The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(54)

Alex could see on Demeter’s face, as he shook off another bout of brain freeze, that the ex-teacher wished he had never taught Alex how to do it. Alex was clearly a natural, with great instincts and an ever-increasing aptitude for the darker side of anti-magic.

Mages’ minds are simple things, Alex thought to himself a little smugly. With this string to his bow, there would be no more waiting for answers. Now, his enemies would bend to his will.





Chapter 17





Returning to the tower room after a successful mind control session, Alex was surprised to see Natalie sitting alone at the table, fixing a leg back onto one of Lintz’s battered beetles. In his hand, Alex held the note that he intended to leave at Caius’s gatehouse if the evasive warden chose once more to elude him. The missive was freshly inked by his own hand, dripping with enough intrigue to, hopefully, bring the warden in search of them. He had been wanting to ask Ellabell to come up to the turret with him before he left, to make sure his re-entry didn’t send him hurtling over the edge of the battlement, but it appeared she was elsewhere.

“Ellabell not with you?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Natalie shook her head. “No. She went down to the courtyard with Aamir this morning, to see if they could help Lintz out. They haven’t come back yet.”

Just then, as if summoned by the mention of his name, Aamir entered with Jari in tow. Ellabell wasn’t with them. Alex kept expecting her to follow, peering through the doorway behind them. But she didn’t. Worry shivered up his spine.

I’m sure it’s nothing. I’m sure she’s just taking care of a portal or something, he told himself, trying not to show his immediate concern.

“Have you seen Ellabell?” Alex asked Aamir.

The older boy shook his head. “No, haven’t seen her since this morning.”

“You missing her already?” Jari grinned, the smile fading as it became clear this wasn’t a laughing matter.

“When did you last see her?” Alex pressed.

Aamir frowned. “I saw her maybe three hours ago—we went down to the courtyard to see Lintz, just after you left to meet with Demeter. He didn’t need our help, but then Jari showed up, so the two of us stayed down there a while longer, keeping the portals away,” he recounted. “Ellabell didn’t want to wait around. She said she was coming here, to help Natalie fix beetles. Did she not come back?” Aamir asked Natalie. Alex greatly appreciated Aamir’s seriousness; he was sincerely beginning to freak out.

“No, it has just been me all morning. She did not return,” Natalie replied solemnly. Genuine alarm glinted in her dark brown eyes.

“So, let me get this straight in my head. When did she leave you?” Alex asked, turning to Aamir.

“Perhaps nine o’clock, maybe a bit earlier,” Aamir replied, running an anxious hand through his hair.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Alex saw that it was just past midday. By Natalie and Aamir’s account, they had all left the tower room around eight-thirty, nine o’clock that morning, meaning she had been AWOL for a good three hours. It didn’t seem like a long time, but, within the walls of the keep, Alex knew it was long enough for something bad to happen.

Fraught with anxiety, Alex paced the room, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. It wasn’t like her to go off on her own, and seeing his own worries reflected in the eyes of his friends, he knew his fear was justified. They already had enough to worry about, and now Ellabell had gone missing in a labyrinthine prison full of psychopaths, necromancers, murderers, and who knew what else. Granted, they weren’t all criminals, but there were enough nut jobs to scare him.

In the pit of his stomach, he felt with sinking certainty that she had been taken, though for what reason and by whom, he didn’t know. He wondered if Caius was punishing them for trying to break his precious barrier and bringing his brother’s wrath down upon him.

It didn’t bear thinking about.

“We need to find her,” said Alex, his voice raw with emotion.

“We will search every nook and cranny of this place until she’s safe,” Aamir promised, resting a reassuring hand on Alex’s shoulder.

“We should get going.” Alex said, and they moved toward the door.

The four of them set off at a sprint, running through the dripping hallways of the keep, calling out Ellabell’s name as they ran. As they made their way through, combing every crevice for a sign of her, the prisoners shouted vile things from their cells.

“The demons have sucked out her soul—you’ll never find her now,” a raspy voice whispered from behind a grate where black eyes twinkled menacingly.

“Poor little girlie, lost in the labyrinth,” another cackled.

“Such beautiful curls. I wonder if she can see without her glasses,” a third voice taunted. That one incited Alex’s wrath. He moved to the door, a ball of liquid anti-magic swirling in his palm, ready to exact justice upon the voice within. Furtive eyes watched him from the darkness of the cell beyond as he raised his arm, prepared to hurl the ball of bristling energy at the unseen creature.

Suddenly, he felt a hand close around his wrist, holding him back. Turning his head sharply to shout at the person who would prevent him from silencing the vile specimen in the shadows, his rage died on his lips. Vincent stood beside him, a troubled expression on his usually serene face. Beneath the necromancer’s translucent skin, the blue veins shifted like ink in water.