The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)(98)

Once they had been dragged back through the belly of the school, Alex was thrown into a dingy, bleak cell, with Ellabell thrown in straight after. For a long while, she was very quiet, huddled against the far wall. But she wore a look of grim determination, even though Alex wasn’t sure there was much hope left for them. He knew the terms of the offer he’d agreed to, and he was pretty sure attempted escape was a big breach in those provisos, if not the biggest breach they could have achieved.

He sat beside Ellabell, placing his arm around her as she leaned into the hollow of his shoulder. Looking up into his eyes, she smiled sadly.

“You know I’d never do anything like that, right?” she whispered, her face so close to his.

He nodded, resting his cheek against the top of her head. “Of course,” he said softly, mumbling into her hair.

“What do we do now?” she asked, wrapping her arm around Alex’s waist as she held him tighter.

“I don’t know,” he breathed, trying to tamp down the hopeless feeling that was threatening to swallow up his voice. “What did you tell Alypia?” he asked, curious.

She smiled against his shoulder. “I just told her useless information whenever I was called in—Alex prefers milk in his tea, instead of lemon. Alex likes to eat his cereal soggy. Alex doesn’t like bell peppers. It was mostly food related."

He chuckled, holding her tightly. “Very observant.”

“No, it’s just weird,” she giggled.

Tentatively, he placed the lightest of kisses on the top of her forehead, realizing that if this was the end of the road, he wanted her to at least have some inclination as to his feelings. He felt her smile again, against his t-shirt.

Anger trembled through him as he thought of everything the school, the Head, the Headmistress, Malachi Grey, Renmark, and all those magical forces had taken from him. Soon, they would take Ellabell and his friends too, and with them any hope he had left of returning home to his mother and a normal, teenage existence.

Even as a ghost, Renmark had managed to crush them.





Chapter 39





Alex wasn’t sure of the time or the day when the guards came for him.

Ellabell was asleep in his arms when they threw open the cell door and demanded he follow them. Lifting his finger sharply to his lips, Alex was amused to see the guards stop mid-sentence, putting on a silent display of charades as he gently extricated himself from Ellabell’s arms and lay her carefully down on the floor. She stirred, but did not wake, much to Alex’s bittersweet contentment. It would be easier this way.

He followed them dutifully, keeping his head down and his thoughts sharp as he traipsed through now-familiar paths and hallways to the underbelly of the villa. To his surprise, he realized the guards weren’t taking him to the glass-ceilinged office, but toward the gloomier, more desolate part of the school. It was strange to admit, but he felt a pang of disappointment; he would have liked to have seen that room again, with the heady scent of citrus and flowers and the warmth of it enveloping like a comforting embrace. Funnily enough, he found he also had a desire to see the lake one last time, to say a goodbye of sorts to the ethereal specters beneath the water, knowing he would soon be joining them. He wondered morbidly if that was where Alypia would put him, once she had used him for whatever grim purpose she had in mind. Part of him hoped so.

Turning past an instantly recognizable corner, he understood he was being taken to the windowless study, with the grisly antechamber next door. Pausing beside it, one of the guards pushed open the door and gestured for Alex to step inside. There was no pushing, no shoving, just a civilized walk into the room.

Alypia sat in her chair behind the desk, impatiently tapping her long fingers against the sleek surface. The way she was sitting looked almost constructed, her body draped languorously, as if she had spent a long while trying to look as dramatic as possible. The idea made Alex smirk, causing a flash of irritation to spark across Alypia’s eyes as she saw the insolent look, which only served to widen his discourteous smile. For a moment, the mask slipped, as Alex saw Alypia’s beauty turn ugly, revealing the true, twisted face beneath. It was as Alex had suspected all along: her beauty hid a rotten core.

“Sit!” she barked.

He did as he was told, trying to wipe the smirk from his face. “You called?” There was a sing-song note to his voice that seemed to irk Alypia even more.

Her expression was icy. “I thought we had a deal, Alex Webber.”

“I think we both knew that was never going to pan out,” he grinned, challenging her.

“Be that as it may, a deal is a deal, and you broke your end of it,” she replied, a threatening smile curving at the corner of her lips.

“Is it just me, or is it cold in here?” he mocked, knowing he was pushing his luck and finding he didn’t care.

“You’re trying my patience, Alex.”

“Sorry—you were saying?” he encouraged, sprawling across his chair in much the same manner Alypia was.

“It’s unfortunate, Alex, but thanks to your misconduct we are going to have to speed up proceedings. A broken contract cannot be tolerated, and you must be punished for your insolence,” she began, her face devoid of humor. “You know, Alex, you might not believe me but I truly wanted to keep you and your friends safe here, away from those who might seek to use your powers for their own ends. I merely wanted to help you control and utilize them, in the hopes that one day you could use them for good.”