The Secret of Spellshadow Manor (Spellshadow Manor #1)

There were no doors or windows at all. It makes no sense!

He scanned the stone walls, running his fingers over them, looking for irregularities. There had to be something that might indicate a hidden panel or a secret lever that would spring back to reveal the exit, but there was nothing. He noticed that his hands were shaking.

Stepping back to the middle of the cell, Alex tried to steady his breathing. He had to at least attempt to stay rational, even in an utterly irrational situation. He folded his arms and turned again to Natalie, studying her nervously.

Her condition was unchanged, but at least she didn’t seem injured. Just mentally gone.

He began to pace, slowly, going through the things he knew for certain.

Assuming he hadn’t simply lost his mind, he knew he was trapped in a bare cell, somewhere unknown. He had not been harmed—at least, not much. Natalie was here with him, sort of. They appeared to be out of options, just stuck here, waiting.

The “Head” the absurd woman had mentioned must be pulling the strings here. Yeah, meeting with him was something to think about. He thought quickly, trying to plan a course of action. When he was let out of this room, he should find a weapon, defend himself and Natalie, carry her to safety. And it was of vital importance that he not let her out of his sight again.

Alex sat beside her on the bench and leaned forward. In the dim, flickering light, her features looked softer, her tan skin warmer. Her slack expression made her seem childlike in her helplessness, and he felt more worried about her than ever.

“Natalie,” he rasped. “Natalie, if you can hear me, I want you to know it’s going to be okay. I’m going to get us out of here. We’ll be home soon. Okay?”

For the first time, Natalie seemed to hear him. Her head tilted, her blank stare sweeping over to where he sat. She blinked, and it was as though her eyes were furiously trying to come into focus.

“Natalie!” he urged hopefully. “Natalie, it’s Alex! We’re—”

But then she shivered, and collapsed back into the same position she had occupied before.

Alex tried to speak to her again, but she was back to being unresponsive. Soon he too fell silent. He twiddled his thumbs, mind racing. He wanted to pace again, but was loathe to leave her side.

Alex lost track of time as the only sound that filled the room became the crackling torchlight and his sharp breathing.

Then came a noise like a key turning in a door, and the far wall swung open in a splash of golden light, as though the door had been there the entire time.

Siren Mave stood silhouetted in radiance, looking down at a sheaf of papers.

“Young lady,” she announced, “you’ll be up first. If you’ll follow me…”

Alex’s eyes shot to Natalie—who had miraculously jolted upright, though seemed to still be in a daze. She rose and walked to the woman.

Alex swung out to catch Natalie’s arm. “No!” he snapped, fixing Siren Mave with what he hoped was a blazing, determined gaze. “She’s not going anywhere without me. Where are you taking us?”

Siren Mave’s glasses flashed in the torchlight.

“I am taking her to her orientation, dear,” she said with an exasperated roll of her neck. “Why can’t you just behave yourself like this young lady?” She gave Natalie a firm pat on the shoulder, then gripped it hard, yanking the girl easily away from Alex. He didn’t waste time feeling shocked at the small woman’s inhuman strength, but rushed at her immediately, thoughtlessly, intent only on staying with Natalie, whatever it took.

She put out one thick-fingered hand, pushing him hard in the chest. It was like running into a solid wall, and he collapsed heavily to the floor. Before he could move again, or even breathe again, Siren Mave had whisked Natalie through the bright doorway, and it had closed up into a blank wall once more.

“No!” he hissed, leaping up to run his hands urgently over the spot where Natalie had disappeared.

He cursed, kicking the wall in frustration. If Siren Mave was that strong, escaping this place wouldn’t be as simple as just finding a weapon and getting past her—even if he could get out of this cell at the same time as Natalie. He didn’t know what to expect from the Head, but it would not be unreasonable to assume more of the same. Somehow, he needed to be smarter about this.

The chill in his bones continued to radiate outwards, and his breath came out in little white puffs, splashing against the wall before him. He turned away, jamming his hands into his pockets, when something caught his eye.

A shadow beneath the bench slipped out along the floor.

It flowed up the wall, then trickled down over the bench, pooling into the form of…a small black cat. The apparition yawned as if content, its mouth bristling with black fangs, and lashed its tail.

Alex stared at it with no idea what to think or how to react to this new development. His eyes felt like they had taken in so much in the last hour—or had it been longer?—that if they witnessed much more of this fantasy, they would burst.

He stepped forward cautiously, but the cat did not move. He crept closer, until he was looming over it. There it sat, just like a cat, pointedly ignoring him.

Was it, in fact, a cat?

Had he imagined it forming from pure shadow?

He reached out a hand as if to stroke it, and the cat’s shadowy head swiveled to look up at him.

“Did I give you permission to touch me?” it demanded, in a voice that was deep for so small a creature.

Alex leapt back with a shout.

It was not a cat.

But what was it?

He circled it warily, looking at it out of the corner of his eye. He paced back and forth before it. He stood stock still, legs together, one loose fist over his mouth, regarding it sternly. All the while it stared right at him, exactly like a cat.

All this told him very little. But it was clearly some kind of shadow-being, and it must be here for a reason. It didn’t seem hostile, at least not yet.