The Chain (The Secret of Spellshadow Manor #3)

“Hungry?” she asked, passing each of them a loaf of crusty white bread.

Alex looked at her in shock. “How did you—?”

She smiled. “Let’s just say I used my time wisely, instead of watching pretty girls,” she teased, though there was a strange undertone to her words that sounded almost like jealousy.

He wanted to deny it, wondering how she had seen them, hiding up on the battlements. He hadn’t seen her.

She is just full of surprises, he thought wryly.

“We weren’t watching pretty girls,” he said finally, trying to keep his voice as even as possible.

“If you say so.” Ellabell smiled triumphantly. “Either way, we have food now.”

“How did you get it?” Alex tried again.

Ellabell tapped the side of her nose. “I have my ways.”

“But how?” Jari chimed in.

“It was easy,” she whispered in a low, conspiratorial tone. The two boys listened intently. “I just found out where they chuck the food away at night.” Laughter rippled from her throat, bringing a smile to Alex’s face.

“I still think it was better to watch pretty girls.” Jari grinned as the three of them moved outside the cottage and sat up against the outer wall.

As the moonlight made the tiny ripples of the lake dance and shimmer, they chatted and watched the lap of the waves on the shore. The two boys ate the pilfered bread, tearing it off in great, hungry chunks, and Jari regaled Ellabell with the brief tale of his ill-timed whistle, gaining an eye-roll from behind her spectacles.

“You really need to learn subtlety, Jari Petra,” she said.

“Hey, I am the king of subtlety!” Jari exclaimed.

She raised an eyebrow. “Kittens—that’s all I’m saying.”

Alex laughed, nearly choking on a piece of bread as he remembered the first time Ellabell had told him of Jari’s less-than-welcome flirtations. Alex had barely known her back then. In fact, all of that seemed like a lifetime ago now.

“Who doesn’t like kittens?” Jari muttered.

“Nobody wants a room full of them. I still have the scars.”

“All right, so I was a little heavy-handed,” Jari sulked.

“A little?” Ellabell prodded.

“Fine, a lot heavy-handed. What are you bringing that up for again, anyway?” asked Jari. “That’s all in the past. I have my sights set elsewhere now!”

“Poor girl.”

“At least I let a girl know I like them!” Jari smirked, flashing a look at Alex.

Alex felt his throat drying up as Ellabell eyed him curiously. It certainly did feel like a long time since he had first met her. Back then, he had thought he might have feelings for the cute French exchange student whom he had followed blindly into a spooky old house. How times had changed; he certainly didn’t see Natalie in any sort of romantic way now, leaving his path clear to consider other girls, and yet he found it difficult to put the affection he felt for Ellabell into words. With everything else that had been going on around them, he had been too distracted to really think about romance in a serious way. And yet, here was Jari, throwing him under the bus in front of the one girl he thought he might actually like.

He wondered if she was, in fact, waiting for him to put those feelings into words, as she continued to look at him strangely. Even Jari seemed to want him to say something.

Alex cleared his throat. “You just scare them away, Jari,” he said, knowing how lame it sounded as Jari visibly winced.

Ellabell, however, showed nothing on her face. If she had been waiting for him to say something, she gave nothing away. It was only her sparkling blue eyes that showed the merest hint of disappointment, but Alex wasn’t sure if that was him reading too much into it. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to say something to her—he just didn’t have the right words.

“Right, well, I’m off to bed,” announced Ellabell, with a forced brightness in her voice, as she got to her feet. “Goodnight, boys.”

“Goodnight,” they chorused. Alex watched her retreat back into the shadow of the cottage. For a brief second, she paused in the doorway, as if about to turn back around, but the moment passed and she disappeared into the darkness without another word. Whatever it was Ellabell might have wanted to say, she must have thought better of it.

“You blew it, man,” murmured Jari, patting Alex on the back.

I know, Alex thought. I know.





Chapter 7





The next day, the sun rose to reveal another warm, beautiful morning. For once, Alex had actually slept, despite thoughts of Ellabell racing through his mind as he had lain down to sleep. He and Jari had stayed up a while longer, enjoying the pleasant warmth of the evening as they finished off their supper, until exhaustion had finally claimed Alex.

Rested and refreshed, he awoke to find that Aamir had deteriorated in the night. The slick sheen of sweat had returned to his forehead, his face screwed up in a permanent expression of agony. His body twisted and turned in all manner of unnatural positions beneath the exertions of the curse within him. Jari hadn’t left his side, trickling water into his mouth every couple of minutes so he wouldn’t be thirsty.

Seeing the decline of his friend, who had seemed much better the previous day, Alex decided he was going to try and find an infirmary or a pharmacy or something of that ilk within the villa itself, if he could find a way into the building in broad daylight. He was about to leave the cottage when Ellabell called him back.

“You need to eat something,” she insisted, handing him more bread and a handful of dried apricots.

He took them gladly, eating quickly. “Thanks,” he murmured, hoping she had forgotten the awkwardness of the night before.

“I’d like to come with you, if you don’t mind,” said Natalie, picking up some apricots of her own.

“Me too,” Ellabell added.

Alex shook his head. “I have to do this alone. Too many people will arouse suspicion,” he explained. Not for the first time, Ellabell seemed disappointed by his response. Natalie too.

“Nobody will notice us,” insisted Natalie.

“We’re pretty useful—you should know that by now,” Ellabell chipped in.

Alex nodded. “You are both two of the strongest mages I know, but I have to do this alone. There are guards along the walls, and one person might slip past them in broad daylight, but three is too many. Plus, if there are magical barriers and things inside the villa, some of them may not even affect me, but they’ll affect you. I just want to go and test the waters a bit.”