The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(53)

Alex smiled. “I haven’t heard too much about him, honestly, except that he was a bit of a Casanova.”

“A bit! Goodness, there are stories about that man… which are much too inappropriate for your ears. But there are other stories, too! There is a myth that he once drank the whole Russian army under the table and ended up wrestling a bear and a pack of wolves with his bare hands. Others speak of him riding into battle on the back of the most beautiful Thunderbird imaginable. Her name was Tempest, with blue and silver feathers giving way to a tail of purest gold and white, able to spew ice from her beak and fly quicker than the wind. A gust from her vast wings would frost the grass on their arrival, freezing the air, letting everyone know he was coming. He was quite the showman in his day! Always liked to make an entrance.”

Alex’s ears pricked up. So his ancestor had ridden a mythical creature, like the ones in all the friezes and frescos he’d seen, depicting the battles fought long ago. He tried to visualize it, Leander sitting astride a great winged beast, but he knew no imagining could do it justice. The legendary warrior must have been a fearsome sight, swooping into battle on the back of Tempest.

“He was well-loved, you know—not just among his own kind. By all accounts, it was hard not to admire the man, even if you were on the opposing side,” Demeter added wistfully. “Anyway, enough of my tales. We should get back to your lesson. Time waits for no teaching. Now that I know what to expect, we can really see what you’re made of,” he said, much to Alex’s disappointment. He could have listened to stories of Leander Wyvern all day, and he wondered why Demeter had not told these stories instead, when they’d had the chance back at Stillwater House. “If I had known about your past before, I would have made that the focus of our lessons,” said the ex-teacher, apparently reading Alex’s mind.

“Why did you get sent back here?” he asked, recalling that they had never quite gotten to the core of why Demeter had been dismissed from Stillwater the second time. “It can’t be because you were telling me Spellbreaker stories—that’s why she rehired you in the first place, right? To do just that?”

Demeter smiled bitterly. “Alypia sent me back because I wasn’t telling her the stories she wanted to hear.”

“What do you mean?” Alex asked, though he could have guessed.

“She enlisted me to report to her regarding your skills and anything secret or useful you might have accidentally said during our lessons. Needless to say, I didn’t cooperate—I refused to say a word about what we discussed in our sessions, though I don’t think you ever said anything incriminating. I figured it was none of her business.” He winked, clearly delighted he’d managed to get the upper hand, even though it had resulted in his return to Kingstone Keep.

“Sorry if I got you into any trouble,” Alex said.

“Nonsense! Loose mouths sink ships, and I wasn’t willing to give her a smidgen of insight into you, or anything you were capable of—though I knew you were strong, even then,” he said, grinning.

Alex smiled. “Will you tell me some more stories after, if we have time?”

“It would be my absolute pleasure,” Demeter promised, though his expression grew concerned. “What is it you plan to do after this? How are you planning to seek out Caius?”

“There’s a gatehouse, just on the edge of the forest. I saw it after the barrier went down. I’m going to wait for him there, and if he doesn’t come, I’m going to leave him a note he can’t ignore, to lure him to us,” Alex explained.

Demeter nodded, a grim look on his face. “Very well. I don’t like it, but I understand why you must do it. It just doesn’t seem right that so much should rest on the shoulders of one so young.”

“I feel older than I am,” Alex admitted.

“Still… it doesn’t seem fair,” murmured Demeter.

No, thought Alex, it isn’t. He thought again of the plight of all those students in the other havens, and the fate that lay ahead of them. Alex hadn’t lost sight of their doom, and he hoped that, with the Kingstone essence in his hands, he might be able to help them too. If he could build one portal with the powerful essence, then why not two, three, four? Why not get everyone out? He knew it would likely be an improbable task that needed some refining, but the raw thought was in his mind, and he refused to simply forget about it. He wouldn’t allow Julius to win—not now, not ever.

Moving back into position, they went over additional ways of manipulating thought and emotion. Alex picked up the skills quickly. It was easy to feel his way around someone else’s mind with the tendrils of his anti-magic; they moved fluidly, flitting from emotion to emotion until he was competently handling a number of glowing ribbons at once, manipulating each of them with a focused concentration that, while tricky, was nowhere near as draining as the spirit-line magic Vincent had taught him. It was easier to influence emotions than to watch another’s memories, unable to do anything to change them. Here, he had the control. Here, he could change things as he pleased. Even when Demeter tried to push back against him, he managed to force his way through, keeping hold of the ribbons, manipulating Demeter’s mind until the ex-teacher no longer wished to fight back. It was only then that he decided to remove himself from Demeter’s head, realizing he may have gone a fraction too far, stepping into decidedly shady territory. Putting everything back carefully, he recoiled from Demeter’s brain and hoped the auburn-haired mage wouldn’t feel too violated by what he had done. It was progress, after all.