The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(48)

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” said Ellabell anxiously.

“What choice do we have?” he asked.

“He’s too powerful!”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take—I won’t strike alone, I promise. I may do some stupid things now and again, but I’m not that reckless. I just want to see him for myself and gather as much intel as I can, so I can see if there’s a way we can get to him. Call it reconnaissance. Besides, I can always teleport back if I get into trouble,” he said, trying to convince himself that it was true.

They mounted the steps to the turret, and he was relieved to see that his mysterious guardians had left no trace they had ever been there.

Ellabell glanced over the edge of the turret. “How are you going to get past the barrier? I’m not having you plummeting to your death again, Alex.”

“It shouldn’t affect me if I’m careful,” he replied. “And I have an idea that means I won’t end up eaten by the moat monsters.”

“Won’t you set off something horrible?”

He shook his head. “I’m pretty sure I’ve got the hang of this barrier magic, so I don’t annoy it and make it retaliate against me.”

Ellabell pushed her spectacles up to the bridge of her nose in a nervous tic. “Pretty sure?”

“Ninety-nine percent…”

“You better not, Alex Webber. If I have to deal with nightmare demons, I won’t be happy.”

Smiling, Alex began to conjure ribbons of silvery black beneath his fingers, feeling the familiar ripple of them under his skin as he concentrated on what he wanted them to do. He was tired, and they came more slowly than usual, but gradually he had enough to play with.

“Do you think it’ll work?” Ellabell asked, distracting him.

“Hopefully—you definitely think this is out in the open enough?”

There was a note of panic in her voice. “I hope so.”

It had begun to drizzle, the cold rain falling through the mass of bronze, foggy clouds that moved above them. He raised his face to it; it made a nice change from the stiff, filtered air. It soothed the weary contours of his skin.

Feeling refreshed, he returned to the task at hand, conjuring layer upon layer of icy anti-magic between his palms, focusing on what he needed to do to get his body from A to B. His sights were set on where he knew the gatehouse to be, having seen it gleaming in the near distance for just a moment, when the fog had dispersed earlier. As ever, it was the well of pent-up emotion that seemed to fuel his skills, revealing them. His frustration was spilling over, thanks to the day he had just had, and he was more than happy to use it for something productive, rather than wallowing in the intense misery of it.

Slowly, he reached up to feel for the barrier of magic again, knowing as he touched the edge of it that he needed to get away as soon as humanly possible, to clear the fog in his mind and ease the vise around his chest. Around him, the barrier thrummed more insistently, letting him know he needed to push beyond it. He hoped fervently that, if he was careful and didn’t feed his anti-magic directly into the wall, there wouldn’t be any dire consequences for those within the keep.

Now for the traveling part. A memory of seeing the Head twist into existence, in the cemetery beside the entrance to the tombs at Spellshadow, crept into Alex’s mind. Thinking about it, he realized the technique looked somewhat similar to the travel method Natalie had wanted to try in the Spellshadow gardens, when the barrier had prevented her from moving from one point to another. A true teleport. He wondered silently if he was capable of it, coming to the brazen conclusion that if the Head could do it, then so could he.

He climbed up onto the actual wall of the turret, teetering slightly. Ellabell reached up a hand to steady him, but he refused it.

“You should probably stand over there, just in case,” he said reluctantly, gesturing toward the far side of the turret.

She nodded. “Good point. Just… stay safe, and please come back, okay?”

“I promise, on both counts.” He smiled, returning to what he was doing as she moved over to the opposite edge of the turret.

Trying and failing to remember the passage in the travel book, Alex decided to wing it, folding his energy inwards and feeling the thrum of the barrier as it tried to fight him. Moving his anti-magic as smoothly as possible through the barrier, he focused his mind on the edge of the forest, beyond the moat with its unsettling splashes, and as close to the gatehouse as possible. It was the only spot he could think about.

Suddenly, he felt everything fall away, air rushing all around him, making him worry that he had, in fact, just hurled himself to his death. Seconds later, his body snapped back into reality as he landed in a heavy heap at the edge of the woods. Instantly, he felt clearer and calmer, the air fresher, the barrier gone, the pressure easing off. As he looked back at the vast stone behemoth of Kingstone Keep, he thought he could see the blurry silhouette of Ellabell waving from the turret’s edge, beneath the fog the building was encased in.

The gatehouse lay a short way before him, the windows dimmed. It didn’t look like anyone was home.





Chapter 15





Alex ran across the rain-jeweled grass toward the gatehouse nestled at the edge of the forest, the trees dripping water from their sodden leaves with a steady tap-tap. He slowed as he reached the building, the windows staring dimly out toward the keep like dead eyes. Peering over the lip of the outer sill, he cupped a hand to the pane and looked inside, making sure there was nobody within. As far as he could see, not a soul resided in the house beyond.