The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 4 by Bella Forrest (life books to read TXT) 📕

others. It wasn’t an idea he relished. It was bad enough when he knew where she was, but the worry of her jumping out at him, catching him unawares, was one that set his nerves on edge.

He glanced around, wondering which hallway to take. There were four in total, branching off from the main room, and with the clock clanging above him, impulse made him sprint through the central one.

The prison still echoed with screams that only seemed to grow louder, the cries of the inmates masking any sound that might lead Alex in the right direction, to the place his friends had disappeared to. All around him, the walls still crackled with a menacing ripple of energy. Keeping his head as level as he could, he hoped the bristle of his angry aura wouldn’t set the barrier magic off again.

A prisoner threw himself at the wooden door of one of the cells with a piercing shriek, startling Alex. Taking a moment to collect himself, Alex pressed on, though he quickly came to realize that it was only the first in a succession of escape attempts. With every door he passed, another inmate hurled themselves in his direction, gnashing their teeth at him through the grate, trying to grasp at him with dirty, scrabbling hands. It was like running a nightmarish gauntlet. Alex’s heart thundered as he tried to guard himself against the fear that coursed through his veins, but it didn’t matter that he was frightened—his friends were in danger, and he was the only one who could drag them out of their own personal nightmares.

Turning a corner, he breathed a small sigh of relief, though the hammering of inmates behind him still had him rattled. A short distance away, Lintz and Demeter were grappling with one another on the slick floor of the prison. Demeter seemed to have the upper hand, though Lintz had the weight advantage, as they tried to land savage punches on one another, golden magic rippling beneath their fists. Demeter roared in Lintz’s face, the professor’s mouth frothing with the exertion of the fight.

Alex gulped. It wasn’t an altogether reassuring sight, but he knew it was a start.

Two down, if they’ll let me get close enough.

Using the noise of the prison as cover, Alex inched toward them. Demeter was on top of Lintz, grasping the professor’s head in his hands as if he were about to smash it against the hard stone floor. Alex lurched forward, reaching out to grab Demeter’s shoulder. He ducked as the auburn-haired man whirled on him, lashing out with a blow that would have given Alex a decent bruise if he hadn’t dodged in time.

Seizing the opportunity while Demeter was off balance, Alex grasped the ex-teacher’s forearm and fed his anti-magic through the freckled surface of Demeter’s skin. Searching through the man’s body for remnants of the fog, Alex dissipated the glistening red haze. It didn’t take long for Demeter to return to normality, his paranoia eased. Like the last time, it appeared Demeter’s mind-control powers were helping him to recover more swiftly than those without his skillset.

Now for Lintz.

“Help me,” he said to Demeter, who was just coming back around.

Lintz lunged at Alex, grasping him by the shoulders and shoving him backward. It sent him flying against the nearby wall, his head slamming against the stone, but Alex didn’t let it faze him. He dove toward the professor, forcing his hands onto the sides of Lintz’s head. Despite Lintz’s forceful attempts to remove him, Demeter managed to pin the old man, ensuring that Alex wouldn’t be thrown off again.

Alex had only intended to calm Lintz down the way he had calmed Demeter. However, as he ran his anti-magic into the professor’s temples, he found himself accidentally crossing over into the realms of mind control and spirit lines, combining the two as he searched within the professor’s mind, using what he had learned from Vincent and Demeter in a strangely complementary fashion. It was an odd mix of skills, but it seemed to work, easing Lintz’s delirious screams and violent arms. With it came an instant wave of memories and emotions. Through the sparks in Lintz’s fevered brain, Alex saw flashes of the professor’s life, as seen through the old man’s eyes.

One fell upon a scene in which a woman of around thirty was speaking with Lintz. Glancing around, Alex realized they weren’t in the familiar stone setting of Spellshadow Manor, with the recognizable hallways and Derhin as his constant shadow. It was somewhere much more clinical, the wallpaper a muted jade green, linoleum on the floor. In the center of the room was a hospital bed, and sitting at the head of it, propped up by a stack of cushions, was the woman. She looked tired but happy, and in her arms, she cradled a small, red-faced newborn who snuffled softly in the throes of slumber.

“What do you think of your baby sister?” the woman whispered.

“I love her,” he heard Lintz say, in a voice much younger than the gruff old tones he was used to.

The woman smiled. “Oh, my darling, she loves you too! You will be such a good big brother to her.”

Alex watched as Lintz rested his finger beneath his baby sister’s outstretched hand, and felt the thrill Lintz felt as the tiny girl instinctively gripped it with surprising strength. She yawned, the sound soft and sweet, partway between a whisper and a squeal.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” the woman asked.

Lintz nodded. “Kind of.”

The woman laughed. “But you will protect her, won’t you?”

“I’ll be the best big brother,” Lintz promised.

“Because you know I won’t be around forever, don’t you?” said the woman sadly, making Alex wonder if there was something more to the sick, tired look on her face. “And she’ll need you when I’m gone. You’ll need to make sure she grows up big and strong, knowing she’s loved. You’ll have to tell her about me, one day.”

Alex could feel the sad uncertainty growing within the