The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 4 by Bella Forrest (life books to read TXT) 📕

Alex raced to the tower room where he had left his satchel of bottled essence. Eager to start the lesson—and get it over with quickly, so he could focus again on the modules—he hurried through the labyrinth of hallways, ignoring the beady eyes that watched him through the grates and the steady drip-drip of the moldy water falling from the ceiling and hitting the floor in a steady rhythm.

Passing through an intersection of hallways, Alex paused. Down the corridor to the left, which happened to be one of the corridors Vincent had pointed out as one to be avoided at all costs, he spied Natalie. She was pressed close to the wall, talking to someone through a grate in one of the wooden cell doors. Ducking behind the corner, he watched her for a while, unseen, trying to listen to what she was discussing with the person on the other side of the grate. A shiver ran up his spine as he picked up the sound of a low, raspy voice coming from within the cell, but what worried him more was the gleam of excitement he saw in Natalie’s dark eyes as she listened intently to what the man was saying.

Creeping closer to get a better look, Alex saw a repulsive, deathly pale face peering through at Natalie, with impossibly black eyes that flashed with malice. Alex guessed this must be one of the necromancers Vincent had been talking about when he had mentioned vile, despicable creatures who could not be trusted. There was a resemblance in the two men’s appearances, undoubtedly, but this individual radiated darkness in a way Vincent did not. This man’s evil was tangible in the way he sneered, his veins running vividly in a network of sickly black beneath his translucent skin. Alex couldn’t understand why Natalie wasn’t the least bit alarmed by the necromancer’s disdainful smile, and could hardly believe what he was seeing. He knew Natalie enjoyed the powerful side of magic, but this was beyond reckless.

Natalie caught sight of him as he edged closer, and her eyes narrowed in something akin to annoyance. She muttered a swift farewell to her black-eyed acquaintance before turning and walking straight past Alex, practically pushing him out of her way.

“Natalie, stop!” he called.

“I am not in the mood for a lecture, Alex,” she said over her shoulder.

“We need to talk about this—” Alex began, grasping for her, but she tore her hand away.

“I am free to do as I please,” she snapped. “What is your problem?”

“When you start fraternizing with necromancers, you are my problem!” he hissed. He realized they hadn’t completely made up since the last argument they’d had, over Ellabell. “Need I remind you what happened last time you got involved with dark magic?”

Her eyes flashed with a look of sudden hurt, and Alex wondered if his words had hit too close to home. For a moment, she was silent, before the hurt transformed into an expression of defensiveness.

“That is rich, coming from you, Alex. How is your chest feeling, by the way?”

Natalie kept walking, and Alex struggled to keep up with her brisk pace.

“I don’t want to get into another argument with you, Natalie. We don’t have time to argue. I just want you to stay away from those mages—from people like that!” he said. “You have no idea what they’re capable of. And we’ve already been warned away from them. It’s like you go looking for trouble.” He shook his head in disbelief, but his words only seemed to aggravate Natalie’s defensiveness further.

“That is a little bit hypocritical, is it not?” she remarked tersely, just as they reached the wide, circular common room that led to their quarters in the tower above.

“I was only visiting with Vincent to talk about the barrier modules. You know that! I only spoke with him to help us.” He knew it was the barrier again, heightening his emotions, making them spike impulsively. Regardless, he didn’t think she’d buy it if he tried to explain. He had already overstepped the line.

“We should have never left Stillwater,” Natalie said softly. “We had so many opportunities to strengthen ourselves there—the books, the professors, Helena. Now, we have so little. You cannot blame me for trying to learn whatever I can, to improve our chances of survival.”

“We had no choice but to leave!” Alex insisted. “Stillwater House was a fantasy, Natalie. It didn’t exist—Alypia’s offer didn’t exist. Surely the fact that she keeps coming for us is proof enough of that?”

Natalie looked at him with quiet disappointment. “As much as you hated Alypia, her offer was genuine—it granted us a security we will never get again. Here, there is only running and hiding and fearing the smallest sound in case it is someone coming for us in the night, to kill us.” Natalie shook her head, biting her lip as if holding back tears. “I want to see my family again, Alex. I want to let them know I am okay, and continue protecting myself and others, and if that means learning a few things from a few unsavory characters, then so be it. I will do whatever it takes.”

“There’s a difference between doing something to survive and doing it because you enjoy it,” Alex replied, trying to push down the anger rising through his body.

This time, the look she gave him was one of pure determination. “You think you are a hero, yet you run from true power—you fear it. Heroes fear nothing.”

Alex opened his mouth to respond, but he wasn’t sure how. In the heat of the moment, he almost wanted to snap that he didn’t fear anything, but it would be a lie. Neither did he consider himself a hero. He was just a young person like her, trying to survive, trying to make sense of this crazy world, trying to get home.

His expression must have been simmering though, from the way Natalie