The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(63)

“A few reasons,” Caius explained. “With the Great Evil released, Julius was convinced by his advisors to let the boy live, in case he proved useful in combatting it. Julius had no qualms about putting Virgil in harm’s way, but nobody could confirm whether or not a hybrid could carry out the necessary spell, designed to put an end to the Great Evil, and nobody has been able to confirm it since. In previous attempts, it looked as if Virgil wasn’t quite Spellbreaker enough to make it work, but who can say whether he was made to try hard enough—royals don’t punish royals, after all.”

Alex frowned. “What do you mean ‘carry out the necessary spell?’”

“Ah… I wasn’t sure we’d get around to this,” Caius said reluctantly, a flash of sorrow in his golden eyes.

“Get around to what?”

“Well, the Great Evil is currently being kept at bay with the life essence of mages, to feed the hungry entity Leander released,” Caius explained. “However, magic is fading from this world, and more and more noble families, not to mention regular magical families, are having children with no magical ability whatsoever. I would imagine that is why Julius decided to come down and demand further essence from my haven.”

It was something Alex was already vaguely aware of, after hearing it mentioned by Alypia, but Caius seemed as if he was about to elaborate, and Alex was eager to hear what the old man had to say. So far, he had proven to be the greatest well of knowledge Alex had come across.

“The only way to stop the threat of the Great Evil and the ongoing deaths of young mages—and, I suppose, my prisoners—once and for all, is to find a Spellbreaker and have him perform the counter-spell to the one Leander released that day,” he said grimly, giving Alex an apologetic look. “They thought they had found him, a while back, but it came to nothing.”

Alex knew Caius was talking about his father, and the memory was a painful one, dragging back up all those feelings from the pit of his stomach. The image of his mother heading to the ice cream truck. The strange man across the lake, staring. The panicked heartbeat as his father ran. The swoop of a shadow, and the darkness as his father’s life evaporated on the wind.

“Do you know what happened to him?” Alex asked, testing Caius.

Caius nodded slowly. “A shadow creature, supposedly a royalsent guardian, attempted to defend the Spellbreaker from an assailant who had been sent by an underground group of mages. They no doubt planned to use or dispose of him as they pleased, but the shadow creature wound up killing both assailant and Spellbreaker, his new powers too strong and too unpredictable,” he said, holding no secrets back. “Interestingly, I discovered later that the shadow guardian, or what have you, had once been a potential link in the magical chain, one who might have been able to take on the Great Evil due to his extraordinary strength. But something went awry somewhere along the line. The man disappeared, and the shadow emerged, not quite properly formed one way or the other. With him, two hopes were dashed. Three, I suppose,” he added, casting a sorrowful glance in Alex’s direction. For that acknowledgement of his loss, Alex was grateful.

“And then there was me,” he muttered wryly.

“Quite the surprise—nobody knew about you, not a soul, until you walked into the grounds of Spellshadow Manor, entirely by accident,” Caius chuckled, but there was remorse in the sound. A remorse Alex shared, though he knew, given the chance again, he probably wouldn’t have done anything differently.

Well, perhaps I would have left a note, he thought sadly.

Alex sighed. “How do you know so much?”

“There are perks to being a royal—even an embarrassment to the family like me.” He grinned, flashing a hefty jeweled ring on his pinky finger that Alex hadn’t noticed before. The stone set in the center was a peculiar mix of black and red that reminded Alex somehow of the squat, toady woman who still made him seethe. Was Caius getting all of his information through Siren Mave? It seemed like the only viable answer, what with her ability to move easily between havens, gathering intel.

A thought sprang to his mind as he realized the opportunity that stood before him. If he was the answer to solving the threat of the Great Evil, and granting freedom to all the students of Stillwater House and Spellshadow Manor, not to mention his friends, then he would accept his fate. There would be no more essence torn from unwilling victims, only liberation and a hopeful future for them all.

“I’ll do it. I’ll do the counter-spell. You speak to whoever needs to be spoken to about getting this thing arranged, and I will do it,” he said enthusiastically, a smile spreading across his face. The solution was right there, in the palms of his hands.

Caius smiled sadly, causing Alex’s to fade. “There is a proviso… The price of the counter-spell is the same as the one Leander paid.”

Alex crumpled. “My life?” he whispered.

“It is a rare, dark spell that requires a life to conjure. No half-measures, no alternatives, no ways around it,” Caius said wearily, evidently hating that he was the bearer of bad news.

Alex’s blood ran cold as understanding dawned. The people who had warned him of others wanting to “use” him for their own purposes—that was what they meant. They meant others using his life to stop the Great Evil, not caring what it meant for him. As long as everyone else survived, what did he matter? The thought made him furious, but it also brought with it a grim realization. He remembered the words Helena had whispered to him as they parted ways before the portal to Kingstone: “Today the few, tomorrow the many.” That day, he had saved his friends, but the rest…