The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 6 by Bella Forrest (books for men to read .TXT) 📕

The group followed, though the royal was right: it was a little cramped with so many inside.

“Very good, keep on heading through, push right down to the very end of the cave,” Vincent urged, though he remained outside the cave’s entrance, to keep watch.

Hadrian was saying much the same thing inside. “Yes, that’s right, you need to follow me, right through to the very end of the cave. Come on past the shelves, and keep on coming until you’ve gone as far as you can go,” he shouted, so everyone could hear.

Jari bounded up to the entrance and slipped through the doorway, followed closely by Aamir. The rest of the students came after, with Alex, Ellabell, and Natalie bringing up the rear, calming any hesitation, to ensure that nobody got cold feet.

It was strange to enter the cave again, and it wasn’t long before Alex began to feel the half-familiar sensation of the essence calling to him. It was magnetic, drawing him toward the bottles on the shelves, though he knew they contained only a fraction of the person they had been dragged from, unlike the Kingstone essence, which could be felt a mile away. The pulse that emanated from these was still weak, and somehow sad, though the other students walked past the bottles with disinterest, their focus firmly on Hadrian.

“It’s so weird in here,” whispered Ellabell. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this place.”

Alex knew what she meant. “It’s because it’s full of lost souls,” he said, half to himself.

As they moved farther into the cave, the walls began to press inward, the pathway bottlenecking in places once they got past the shelves of essence. Slender creepers twisted up the rock face, with tiny white flowers peppering the vine. The petals were smooth and velvety with a bright yellow center, almost like a daisy. It was hard to believe anything could grow in here, but Alex supposed nature always found a way of thriving, even in the darkest of places.

Before long, the large group had collected in a small expanse at the farthest end of the cave, where the narrow path of the cave’s walkway gave way to a slightly more open space. An enormous stalactite hung down from the cave’s roof, with a tip forged from sapphire. Pausing here, Hadrian made a show of hiding something from sight, a shape that was sticking out of the wall. Alex peered around the nervous royal, and saw he had his hand upon a big, rough-cut gem that resembled a lotus flower. Casting an anxious glance back at the group, Hadrian pushed the gem in. With a loud, rumbling scrape that panicked the students into thinking another quake was happening, a large section of wall slid away, though it was clear now that it was a thick screen of painted wood, made to look like rock. It wasn’t as convincing when it was tucked away to the side, but Alex knew it had looked just like the real thing moments before. Now, it revealed the familiar glow of a portal, and, beyond it, Alex could see the beautiful land he had scouted from Storm’s back. Even at this distance, he could almost feel the crisp, cool air and the warm sunlight on his face. Of all the havens he had encountered, this was the only one that truly felt like a haven to him.

Alex hung back until the last of the students had stepped through to the new land, following the lead of a sensible Aamir and an exuberant Jari. With only Alex and the two girls left to step over the threshold into Starcross, he gestured for them to go on ahead.

“I just want to have a quick word with Hadrian first,” Alex explained, glancing at the nervous royal. To soften the blow of bringing all these people to Starcross, he wanted to try to persuade Hadrian to come with them, even though it seemed the royal had no intention of doing so whatsoever. It was almost as if he feared the portal to Starcross, not daring to get too close. Perhaps what lay on the other side was too tempting an escape from the responsibilities of Falleaf.

“We’ll wait,” said Ellabell, and Natalie nodded.

“No, really, you go on ahead, it’s—” He never got to finish his sentence, as vibrations began to shake the cave, and the sound of feet pounding the stone echoed off the walls. Alex turned sharply in the direction of the narrow passageway, bracing himself for whoever, or whatever, was incoming. A split second later, Vincent appeared in the narrow passageway, running down through the cave, a panicked expression on his face. To Alex’s surprise, Helena was following, and there were others, just visible behind her, all of them hurtling toward the portal.

“What’s the matter, Vincent?” asked Ellabell.

The necromancer came to an abrupt halt just in front of them, his brow beading with sweat. “It is exceptionally bad news, I’m afraid,” he gasped, clutching his chest.

Helena ran up behind him, the exertion barely affecting her. “It’s Julius,” she explained bitterly. “We’d just jumped through the portal back to Stillwater when we saw him arrive—it was like lightning in the distance, and I just knew it was him. He descended on us out of the blue. We turned tail and went straight back through to Spellshadow, following your tracks… but there’s nothing I can do for the rest of them—those still trapped at Stillwater, suffering who knows what at his hand.” Her face twisted in a furious grimace.

“How did you avoid the mist?” Alex asked.

“Some of us didn’t,” said Helena, shaking her head sadly. “It had started to roll out and was seeping through the floor, but there were a few corridors that were clear, and we used those. It still got a few of us though.” Her eyes glittered with un-spilt tears.

“I’m so sorry,” Alex whispered.

“Julius is going to find us,” she warned. “Wherever we go, he will follow us, until we have nowhere