The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(15)

Suddenly, Alex heard the surprising sound of a low, loud whistle behind him, as Jari’s eyes fell upon a particularly stunning young woman loitering beneath one of the archways that lined the courtyard. She was tall and slender, with pale, porcelain skin and gleaming hair that seemed almost silver beneath the torchlight. The pair quickly ducked down as the whistle drew the attention of the woman, who turned and squinted into the darkness, trying to make out where the sound had come from.

Scrambling swiftly back down the side of the wall, the pair collapsed on the grass, laughing until the tears rolled down their faces. It was the first time Alex had belly-laughed in what seemed like forever, and it felt good.

“I knew you were terrible at flirting, but I never thought it’d get me killed!” gasped Alex, clutching his ribs.

“I admit it—that wasn’t my smoothest moment,” Jari cackled, holding up his hands.

“What possessed you?” Alex asked.

“Did you see her? I had to!”

“For a moment, I thought someone was whistling at me!” joked Alex as he lay back in the grass, staring up at the stars twinkling overhead.

“You wish.” Jari grinned, doing the same.

It was the closest to being an ordinary teenager Alex had felt in ages.

Although they had risked being seen, the close shave had put them in good humor as they returned to the lakeside cottage, joking and teasing one another along the way. It was a balmy evening, and, had it been an ordinary lake, Alex would have waded in for a nighttime swim, but his knowledge of the lake kept him away from the tempting water’s edge. Still, it was a nice walk back, with the buzz of laughter still fresh in the air.

At the cottage, everyone was asleep except Ellabell, who had waited up for them.

“Hungry?” she asked, passing each of them a loaf of crusty white bread.

Alex looked at her in shock. “How did you—?”

She smiled. “Let’s just say I used my time wisely, instead of watching pretty girls,” she teased, though there was a strange undertone to her words that sounded almost like jealousy.

He wanted to deny it, wondering how she had seen them, hiding up on the battlements. He hadn’t seen her.

She is just full of surprises, he thought wryly.

“We weren’t watching pretty girls,” he said finally, trying to keep his voice as even as possible.

“If you say so.” Ellabell smiled triumphantly. “Either way, we have food now.”

“How did you get it?” Alex tried again.

Ellabell tapped the side of her nose. “I have my ways.”

“But how?” Jari chimed in.

“It was easy,” she whispered in a low, conspiratorial tone. The two boys listened intently. “I just found out where they chuck the food away at night.” Laughter rippled from her throat, bringing a smile to Alex’s face.

“I still think it was better to watch pretty girls.” Jari grinned as the three of them moved outside the cottage and sat up against the outer wall.

As the moonlight made the tiny ripples of the lake dance and shimmer, they chatted and watched the lap of the waves on the shore. The two boys ate the pilfered bread, tearing it off in great, hungry chunks, and Jari regaled Ellabell with the brief tale of his ill-timed whistle, gaining an eye-roll from behind her spectacles.

“You really need to learn subtlety, Jari Petra,” she said.

“Hey, I am the king of subtlety!” Jari exclaimed.

She raised an eyebrow. “Kittens—that’s all I’m saying.”

Alex laughed, nearly choking on a piece of bread as he remembered the first time Ellabell had told him of Jari’s less-than-welcome flirtations. Alex had barely known her back then. In fact, all of that seemed like a lifetime ago now.

“Who doesn’t like kittens?” Jari muttered.

“Nobody wants a room full of them. I still have the scars.”

“All right, so I was a little heavy-handed,” Jari sulked.

“A little?” Ellabell prodded.

“Fine, a lot heavy-handed. What are you bringing that up for again, anyway?” asked Jari. “That’s all in the past. I have my sights set elsewhere now!”

“Poor girl.”

“At least I let a girl know I like them!” Jari smirked, flashing a look at Alex.

Alex felt his throat drying up as Ellabell eyed him curiously. It certainly did feel like a long time since he had first met her. Back then, he had thought he might have feelings for the cute French exchange student whom he had followed blindly into a spooky old house. How times had changed; he certainly didn’t see Natalie in any sort of romantic way now, leaving his path clear to consider other girls, and yet he found it difficult to put the affection he felt for Ellabell into words. With everything else that had been going on around them, he had been too distracted to really think about romance in a serious way. And yet, here was Jari, throwing him under the bus in front of the one girl he thought he might actually like.

He wondered if she was, in fact, waiting for him to put those feelings into words, as she continued to look at him strangely. Even Jari seemed to want him to say something.

Alex cleared his throat. “You just scare them away, Jari,” he said, knowing how lame it sounded as Jari visibly winced.

Ellabell, however, showed nothing on her face. If she had been waiting for him to say something, she gave nothing away. It was only her sparkling blue eyes that showed the merest hint of disappointment, but Alex wasn’t sure if that was him reading too much into it. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to say something to her—he just didn’t have the right words.