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

no more about Venus. However, before she could open her mouth to volunteer, Natalie spoke up instead.

“I would like to come with you.”

Alex frowned. “Aren’t you still injured?” he asked, glancing at her damaged leg.

She shook her head defiantly. “Agatha’s pill has worked wonders. I am fine to run, fight, conjure—you name it.”

He glanced at the others, hoping for backup. The last thing he wanted, as much as he hated to admit it, was someone who might slow them down. Natalie was strong, but if her leg was still hurt, she would be no use if they had to run from anything—soldiers, mist, Julius, any of the terrors that could chase them through the hallways of Kingstone Keep.

Aamir held up his hands. “I’m out, given my last mist encounter.”

“I’d rather keep an eye on the cripple,” Jari added, giving his friend a shove in the ribs.

“As much as I’d like to go… because of Virgil, I think we need to go with our strongest options. Helena or Natalie,” said Ellabell, nodding at the two other young women.

“Hey, I’m not going to stand in Natalie’s way if she wants to be the one to go,” Helena chimed in, flashing her friend an encouraging grin. “If she says she’s fit enough, she’s fit enough.”

Alex couldn’t argue with that. “You positive you’re better?” he asked Natalie.

Natalie put her hands on her hips. “Just a few aches and scrapes, but I feel just fine. Honestly.”

He was about to ask again, when Ceres arrived, dragging Virgil behind her. Glancing down, Alex saw cuffs encircling the Head’s wrists, the manacles entwined with gray ivy. There was a sweet sort of irony to the sight of them clamped on the skeletal man, but Alex thought better of making a remark as they approached.

“I thought I’d throw on the cuffs, just in case,” Ceres explained. “Although, we likely won’t be able to keep him in them during the spell, if there are things he needs to do with his hands,” she added, lowering her voice so Virgil wouldn’t hear. Alex nodded; he had been thinking the same thing. As much as Venus had insisted they could trust him, and Virgil himself had insisted he was ready and raring to go, as far as the spell was concerned, Alex couldn’t shake the ingrained doubt he had where the Head was concerned.

“Okay. Natalie, Virgil, with me,” said Alex, walking up the narrow passage between the tents, toward the shady glade at the back. Everyone followed, and as they neared the drooping willows, Storm poked her head out. She let out a delighted chirp, though it quickly turned to a trill of disgruntlement as she saw Virgil loping along behind the group. “It’s okay, Storm. It’s not going to be for long,” Alex promised, stroking the silky feathers on the side of the Thunderbird’s face.

Storm trilled again, showing her displeasure with a puff of the feathers atop her head.

Alex smiled. “I promise, it’s just there and back. Then you don’t have to see him again.”

She turned her face away from Alex’s hand, giving a sharp chirrup.

“Please? We just need to get to Kingstone Keep—can you do that?”

Her chirp turned into a coo as she relented.

“What would I do without you?” Alex grinned, stroking the sides of her face, before gesturing for Natalie and Virgil to hold their palms out flat. Storm touched her beak to the center of Natalie’s hand without issue, giving a cheerful chirp. Virgil’s, however, she barely deigned to touch, snatching her beak away the very second she made contact with his palm. Alex tried not to laugh at the sour expression on the Thunderbird’s face. Instead, he helped Natalie onto Storm’s back, followed by Virgil, who had to sit in the middle, given his restricted hands. It was going to be a tight squeeze, but it was manageable. Finally, Alex hopped up into the “driver’s seat,” clutching the bony protrusions of the Thunderbird’s shoulders. Taking it as a sign for them to go, Storm broke into a run, tearing across the field before soaring upward in one elegant swoop, her giant wings stretching out to catch the currents of air beneath her.

Below, the others waved them off, anxious expressions on their faces. Turning away, he tried to ignore their anxiety, knowing it would only serve to feed his own. He needed to remain optimistic if this was going to work.

“Kingstone Keep,” Alex whispered to Storm. “I know it’s a longer way than usual, and you’ll have to break through two barriers—do you think you can make it?”

She chirped loudly, puffing out her chest. Although she was a bird, Alex could hear a wavering note in her chirp that worried him. Was he asking too much of her? He had no real idea how inter-realm travel worked, but he remembered the strain it had caused her to break through to Starcross from Spellshadow. The trip to Kingstone might burn her out. As if trying to prove him wrong, Storm sped up, while Alex took a deep breath and clung on tight.

“Hang on!” Alex roared over the sound of the wind rushing past. There was an earth-shaking boom as Storm broke through the sound barrier, but still she did not slow. Her wings flapped harder and faster, building up speed. The others yelped behind him as the world stretched and distorted, and even Alex began to feel afraid as everything trembled around them. Like an airplane against a strong headwind, Storm battled the barriers between realms, forcing herself through, tearing the fabric of reality until it spiraled all around and everything looked like they’d fallen into the bottom of a kaleidoscope. Alex’s teeth juddered and his bones rattled, his knuckles white where he was gripping Storm. They were tossed this way and that, Thunderbird and passengers both, Natalie reaching forward to grab Alex’s arms tightly, sandwiching Virgil between herself and Alex so he wouldn’t fall off.

With another boom that sounded like thunder cracking overhead, the world straightened, and they