The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(56)

“What have you done with my friends?” he pressed, draining the glass dry.

Her strange eyes glittered. “They are all well. They have all been treated as you have,” she explained, apparently unwilling to elaborate.

“How is Ellabell? What have you done with her? And Natalie? Are they okay?”

Alypia grinned, flashing Alex a knowing look as he spoke of Ellabell. The expression made Alex worry, hoping he had not given her a weapon she might use against him—an exploitation of something she might see as a weakness. He waited for an axe to fall, but it did not; if she had plans to utilize his affections for Ellabell, she wasn’t ready to put them into action just yet.

“The two girls are well,” assured Alypia.

“And the two boys—Aamir and Jari?”

Alypia smirked. “Jari has been… something of a handful, shall we say. But dear Aamir has been more than compliant. He is recuperating well in the infirmary after his… recent illness,” she said softly, offering glimmers of awareness as she spoke. There was a knowledge in her words that made Alex suspicious, and he wondered why she was referring to the older boy as ‘dear’ Aamir. There was familiarity in the way she spoke his name.

For a moment, Alex thought about mentioning Helena, but a desire to protect her held his tongue—he wasn’t convinced she had been involved in their capture at all. No matter which way he looked at it, it didn’t make sense that Helena had dragged them all the way out to the lighthouse to be captured, when she could just as easily have sounded the alarm when they were in the bell tower, or even when they were just outside the villa walls. If she hadn’t been responsible in any way, Alex didn’t want to get her into trouble. Besides, if she had been the cause of their capture, he was fairly certain it wouldn’t have been on purpose. Perhaps somebody had seen her rowing to the island, or caught wind of what she was up to. Until he saw Helena again, he couldn’t be sure of what had actually led the guards to the lighthouse.

“You intrigue me, Alex. You and your friends,” Alypia purred. “You are all very talented individuals. Even the weakest among you is still stronger than most, especially the caliber one expects among that motley crew at Spellshadow. I can see the frustration in some of your friends, Alex—the desire to be taught properly, which is something I know you weren’t experiencing at Spellshadow Manor. It isn’t seen as all that important to teach well over there, and goodness knows the place has been run into the ground. Always the bare minimum, copying lines out of textbooks and learning rudimentary magic. It’s not exactly thrilling stuff, that’s for sure, and it leads to sedentary, bored minds. Not the kind of minds required of superior mages. For you and your friends, that kind of teaching and learning is simply not good enough.” She smiled, flashing pearly white teeth, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. There was a twist of displeasure in her voice, leaving Alex to guess whether it was the reminder of her brother that had brought on such annoyance.

“My friends should never have been brought to Spellshadow in the first place—it’s sick and it’s wrong,” Alex remarked.

She nodded thoughtfully. “A barbaric necessity, truly, but a necessity nonetheless. We can debate the morality of such things another day, but for now, we must make the most of where we are. See it as an opportunity and not a curse. I know certain friends of yours see it that way. They understand that there are things to be learned here—interesting, wonderful things, that nowhere else can offer,” she murmured, her voice like honey. “But Alex, you are a different notion entirely. I can see a talent in you that was not fully nurtured at a place like Spellshadow Manor. And it could not have been fully nurtured; they simply don’t have the skills or resources necessary to teach somebody like you. Someone with such rare promise,” she whispered, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

Alex froze, remaining silent. He did not know how much Alypia knew of his special circumstances; he guessed she was suspicious, at the very least, about his Spellbreaker abilities, thanks to the Head’s vague statements about the importance of him being found, though he was fairly certain she already knew precisely what he was. Alypia was not a stupid woman, by any stretch of the imagination. That was why she had referred to him as ‘special’—he had come to realize ‘special’ actually meant ‘Spellbreaker’.

“You must miss your mother terribly,” she said evenly, switching the subject as she looked him straight in the eyes. “It must be hard for you. I can see why you were so desperate to escape. I don’t blame you, in fact. If it were my mother and she were sick, perhaps dying, I know I would do the same. Quite honorable, really. It’s not the same for the others, is it? At least their families all have each other, but your mother has no one, does she? All she had was you, and then you followed our little French girl through the gates and that was that—she lost you. Tragic, really, as you would never have entered that place otherwise. You were not on any radar, nor did we think we wanted you—but along you came anyway,” she whispered. Alex wasn’t sure if she was taunting him, but the mention of his mother made his throat clamp up.

“Don’t talk about her,” he snapped. It was clear, as she spoke, that she knew things she shouldn’t know, making Alex aware that she and the Head had spoken further of him and his home life. Knowledge was power, and she held the ace. But there was no toying involved in the way she spoke of what she knew; it was not an attempt to tug on his heartstrings, as Aamir had done with his offer. Alypia was much more matter-of-fact about it, stating what she knew and what could be done.