The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)

‘Princess’ Alypia? Alex paused in horrified thought. What did that mean about the Head? Was he magical royalty too? How could he be related to Alypia? Alex couldn’t quite get his head around it. True, she had called him “little brother,” but it didn’t add up. The wrench in the works was Alex’s strong, almost certain understanding that the Head was half-mage, half-Spellbreaker, an improbable hybrid of the two, so how could he be related to the pure mage royalty of Princess Alypia? Was the Head a mutant, Alex wondered, remembering when he had thought himself to be one. Or was it simpler than that—was the Head the result of a forbidden affair between a mage and a Spellbreaker, making him a half-sibling, perhaps, of Alypia? There were so many possibilities.

It made Alex think back to the portraits hanging on the walls in the Spellshadow ballroom, but there hadn’t been one of the Head alongside them. Slowly, he counted them in his mind. There had been eight portraits on the wall, but there were supposed to be nine havens—or had been, once upon a time. Did that mean Spellshadow was the ninth haven and the Head the ninth royal, whose portrait should have been up there? It made a lot of sense to Alex that a hybrid would end up the black sheep of the family, especially a royal one. The figures in the portraits had all seemed fairly regal, with their crowns and tiaras twisting through the same white hair the two siblings shared. If the havens were manned by magical royals, Alex mused, it would explain why their portraits had been up in the school ballroom in the first place.

Somehow, in the confusing web of family ties, the Head was related to this stunning woman and seemed to be intimidated by her, which was something Alex had been sure he’d never see. The skeletal figure’s fear of her was almost weirder than them being related. It made Alex fearful too. If someone as strong and powerful as the Head was scared of her, then there was definitely something to be scared of.

“I think we should go inside and discuss this further,” Alypia announced. “These are things that should not be spoken of out in the open.” Her eyes glanced uncertainly around, including up toward the tower, and Alex ducked down below the sill.

Peering tentatively back over the ledge, he watched as the duo quickly moved away, heading through one of the archways that led from the abandoned courtyard into the villa itself. Desperate for more information and seeing a prime opportunity before him, Alex tiptoed as silently as he could down the staircase, past the sleepers on each floor below. Turning the key in the lock and letting himself out, he knew what he had to do. He was going after them.





Chapter 14





Alex slipped out of the tower and ran across the courtyard, following the path the two white-haired figures had just taken beneath the archway at the far end, into the school. The entrance wasn’t lit from the outside, and he almost stumbled headfirst into the corridor as his foot connected with a narrow step that led up into the villa. Pain shot through his leg, but he quickly covered his mouth with his hand so as to muffle his groan. Once the ache had subsided a little, he carried on through the dim light, hoping there would be a torch at some point along the way. His toe throbbed dully as he crept through the shadows.

He knew it was an incredibly risky move, following the Head and the Headmistress. Glancing into the darkness behind him, he wondered what the others would say if they knew what he was up to. Undoubtedly, they’d want to know what the hell he thought he was doing. Doubt niggled in the back of his mind; it wasn’t just himself he was putting in the firing line by going after the two figures. If the leaders of Spellshadow and Stillwater discovered him, he and his friends would be in a whole world of trouble.

For a moment, he thought about turning back, but the curiosity was simply too great. Alex was almost certain he would never get another opportunity like this, to observe the secret behaviors of the Head and Headmistress.

As he made his way farther into the villa, torches began to appear on the walls, lighting the way. Good to see by, but also good for being seen, Alex thought wryly. Hanging back slightly at each corner, he watched the duo as they continued to walk through a series of winding corridors, each one looking the same as the last. It worried Alex slightly, as he tried to memorize the route for the return trip; if he took one wrong turn, he knew he could find himself lost in the labyrinth of the place. The Headmistress, however, knew exactly where she was going as she marched elegantly ahead of her strange little brother, who hurried to keep up. Alypia had the limbs of a gazelle and took one stride for every two of the Head’s.

Waiting tentatively at the corner of a shorter corridor, Alex ducked behind the wall as Alypia came to a halt in front of a door in the wall. He held his breath, wanting to peer around but not daring to. Instead, he listened for the sound of a key grating in the lock and the scuffle of footsteps on the stone as they entered the room beyond.

Once he was sure they had gone inside, Alex glanced down the corridor, checking the coast was clear before he moved stealthily over to the door and crouched down beside it. As his head came level with the door’s lock, his heart skipped a beat as the shrill, scraping sound of the key being turned on the other side rattled through his ear. They were separated only by the width of the wood the door was hewn from. He only hoped they would continue to be oblivious to his presence.

Hunkering down against the wall, Alex scanned the corridor leading away from left to right. The shadows made him nervous. Sitting in the very center of the hallway, he was extremely aware of how exposed he was. If somebody appeared at either end, they would see him silhouetted in the torchlight that beamed down from the two brackets outside the room he was keeping vigil over—and he couldn’t use his anti-magic to try to conceal himself because Alypia and the Head were likely close enough to sense it.

Yet, to him, the risk still seemed worth the reward.

Turning toward the small keyhole, he pressed his eye up against it just in time to see Alypia walking away from the door, clutching a jangling set of keys on a large golden ring. Beyond the limited view of the spyhole, Alex could make out a fairly modest, windowless room—a study of some sort, he guessed, as he noted a series of well-stocked bookshelves along each wall and a broad, imposing marble desk which Alypia had just sat behind. On it were stacks of paper and an enormous yellow, blue, and green feather in a glass case, the brightly colored fronds curving over at the top toward a disc of gold plumage, like a peacock’s feather, but much more exotic. There was a brown armchair to one side, in front of the desk, into which the Head slowly sank down.

Within a few moments, Alex could hear the murmur of speech filling the air between them, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. With his senses on high alert, he scanned the corridor once again, praying that nobody would creep up on him from behind as he turned and pressed his ear to the keyhole instead of his eye, so as to eavesdrop better on their conversation.