The Keep (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #4)(73)

“Ellabell, please, it’s not real—let me out of here and I will help you!” Alex begged.

“That’s what they told me you’d say,” she said quietly. “They want me to let you out so they can have you for their own. I won’t do it. I’ll keep you safe.”

“ELLABELL! Let me out!”

“Don’t do it, Ellabell. It’s what the demons want!” Jari’s voice joined the conversation. “Come on, we need to chase them away.”

“Don’t go!” Alex yelled.

“I’m sorry… It’s for your own good,” she whispered, barely audible through the door.

Alex could only watch as they disappeared from sight, darting down branching hallways. Then they were all gone, leaving the hall beyond in silence. Alex banged louder on the door in the futile hope that they might return, but as the minutes ticked past and his fist grew swollen with bruising, he realized they really weren’t coming back. His friends were out there, running through the prison, and he worried about where they would end up. He tried the lock again—presuming the red fog could do no worse damage—but was met by a scuttling sound that rushed toward the mechanism, followed by a sharp electric shock that surged up his arm, jolting his hand away from the door. There was something keeping watch over it, preventing his anti-magic from working on the lock.

Casting a wide-eyed glance down, he saw a beetle, its antenna poised to shock him again. He didn’t know what Lintz had done to it, but it was making any chance of escape even more difficult. His friends were wandering through a dangerous place, and Alypia could overcome the fog and come for him at any moment. It didn’t seem like Caius was going to show up, either. He had to find a way out.

There was no window, and the room was too small and confined for teleportation; he didn’t want to end up splattered against the ground, his legs in one place, his torso in another.

With dawning realization, Alex knew there was only one person who could get him out of this scrape quickly.

“Person” isn’t quite right, Alex thought grimly, hating that necessity had brought him to the conclusion it had. Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes and spoke the name, resenting the sound as it escaped his lips.

“Elias,” he whispered.





Chapter 24





The rafters above Alex’s head were swathed in shadow, and his eyes lingered upon the darkness there as he waited for the vaporous troublemaker to arrive. It was bad enough that Alex had been forced to call him, but to have to wait as well… Alex’s patience was already growing thin.

“Elias?” he said sharply.

At the second request, the shadows shifted, taking shape as a familiar figure poured from the ceiling. With a soft whisper of air, Elias landed on all fours, taking the crackling form of his feline self.

“You rang?” Elias purred, fangs flashing as he brushed up against the stone wall, scratching a misty itch.

“You took your time,” Alex remarked bitterly, although he was a little surprised that the shadow-man had actually come when called. “Feeling sheepish, are we?”

Elias smirked, despite his form. “Not quite—I’d say more catty. Careful of my tongue. It’s sharp today.”

“If I hear a single note I don’t like on that sharp tongue of yours, or a flash of any cattiness whatsoever, I will not repeat this,” Alex warned, gesturing between them.

A strange look shifted across Elias’s feline face. With a whoosh, he swirled upward into his semi-human form, still crackling from the effects of the barrier magic, as if tuning in to a distant television station. The stars moved in his eyes, flowing over the shadowy lids, trickling down to meet the galaxies that fluctuated in kaleidoscopic patterns across his features. Alex imagined he saw a sun exploding in a burst of glittering silver light just above the darkness where Elias’s heart ought to have been.

“No cattiness of any sort,” Elias said, with unexpected solemnity. “Though I must say, I wasn’t expecting to hear your dulcet tones beckoning me so soon, not after the way you flounced—sorry, departed—our company the other day. Understandable, certainly, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear your call. As you well know, I’m not normally one for doing as I’m told, but I can make an exception for you.” His vaporous hand twisted as he gestured toward Alex, and though he hadn’t quite lost all his usual sardonic humor, Alex could see the shadow-man was making attempts to tone it down.

A true challenge for you, Alex thought wryly.

“I wouldn’t have called if I weren’t desperate,” Alex retorted.

“Ouch.” Elias feigned a wince, clasping his misty hands to his cavernous chest.

Alex raised an eyebrow. “You can go, if you want.”

“Can I?” Elias taunted, a knowing smile stretching the shifting shadows around his mouth. Alex realized they were at something of an impasse; he couldn’t just let Elias leave without opening the door, and yet he didn’t want to seem as if he truly needed him.

“There’s a beetle stopping me from unlocking the door. I need to get out so I can deal with Alypia, and find my friends,” he said, not meeting Elias’s gaze. “I would like you to unlock it.”

“I would like a castle of my own, a supermodel wife, a mountain of cash—perhaps an actual body that doesn’t keep trying to escape. But sadly we don’t always get the things we would like,” Elias replied. “I’m afraid it’s a no can do—these were not made for unpicking locks.” He flapped his vaporous hands at Alex.