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

the first place, bringing the Great Evil into being. Another scream pierced the air as his mind connected with the cloud of mist, showing it what his heart wanted more than anything. In his head, he rewound the flashing image he’d seen, flicking it back to the burning eyes of Leander Wyvern, and the hatred his ancestor had felt for the king who stood nearby. He understood now that this was the final step.

The silver mist hurtled through the barrier Virgil had made, which had no protective effect whatsoever against the ferocity of the Great Evil’s last stand. It whirled around Julius’s head, constricting him like a shimmering boa, swallowing him up. He howled in pain, but the mist had him now. His body collapsed onto the stone floor. A few seconds later, a ghostly form rose from where the mist had torn Julius’s spirit away. With its clawing hands, the mist dragged the spectral form down into the pit, and though the wispy fingers of the phantom king struggled to grasp at solid ground, there was no escaping the Great Evil.

As soon as the torn spirit was pulled below, the rest of the mist rushing backward with it, another thunderous blast shook the pit room. The earth cracked as boulders tumbled from the roof—the cavern was falling in around them.

“GO!” Virgil yelled, shoving Alex toward the door.

Though he had little energy left, Alex ran as fast as he could, diving headfirst into the hallway and not stopping until he reached the staircase at the far end. Virgil arrived a second later, followed by the straggling soldiers.

They turned, just in time to see the corridor collapse, sealing the pit forever.

Chapter 29

The roar of the collapsing pit echoed in their ears, fissures tearing up the sides of the pagoda. Alex and Virgil, trailed by the guards, stumbled upstairs. Hadrian was nowhere to be seen, having left his guard post, but Alex didn’t mind—he was too exhausted to think about anything but what had happened in the cavern below.

Alex sat down against one of the still-shaking walls, too weary to move. The guards who had made it out sprinted past, heading for safer ground.

“We need to leave the pagoda,” Virgil commanded.

“Need a minute to… catch my breath,” Alex said, shaking his head. His whole body felt weak, every limb numb, as if he’d been leaning on them and they’d gone to sleep.

Virgil hauled Alex back to his feet. “Not yet. You may rest soon, but we must get out of this building.”

Reluctantly, Alex allowed Virgil to drag him along, though he leaned heavily against the skeletal man’s frame, unable to hold his own body up.

“Did you know that was going to happen?” Alex asked as they hurried toward the pagoda’s exit, the whole building still trembling around them.

“Know what was going to happen?”

Alex clawed a breath into his lungs. “The mist taking Julius?”

Virgil smiled. “I thought something might happen, although I didn’t quite know what. Given the failed attempts, I knew a key ingredient was missing, and when we read that passage, and you told me of your friend’s warning, I came to a conclusion. Julius had to be present too,” he explained. “I knew I had to get him to stay, no matter what. With you there, I thought it’d be easier. He wanted to keep an eye on you, make sure you did it properly, which gave me a window of opportunity. I didn’t know it would kill him… Let’s just call that a perk.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell me that was what you had planned?” Alex asked, feeling as if his body were about to crumble around him, just like the pit.

Virgil sighed heavily. “If I told you, and Julius were to practice some of his favorite torture treatments on you, I knew you might break and tell him what I had planned,” he began. “You might think you’re strong, but you don’t know Julius’s definition of pain the way I do. I have had years of it, and have developed something of a tolerance, but you haven’t. Moreover, I had nothing to lose, whereas you have your friends and allies. In all honesty—and I envy you for it—you had too many weaknesses he could prey upon. I couldn’t risk it. Keeping it secret was the only way I could ensure his presence during the spell.”

Alex could understand that—not that it made him any less irritated that he’d been kept in the dark. What if they hadn’t been able to keep Julius at the pit? What would have happened then? He thought about asking the skeletal man, but he was too tired to get into it. Already, his eyelids were drooping and his shoulders felt heavy. It was all he could do not to curl up into a ball and sleep for a thousand years.

“I became the mist, in those last moments,” Alex said sleepily, hoping Virgil would understand what he meant.

“I felt it too.” Virgil paused for a moment, leaning against the wall, still clutching Alex. “The spell is designed purely for regicide against a cruel ruler, so it makes sense now that it had to be the king’s blood that broke the spell. An elaborate eye for an eye kind of deal.”

“Did it take half of me?” Alex gasped, his lungs burning.

Virgil smiled sadly. “Yes, I think it did. It took half of me too. We split the load—I think Elias stepped in to ensure it only took half of each.”

They had reached the main foyer of the pagoda, the room dripping with dark corners, just the sort Elias liked to hide in. Alex looked around for the shadow-man, but he wasn’t there. “Did Elias get out?”

“I think that man can get out of anything.” Virgil chuckled wryly, though the laugh turned into a cough, a few splatters of blood landing on the Head’s pale palm.

“You okay?” Alex asked, helping Virgil over to the banister of the staircase.

Virgil shrugged, coming to the end of his cough.