The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(64)

Did Helena know? he wondered. Was it just expected of him that he would give his life for the lives of everyone else? If that was the case, he knew he might end up disappointing a lot of people. If he was being honest with himself, he knew he wasn’t ready for that kind of sacrifice.

He was just a young man, not a martyr.

A dozen thoughts raced at once, struggling to be heard in the cacophony of his overwrought mind. In the midst of it, he couldn’t help wondering whether the Head could do the spell but, as Caius suggested, had simply not been forced to try hard enough. If Virgil had never been pushed to actually give it his all, how could they know he wasn’t capable? It was an option Alex clung to, though he realized with a sinking feeling that he needed to speak with Elias. He really didn’t want to, but he knew the shadow-man might be the only person who could shed more light on whether or not the Head was still a potential counter-spell candidate. Much to Alex’s annoyance, the shadowy guide had once again become the only glimmer of hope in a sea of overwhelming darkness. A way out.

Alex looked up at Caius, swallowing. “If you were me, would you do it?”

The old man shook his head. “You have your whole life ahead of you. Too many lives are being stolen far too soon. Although it is ultimately your choice, do not allow yourself to be swayed by the words and pleas of others. It is your life, and they have no right to ask,” he said firmly, his steady gaze reassuring.

“What even is it?” Alex asked.

“What?”

“The Great Evil—everybody keeps talking about it, telling me how terrible it is, but I’ve got no idea what the damn thing even is, or how you’re keeping it from doing these terrible things it apparently does. You say you sate its hunger with essence, or whatever, but what is it? Is it a monster, a demon, or what?”

Caius smiled oddly. “I promise I will show you, when we return to the keep.”

“You will?” The offer took Alex by surprise.

“I will. Now, I have talked for quite long enough. It’s your turn. First of all, what is it you’re planning to do with my dear niece?” he asked. “She seems insistent on coming through my walls to retrieve what I imagine she believes to be her stolen property.” He smirked, displeasure for the woman evident on his face.

Alex scrutinized Caius closely, hoping his hope wouldn’t be crushed, as it had been so many times before. He believed Caius to be the most trustworthy royal he had come across so far, with perhaps the exception of Helena, and so, taking a deep breath, he told Caius of the plan to build a portal using the essence.

“I suppose her persistence makes more sense now,” Alex quipped bitterly, gesturing toward himself. “Why be mad about stolen essence when the key to your survival has slipped through your fingers? It isn’t the essence she wants back—she wants me. She wants to tie that bow around me and hand-deliver me like a fruit basket.”

“She has always been stubborn,” Caius mused. “Anyway, we have undoubtedly tarried too long. I’d better be getting the two of you back before your people start to worry. I’ll show you what the Great Evil is, too, once we’re back inside the keep.”

The Great Evil is right there at Kingstone Keep? Alex thought with alarm, worrying for his friends while trying to imagine how that could be true. He wondered if this might be the time to ask Caius about the Kingstone essence, but he decided to wait until they were back in the keep itself, where he might have a better chance of getting the old man to lead him directly to its hiding place.

Outside the windows of the study, rain pounded. Thunder rumbled overhead, then cracked loudly somewhere nearby, followed by the bright flash of lightning. The sound made Alex jump, reminding him of humid summer evenings when the sky would darken and the air would smell metallic, the atmosphere tense, in need of a thunderstorm’s sweet relief to quench the thirst of the baked earth below.

Alex nodded. “I think that would be best, thank you.”

“Very well—how are your travel skills? Do you think you can reach that far?” he asked.

Alex shrugged. “I’ll try.”

“Wonderful. I can take Ellabell with me,” Caius suggested.

Alex paused anxiously, glancing down at the girl sleeping soundly beside the fire.

Caius frowned. “You still don’t trust me?”

“No, no, it’s not that. I’m just… a little protective of her, I guess. I’m worried that if I take my eyes off her for a second, she’ll disappear again.” The admission made his cheeks feel hot.

“I understand that,” the old man said, his voice laced with a heartrending sadness. It made Alex wonder how he could be so insensitive, realizing Caius had probably done exactly that—taken his eyes off the woman he adored for a second and then never seen her again. “I will take good care of her. I will treat her as precious cargo, and deliver her safely to the tower,” Caius promised, a knowing smile upon his lips.

With that, they parted company, making their separate ways back toward the stagnant fog of the keep.





Chapter 21





After dropping Ellabell safely on the bench outside the tower, Alex hurried after Caius as he limped toward the nearest tunnel, his cane echoing against the stone floor. Alex wondered where the Great Evil could possibly be kept within the prison. After all, they had mapped Kingstone almost in its entirety. Surely, they would have known if they had stumbled upon something as supposedly harrowing as the Great Evil. Amid all the strangeness Alex had witnessed in his time within the magical world, it remained the biggest mystery.