The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(70)

“We run with it,” Alex replied. “It’s essential that we trap Alypia here without raising any alarms, which we hopefully won’t with Caius’s help. Think of her as the guard dog, who will bark and bite and sound the alarm if given the chance, but if we can safely trap her here, and Caius can keep her restrained, it will be like a putting a muzzle on her. If she can’t spill the beans to the upper ranks, we’ll be able to take control of the havens without worrying about an army of royal soldiers descending upon us.”

Ellabell frowned. “You don’t think they’ll find out?”

“I mean, they probably will, but hopefully everyone who wants to leave will have left by then, and we’ll be long gone,” he replied with a shrug. He realized it meant those in charge might turn to other, non-royal mages for essence, but there was a plot running alongside this one in his head that he could not stop thinking about. His mind trailed for a moment toward the counter-spell, and how he might work it to his advantage without having to sacrifice his own life.

“It seems like a big risk,” Natalie murmured.

“In a lot of ways, it is, but if we can get out before Julius and his cronies realize we’ve all disappeared, he won’t have time to waste on rounding us all up again—he’ll have to think of finding his essence some other place,” he said. “Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to come up with a solution by then,” he added, his mind resting more insistently on the notion of the counter-spell. He knew it could save more lives than any scheme they could come up with—he just had to figure out a way to channel it through another.

Demeter glanced curiously at Alex. “And you truly believe Caius can be relied upon to keep Alypia here, without telling his brother what we’re up to?”

“I truly believe he hates his brother even more than we do,” Alex replied, recalling what Julius had done to the love of Caius’s life. The others didn’t need to know such a private truth, but it made Alex sure of where he could place his trust.

“I suppose that makes sense,” Demeter said, after a short silence.

“You believe him too?” Aamir asked, turning to the professor.

Lintz shrugged. “He let Alex go, he helped Ellabell, and they’re both still alive. Why would he bother protecting them if it was a lie? A damned shame about the essence, though—I wonder if we could still use it, even if it is a little on the strong side? It might even speed things along.”

“That’s exactly what I thought. I thought maybe he was just being over-cautious in case we set off a trap or something, but he was insistent,” Alex replied. “I think we might have to forget about the essence here, Professor.”

“It’s also a real shame we couldn’t get you all home from here, though your alternate plan isn’t half bad. It’s so risky it might just work,” Lintz said, a proud grin emerging from beneath his wilted moustache. “I always knew you’d be a bright spark—all of you, in fact. Who knew such a ragtag bunch could cause so much chaos for the magical elite?” He chuckled.

“What else did Caius tell you?” Natalie asked. There was a strange look in her eyes, as if she knew Alex was holding back. After so long, it seemed the pair of them had grown accustomed to each other’s quirks.

“Yeah, what else did he say? You were gone ages—you must have had quite the chit-chat,” Jari piped up, resting his chin on his hands with his elbows propped up on the table and blinking dramatically at Alex.

Alex shrugged, smiling sadly. “There was one other, tiny thing.”

“Go on,” Jari encouraged, his eyes bright.

“If you don’t want to tell us, you don’t have to,” Ellabell countered, punching Jari in the arm.

“What? I can’t be curious?”

“You know what they say about curiosity,” Demeter said.

Jari grinned mischievously. “No, what do they say?”

“It killed the cat,” Demeter replied. A look of sheer disappointment crossed Jari’s face.

“What was it, Alex?” Natalie pressed, brushing away Jari’s silliness.

Alex looked across the table at his friends’ faces, all watching him in anticipation. He hadn’t been sure he was going to tell them about what he’d learned from Caius, about his “purpose,” but if he couldn’t tell them, then whom could he tell? They would support him whatever he chose to do, and he was fairly certain not one of them would expect him to go through with something so awful. He knew them well enough to know that.

“He mentioned something about a counter-spell that can be done to fix what my ancestor Leander did in 1908. Turns out I have the power to stop the Great Evil—the reason these havens even exist, the reason you all got snatched, the reason so many young mages are losing their lives,” he explained quietly, trying not to allow a feeling of guilt into his heart as he spoke. He took a deep breath. “But I would have to sacrifice myself in order to do it.”

There was an audible gasp from the congregated group. Steadily, it gave way to an uncomfortable silence and the shuffle of people shifting in their chairs. He could see nobody knew what to say, and he knew why; it was a tricky predicament.

“You can’t be serious?” Ellabell spoke, breaking the silence. “Tell me you’re not thinking about doing such a stupid thing?”