The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(78)

He cleared his throat. “I agree.”

She smirked. “Oh, I do wonder how that will play out. Perhaps it won’t be fair to whomever you are pitted against, but it will certainly be a spectacle,” she chuckled coldly, no doubt delighting in the fantasy of such a dramatic conclusion. “Well, then, it seems we have a deal, and I must say it is a most satisfactory one.”

“Will I be studying with my friends?” he asked.

“Oh, goodness no, we couldn’t have that—think of the distraction! No, I will teach you alongside another teacher who has some knowledge of the Spellbreaker histories, with more grasp than most mages of the theory behind anti-magic,” she clarified.

“How do you plan to teach me?” he asked, intrigued despite himself.

“I’ve been thinking about that. I was going to enlist my brother’s help, but you seem to have kept him very busy of late, and I doubt relations would be particularly warm between the two of you.” She smiled thinly, a touch of threat in her voice. “I’ll figure something out, don’t you worry. We’ll see to it that you have an excellent education here.”

“Is that everything?” Alex sighed, putting his hands on the armrests of the chair, as if to stand.

She raised a hand, demanding he sit back down. “We aren’t finished, Alex. Now, I am a fair woman, but I have certain provisos also. As long as you and your friends toe the line, they can all stay. I do not accept any bending of the rules. There will be no misbehavior, no midnight jaunts outside the House’s walls, no lateness, no defiance, no disobedience of any sort. Is that clear? I will hold you as responsible for the actions of your friends as if it were you, yourself, who had done the deed.”

Alex swallowed hard. “I understand, Headmistress. May I go?”

“One more thing,” she said sweetly. “I won’t stand for anything like what you all did at Spellshadow Manor, so I suggest you quash any remaining feelings of rebellion you might have. I’m not stupid, like my dear brother—I can sense your desire for revenge. I can see it, bristling all around you, and I am warning you to cease and desist. There is no point. If you try it, I will crush you.” Her eyes blazed with malice.

“I agree to all your terms, Headmistress. Consider my feelings quashed,” he said drily. The agreement, though he didn’t mean it any more than he had the last time, would still buy him more time to forge a plan, and, though there would be restrictions, he sensed it might give him and his friends a fragile cocoon of security to hide behind, while they figured out a way to leave.

Plus, despite everything, he could understand the value of Stillwater, and how much the others could learn from it, in a magical sense. It was a beneficial place, with people to challenge and educate them to the best of their abilities. At Spellshadow, they had been pushed to a point, but here, they might actually learn something they could use later on, when it was needed. He guessed there would be a time when they might need such experience, in the fights that were undoubtedly to come—when the moment came for them to battle their way back home, to the real world.

“I’m very much looking forward to having a Spellbreaker here at our fine school,” she purred, something strange lurking behind her eyes.

“I look forward to learning here,” he replied bitterly, trying to feign enthusiasm, though he knew neither of them was buying it.

“Our history and that of your kind are so closely linked, it makes perfect sense.” She smiled, her delicate wrist gesturing out toward the glittering lake behind her.

Alex forced down the bile that threatened to rise up his throat as he watched the smug expression spread across her face. He didn’t trust himself to speak, but that didn’t mean Alypia wasn’t going to. It was clear she had something she wished to get off her chest. A look of delight flashed in her peculiar eyes as she opened her mouth to speak.

“Let’s not forget,” she whispered menacingly, as she turned to glance out toward the gleaming water, “the very foundation of Stillwater House is built upon the backs of Spellbreakers.”





Chapter 31





It didn’t take long for class schedules to arrive, though Alex suspected Alypia’s hand in the swiftness of their delivery; the sooner she could distract the five friends, the better. The others had all received theirs, but they were different from Alex’s, as he had known they would be.

His sessions, as promised, were to be with the Headmistress and one other teacher, named Master Demeter, one-on-one. Alex wasn’t sure how he felt about that, wondering if it was intentional to make him feel isolated from the others. At no point in the schedule did his educational path cross with those of his friends, not even for subjects such as Clockwork, which he didn’t think he needed to be segregated for. It confirmed Alex’s suspicions that he was being kept away from them as much as possible.

He wasn’t the only one with a differing schedule, however. On closer inspection, it appeared that Aamir’s was different too. Alex supposed it made sense, considering Aamir had been in his final year at Spellshadow. But the older boy’s skillset was not up to the standard of final-year Stillwater students, so it was revealed that he was to have private, one-on-one sessions also, to build him up to the same levels that were expected of a final-year Stillwater student. The two of them shared a curious look as they went over their schedules. Alex could tell Aamir was wondering why he had been segregated too, when he could just as easily have joined a year-group of a similar skill level. Alypia, it seemed, was still playing games with them, although to what end, Alex couldn’t be sure.