The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)

Leaning closer to some of the racks, Alex saw they were labelled with dates. One rack had 1909 written in curling black ink underneath, but there weren’t any bottles on that one. Frowning, he saw that only the most recently dated racks were full—the shelves closest to the door. Behind those, many were empty.

Horror gripped his stomach as he hurried back up the length of the room and reached for a bottle on the first rack. Illuminated by the dim red glow within, Alex almost dropped the bottle as the letters on the label lit up. In the dim pulse, he felt sick as he read the name over and over, wanting to be sure.

It read R. Derhin.

As he closed his hand around the bottle, gripping it tightly in his palm, Alex felt the energy radiate from within as color rippled out from the dark glass, causing the world around him to bend and distort as the ground rushed away from him and his body tumbled through darkness, into oblivion.





Chapter 21





As the world stopped spinning and the rush of air slowed to a light breeze, Alex found himself floating unseen above a familiar setting. Students rushed past below him, dressed in black, their laughter echoing down the hallways as they pushed and shoved in small groups, chattering away about the trials of the day ahead. Everything seemed more colorful, with only narrow patches of gray ivy creeping from the chilly stone walls and cracks in the flagstones, hardly noticeable and easily kicked away by a stray foot as students trod over it. There were more students than Alex had ever seen at the manor, the corridors crowded with young men and women.

As he scanned the students below, his eyes were drawn to two boys, on the border between boyhood and manhood, laughing mischievously as they perched side by side on one of the deep windowsills. They were faces he had seen before, though slightly older than these iterations. It was unmistakably them. Lintz and Derhin, smiling and joking, laughing about a mishap Lintz had had with one of his bombs in the mechanics lab, Lintz gesturing to the two ungainly bandages wrapped tightly around his hands where he had managed to burn himself. Derhin was grinning, his face youthful and boyish, his hair jet black and his dark blue eyes glittering in amusement as his friend recounted the tale. Lintz was wincing through a belly laugh as he explained how the bomb had gone off just as Professor Gaze had come into the lab, doing a dramatic impression of the scream she had given. Derhin howled beside him, holding his ribs as the laughter pealed from them both.

Lintz’s ginger hair flopped over his lightly freckled face, smooth and fresh with youth, as he tried to wipe away the giddy tears with his bandaged hands, like bright white mittens on the ends of his wrists. He was athletic-looking, and his chiseled cheekbones flushed pink with humor as Derhin tried to copy the sound of Gaze’s scream, causing Lintz to collapse into another fit of hysterics.

Alex felt an instant warmth toward the two boys in their own hilarious world, not caring about the looks of disdain they were being thrown by other students. Some teachers, too. Alex squinted as he noticed one particular individual, clad in the instantly recognizable cloak of a teacher, standing at the corner of the corridor, watching the pair intently. His eyes were narrowed into slits, and the expression on his face was one of intense displeasure, the muscles in his cheeks twitching each time their laughter pierced the air in a raucous wave. There was something about him that niggled at the back of Alex’s mind. The face was familiar somehow, but Alex couldn’t quite place him. He wondered if he could move closer to the figure to get a better look, but, as he floated forward, a bloodcurdling scream shattered the image.

As the piercing cry vibrated through Alex’s body, the world of Derhin’s memory broke apart, rushing away again as the colors bled away to darkness. Alex returned to the dimly lit antechamber with the glowing red bottles, Derhin’s still clutched in his hand. He shoved it back onto the shelf and tore out of the room, back through the rancid stench of the chamber and out into the stale corridor. He sprinted, his footsteps echoing loudly on the flagstones, until he reached the door of the library. Ellabell sat huddled against the wall by the entrance, her whole body trembling and her eyes wide in horror as blood trickled down her chin. Her hands were clamped tightly over her mouth, her fingers shaking violently. Her spectacles lay crushed on the floor beside her, little shards of glass scattered out from the wire frame.

Alex glanced around the medium-sized chamber, feeling eyes on him, as he reached down to pull Ellabell to her feet. She shrank away from his hands with a whimper, not wanting him to touch her. He tried again, lifting her by the arms, ever conscious of the deafening scream inviting unwanted visitors, but she thrashed against him desperately, tears falling from her wide blue eyes.

“Hey, hey, it’s me. It’s only me,” he whispered in soothing tones, trying to calm her as he held her to him. Eventually, she stopped thrashing, her fists no longer pummeling his chest as she rested limply in his arms.

Suddenly, Jari appeared in the doorway, an expression of panic on his face. His face was pale and sweating, his chest heaving with exertion as he looked down at the sight of Ellabell clutched in Alex’s arms.

“We better run,” he gasped, as Alex heard the first echoes of footsteps on the flagstones behind Jari, gaining speed.

Gathering Ellabell up in his arms, Alex burst from the library and ran with her, Jari only slightly ahead of them as they raced through the corridors toward the main body of the building, hurdling over debris and clusters of tangled gray ivy that threatened to sabotage their escape. Alex felt a fleeting moment of frustration that he hadn’t managed to see the Head’s office, but knew there was no point worrying about it now. If it was the Head in pursuit, he would no doubt be seeing the inside of the Head’s office soon enough.

Glancing over his shoulder for the briefest second, Alex caught a glimpse of the figure running behind them. He was tall and dressed head to toe in black, with a pale, haunting mask covering most of his face. It wasn’t the Head, but it was someone equally terrifying. The black holes in the mask, where the eyes ought to have been, stared coldly and intently as two gloved hands lifted and sent glittering bolts of golden magic snaking rapidly after them.

Turning a corner, Alex placed Ellabell down and yelled for Jari to get her to safety as he held his own palms up and felt the tendrils of shimmering black and vivid silver slipping easily across his fingers in vibrant tendrils, made more powerful by the pulse of emotion rising through him. Pressing himself flat against the wall, he drew the anti-magic back into himself, feeling the strange tingle of it in his bloodstream as he peered around the corner, his heart pounding as he witnessed the figure gaining ground quickly.