The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(45)

“Well, I’d love to say it was a pleasure, but it wasn’t,” Julius sneered. “I hope we don’t meet again, more for your sakes than mine.”

A moment later, Alex heard the steady beat of footsteps retreating, and the heavy exhale of Lintz and Demeter as the king disappeared from sight. They rushed into Alex’s cell.

“Are you okay?” Demeter asked rapidly.

“I’m fine,” he lied. He was far from fine, though it wasn’t a physical injury that wounded him. It was the knowledge that, after coming so close, and expending so much effort, they were back to square one again. They had no essence, no portal, the continued threat of Alypia, and the fresh threat of Julius.

The barrier was back up, and with its rise their hopes had fallen down.





Chapter 14





Back in the tower room, the mood was despondent. Alex had returned the satchel of Stillwater essence and filled in the others on what had happened after the earthquake, though Natalie and Ellabell had heard much of it from their hiding spot. To his relief, nobody seemed harmed by the day’s events, having shared their hiding spots with more amenable criminals than Alex, but there was an air of utter physical and emotional exhaustion in the room.

When the beetle beacons stacked on the table began to trill, Alex wanted to pick them all up and dash them against the wall. He didn’t need to be reminded of the predicament they were in.

“I’ll go,” said Lintz solemnly, taking one of the beacons and silencing the rest. Alex watched him leave the tower room, hating Alypia for causing so much chaos. For a moment, he almost forgot his guilt for what he had done to her.

“So… where do we go from here?” muttered Aamir, resting his head back against the wall. It was barely a question. There was no energy in his voice.

“Well, we can’t risk luring Caius out again,” Alex said, recalling Julius’s threat. It wasn’t something he wanted to chance. “And going back to staking out parts of the keep he likes to visit seems more futile than ever. I… I’m fresh out of ideas.” He exhaled, closing his eyes.

It wasn’t just their own problems playing on his mind, either. After hearing what Julius had said in the hallway, Alex was beginning to feel less and less comfortable about returning to the real world, while so many others suffered at the hands of royals. If Julius’s intent to extract more essence was put into action, it meant more death, more loss of innocent lives, more suffering, and Alex just wished he could do more to help those they would be leaving behind. He wished he could give them the same glimmer of hope that he felt within him… or that he had felt before Julius had come and snuffed it out.

“We could try to… build the portal home without the Kingstone essence,” suggested Jari halfheartedly. Of course, that just wasn’t an option, given their timeframe. It was clear from the ever-increasing pile of clockwork bits and pieces that Lintz’s beetles were beginning to fail, and the scarab-like devices were running out of juice too. It was only a matter of time before the devices stopped working altogether, and they all found themselves in an even more dangerous situation than they were already in.

Alex wondered if they were thinking about it all wrong, if they should try to come up with a way that they could kill two birds with one stone… seek their own freedom and give hope to the students who remained in the other havens. It seemed like a vast, impossible task, and yet Alex couldn’t shake the idea. He knew there had to be a way, but he just couldn’t quite see it. His mind was so full of fog and pain and grief and disappointment, and it clouded his judgment. It was hard to see anything clearly. He still hadn’t found the space in which to grieve for his dead father, because he knew that still had to wait until they had found their sanctuary.

Overwhelmed and exhausted, Alex got to his feet and headed for the door.

“I’m going to go for a short walk… clear my head, hopefully come up with a plan,” he said, briefly turning back to the others. They nodded, understanding the need.

Natalie was already fast asleep, curled up against the wall, and Jari wasn’t far off. It was only Aamir and Ellabell who seemed to be battling sleep.

Alex headed down the stairs, but he looked over his shoulder at the sound of feet pounding on the flagstones behind him.

“I thought I’d come and see how you were. I hope you don’t mind,” said Ellabell shyly. It was all he could do not to wrap his arms around her there and then. Having her near, after so much trauma, was like the first sip of water given to a desperately thirsty man.

“Ellabell,” he whispered as she neared.

“It sounds like the dumbest question, but are you okay?” she asked, holding his face in her hands and tilting his chin down, making him look in her eyes. “You don’t seem okay.”

He shook his head, lost for words.

“Is it the barrier?” she asked softly.

He shrugged. “Partly.”

“Is it Alypia? Or the portal home?”

He smiled bitterly. “It’s everything, and yet so much more.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, stroking the side of his head.

“It’s nothing. We’re all suffering. I shouldn’t have said anything… I’m fine,” he sighed, his throat tight with raw emotion.