The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 3 by Bella Forrest (i can read book club txt) 📕

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.

Seeing Alex leave had pleased him greatly—he was starting to grow tired of Stillwater. He’d always hated it, even when he’d come through to study as a teacher, with all the beautiful people preening and primping, all obsessed with beauty. That wasn’t Elias’s style at all. Elias was more into the interior, magical beauty of a person, rather than the false, ephemeral outer shell. After all, the mortal coil could be shuffled off at any moment, leaving shadowy strands that simply would not behave, when faced with the magic of Stillwater.

He had been watching Alex with keen intrigue, though he had been unable to do much thanks to his unruly, disjointed body snaking off to wherever it pleased, at any given time, within the magical otherworld of Stillwater House. He loathed it, thinking far less of the fearsome Alypia for using such trite techniques to control everyone. Manipulation was easy, he smiled—you just had to know how to pull the right strings. Puppet master extraordinaire, that was Elias, and he relished the position.

Sadly, and much to Elias’s chagrin, the magic that affected everybody’s state of mind, making them giddy, smiling zombies, also wrought havoc on his ability to hold his transient, shadowy form together. Finding and taking that book from Alypia’s office had been no mean feat for a being that could barely keep his face from disappearing into the ether, and still Alex had dithered with it.

At least he rallied in the end, thought Elias smugly, slinking toward the windowless study, clapping the wispy fronds of what should have been hands together as he saw the royal mess Alex had made of the bottle chamber.

A royal mess indeed, chuckled Elias with starry-eyed delight, as he watched the scene playing out below from the safety of his dark corner. It called for popcorn, he mused with a grin, though he could barely remember the taste of such a paltry human snack.

The guards had arrived to assist Alypia, disposing of the great golden beasts with some difficulty. Elias struggled not to laugh aloud and give his position away as he watched them try to dissipate the creatures.

Child’s play, he thought to himself. And they call themselves the best—the best at mediocrity, perhaps.

His shadowy mouth turned up in a pleased grin as he saw the bruised, ugly shape of Alypia crouched on the floor, her pale face drawn and almost skeletal, her beauty yet to be restored by the crackling magic.

Ah, there’s the family resemblance! Elias bristled with catty pleasure, enjoying the woman’s suffering. He had never much cared for her, nor she for him. Definitely showing your age, Alypia, he thought smugly. She looked almost dead, but the frail twitch of her fingers confirmed she was not.

Bored with Alypia, he slunk away, moving deftly from shadow to shadow. His curiosity spiked when he saw Helena running back through the grounds of the school. The girl was of interest to him. He swooped close to her, marveling at the work she had saved him in trying to squirrel away a book on portals. The Leander book had almost finished him off, dispersing his wispy body to the four corners of the earth, but Helena had done the job just as well. It would do, for now. Nobody except she and Elias knew what she had done with the portal, but they would, and boy would she be in trouble then.

She was something of a mystery to him, this silver-haired waif who had failed to steal Alex’s heart away from that curly-haired do-gooder. Elias still wasn’t sure how he felt about Helena, though he did enjoy the powerful energy that emanated from her very being, feeding his weakened state. It was like drinking pure energy.

Elias’s mood turned sour as he thought about Ellabell, which was what thinking about her usually did. Especially after the stunt she pulled outside the cottage—Elias was still seething about that. Ellabell was the girl who seemed to ruin everything, as far as Elias was concerned, always seeking to turn Alex against him in one way or another. One little smack to the head and it was curtains for Elias.

Well, I showed that troublesome little pest. He grinned, flashing his teeth, pleased that Alex still felt the need for him. It was addictive, Elias knew it was—he had made it that way. Knowledge was highly addictive, that little French girl was evidence of that, and Alex was just as hooked.

Alex’s