The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(26)

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Alex sighed, running a hand through his hair. He felt embarrassed by his outburst; he needed to distance himself from the others before he said something truly hurtful.

“Does that mean I can keep eating my cookies?” Jari grinned, and Alex rolled his eyes.

He decided to explore the tower as best as he could, but there were only four floors to investigate. It was like the lighthouse all over again, only there was no secret domed paradise at the top. Instead, there was a small room with a wooden scaffold in the middle, where the bell, presumably, had once hung. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as the lamp room, but it was far enough away from the others to give him a moment of the peace and solitude his tired, cranky self craved.

He sat in there, using the spare time to pull the slim notebook of Leander Wyvern from the back pocket of his new, clean black jeans. It had been a while since he’d had the opportunity and energy to look over it, but just holding it brought him a strange feeling of comfort. Contentedly, he opened up a thin panel of anti-magic between his hands as he went over the old ground written within the notebook, to see if there was anything he had missed. He knew there wasn’t, but the book soothed him. They still had a few of the books they had stolen from the Head’s office, shrewdly pilfered by Natalie, who had placed the books about her person as she had jumped from the office window, but none of them had proved useful so far. For starters, half of them were written in languages even Natalie couldn’t read. He wondered with amusement whether they had gotten it all wrong and those books weren’t magical at all—they were just cookbooks or self-help manuals, to keep the Head busy when he was in his office. The thought made him smile.

After an hour or so, Alex felt the need to stretch his legs. Standing up, he walked over to the window of the top floor and gazed at the view beyond. It looked out onto a wide stretch of field within a vast clearing in the shadows of the hills, which guarded behind in a long-reaching wall of lush greenery that ended in the rise of a low mountain. Within the field was an amphitheater of sorts, built from a pale sandstone, curving in a semi-circle on the side closest to the mountain. Raked seating ascended upward, and there was a large circular pitch painted in white on the neatly kept grass before the spectators’ stand. Four silver posts stood up tall at each quarter of the circle, with a golden statue of a bird of prey perched at the top of each one, their savage beaks facing downwards at the pitch below.

The peculiar setup made Alex curious and eager to be back out in the open, but he knew he couldn’t leave the tower. He wouldn’t put any of his friends at risk just to make himself feel more comfortable. Instead, he moved back over to where he had left the notebook, folded open on the flagstones, and let his eyes run over the familiar terrain once more.



Later on, as twilight arrived, so did Helena.

Alex’s mood had greatly improved after a late-afternoon nap at the top of the tower, and a jovial feeling had settled over the group.

“I swear you’re a vampire,” joked Alex as Helena entered the room. It was true—she did only seem to appear at night.

She laughed heartily. “Don’t be silly. Vampires died out centuries ago!”

Alex frowned at her, not sure whether she was serious or pulling his leg. But if mages and Spellbreakers were real, why not vampires?

“It’d be funny if I was, though, wouldn’t it?” She winked, leaving him uncertain.

Jari had been pouring water, but it was spilling out over the edges of the glass as his attention snapped to Helena, his eyes bugging out. She chuckled as Ellabell quickly tipped the bottle upright, bringing Jari back into the room. Alex could understand what had caught the blond-haired boy’s eye so intently. Helena was dressed in a beautiful bluish-silver gown that seemed to be made of liquid rather than fabric as it rippled gracefully around her with each movement. Her gleaming blond hair had been braided in sections and intricately twisted up onto her head in an elegant style. A thin silver band wove within the strands of hair before meeting across the smooth skin of her forehead. On her wrists, simple silver bracelets jangled.

“You look beautiful,” said Ellabell, speaking the words the boys couldn’t.

“Thank you.”

“How come you’re so dressed up?” asked Alex.

“Questions again?” she teased. “I told you—you have arrived at a very exciting time at Stillwater House!”

“What’s going on?”

“Tonight is the Ascension Ceremony,” she announced.

A chill ran down Alex’s spine. It didn’t sound particularly exciting to him at all. In fact, it sounded an awful lot like ‘graduation.’

“What’s the Ascension Ceremony?” he asked, dreading the answer, though he tried to keep his voice calm.

With a gleeful smile, Helena gestured for them to follow her up to a higher floor. She held the front of her dress so as to not trip as she skipped up the staircase. Gracefully, she moved across to the far side of the third floor, to the window set within the masonry. With an elegant hand, she gestured out toward the amphitheater Alex had seen earlier. Except now, instead of being empty, it was beginning to fill with row upon row of people. Huge fires raged in broad, basin-like torches at various intervals around the amphitheater and up the raked seating, lighting the place with a warm, enticing glow.

For the first time, Alex noticed a large, elaborate chair in the very center of the amphitheater’s seating, almost throne-like. He wondered who had the honor of sitting there.