The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 5 by Bella Forrest (book series for 10 year olds .TXT) 📕

hidden in the shadow of the stone outcrop. It had a large keyhole, and Hadrian pulled out an equally large, ostentatious key. The tense royal took a final, furtive glance at the surrounding trees before opening the door and ushering them inside. Before Alex stepped through, however, he too cast a furtive glance over his shoulder, making sure that Elias wasn’t there. To his relief, he found he couldn’t sense the shadow-man anywhere in the vicinity. It was a welcome absence.

As he entered the cave, Alex felt a sudden wave of déjà vu. Beneath the rocky ceiling and rough-hewn walls, there were statues of warriors standing in fighting stances and battle poses, as well as some figures who looked peaceful—the antitheses of the warlike sculptures. One was holding a set of scales, and another was holding a book open on her lap. Many of them were female, making Alex curious to know who they were, and if there was anyone buried beneath, like the hideous commemorations at the manor. These were not nearly as frightening; there was a nobility to them that he felt compelled to observe, like he was looking at famous paintings in a gallery.

Moving farther back into the passageway, Alex and his friends emerged into an open, cavern-like space. Filling the huge room were shelves upon shelves, stacked with the familiar black glass bottles. It looked like a wine cellar almost, only decidedly more macabre. Approaching the nearest shelf, Alex could immediately sense the difference in the energy within. Hadrian had been right—the pulsing red glow was much weaker than any he had come across before.

“Why are they so weak?” Alex asked Hadrian.

Hadrian turned, scratching his chin. “I have tried to b-beat the system, to the best of my ability. We only take half of a s-student’s essence, and then we send them away to a place where they can be s-safe,” he explained, gesturing to the bottles. “As far as the b-bigwigs are concerned, these students are d-dead, their essence extracted—what they don’t know can’t bother them.”

Alex was awestruck by this unexpected news. He hadn’t known it was possible to just take half, without ending up with something as strange and unearthly as Elias. Regardless, it sounded like a painful procedure. He imagined it would feel akin to having surgery without any anesthetic.

“Isn’t it painful?” he wondered.

“It is very painful, but it is kinder than the alternative.” A sharp voice spoke from the shadows at the very back of the cavern, and a figure emerged.

It was a woman. Alex would have urged everyone to run, but Hadrian didn’t seem too perturbed by her sudden presence, which was strange for the nervous man who was scared of everything. The woman was fairly youthful in appearance, and beautiful in a frightening, aggressive sort of way, with the same white hair of a royal. However, there were sections of hair that were shaved away, and the cut was short, with longer strands trailing across her right eye, which seemed to have been damaged, the pupil entirely white instead of the usual deep-set black. There were streaks of bright color in her hair too, dyed to look like purple and green zebra stripes.

Beside the damaged right eye, Alex could make out the shape of a tattoo—a circle with nine indents along the periphery and four larger dots inside. He counted them, suddenly very conscious of the fact that he was staring at her. Dropping his gaze, he wondered if the circle was supposed to represent the havens—the ones that had fallen, and the ones that remained.

“Who are you?” Ellabell asked, stepping toward the woman.

She crossed her arms. “I am Ceres, Hadrian’s sister. I’m the one who nurses the students back to health, once the deed has been done, and I’m the one who returns those who have come from the non-magical world back to their parents, on the sly.” She winked, making it look effortlessly cool. “Those who can’t go home, I keep. We work together in our own civilization, far from the prying eyes of Julius and his cretins.”

Alex was stunned. Now that he looked for the resemblance, he could see that there was a strong one between Ceres and Hadrian.

“Caius never mentioned a daughter,” Alex said, immediately wishing he could shove the words back into his mouth.

Ceres’s eyes flashed darkly. “I don’t suppose he would. Selfish, cruel old coot,” she growled.

“My sister and our f-father don’t exactly have the warmest of relationships,” Hadrian said, looking embarrassed.

“Unlike you, I don’t put up with betrayal. How can you still have empathy for that man, after the things he did?” Ceres retorted. “I take it you’ve had the pleasure of meeting my father?” she said, turning to Alex.

“We didn’t part on particularly good terms either,” Alex admitted.

“Our f-father seems to have lost his mind, Sister—he’s a troubled soul. He has been for a long time; you know that.” Hadrian sighed.

Ceres glared at her brother. “You think that gives him the right to act however he likes? Mother didn’t forgive him, and neither should you. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness—that man is selfish to the core, only ever pleasing himself.”

“I’m not here to argue with you, not now.” Hadrian shook his head; it was clearly a conversation they’d had many times before.

Their discussion intrigued Alex, leading him to wonder what conflict lay between Caius and the mother of these two, who presumably wasn’t the Spellbreaker love he’d lost. Perhaps the wife had grown sick of her husband’s pining, after what sounded like years of suffering? It seemed like the most likely explanation for Ceres’s vehemence toward her father, but Alex didn’t like to presume.

“And why are you here?” Ceres snapped. “It’s not like you to come and visit, unless you want something.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Hadrian remarked, his expression growing sheepish. “Although, we d-did come here for a reason. I’ve p-promised some of the Falleaf essence to these brave individuals—they have run the g-gauntlet, and retrieved the Book of Jupiter. Alex here is going