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

a granny on a frosty morning. That man gets ideas in his head and there is no shifting them. Who in their right mind turns down an offer from a much-loathed stepson to willingly take himself out of the picture? Honestly, if Virgil were my stepson, I’d have jumped at the chance,” he said, a hint of amusement in his strange voice.

“Nope, it looks like I am the chosen one,” Alex said bitterly.

“Hey, let’s not be getting ideas above our station,” Elias replied. “I’d say you’re more like the unlucky one in this scenario…” The shadow-man’s expression became briefly uncomfortable. “I am sorry it’s come to this, you know? As much as we’ve had our little frictions, you’ve grown on me—like an unsightly mole, or a rash, or the first few flecks of gray in one’s hair.”

Alex wouldn’t give Elias the satisfaction of saying he’d grown on him too, especially given the actual scale of their “little frictions.” What Elias had done to Alex’s father had not been forgotten; it had simply been put on the backburner of his mind.

“Wasn’t this the whole point of you being my guardian, though?” Alex asked, voicing something that had been bugging him for a long while. “Wasn’t this your objective, to find me and get me to do the spell?”

Elias tilted his head from side to side. “Yes and no. Once we knew what you were, there was an element of that, but it was only ever supposed to be a voluntary act. I would never have made you do it, and with Virgil still around, I always hoped you’d make him suffer by getting him to do it instead, just like old times. It made my day when you said that was precisely what you had in mind—all my little drip-feeds paying off handsomely. Well, until they didn’t,” he said, gesturing at the room.

“Why do you hate him so much?” Alex asked.

“Actually, I don’t. We have somewhat buried the hatchet, in the brief interim since last we met,” Elias explained, shrugging with languid arms. “Well, I say that—we may have tied a ribbon on the fruit basket of our differences, but a lifetime of hatred is a tough thing to shift completely. I’ll always keep a little spot in my heart for my secret loathing of him,” the shadow-man chuckled.

“I’m sure he has one for you too.” Alex sighed, incredulous of the idea of Elias and Virgil no longer at odds.

“Hey, I never did anything to him. He was the guilty party in all of this,” said Elias, wafting his hands in front of his vaporous body. “I’d still be a solid man if it weren’t for Virgil’s idiocy. We were friends, back in the day. It wasn’t me who caused the rift.” He pouted.

Alex smiled, pleased to have rattled the shadow-man. “Regardless, I’m sure you annoyed him enough to warrant whatever he did to you,” he teased.

“I’ve a mind to show you precisely what he did,” Elias grumbled. “Instead, I shall bring you vague news, in the hopes it’ll exasperate you enough to satisfy me.”

Alex frowned. “What news?”

“Well, I stopped off by our old chum on the way, and we decided enough was enough, where our feud was concerned. But, we also had a little chat about you,” Elias began. “He’s got something up his sleeve—something to do with what we were discussing when I got snapped away. I would show you the image again, but I don’t feel like pushing my luck. Anyway, Virgil has it all worked out. He has a plan, and he’s putting it into action as we speak, though he’s told me not to tell you,” he continued, putting on the voice of a petulant schoolchild. Alex felt as if Elias were about to say he couldn’t sit with him at the lunch table.

“Elias, what did Virgil say? What is he planning?” Alex asked firmly, not in the mood for funny business. “Does it have something to do with the third person in the vision you showed?”

“Maybe… Maybe not.” Elias sighed, stretching out his long, vaporous arms. “I can’t say any more on the subject. All you need to know is that it’s worked out.”

Alex felt a wave of irritation prickle across his skin. He was tired of people keeping important information from him, yet again. Surely, if it was something to do with the spell, he had a right to know?

“If I’m supposed to be the one doing this spell, shouldn’t I know if I’m missing something glaringly obvious?” Alex pressed.

“Well, it can’t be that glaringly obvious if you haven’t figured it out,” Elias bit back, smiling sardonically.

Alex glared at the shadow-man. “Elias!”

“Okay, okay, I didn’t want to be the one to tell you this, but the reason Virgil has explicitly said you are not to be told, is because you can’t be trusted,” he said, holding up his misty hands in defense, though it was clear he was reveling in every second of Alex’s torment.

Alex almost choked on the words. “I can’t be trusted?”

“That’s what he said.” Elias shrugged. “Or perhaps he said it was to protect you, in case Julius tried to torture you, and you accidentally let something slip? I forget. This old mind is like a sieve—a great big, foggy sieve. It’s nothing bad, though. It’s just something he needs to keep secret. Or so he claims, anyway.”

“And he told you all of this?” Alex pressed, still in disbelief over the idea of the two of them being buddies all of a sudden.

Elias smirked. “Oh yes, he’s quite the chatterbox once you get him going. We discussed your upcoming task, and what happened in the throne room. He told me he’d come to you after, to speak with you, which I thought was a nice touch.” He sniggered. “Yes, he called to me, I was curious, and we spoke. There was tea and a quartet and unicorns too,” he said, with a wave of his shadowy fronds.

“If both of you want