The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(8)

As Alex chewed, he turned his attention to Jari, who had tried to mash up some berries to feed to Aamir. The older boy had become worse during Alex and Ellabell’s absence, and his skin was covered in red blotches that felt boiling hot to the touch. His whole body was on fire, sweat drenching every fiber of his clothes. Every few minutes he would lash out, his muscles shaking uncontrollably as his limbs jerked.

None of them had much of a grasp of healing magic, and nobody had volunteered to try in case they made him worse. It was uncharted territory, but if Aamir didn’t get help soon, there was no telling what could happen to him.

Taken by a sudden impulse, Alex walked over to Aamir and settled down on the grass beside him. Jari looked on nervously as Alex laid his hands on Aamir’s shoulders, sending tendrils of silver and black through the blotchy layers of Aamir’s skin. Eyes squeezed tightly shut, Alex searched through the interior of Aamir’s body until he touched upon the glinting, golden shape of a snake, coiled around the inside of Aamir’s aura. There was no telling how long it had been there, but it was savage, snapping viciously at the intrusion of Alex’s anti-magic. The cutting of the band, Alex realized with a twist of guilt, must have released a potent curse that was gripping onto Aamir like a vice, sapping him of his health and vitality far quicker than Derhin’s curse had done to Natalie.

“What is it?” asked Jari, edging closer.

“He’s cursed. It’s a strong one,” said Alex reluctantly. “It must have been the band.”

“I can try and break it,” Natalie said, but she still looked weak.

“No, Natalie—you’re still not fully recovered. You shouldn’t be doing any strong magic for a long time.”

Turning back to Aamir, Alex wondered if he should try to break the curse himself. His powers had improved leaps and bounds since Natalie’s curse, but this one was far stronger. Testing the waters, he pushed the very edges of his anti-magic against the burning curse, feeling it repel him forcefully as it attacked the silver and black tendrils that were running through Aamir’s veins. He tried again, pushing the shimmering strands of his anti-magic closer to the glowing core of the curse, but it was no good; the coiled creature only gripped tighter to its host in retaliation.

Removing his anti-magic as swiftly as he could without hurting Aamir, Alex saw that the attempt had only made his friend worse. On the shady patch of grass, he was writhing violently, mumbling in his delirious state as he tossed and turned. Alex could no longer make out any of what Aamir was saying, but there was a note of fear still, within the fevered gibberish, that unnerved him.

Across the clearing, Jari was running like a madman to fetch cold compresses, his panic evident as he dipped strip after strip of torn-off material into the lake. The blond-haired boy’s fear started seeping into the others like an infection, making everyone tense and snappish, until Alex wasn’t sure he could take the anxiety anymore.

Alex rose, feeling the urge to step away from the situation to get some headspace. His throat felt as if he had swallowed thorns, his thirst still unquenched.

“I need to go and find some water I can drink,” he announced.

Nobody objected as he headed through the woodland, keeping the tree-line in sight so he wouldn’t get lost. He listened for the quiet babble of a stream nearby. He was certain he had heard something similar on his earlier trek with Ellabell.

A few minutes later, he found what he was looking for. A clear, inviting spring bubbled up from a cluster of rocks, meandering from the source, down through the undergrowth in a gurgling stream. He almost ran toward it, sliding down into the mossy forest floor on his knees as he reached for the crystalline liquid; he was so thirsty and desperate to feel cold water on his skin. It did not disappoint. Cupping his hands to catch the cool, crisp water, he drank deep, delighted to feel the liquid run down his throat without scalding it. He went back again and again, drinking the pristine water and washing his face in it, sloughing off the dirt and misery of the past day until he felt like himself again, some calm restored.

He stayed there awhile, sitting up against the damp rock, feeling the cool of it against his spine as he rested in the shade of the treetops. The buzz and crackle of the magic in the air seemed less noticeable in the silence of the forest, blending into the background as he grew accustomed to it, causing no disturbance to his quietude. If he closed his eyes, he could almost believe he was at summer camp, in the normal, non-magical world of home, pausing on a trail in the mountains somewhere...

He couldn’t stay for long, or the others would grow worried. But as he rose slowly to his feet, a strange sound in the near distance snatched his attention. It was the soft, padding sound of stealthy feet, creeping close by. Squinting toward the direction of the lake, he caught sight of unknown figures walking just beyond the tree-line, moving with a deliberate slowness to keep their noise to a minimum.

Fear gripped Alex as he tore off through the forest toward the camp, the spongy, mossy undergrowth deadening the sound of his feet as he ran, hoping to beat the figures he had just seen. Bursting out into the clearing with very little time to explain, he ignored the stunned faces of his friends as he charged over and picked up Aamir.

“We need to go! Follow me!” he hissed, beckoning them into the woods as he tried to keep his voice as low as possible.

Staggering back into the forest, Alex headed toward a denser part of it, not too far from the clearing, where the trees were at their thickest. He could hear the footsteps of the others behind him as they moved into the more camouflaged cover of the forest. Desperately, his eyes scanned for a suitable hiding place in the undergrowth. Just off to the left there was a hollow in the ground, mostly hidden by a spiny-looking bush and a stack of fallen branches that had crumbled from the rotting tree above. Seeing the prime spot, Alex stepped down into it and maneuvered Aamir against the far side. Jari, Natalie, and Ellabell jumped in behind, helping Alex to pull the branches over the top of their hiding place, just in time to see a group of four people arrive in the clearing.