The Secret of Spellshadow Manor (Spellshadow Manor #1)

“I cannot focus,” she muttered.

“Neither can I,” Alex replied quietly, attempting to rein in his emotions. “What do you say we take a little time off for Christmas?”

Natalie shrugged, looking down at her hands. A little trail of fire wove between her fingers. “I guess,” she said. “It just doesn’t feel like we have time for anything.”

Alex looked between her and the quiet lights outside, then rose to his feet. Perhaps a celebration would feel odd under the circumstances, but it might be just what she needed. They had been lost in their plotting too long now, and Natalie was growing increasingly gloomy.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go for a walk. We’ll get Jari and Aamir.”

They found Jari sitting in his room, staring up at where he had conjured a collection of bubbles in the air above him. As Alex and Natalie entered, they popped, and the boy looked over sulkily.

“You two need the room or something?” he said.

Alex chuckled. “Funny, Jari. We actually came to get you.”

Jari perked up at that, swinging his feet off the bed to look hopefully over at them.

“Get me? For what?”

Alex gave his best smile. “It’s Christmas Eve, Jari,” he said. “Let’s get Aamir and do something other than what we always do.”

Jari didn’t need to be told twice.

Aamir was in the study, tucked away into a corner of the room, far from where the other students were gathering around the fireplace and sharing mugs of cocoa bobbing with little marshmallows. He looked up as the group approached him, scowling.

“What is this?” he said. “An intervention?”

“No, it’s Christmas Eve!” Jari proclaimed, darting forward.

A look of puzzlement crossed over Aamir’s features, followed by a sheepish smile. “Is it?”

“It is,” said Natalie gently. “Come on, we are going for a walk in the snow, and you must come with us. It will be fun.”

The four of them made their way out onto the grounds, where a chill wind had gathered. The grass crunched under their feet as they walked, Jari darting out ahead and spinning around in the drifts of white. Aamir smiled.

The cold didn’t seem to bother Natalie, who was in short sleeves again. She exhaled through her nose, and twin jets of steam speared out into the air, swirling up as though she were some sort of dragon. She laughed at the sight, looking over to Alex.

“You really aren’t cold?” Alex said, sidling up to her as he shoved his hands into a pair of gloves. He was wearing not one, but two coats today, and he could still feel the chill whirling in his gut.

“No,” Natalie said. “Perhaps that is one advantage of being magical.”

They set out across the grounds, coming to a large, frozen lawn before Jari turned.

“Aamir!” he called.

Aamir looked over from where he had been watching the snow falling.

“Do that thing with the tree.”

“Thing with the tree?”

“You know what I mean!”

Aamir smiled wanly, then ushered Jari away from the center of the lawn. Alex watched with interest as golden light began to swirl and rise around Aamir, his hands spreading, his brow suddenly glistening with sweat.

A rumble spread through the ground, and then, all at once, a great tree burst from the ground, even larger than the one in class. Bits of dirt and stone spewed out in all directions as branches unfurled from the trunk, and within an instant Alex was admiring a massive evergreen.

Jari dusted off his coat, shooting a disparaging look at Aamir. “Couldn’t you do that without making a mess?”

Aamir glowered at him. “It is much more difficult to use anima magic if you don’t mirror the natural process,” he said. “You know that.”

Jari leapt into the argument with enthusiasm, and Alex and Natalie walked a little way away, giving the two friends some space while they stared up at the huge tree.

Natalie didn’t speak, but spread her hands, her brow furrowing. One at a time, little lights began to pop into existence around the trunk, glowing red and green and blue, shimmering out from amid the tree’s needles.

Alex smiled appreciatively. “When did you learn to do that?”

Natalie laughed. “I’m making it up as I go,” she admitted. “It is good they didn’t burn down the tree. I sort of…It is hard to explain. I combined the illusion from your project with the fire from mine.”

The wind rustled the leaves of the tree. Aamir and Jari had turned as Natalie had begun to decorate the tree, watching happily as the lights appeared, and now they began to work as well. Jari crafted a golden star out of thin air and sent it up to alight gently atop the tree, while Aamir worked the air with his hands, throwing down garlands of shining light around the tree that wrapped it in a corkscrew of power. Before long, it lit the grounds around it like a miniature sun.

“It’s beautiful,” Alex said, looking at her.

“It is, yes,” Natalie agreed, staring up at the gleaming tree, but her voice lacked emotion. “It’s also…lifeless. Pretty things are easy, common. They are everywhere in the manor. It is full of wonders, and magic, but somehow…there is nothing there. It is empty, this prettiness.” She stared at her feet.

Aamir finished his garland and walked over, offering Natalie an encouraging smile. “This is your first Christmas away from home, isn’t it?”

Natalie nodded, a tear coursing down her cheek.

Aamir patted her on the shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he said softly. “It gets better. It just takes time.”

Jari stepped up beside them, little lights trailing him through the air. “He’s not kidding,” he said. “It gets better.”