The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)

“My mother will punish me, but she won’t kill her only daughter,” she assured him, holding her hand against his cheek before stepping back into the room.


“You have to come, Helena,” insisted Alex, trying hard not to look at Jari’s dazed, heartbroken face peering through the portal.

Leaning close to his ear, she whispered her last words to Alex. “I know you will do what is right, no matter the consequences. Today, you’ll save the few. One day, you’ll save the many.”

Alex wasn’t sure what she meant, but he leveled his gaze with her strange gold eyes. He didn’t know if he could bring himself to leave her to face the punishment surely waiting for her, once her mother disentangled herself from the glowing beasts.

“No,” Alex said, shaking his head. “I can’t just leave you to that woman. I don’t care if she’s your mother or not—we’re not leaving you.”

“Helena, come on!” shouted Jari.

“Please, Helena,” Natalie added hopefully.

Helena sighed, sparking Alex’s hope that she was relenting and they could get the hell out of there. She seemed deep in thought, and Jari’s eyes went wide with adoring optimism.

“I’m sorry,” she said with a sad smile.

And then Alex found himself staggering backward as Helena pushed a barrier of fierce, unexpected magic at his chest, the blast knocking him squarely through the portal and out the other side. Sprawling backward on the hard ground of the castle courtyard, he looked back up in time to see that Helena was lifting her hand in a tearful farewell. Giving one last sad wave, her hands crackled to life, thrumming with a pink-tinged coil of golden magic, before a shimmer of light blinded them all for a moment, forcing them to turn their faces away.

When they looked back, the portal and Helena were gone.





Chapter 40





Sitting up properly, Alex checked the precious cargo in his bag, worried some of the bottles might have broken on impact with the ground. Thankfully, they were all in one piece, no life essence spilling out onto the courtyard.

Looking around, he could see they were, indeed, in a castle courtyard, staring at the now-empty wall where the portal had been.

Jari was in pieces. “She was the love of my life!” he wailed, rocking inconsolably on the flagstones.

The others seemed equally sorry to see Helena go. Alex knew they must have arrived at the same conclusion as him, realizing they had misjudged Helena at times, when she hadn’t deserved anything but their trust.

“I can’t believe she stayed,” said Ellabell quietly, her voice croaky. “I hope she’ll be okay.”

Natalie nodded, her brow furrowed. “I will miss her… She was a good friend.”

It was almost like a death, knowing they’d never see Helena again, and though Alex wondered if he could go back and get her, he knew there was no way to do it without figuring out portals. And that seemed more and more unlikely now that they didn’t have the help of Stillwater’s books.

Alex got up and dusted himself off, shifting the bag of bottles carefully around to a more comfortable spot. He had no idea where they were, and the uncertainty unnerved him.

Aamir moved nervously toward Alex, his eyes transfixed by the satchel Alex held onto.

“What’s in the bag?” he asked.

The others looked toward Alex, their eyes showing surprise as they noticed the bulky satchel for the first time. Alex removed one of the bottles, holding it up to the light so they could see the dim red glow that burned in the middle of the black, smoky glass.

“Is that what I think it is?” Ellabell gasped.

He nodded. “It is. It’s life essence. Bottles and bottles of life essence—the currency that is going to see us home,” he explained with a hopeful smile.

“How did you get it?” Jari chimed in, his interest piqued though he was still snuffling slightly.

“I found where it was being kept. Alypia had the bottles in a little room, just to the side of her study.” He shrugged, looking intently at the glowing pulse within the bottle.

“Whoa. How did you get them from Alypia?” pressed Jari, really interested now.

“Using my powers. I just conjured a powerful spell that managed to keep Alypia at bay while I ran off into the chamber where they were stored and scooped up as many as I could. I kicked the rest over—they all smashed, and the essence drained away, back into the earth,” he murmured, feeling bashful beneath the intense gaze of their eyes.

“Were you the one who caused her to scream that way?” Natalie flashed a look of concern, clearly suspecting some of what Alex had done.

“Sort of,” he admitted. “I used two of the bottles and fed my anti-magic through the essence to make two of those beast things Derhin used against Aamir. They kept her occupied while I ran away.”

His friends fell silent, looking at him with a sort of awestruck fear. It worried him—too many people were looking at him that way these days. He only hoped what he had done to Alypia would be enough to keep her from following them for a while. The Head had managed to restore the portal at Spellshadow, and Alex guessed Alypia would do the same as soon as she was able to, but he knew those beasts would stall her for a while. Her ungodly screams had been evidence of their destructive powers against her. Still, as ever, the ticking hands of time clanged above them.

Shifting his muscles, he tried to stretch, wanting to get the knots and aches out. His whole body felt tired and a little disjointed, making him wonder if it was because he had used a small speck of his essence in his anti-magical conjurations. He didn’t feel any different mentally; he just felt shattered physically. Silently, he made a note to ask Natalie later, if that was what happened when you used strong, dark magic.

Suddenly, he jumped to attention as he became aware of a shadow in the darkness of a hallway, a short distance away from where they were gathered. Shuffling along the tunnel, a figure stepped out into the muted light of the courtyard.

Seeing who it was, their faces lifted in surprise, their eyes going wide. Alex wasn’t sure he could take many more surprises; his heart was still thundering from the panicked exit they had just made. Though, saying that, Alex had to admit this was one of the better ones.

“At last! I thought you’d never get here!” a voice bellowed from the shadows.





Epilogue





Elias lolled casually in the room above the portal, picking stars from his teeth.