused with a grin, though he could barely remember the taste of such a paltry human snack.

The guards had arrived to assist Alypia, disposing of the great golden beasts with some difficulty. Elias struggled not to laugh aloud and give his position away as he watched them try to dissipate the creatures.