The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)

“I came to see how you were progressing with my gifts.” Elias nodded toward the notebook in Alex’s hands.

“Not too well. I can’t make any sense of it.” Alex shrugged, tossing the notebook onto the bedcovers in front of him. “I think it’s a dud,” he joked.

Annoyance flashed in the endless black of Elias’s eyes. “It is no dud, Alex. You are simply not trying hard enough.” He peeled his form away from the protective shade of the cold stone walls.

“It doesn’t make sense,” insisted Alex.

“It might,” growled Elias, “if you bothered to try.”

“I’ve tried. I’ve looked at it and looked at it. It’s just scrappy little patterns that don’t mean anything,” exclaimed Alex, exasperated.

“And so you give up?” Elias glared in Alex’s direction, irritation evident in the shadow’s voice.

“I haven’t given up. I’m just… figuring it out,” Alex explained, picking the notebook up again. He felt bad for throwing it.

“You should be further on with it by now,” hissed Elias, wringing the wispy tendrils that served as his hands. “You went to visit that curly-haired do-gooder yesterday, yes?” His impossible eyes flashed at Alex with borderline menace.

“What if I did?” said Alex defensively.

“She told you about that last battle?” Elias pressed.

“Yes,” Alex admitted.

“And off you ran to your little mice, when you should have come straight here. Perhaps I have misplaced my trust. Perhaps you are not as capable as I thought,” said Elias bitterly, running his wispy hand through the flowing locks of pure, liquid shadow that framed his face.

“This doesn’t make any sense, Elias,” snapped Alex, waving the little notebook at the shadowy figure in the corner.

“If only you had the same sense of urgency and dedication as your friends,” spat Elias, his eyes burning brightly as they made Alex squirm. “Day by day, they grow stronger, while you stay the same. The French girl is delving into deeper, more dangerous magical arts and cares not for the consequences, so long as she may have the knowledge. The other one—the Greek one—is forever in the library reading up on powerful magic and how to do useful things, like break locks and cloak himself. What do you do? You wait to be handed things on a silver platter.”

The disappointment in Elias’s voice stung. Alex was startled by the truth rolling from the shadow-man’s contorted lips. He had suspected Natalie was wandering into dangerous territory, but to hear it confirmed stunned him. Jari, too, going above and beyond. What on earth did he need to break locks and cloak himself for? Alex couldn’t help thinking that perhaps he was getting left behind.

“That’s not fair,” murmured Alex.

“Nothing is,” sighed Elias, the sharp edge to his words softening slightly.

The silence stretched between Alex and Elias. A low, musical whistle trilled from the cavernous depths of the shadowy figure’s form as he moved forward a step or two, held back only by the gathering sunlight. Listening to the tune pierce the air, Alex got the not-so subtle hint that Elias was waiting for him to speak.

“Did you bring me something else?” Alex asked, still confused by Elias’s early visit. Was he just there to chastise him?

Elias scowled, the expression terrifying on his fluid face. “No, I did not bring you anything else. Do you see what I mean? Always expecting the answers on a silver platter—hand delivered in a box with a ribbon on top, no doubt,” he grumbled. “You have done little enough with the books I have already given you. Perhaps I will not be so generous in future.”

“I’ve read the Battles book,” said Alex tersely.

“And done nothing with the other!” cried Elias, the sound vibrating through the walls and up the very bones of Alex’s body.

“What am I supposed to do with it? I can’t read it!”

“Figure it out, without having to be spoon-fed,” Elias said coldly.

This wasn’t the Elias Alex was used to, and he couldn’t help feeling a tremor of fear as the room grew cold around him, Elias’s voice pressing in from all around. There was menace in Elias’s face, and Alex could not ignore it.

“It belonged to Leander Wyvern, right?” said Alex quietly, running his thumb once more across the faded lettering of the name he had feebly hoped belonged to his own heritage.

“It belonged to a great warrior,” replied Elias, giving his usual brand of slippery answer.

“Wyvern was a Spellbreaker?”

“That depends—what do the books say?” Elias remarked tartly.

“That he was,” said Alex, resisting the urge to snap.

Elias clapped the viscous extensions of his hands together, the motion making a thudding sound that quaked through the ground, as his starry eyes rolled in dramatic exasperation.

“Now what?” Elias taunted.

“I have to figure out a way of reading it?” Alex shrugged, feeling victimized. It was like a flashback to middle school—the teacher asking him an exceptionally difficult question he didn’t know the answer to and watching him squirm regardless.

Elias gave another sarcastic clap of his wispy hands, and Alex glowered at him. The shadow-man only seemed amused by Alex’s annoyance as he swooped as close as he dared to the edge of the sunlight’s boundaries.

“How might you unravel such a puzzling mystery?” Elias whispered.

“It’s a code,” said Alex suddenly, the markings making sense. He still couldn’t read them, but he had an idea what they were. It was obvious, thought Alex. If a Spellbreaker wanted to write notes or secret entries, it was only natural they’d want to use a cipher of some sort. A code only another Spellbreaker could crack…

Elias grinned. “Now you’re getting it,” purred the rippling figure, his expression twisting into one of glee.

“A code,” mused Alex.

“I’m certain you’ll figure it out,” whispered Elias as he reached for the edges of his cloak. “And perhaps there will be a reward. There are so many other books, Alex. Books you could not even dream of,” he said euphorically. “Oh, such rare tomes, filled with spells nobody should see… spells that helped me, long ago,” he breathed, the last part barely audible as the air bristled with mystery, Elias seeming to withdraw into himself as he spoke the words.

“Wait! You’re not going yet, are you?” said Alex, not finished with the shadow-man. There were questions he wanted answers to, that nobody else seemed able to answer. The time was now.

“Why should I stay?” Elias shrugged the cloaked slopes where shoulders should have been.

“I have questions for you.”

Elias’s face crumpled into a frown. “I’m not sure I can help,” he said simply, “but go on.”