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

for a moment. It was the window Natalie needed. As he struggled to regain himself, trying to put up another shield, the air was suddenly punched out of him, and he felt the bruising impact of something hard barging into him.

He fell backward, looking up to see Natalie standing over him, conjuring an enormous ball of volatile dark magic in the palms of her hands. The red center glowed. Realizing he was about to get raw dark magic hurled into his face, Alex responded in kind, letting the pressure of his anti-magic build in his hands, feeling the flow of the black-and-silver strands. He smacked his palms together with a hard slam. The resulting explosion was vast, and Natalie bore the full brunt of it. She flew through the air, landing with a sickening thud on the grass, ten or so yards from where Alex lay. Alex sat up, looking over at where his friend had landed, but she wasn’t moving. He waited a second longer, but Natalie was completely still, her limbs splayed out at awkward angles.

He ran to her. “Please, no. Natalie, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Kneeling beside her, he saw the soft rise and fall of her chest, and felt the steady kick of a pulse, still beating, when he pressed his fingers to her wrist. She was okay, just unconscious.

Relieved, Alex scooped her up in his arms and ran with her to one of the nearest tents, at the far edge of the camp. There were some Starcross residents already inside, cowering in the corner, but their expressions of fear eased as Alex explained what had happened.

“Can you take care of her until I come back?” Alex asked. The four cowering individuals, two men, two women, nodded. A gray-haired woman, the oldest of the group, moved forward to examine Natalie.

“I will help heal her until you return,” she said, looking at Alex with milky blue eyes.

“Thank you,” Alex said. “Wrap cloth around her face and yours so the yellow fog can’t affect you,” he added, before disappearing back out the tent flap, heading for the battlefield once more.

As he ran, Alex began to understand what was happening. Julius had, at last, discovered Starcross, and had released the fog to alter the minds of the opposing side—why lift a finger to fight when he could just get his enemies to fight each other, doing the hard work for him? Yes, he had soldiers present, but they seemed to be an additional force, not the main event. Julius’s intention, as far as Alex could see, was to get the Starcross inhabitants to kill and maim one another, leaving him free to sweep in at the last moment and claim victory. It was all so clear now. That was why he was nowhere to be seen; he was keeping away from the scene of battle until it was safe for him to arrive.

Never had Alex been more enraged by a single human being. If they ever came face-to-face again, Alex knew he’d defy everything to knock the smirk off that evil man’s lips.

A short distance away, Alex made out the two figures of Aamir and Jari, fighting one another. Beside them, Ellabell and Helena were doing the same. Friends were fighting friends, but it was worse for the half-essence survivors, whose bodies and energies were already weaker than most.

Aamir appeared to be losing badly, unable to use his magic to defend himself against his friend. Bobbing and weaving wearily like a boxer in the twelfth round, the older boy avoided the golden blasts of magic surging from Jari’s hands, landing punches and kicks where he could, to try to get the blond-haired boy to back off. From the sluggish way he was darting this way and that, it was clear Aamir was getting tired, though Jari was showing no signs of letting up.

Ellabell and Helena were more evenly matched, though the fight was a ferocious one. Helena was obviously more skilled in offensive magic, shooting blasts of golden artillery with incredible speed, but Ellabell matched her blow for blow, using her powerful shields to deflect Helena’s attacks and send them back to their creator.

Just as Alex was about to push Aamir and Jari apart, Demeter and Ceres flew by, emerging from the fog on horseback. They had fabric tied across the lower halves of their faces, and though their eyes were streaming with tears, it didn’t deter them from trying to help as many students as they could, pulling the vulnerable up onto the Kelpies and sprinting with them to the back of the camp, where the fog had yet to reach. Still, it was clearly proving to be a Sisyphean task—as soon as Demeter mind-controlled one student out of their stupor, tying material around their face, they had to come back for more. The cycle was endless; everywhere Alex turned, he could hear the sound of hooves echoing.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the yellow gas began to fade away, as though it were being sucked out, back across the field. Alex watched it go, dread flowing through his veins. If the mist was leaving, Julius would be on his way.

As it cleared, Alex got a better view of the battlefield. Around him, people were beginning to return to normal. Aamir and Jari stopped fighting, looking at one another in pure shock. Jari had a ball of magic raised to strike, and Aamir was holding up his fists, ready to jab at Jari’s face. Ellabell and Helena separated too, eyeing each other suspiciously, glancing down at their palms as if their hands belonged to strangers.

Bodies littered the grass. Some were moving, their groans rumbling across the ground toward where Alex stood. Others were still, never to move again. Those who had delivered the final blows covered their mouths in horror, seeing what they had done, yet not knowing how or why it had happened. Alex took in the devastation, feeling as if someone had taken a