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

or something completely different. Holding out his hand, he let his anti-magic spiral upward, testing the boundaries to see if any magical restraints lay within. A moment later, snowflakes began to flurry around him, letting him know there was a magical barrier above, protecting the building and preventing escape.

Leaning back against the balustrade as far as he dared, Alex looked up, noticing the glint of a golden spire rising at the top of whichever wing he had been placed in. Everything was beautiful here; each carving, each statue, each tile, so lovingly, and expensively, integrated.

This must be the royal palace, Alex reasoned. Why else would it be so elegant, with no expense spared?

Upon turning back into the room, something caught his eye. Sitting on top of a small dining table, set up in the far corner of the room, was Alex’s satchel. He hadn’t been able to see it before, from his angle in the bed, and he simply hadn’t noticed it as he’d walked past to reach the balcony. Now, however, he saw that it was sitting there, beckoning to him like a beacon.

Alex’s brow furrowed in bemusement as he lifted the flap and pulled out the mostly used vial and the large spell book. Folding the pages out flat on the table, Alex conjured a thin veil of anti-magic, and watched in despair as the glyphs morphed into words, the text now all but faded away. True, the words appeared before the spell-caster, but they were likely to be dimmer too, on the third and final try, and there could be no way of studying the pages beforehand, not anymore.

“Might as well use it to wipe your backside, for all the good it’s done you. Heck, it’s more nuanced than I am!” a voice said suddenly, close to Alex’s ear, making him jump.

Alex whirled around. “Elias! You can’t creep up on people like that!”

Elias grinned, his teeth flashing. “It’s the only way to approach people!” he cackled. “I love a good scare, don’t you? Mind you, nothing is as scary as the mess you’ve got yourself into. That is frankly terrifying. I hear attempt number two didn’t exactly go according to plan?”

“No thanks to you. You’ll be pleased to know you missed out on all the heavy lifting, seeing as you’ve been gone so long,” Alex remarked sourly. “Don’t suppose you have a helpful way out of it? I mean, that’s why you’ve been gone all this time, isn’t it, to see what you can find out about the spell?” he added, remembering Siren Mave’s less than complimentary words about where Elias actually was.

Elias tapped his shadowy fingers against the spot where a chin ought to be. “I’m afraid you’ve gone WAY past that. I said this to that awful, toady woman—I said, ‘He can’t be left to his own devices or he’ll blow everything sky-high,’ and she had the cheek to tell me I was being ‘overly cautious.’ Well, I guess you showed her,” he taunted.

“I’m going to take that as a no, then?” said Alex, rolling his eyes. “Where have you been, if you don’t have anything useful to tell me? Or not tell me, as seems to be the way with you irritating guardians.”

“Hey, you know me. I’ll always help out where I can,” the shadow-man replied, suddenly serious. “I have been investigating, like I told you, no matter what that vile toad has said, but the rules remain the same—you have to ask me the right questions,” he added, giving a dramatic wink that looked bizarre on his ever-shifting face.

Alex frowned. “I just don’t know where I keep going wrong,” he explained. “I got the blood wrong, but I fixed it, thanks to you. The second try should have worked—everything was in place.”

Elias shook his head from side to side, little strands of shadow taking their time to catch up. “Incorrect!” he cried, making an obnoxious buzzer sound that sent irritated shivers up Alex’s spine.

“So what did I get wrong?” Alex pressed.

Elias tutted. “Questions, questions, must ask the questions.”

“Does it have something to do with what Siren Mave said?” Alex asked, as a sudden flash of something popped into his mind, sweeping him along on the current of an idea. In the image in his mind, there were three figures standing in a pit room, though their faces weren’t clear. “Does someone else need to be in the room, to watch the spell take place? Is that what she meant by it being ‘properly witnessed’?”

Elias clapped his vaporous hands together. “By Jove, I think he’s getting the hang of this question game. Now, for one million dollars, what’s the young man going to say next? Who might that third figure be?” He paused, a tremor of light running through his body, shattering his floating limbs with silvery veins. The shadow-man looked at Alex, panic evident on his face. “That’s the trouble with bizarre loopholes—nobody knows if I’ve stepped over a line,” he whispered, his voice thick with pain. “I think I may be in trouble… See if I can get out of this one…” He trailed off, his body disappearing in a burst of white-hot light that made Alex cover his eyes with his forearm.

Alex was left staring at the spot where the shadow-man had been, blinking away the glare of his departure, wondering if that was it—Elias’s last chance. Just then, there was a knock at the door, distracting him from what might have happened to the shadow-man.

Siren Mave entered, her bright lipstick freshly applied, her cheeks even pinker than usual.

“You?” Alex gasped.

She peered at him over the horned rims of her glasses. “Yes, me. Does that present an immediate problem?” she remarked.

“You work for the king?” he asked, incredulous. “What, does that mean you’ve been on his side this whole time?”

She sighed impatiently. “I am on nobody’s side, as you well know. I have always been a royal advisor and servant, which you also know, across all the havens,” she explained. “And