The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 3 by Bella Forrest (i can read book club txt) 📕

he had been suffering long before he ever made it to the arena floor. Whoever had done this to him had wanted to make sure he was weak enough to fail quickly. Jari was a fearsome mage, and even though he had been pitted against a Stillwater student of superior ability, he would never have simply given up as swiftly as he had, without being broken to within an inch of his life. He would have kept fighting, kept taking the hits, until he had nothing left, but Alex knew Jari had walked onto that field already beaten.

Alex had expected the Headmistress to come straight for him, but she did not. If she meant to torture him by stringing out the suspense, Alex no longer cared.

On the other side of the bed, Helena sat in an identical chair to the one Alex sat in, trying equally hard to stay awake. She hadn’t left Jari’s side for a moment, her hands clutching his as he slept.

“I feel so responsible—I should have known this would happen. I should have known they were lying,” she said quietly, brushing tears from her eyes.

Alex turned to her. “What happened? You told me he was fine. You promised me he was fine.”

“I thought he was. It’s what they told me. They said he was fine,” she replied miserably, shaking her head.

“Who are ‘they?’” he asked, frowning.

Suddenly cagey, Helena turned her face away. “Just somebody I know in the villa, who was supposed to be taking care of him,” she explained vaguely.

Alex didn’t get to ask any more questions, as Jari stirred beneath the covers, interrupting their conversation. He awoke slowly, his manner groggy and his eyes swollen. He glanced around in confusion.

“Where—?” he rasped.

“You’re in the infirmary. You’re safe,” said Alex.

“Alex! Thank you,” whispered Jari in a dopey voice. “Hey—your eyes were silver! I’ve never seen you do that before,” he mused deliriously as a grin spread across his face.

Alex looked at his friend with confusion, putting the strange comment down to Jari being tired and disoriented after the suffering he had undergone. The exhaustion was still apparent on his face, but the boy seemed intent on fighting sleep as he gazed around the room, his eyes coming to rest adoringly on the face of Helena.

“Are you an angel?” he asked slowly.

She giggled. “No, Jari—it’s just me, Helena.”

“So, you are an angel.” He grinned like an idiot, lifting his hands with slow surprise as he saw her clutching them. “Well, if I’d known this was how you got the girl, I’d have done it ages ago!” He chuckled to himself, hopped up on whatever spell the medical mage had run through him.

Alex smiled, happy to see his friend hadn’t lost his sense of priorities.

“Jari?” he said, waiting for the boy to make the laborious turn back toward him.

“Alex, my man!” Jari giggled.

“What happened to you?” Alex asked, trying to keep the smirk from his face. As much as he wanted to have a serious conversation with Jari, the boy was being amusing.

“What happened to me? I’ll tell you what happened to me. That woman, you know, the big, tall, pretty one with the evil stare,” he began dramatically. “Well, she made me this offer, and I was like ‘Dude, I’m not taking that—no way, Jose.’ And she got real mad. It was like five years and then a fight to the death or some nonsense—I guess it was more like five minutes and a fight to the death, eh?” he cackled, clearly pleased with himself. “Thank you, by the way, for coming in guns blazing with your weird little eyes!”

Alex smiled. “It was no problem, Jari. Did she say anything else to you?”

Jari paused thoughtfully. “Yeah. She wanted me to spy on you and report back, like some dastardly supervillain. I was like, who do you think I am? The name’s Bond, James Bond.” He grinned, making finger guns as he dove headfirst into a poor Sean Connery impression. “Not sure why—something to do with powers and stuff. She was all like ‘I’ll kill Alex if you don’t do what I say,’ and I was like ‘Yeah, good one.’ I didn’t believe her because you’re too mega special to kill. Everyone’s always like ‘Alex is so special,’ ‘look at his special glowing powers,’ ‘super special Alex.’ Everybody wants you alive, man. I knew she was bluffing—can’t get nothing past me!” He grinned, trying and failing to wink as he turned back toward Helena, who was chuckling away in her chair.

Alex laughed softly, though he felt responsibility weighing heavily on him once more. Because of him and what he was, a friend had almost died.

“Hey, Mopey McMope!” yelped Jari, as if he’d read Alex’s mind. “None of this is your fault, man. I know you’ll think it is because you’re you and that’s what you do, but it’s not—you brought us the closest to freedom we have been. I could almost taste that sweet, sweet freedom, and we’ll still taste it, my man. You’ll see. Hope is not lost,” he assured Alex with another failed attempt at a wink, before turning back to Helena with adoring, dopey eyes.

“And I can still help with the portals. I’m much closer to finding the book I need,” Helena chimed in quietly, much to Jari’s confusion.

“Portals? Are we going back to Spellshadow? Why are we going back?” He flashed Alex a look of concern, though his eyes were somewhat crossed.

“No, not Spellshadow. Helena has agreed to help find information on portals so we might find one or make one that can get us back to the outside world… to home,” explained Alex.

The idea seemed to perk up an already perky Jari. “Can you really do it?” he asked.

“It can be done. It will take a lot of energy and a lot of magic, but there are books on the subject, and I am trying to find them,” she assured Jari, squeezing his hand.

“How about the library?” suggested Jari, suddenly speaking in