The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(9)

As Alex peered through a small gap in the branches, he saw that they were four of the most beautiful people he had ever seen—perfect beyond description. There were two young men and two young women, each of them more stunning than the last. One of the young women had silky, flawless hair down to her waist, the color and texture of spun gold, with porcelain-white skin that didn’t seem natural. The other woman had long, flowing black hair held back behind her ear with a delicate lotus flower and the most exquisite, deep-toned skin Alex had ever seen, seeming impossibly smooth. The men were no different, one with perfect, curly warm brown hair that swept across a face of unnaturally chiseled bone structure, his coloring similar to Aamir’s, the other with a jet black crop and glowing, pale skin. Dressed in a uniform of black well-tailored pants, military boots, and white t-shirts, they did not look real to Alex, more like photoshopped supermodels, but he knew that they were, in fact, very much real and looking for them.

They seemed to be scanning for any signs of habitation, scouring the area and talking in low voices that Alex couldn’t quite make out. Trying to get a better look, Alex saw them check the padlock on the door of the shed. It was still locked. Alex breathed a quiet sigh of relief, glad he hadn’t tried to break the lock on their first evening. The sight of it, still attached to the hut, seemed to reassure them somewhat that nobody had been there.

Just then, Aamir, in his delirium, jerked suddenly, the weight of his body cracking a large twig beneath him. The snap of it rang through the silent forest like a gunshot. Jari’s eyes went wide with panic as he reached across for his friend, smothering his mouth with a hastily conjured silencing spell, in case Aamir cried out. Alex, still peering through the gap in the branches, watched in horror as the four beautiful people turned sharply in his direction, searching for the cause of the loud crack.

Alex felt the collective pause of everyone’s breath being held as the four scouts crept closer to where the five of them were hidden. After hurrying to get as much detritus over them as possible, Alex hoped fervently that the thick blanket of moss and branches and gorse bush would be enough to keep them from sight. He didn’t know what these unearthly creatures were or what their mission was. Were they friendly? Alex wasn’t sure.

Edging ever closer, the scouts were almost on top of them. Nobody dared to move. One of them, the brown-haired young man, walked right beside Natalie’s head, but he failed to make her out among the camouflage of the undergrowth. Beside Alex, Jari clung tightly to Aamir, holding him still and keeping him silent as the scouts continued their search.

For almost half an hour, the scouts came and went. Each time Alex thought it was safe to come out of the hiding spot, he would catch sight of them again, creeping around the back of the ramshackle hut or appearing once more through the tree-line. A few times, they came close to discovering the five fugitives. One kicked a branch, watching it skitter away, not realizing he had unearthed a small portion of Ellabell’s curly brunette hair. Another almost trod on the back of Aamir’s head, where he sat up against the earthen wall of the hollow, missing him by mere centimeters. A third, the one with the flower in her hair, reached down to pick up a miniature wildflower that had fallen from one of the bushes, almost coming eye to eye with Alex himself. If her focus hadn’t been on the flower, he was fairly sure they would have been toast.

Finally, after doing one last lap of the area for good measure, as if to make sure the fugitives’ heart rates stayed up, the foursome departed. Alex watched intently as they walked back the way they had come, disappearing from sight. He waited a while longer, just to be sure they had definitely gone, before he clambered out of the hollow and crept across the ground, following the four scouts as closely as he dared.

He tailed them for quite a way up the shoreline, before ducking behind a thick tree trunk as they came to a halt. From behind a rocky outcrop, they dragged a sleek blue and white rowboat they had pulled up onto the beach. Alex peered cautiously from his vantage point, watching them step into the boat and set off across the lake toward a faint rise of ground in the distance.

He hadn’t been able to see it from the clearing, but it was more visible from where he now stood. There was definitely something out there, looming on the horizon, and he wanted to know what it was that called to him from beyond the glittering waters of the lake.





Chapter 4





Alex remained beside the tree, staring out at the water, wondering how they were supposed to get over to where the four people had disappeared. He wasn’t sure what had spurred him into following the scouts, after the near miss of discovery, but the compulsion had at least pointed him in the right direction. It was becoming abundantly clear that they were going to need a boat of some sort, and, as far as he knew, there weren’t any boats just lying around willy-nilly for strangers to hop into and use as they pleased, as much as he might have liked there to be.

He was almost certain now that it was Stillwater House that lay on the other side of the lake, drenched in shadow. It had to be. Yet the only way to get there seemed to be by water. He supposed they could walk around the lake to reach the shadowy rise on the other side, but that would take days, by Alex’s estimation, if not longer. It was no good—they needed to get there sooner rather than later, if they were to stand any chance of reaching it undetected. Already, he could feel time slipping away from him. Even as he was standing there, he thought, the Head might have found a way through the portal and be in hot pursuit.