The Secret of Spellshadow Manor (Spellshadow Manor #1)

Alex tried to keep himself from crying out as another crackle of energy ran through him.

“I bet you’ve been so very cold,” Finder said. To Alex’s surprise, the man crouched, sitting against the wall and looking toward where the stone desk stood at the end of the room. Could he sense Alex? “Your kind are supposed to feel magic’s touch so keenly.”

Alex’s back slumped to the ground, the magic finally seeming to relent, and he drew heavy, quiet breaths as he watched the ghost. Finder’s hood was drawn low over his face, and he sat in a position which Alex would almost have described as dejected.

“So cold that it enters your blood,” Finder said. “So cold it crackles through your bones.”

Alex shoved himself to his knees, shaking. The biting, icy touch of the manor had infested him, drawing pale lines across his bumpy skin. He clenched his jaw to keep his teeth from chattering, looking at where a little curl of blue magic was looping down his arm, the occasional spark of power straying to nestle, burning cold against his skin.

Finder rose.

“If I had found someone here,” he said, voice careful, “I would have taken them to him. However, I see nobody. And so I take my leave.”

Alex watched as Finder reached out, his fingers seeming to slip into the handle of the door for a moment before they found a hold and gripped it. He paused.

“I used to kill your kind,” he said. “Long ago. They hunted me to this manor, and I slaughtered them. Threw the bodies in the lake, and let the fish gnaw on their bones. But then he came.”

Alex clutched the book of necromancy to his chest, shuffling away from where Finder still stood in the open doorway.

“He told me I had a duty,” Finder continued. “That I had hidden for too long, and he was right. I had to help. I watched the last dragon die. Did you know that, Spellbreaker?”

A bitter note crept into the old ghost’s voice, and he let out a long sigh. Wisps of ghostly magic curled in the air around him, pale mist pooling about his feet.

“I watched,” he said. “And I did nothing. Now I wonder if I have done too much.” He shook his head, throwing the door aside with a sudden, savage motion that made it bounce off the wall with a sharp bang. “I wonder if you can do any better, magic-killer.”

He vanished, and Alex was left standing alone. He swallowed, shivering. He was so cold. He looked out the window and saw the great frozen lake as if for the first time.

Threw their bodies in the lake.

Spellbreaker.

Magic-killer.

Feeling sick, Alex made his way quickly out of the office, running through the overgrown, decaying hallways toward safety as fast as he could.





Chapter 26





When he knocked at the door of room twenty-eight, Alex was greeted by a bleary-eyed Ellabell. She rubbed at her face, trying vainly to paw her hair into some semblance of order.

“Alex?” she said, squinting at him and fumbling with a pair of glasses.

He faltered. He had forgotten, in all the excitement, that it was the middle of the night. He gave an awkward wave.

“Yep, it’s Alex,” he said. “Sorry to wake you.”

Ellabell tried to draw herself up straighter, her eyes narrowing.

“How did you get here?”

“I found a girl by the entrance,” Alex replied. In truth, he’d figured out his way back here alone, and if there was magic in place to stop boys from entering, it hadn’t deterred him.

“What do you want?”

“Just looking for Natalie,” he said quickly. “Have something I want to show her.”

Ellabell stared at him blankly. “And you two claim you aren’t dating?” she said after a long moment.

“Ella,” he intoned, drawing out her name through a smile.

“Alex,” she countered, unmoved.

The two glowered at each other for a moment, then Ellabell rolled her eyes, yawning. “Natalie is sleeping, and she damn well needs it after the scene she caused.”

“Scene?”

Ellabell quirked an eyebrow in surprise. “Yeah, at the Head’s speech. She threw up all over Petra and caused a huge commotion. I had to haul her back here myself. Weren’t you there?”

“Had something to do.”

Ellabell grunted. “Well, you can talk to her in the morning.”

Alex frowned. “Can’t I—”

“No,” said Ellabell. “You cannot. You can see her in the morning. Them’s the rules. Now go, get out of here. I’m tired.”

She shooed him away with a couple sleepy waves of her arms, then shut the door in his face. Alex huffed, feeling the weight of the stolen book heavy under his jacket, and made his way back down the hallways toward his room.

Even though he was no longer in the Head’s forbidden wing, he found himself on edge. Everything he learned about the manor only made it seem stranger and more dangerous. What had Finder meant about ‘having a duty’? What had he meant when he said he had killed Alex’s kind?

Spellbreaker. But the Spellbreakers had died out, hadn’t they? Could he be a—

“Webber.”

The word cut into his reverie, and Alex stumbled to a halt, feeling his blood freeze in his veins. He turned slowly, and was met with the sight of Professor Lintz. His portly form was little more than a shadow as he stepped forward out of the dark, his eyes narrowed.

“What are you doing out at this hour?”

Alex swallowed, all too aware of the weight of the book against the inside of his jacket.

“Just going to check on Natalie, sir,” Alex said. “She’s sick, you see, and—”

“And she was sick at the speech. Yes. I was there.”

Lintz’s eyes scoured Alex with a critical gaze, a thin tongue darting out to wet his lips. That look said it all.

You weren’t there.

“I’m patrolling the hallways,” Lintz said, shrugging and looking away down the darkened hallways. “Seems some student has been creeping around out of bounds. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“No, sir,” said Alex, hoping against hope that Lintz wouldn’t hear the lie in his voice.