The Breaker (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #2)

Knowing there was no time to force the pain away, no matter how viciously it seared through his body, Alex gritted his teeth and soldiered through the agony, tasting blood in his mouth as he bit into his cheek.

With great force, he pushed open the window. The panel swung outward as a cool whip of wind blew in through the gap, soothing the damp perspiration on Alex’s face. He peered out and saw, to his relief, that there was only a small drop between the ledge and the ground below. It would sting the ankles a bit, but it wouldn’t break anything.

“Jari, you and Aamir will go first,” he breathed, with no real time to explain as he bundled Aamir toward the open portal.

“This is wild,” Jari whispered, awed, as he clambered up beside Alex and sat on the edge of the windowsill, wrapping his arms around Aamir.

“Ready?” asked Alex.

Jari nodded. “As I’ll ever be.” He grinned broadly, peering down to see the distance for himself.

“I’ll huff and I’ll puff!” mocked the Head, rapping more loudly on the dense oak of the door. The sound made Alex’s heart pound faster as he gave Aamir and Jari a light shove. They tipped over the edge, disappearing into the darkness below.

“You okay?” called Alex, careful not to raise his voice too loudly, in case the Head heard. From the sarcastic, teasing quality in his mocking tone, Alex guessed the Head had no idea what they were up to in here. He wanted to keep it that way.

“In one piece,” came Jari’s voice from beneath the window. Alex heard the soft sound of Aamir’s body being dragged along the grass, followed by Jari’s labored breathing.

“Little pigs, I know you’re in there,” the Head chuckled.

Alex knew their time was quickly disappearing. It wouldn’t take long for the Head to realize something was amiss and come barging through the door, but he needed to think. He needed to figure out a way to cover their tracks.

An idea popped into his head. He didn’t like it, which seemed to be a recurring theme, he thought dryly, but he knew it might be the only way to give them a decent head start.

“Natalie, do you think you can close the portal behind us?” he asked with trepidation, hating himself for the question. He knew the dangerous magic involved in opening and closing portals, but it was a risk they had to take. Natalie had been learning rare and complex magic; surely there was something in her arsenal they could use.

Each moment they wasted was peppered with the menacing sound of the Head’s voice, oozing through the door, intent on delivering the message from his nursery rhyme.

She frowned and glanced toward the door. “I know a trick that is not portal magic, that I read in one of the darker arts books, but I think it might possibly work for this,” she said, a gleam of excitement in her eyes. “Yes, I think it could.”

“Good. Close the portal—or whatever it is you’re going to do—as soon as I’ve jumped, okay?” he instructed hurriedly.

She nodded. “I will do my very best.”

“Good luck,” he whispered.

Natalie climbed up onto the ledge and jumped gracefully, her feet barely making a sound as she landed on the field below. Alex peered out to make sure she was okay and saw the glimmer of her magic working beneath her hands. The golden streams of energy were tinged with a much brighter pink and shot through with bolts of sapphire blue. Seeing them, he knew whatever she was conjuring came from a much darker place than he was happy with, but it was too late now; he needed her dark magic, whether he wanted to admit it or not.

Hastily, he hurried over to where Ellabell still sat, perched on the edge of the desk, focusing on the door. Golden light still flowed elegantly from her hands.

“Ellabell, you have to stop,” he said, but she shook her head, her eyes glittering with defiance and frightened tears.

Slowly, he placed his hands over hers and stemmed the current of her power, turning it into soft flurries of snow. It burned his palms a little, but it snapped her out of her intent trance.

“Ellabell, we have to go,” he whispered, still holding her hands in his.

She nodded, terror flaring in her eyes as another loud knock echoed through the room. Beneath his hands, her fingers trembled.

Making sure she didn’t turn to glance back at the door, Alex led her over to the window and helped her up onto the ledge. With a graceful leap, she followed the others out and down onto the field below. It was only Alex left now.

As he began to climb up onto the ledge, a thud of magic jarred against the door, making the chairs and diagonal bookshelf shudder violently. Alex knew with a rush of panic that he had mere seconds. Ellabell’s residual shield would hold, but not for very long.

Hearing another blast, followed instantly by the sound of splintering wood, Alex stepped onto the windowsill.

Natalie was below him, her eyes closed tight in concentration. The others stood far away from her, and Alex could see why. A vortex whirled wildly in front of Natalie, swirling with a myriad of colors, from the brightest cyan to the deepest purple and all the colors in between. In the very center of it was a stationary ball of energy, glowing with a dark pink pulse that seemed to suck in all the light around it. Shadows poured into the radiance, pulled with magnetic force.

Alex glanced back to see a crack ripping through the surface of the doorway. He turned and jumped, dropping down onto the grass beside Natalie as the window closed behind him. A loud blast erupted from within the manor, shaking the earth beneath him.

“Now,” he whispered.

Natalie gave a barely discernible nod as she lifted the vortex up toward the window, the expanse of it growing wider, sucking in more shadows and more light as it rose up. Everything it touched was drawn into the glowing center, and it seemed the portal was no different.