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

couldn’t get through to the number you gave us. Please, try not to go missing again before then, okay? They are worried sick,” she added, her tone spiky.

Natalie nodded. “Thank you, Detective. I won’t.”

With that, the woman turned on her heel and left, giving the door a good slam on the way out. It was evident she felt like Alex and Natalie had wasted her time, and had no doubt been off gallivanting somewhere, having the time of their lives, giving little thought to their families at home. Even from the interview, Alex could tell the detective hadn’t believed a word of their story, but what she had said was true—if they were going to lie, what else could the police do?

“I’m just going to go down to the station, see if I can help with any paperwork,” David said, rising from the sofa, a suspicious look in his eyes. “Let me know if you want me to pick up anything on my way home,” he added before disappearing out the door.

At last, the trio was alone with Alex’s mother.

She looked at them expectantly. “Well, where have you been then, if it wasn’t Alaska?”

Alex smiled, inhaling deeply, as he began his tale. Natalie and Ellabell chipped in bits and pieces along the way, though some of the things he said surprised even them. After all, they hadn’t both been around for everything he’d been through in the magical realm. Ellabell blushed when he mentioned her, and how they had met, but Alex’s mom seemed thrilled by the prospect of a new love interest for her son.

“And so beautiful too!” she chirped excitedly, smiling at Ellabell.

“She is very beautiful,” he agreed, embarrassing Ellabell even more. “Now, where was I?” he asked, before continuing with his story, running through the months he’d spent at Spellshadow, followed by their escape into the domain of Stillwater House. Running back a step, he told her all about Elias, and how the shadow-man had helped, in his own kind of way, from day one, before switching to the journey they had gone through with Helena. He explained what happened with Alypia, and all the things they had endured at the villa. He pressed on, recounting how they had escaped to a fearsome prison named Kingstone Keep, full of psychopaths and murderers. She didn’t like that part, a gasp of horror rising from her throat, but she was too enthralled to interrupt. He spoke of Caius, and how things had ended horribly for him, despite his best intentions, leading them to move swiftly into the world of Falleaf and through the gauntlet to obtain the Book of Jupiter. Ignoring another gasp from his mother’s lips, he spoke to her of the kind soul, Hadrian, they had met there, and how they had come to meet the people of Starcross. Finally, he told her all about Julius and the final battle, though he left out the part about his sacrifice, and how he’d spent a short while in recovery afterward, not wanting to worry her too much.

“And that is about it,” Ellabell said, finishing the story for him.

Alex’s mom sat back, absorbing all the information she had been bombarded with. For what seemed like an age, Alex was certain she was going to sit up and scold him for making things up, but then her expression changed from dubious to understanding.

“I knew you were alive,” she said softly. “I just knew you were out there somewhere, watching over me. I knew you hadn’t been kidnapped or killed and dumped in a ditch somewhere—they tried to tell me, but I knew I was right. It’s funny, sometimes it did feel as if you were walking in another plane of existence, looking down… and I suppose, in a way, you were.”

“Wait, you believe me?” Alex asked, dumbfounded.

She nodded. “You forget, Alex, you’re my son. I know you. If you wanted to lie, you would have come up with something far simpler,” she explained, a faint smile lifting the corners of her lips. A chuckle began in the back of her throat, growing louder and more infectious as it took hold of her body, shaking her shoulders, making her eyes stream with happy tears.

The others laughed with her, getting rid of all the bad energy that had built up inside them, for so long. It was good to laugh.

But, more than that, it was good to be home.

Epilogue

After that day at the house, Natalie and Ellabell had boarded their flights the following afternoon, the trio sharing a tearful farewell at the airport. Ellabell and Alex had stolen a private moment together, taking the opportunity to have one last kiss, before everything changed forever.

Alex had waved them off, returning to his home, with no idea what the future would hold. His mom had given Ellabell an open invitation to return whenever she wanted, and Ellabell had promised to keep her to that, but he didn’t know how long it would be until he saw her again. Natalie, too.

In fact, after returning home to find her parents away on business, with a message on the answering machine to say they’d heard she was back but they couldn’t be there to greet her, Ellabell realized she no longer felt like herself in the home she’d grown up in. Alex heard about it straightaway, as Ellabell called him as soon as she heard the message to tell him how lonely she felt in the big, empty house, and what had happened when she got back. Her parents had said they had just presumed she’d run away to do the things some teenagers did, and only realized it was something else when the police called. Still, they said they couldn’t come home just yet, promising to return when they’d finished their business trips. Saddened by their absence, and the thought of continuing to flit about the empty home, Ellabell had written her parents a note and boarded the next plane to Iowa, less than