The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(57)

“I speak only of her to give you hope, Alex. I don’t mean pie-in-the-sky, fairy-dust hope—I mean real, solid potential. Your mother is still ailing, and yes, she is alone, but her treatment is working and she will be well for a good while longer. She is naturally heartbroken that you are gone, but it’s almost as if the hope of your return is keeping her going—she will not give up until you are home, and I don’t think we should let her down, do you?” she continued. Despite Alex’s feelings toward Alypia, he could not deny that her words gave him courage.

It was all he wanted, to see his mother again. To hear from Alypia’s lips that she was alive was the greatest gift anyone had ever given him, and he had to thank the Headmistress for that. Night after night, he would dream of his mother and the loss he felt. Sometimes, they would be nightmares, in which he would run down the street and knock on the door, only to find that hundreds of years had passed and his mother was long dead. Others were less farfetched, as when he dreamed he had made it home, only to discover he was a few days too late, and she had died of a broken heart. There were happy ones too, in which they were joyfully reunited, but mostly they were dark, twisted, terrible visions that haunted him long after he awoke.

“I don’t understand why you’re telling me all this,” said Alex quietly.

“I have an offer to make you, Alex,” she explained. “I wish to teach you at this school, which is a little non-traditional for us, but I can see great talent in you and your friends that requires the proper tutelage, not some place where you will waste away, your skills never fully realized. You will study here for five years, and at the end of those years, you will undergo the Ascension Ceremony with the rest of your class. If you win, you walk free, back to your mother and the non-magical world if you so choose. If you lose, you will be subjected to the Gifting Ceremony.”

It was not nearly as generous as the offer Aamir had made to him, under the duress of the golden band, but it sounded like a more honest one. In fact, it sounded so genuine that it made Alex wonder about the offer Aamir had made him, and whether or not it had truly been a real one.

“You have a stronger chance of survival here, with me, than with any other offer you are likely to receive,” she added, with a slight wink to her words that only made Alex more suspicious of Aamir’s previous offer.

Alex shrugged. “I don’t know what those ceremonies are. How can I say yes to something when I don’t know what I’m getting into?” he said, playing dumb.

Alypia’s eyes narrowed, flashing with underlying threat. She was onto him. “Don’t play the fool, Alex—you know very well what they are.”

“Very well,” he murmured. “What happens to the essences you collect from the Gifting Ceremony?” He figured it was as good a time as any to ask the woman in the know.

“They are stored for further use,” she replied, the harsh edge of her voice softening.

The response made Alex think about the row upon row of black bottles and one name in particular.

“Did Blaine Stalwart come here?” he asked. The question seemed to confuse the Headmistress for a moment as she mulled over the name. “An older boy, tall, very skillful, though he wasn’t ready to graduate yet—he got in trouble for breaking one of the golden lines at Spellshadow and was taken away. We never heard from him again, except the Head said he had been sent to Stillwater House,” Alex elaborated.

She smiled coldly. “I remember the boy.”

“He did come here?”

She nodded. “He was permitted to fight for his survival at a special event, but he could not defeat the skill of the Stillwater student he was pitted against, and so he was returned to Spellshadow Manor to undergo his own Gifting Ceremony—or ‘graduation,’ I believe you call it?” She waved her graceful hand. “His essence is in storage somewhere—though much good it was. He wasn’t strong enough, so the essence was a pitiful one.”

It came rushing back to Alex—‘Not matured enough.’ Blaine Stalwart hadn’t been strong enough to compete against a Stillwater student and had lost his life, as well as having his essence torn away much too prematurely, all for one twisted rule. A pointless, useless, wasteful exercise. Alex felt the familiar prickle of resentment rising through him.

“How could you?” he spat.

“The boy was given a fair chance. He had more hope in my arena than he did in the dusty halls of Spellshadow, believe me,” she remarked calmly.

He could not deny her logic, and yet he couldn’t shake his anger. Fury burned bright within him, at all of them—all the cruel, uncaring, magical beings.

“Now, I need an answer,” she pressed, ignoring his distress. “My way or the hard way?”

Through the red mist of anger, he thought about her offer. It was certainly tempting. “Repeat the terms to me again.”

“You will study here, with your friends alongside you, for five years. I will teach you and make sure I can find somebody who can assist with your particular skillset—I will build you all up, until you are ready to compete in the Ascension Ceremony, at the end of your five years. In that time, you will have free rein of the place, and be treated as any other Stillwater student. At the end of the ceremony, if you win, you walk. If you lose, you will undergo the Gifting Ceremony.”

“No hidden surprises?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.