The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(70)

“Did she hurt you?” he murmured, checking her arms for any bruises.

She shook her head. “No. She didn’t seem mad or annoyed or anything. It was odd.”

Alex frowned. “So what did she say?”

“She just told us we could stay, as planned, despite what had gone on,” said Ellabell, holding onto Alex’s hands tightly. Her own hands were shaking as she relayed the information to him, her blue eyes wide with stress.

“And me?”

She nodded. “You too.”

Alex sighed loudly. None of this added up. He knew Alypia was not a benevolent creature; she would come for him in due course. Until then, it seemed, she had chosen to hide behind a masquerade of goodwill and kind intentions. It did not sit well with Alex. It was like spotting a lion in the bushes and simply waiting for it to pounce.

Turning back toward the bed, Alex saw that Aamir was by Jari’s side, apologizing profusely. Jari was awake again, though he looked a little groggy.

“Forgive me, Jari. I have been an idiot. I should have stood up and done something, but I was scared and stupid. I’m so sorry, Jari—please forgive me,” he begged.

On the other side, Natalie was holding Jari’s hand, having taken the place of Helena, who stood to one side, allowing the old friends their moment. It was a sweet image, and Alex didn’t want to disturb it with his frustrations and the residual anger he felt toward his friends for standing by as Jari was almost killed. He guessed it had something to do with the magic that crackled and buzzed in the air, so quietly they had almost forgotten about it, but he knew he needed to clear his head before he did or said anything he would regret.

“I’m just going to step out for a moment,” he announced, before turning on his heel and leaving the infirmary.

As he stepped out into the hallway, he realized his error. Within the infirmary, he had been in a bubble of friends, but out here he had to face the music. The corridors were still full of Stillwater students, filtering in from the festivities. He could not turn a corner without bumping into one, and each time, he was met with the same frosty reception and fearful scrutiny. They observed him with cold stares, low voices, and whispered threats as he passed by. Where once there might have been fledgling friendships, now there was wariness, as they peered at him in fear.

“You’re not welcome,” whispered one.

“You know what we do to your kind,” hissed another.

“Let’s see if you sink with the rest of them,” growled a third.

They knew what he was, but they had never seen one before—he may as well have been an alien to them. He was an unknown entity, and they feared the unknown. Helena had said so. They didn’t like outsiders, much less ones with powers they had never seen, only heard about in ancient tales.

Oddly, there was awe too. In some faces, he saw a flash of it. It had been the same with Helena—that blend of disgust and wonder. Not having seen it for himself, Alex wondered what it was he had done that had caused so much fear and amazement, in almost equal measure. As he felt the burn of eyes staring him down, he wasn’t sure whether he was cast in the part of hero or villain. Shrugging them off, he realized he didn’t care which role they wanted to pigeon-hole him into. Standing up to the Headmistress had made him lose that desire to belong. In that moment, with Jari’s life on the line, he hadn’t cared whether he belonged. It had been his difference that had saved Jari’s life.

Swiftly, he made his way across the Queen’s Courtyard and scrambled up the outer wall, following the familiar route as he dropped down onto the field beyond, his eyes seeking out the crumbling white cottage, hidden away in the tree-line. He headed toward where he remembered it being, longing for the privacy and freedom they’d had back then, in their first days on the shores of Stillwater.

It had been a mistake, going into the school. He sensed that now.

In this world, they were no longer safe. None of them were… if they ever had been.





Chapter 28





Darkness fell with Alex still outside the school walls. He couldn’t face any of them—not his friends, not the other Stillwater students, none of them. So he stayed hidden, taking a moment for himself. He figured they would come looking for him if he was needed, and so he sat within the small cottage, gazing out toward the sparkling lake, allowing his mind to wander.

It seemed impossible that more than a year had passed since he had made the doomed journey to Spellshadow Manor, following Natalie through the gate. Sighing, he wondered if he would ever get to see his mother again. He missed her so much it hurt to think about her. Each memory physically stung, scraping at his insides, gripping his heart. Helena’s optimistic thoughts on portals had made him slightly more positive, but he couldn’t be certain the girl would come through; there was still too much he didn’t know about her, and he didn’t feel comfortable with the gaps in his knowledge.

Closing his eyes, he let the magical world fall away, thinking instead about what life might have been like if he and Natalie hadn’t left the real, non-magical world. If he had somehow managed to prevent her from following Finder, or if neither of them had been supernaturally gifted in any way, where might they be now? With a wistful smile, he thought about a world without magic, where nobody came for Natalie and nobody bothered them. Where he was still a regular teenager, staying up all hours to get through a stack of programming, showing the new French exchange student around town. They would have eaten pancakes with strawberries every morning, and his mother would be singing in the kitchen, pleased to see her hermit of a son socializing with such a nice, intelligent girl. He imagined the college applications, the final exams, the school interviews and the anxious wait for letters to fall onto the mat in the hall, offering him a place somewhere. Maybe he wouldn’t have gone to college at all; perhaps his business would’ve taken off and he would be doing that full-time, saving up enough money to pay his mother’s medical bills and buy a bigger place for them, where she could be comfortable.