The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(40)

Instantly, the room swirled with a maelstrom of golden light, whipping up his hair and blasting in his face. Within the twisting tornado of energy, horrifying faces emerged. They were haggard and harpy-like women, their cheeks sunken, their features witchy and pointed. A blood-chilling cackle rose up from their vile throats, and they swooped down, their talon-like fingernails curved and ready to claw at their victims. It wasn’t like the red fog; Alex could see these monsters with his own eyes. They spun around the room, howling and cackling, trying to snatch at Alex’s face every time they brushed near. One caught Natalie square on the cheek, a livid gash appearing, but they were tricky creatures, managing to evade the twisting streams of magic and anti-magic blasted in their direction.

In a rush of inspiration, Alex ran toward the bottom of the maelstrom and reached for it with his anti-magic. Pulling tightly with his palms and feeling the strain in his muscles, he drew the spinning light back into itself. The harpies howled in displeasure as they were dragged backward, compressed and contorted into the orb of twisting magic collecting in Alex’s palms. As soon as everything had been sucked into the same place, the glowing ball of light proving a little rambunctious as it struggled to escape Alex’s grasp, he pressed his hands together, feeling the force of the energy between his palms, and urged his anti-magic into the center of it, disintegrating it from the inside out. With a blinding flash and a satisfying crack, the orb evaporated into the ether.

Everyone was breathless and sweating.

“Good job,” Aamir gasped, clutching his ribs.

“I’m so out of shape,” Jari sighed, collapsing against the far wall.

“No time to rest,” Alex said, his chest heaving. “We have seven more to get done. The sooner we do this, the sooner we find the essence and go home.”

It did the trick, encouraging everyone to stand up. Although their tiredness was beginning to show, morale was still high, and Alex knew their chances were good as long as that optimism remained. He replaced the cover of module seventeen, and rallied his friends behind him as they moved on toward number eighteen.

It was going to be a long night, after all.





Chapter 12





They returned to the tower room just before dawn, completely exhausted. The night had been filled with all manner of monsters and mayhem, and though their bodies were shattered, their hearts were filled with the joy of success. All the protective shields had been removed from the cylinders, meaning all they had to do now was fit the jammers and overload the systems.

There had been giant golden snakes with poisonous fangs, fierce blockades of pure energy that sent them flying back against the wall, blasts of fire that surged up from the flagstones, a wall of flying golden arrows that had nearly caught everyone off guard, a bristling mist that had rendered them temporarily blind, a hooded reaper wielding a scythe with terrifying skill, and a few more hags on brooms swooping down to claw at their faces. Alex had been a little disappointed by the last one, wondering if Caius had simply run out of grim ideas and had to repeat one.

Either way, it had been a very long night, and they were ready to sleep. Twice in the night, the girls’ scarab devices had gone off, only to stop abruptly, leaving them to hope that Lintz or Demeter was seeing to the intrusion, in the middle of jammer-building and tending to Agatha. Alypia’s continued absence in the keep gave them confidence that it had been dealt with, but with the threat of the royal’s arrival perpetually looming over them, the group was spurred on to get the job done. The girls’ screeching scarabs led Jari and Aamir to realize that their devices had run out of juice, and were in need of fixing, though it would have to wait until morning, when they could seek out Lintz. Alex had forgotten to replace his own beacon after losing it on that first day exploring the keep, and he hoped Professor Lintz wouldn’t be too disappointed in him if he asked for another.

The group settled in for a few fitful hours of sleep. When he awoke, Alex checked himself for wounds in the full light of day, and found he had scabs on his shoulder and forearm where the tip of the reaper’s scythe had gotten him. And he wasn’t the only one. They all looked as if they had traveled through a warzone.

Ellabell had a bruise or ten from the blockade that had sent her hurtling into the wall, and the beginnings of a black eye where a broom had collided with her face. Natalie had the livid cut on her cheek, and another just above her eyebrow, where an arrow had skimmed past her. There was one on her arm too, where she had ducked too late to evade the scythe. Jari was covered in a crosshatch of cuts, having borne the brunt of the wall of arrows, as well as the wrath of the flying hags. Aamir was the only one who seemed to have emerged visibly unscathed, though he had narrowly missed having his arm bitten off by the fanged serpent. He’d lost his shirt sleeve as proof, but the actual arm beneath it was unharmed save for a small burn where the poison fang had touched him for the briefest moment.

Lintz and Demeter entered the room, chatting jovially. Words died on their lips as they took in the sight of the walking wounded, their faces morphing into expressions of pure shock.

“Oh my…” Demeter began.

“Goodness me, what happened to you?” Lintz cried, rushing to their aid.

Alex raised his hands. “We’re fine, Professor. It looks worse than it is. We just spent the night breaking down the module shields, so we can fit the jammers and overload the systems,” he explained, wincing as he tried to move his twisted shoulder.