The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)

The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)

Bella Forrest




Chapter 1



Alex stood on the singed main lawn, scuffing his shoe against the white line that had been painted around the area where Derhin and Aamir had fought. The line was already fading into the dry ground, soaked up alongside the blood—Derhin’s blood, spilled under the impact of Aamir’s desperate fist. The battle had taken place barely two weeks ago, yet it felt like a lifetime.

He looked up at the wall, at where the creeping gray ivy had been blown away during the duel, the masonry scorched. Alex walked up to the bare patch of wall and examined it, running his hands over the smooth, rusty-red brickwork for what felt like the hundredth time, hoping to have missed something he could use to escape. He felt a familiar cold ache ripple from his fingertips to his stomach as his body prepared to retaliate against the magic of the manor.

It’s going to take a lot more practice before I can destroy it, he thought. He removed his hands from the wall and stared down at them, disappointed by their ineptitude. He wished—not for the first time—that anti-magic were as seemingly simple to use as the golden light that gleamed easily and swiftly from his friends’ fingertips, doing as it was told.

Alex sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets, out of sight, as he wandered over to the gates, which were still curtained in ivy. A spark of anger burned in his chest at the memory of the fateful day he had arrived at Spellshadow Manor: slipping in behind the ghostly gray creature and a zombified Natalie, wanting so much to save her that the consequences hadn’t seemed so dire.

His mind drifted back to the tomb and Finder’s demise, and he found himself wondering silently if they had done the right thing. Finder had seemed to know so much more about everything than everybody else, the Head being the key exception. And Elias, of course, but Elias only seemed to want to tell Alex a censored version of events—just what Elias wanted Alex to know. No more, no less. Alex wondered where the shadowy figure had gone; he hadn’t seen him since before Derhin and Aamir’s showdown.

With Finder dead, whatever the phantom knew had been taken to his long-overdue grave. All his knowledge about the Spellbreakers and why the school existed as it did, what the Head did behind locked doors, what exactly “graduation” entailed… All gone. All of it. Elias knew some of the answers, Alex had no doubt about that, but he wondered if Elias would prove an even harder nut to crack than Finder might have been. A shiver of uncertainty trailed up his spine as he recalled the ghost’s ghastly gray face and tattered rags. What on earth had made Finder agree to let the Head do that to him? Alex had the feeling it must have been a matter of life or death, and that worried him deeply.

Still, Alex wasn’t stupid; he knew Finder wouldn’t have simply given up all his information. It would’ve likely taken more magic and anti-magic than Natalie and he had to spare, and they may still have ended up with nothing. At least they had stopped Finder from recruiting more students to the school for a while. That was a decent consolation prize. Regardless, Alex couldn’t shake the peculiar feeling that they had made some sort of mistake in getting rid of Finder so quickly. After so many years in phantom slavery, Finder had been fed up with the Head—they had heard him say as much. Maybe they could have broken him; maybe he would have given them some answers. Now, they’d never know.

Alex’s rage toward the manor burned a little brighter, and he kicked the wall in frustration, wincing as a twinge of pain shot through his foot.

“Maybe it’s not so wise to kick magic walls,” Natalie’s familiar voice called out from behind him, with its exotic French undertone.

Alex turned. The color had come back to Natalie’s face. Shortly after Derhin had been dragged away, kicking and screaming, to wherever they had taken him, Natalie had brightened up, a rosiness returning to her pale cheeks, a liveliness that hadn’t been there for months. Natalie seemed to have come back to life, the curse’s chokehold no longer draining her of energy. In the week or so since, she had become healthier than ever—her vitality restored, her black hair shining, her skin glowing, her eyes glittering.

Alex was glad to see her looking better, but it was hard not to remember Ellabell’s whispered words from the library: “Just kill whoever cursed her.”

Derhin must really be dead. Alex shivered at the thought, still hearing the man’s terrified pleas ringing in his ears. “We were going to escape together.” The words could not be shut out as they came back to Alex, spoken so desperately by the doomed professor. Lintz’s face haunted Alex too, the resignation as he had said he’d do it—whatever it was…

At least it was nice to see Natalie smiling again.

“Yeah, that wasn’t the smartest idea I’ve ever had.” Alex grinned, his toe still throbbing.

“You had the same thought as me, huh?” she muttered, nodding toward the bare patch of wall. Strands of silky black hair fell over one eye, and she brushed them back behind her ear in a single sweeping motion.

“Yeah.”

“I keep hoping the duel might have caused a weakness in the gate that I just haven’t spotted yet,” she added, with a nod toward the unharmed metal.

Alex sighed wearily. “Me too.”

They stood on the grass in silence for a while, their gazes focused on the top of the wall, their arms folded against the light breeze whispering around them. Overhead, the sky was angry looking, bruised clouds gathering in a dark, metallic gray swarm, rippling out to purplish edges. Between the clouds, the sky was a dusky pink, the day coming to a close. It looked sinister, and the scent of rain was in the air. At least it would wash the blood away, once and for all, Alex thought grimly.

“Alex?” Natalie said quietly.

Alex turned his face toward her.

“Do you think the Head still doesn’t know?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

It was the very question Alex had been wondering himself, and to hear it out loud made his heart beat faster. He saw the fear on Natalie’s face, and hoped she couldn’t see it on his own.

“I’m not sure,” he replied. “I don’t think he knows. I’m pretty sure Finder used to be away for long periods of time anyway, snatching kids for the school.” He paused, thinking back. “I remember seeing him leave from the library window once, and he didn’t come back again for like two, three weeks… I doubt the Head will have noticed yet. We still have time,” he added, trying to reassure Natalie, though he knew very well that Finder could have come back to the manor within that time. It was a hope Alex was clinging to, that his hunch was right.