The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 4 Bella Forrest (best love story novels in english .txt) 📖

softly-softly plan went out the window, Jari tackling her unceremoniously to the floor instead.

Alex ducked toward Ellabell and pressed his palms firmly against her temples, feeding his anti-magic through her skull and into her brain. He blushed as he saw himself in her memories, and felt more than a little strange watching himself through her eyes. It wasn’t quite like Jari’s hazy, romantically filtered movie scene, but there was a hopefulness to it that Alex felt guilty about trespassing upon. It wasn’t his place to feel her feelings, and yet it pleased him to see that they were on a similar track, in terms of the way they were beginning to think about each other. He lingered a moment longer on the remembrance of his arms around her, embracing beneath the stars, before moving quickly away from such personal thoughts.

She was the one whose mind most tempted him, but he returned to the task of restoring her to her usual self. It didn’t take long until all the fog and paranoia was gone, leaving Alex to recoil with reluctance.

“Get them off me, get them off me!” she screamed, throwing Jari away from her. Blinking away the last of the fog, she saw what she had done. “I’m sorry, Jari… I thought you were a demon.” She gasped, turning to Alex. “What happened? Where am I?”

“Alypia’s on the loose, big blast, red fog, golden monsters, intense paranoia, you wielding a great big magical sword that nearly took Jari’s head off, a little mind stuff to get rid of the bad juju… I think that brings you up to speed.” He forced a smile.

She frowned. “Mind stuff?”

“Yeah, he’s been fishing around in our brains again!” Jari remarked, throwing Alex under the bus.

“What do you mean ‘again?’ I haven’t fished in your brains before—I haven’t been fishing in your brains!” Alex insisted, knowing how it sounded. “I just got rid of the fog, that’s all.”

Ellabell glanced at him warily. Alex wanted to assure her that he hadn’t seen anything, and that he had never intended to use his newfound skills on any of them, but Jari cut in before he could.

“Get a good look, did you?” Jari taunted, evidently relishing Alex’s discomfort.

He sighed. “I just got rid of the imaginary monsters. Speaking of which, we don’t have time for this. We’ve still got Aamir and Natalie to find, not to mention Alypia.”

The other two agreed, sharing a grim look as they followed Alex’s lead. They set off into the unnerving halls of the keep’s inner sanctum, moving slowly so as not to disturb the bats that slept overhead. As they walked, the cries and shouts of the inmates seemed to be dying down. Either that, or they were getting too far away to hear them anymore, edging deeper into the unknown.

Alex was so focused on keeping his eyes on the shadows and focusing on the path ahead that he almost tripped over Aamir, who was passed out in the hallway, a livid red gash rising up on his forehead. It seemed like a bizarre thing to assume, but it looked unmistakably as if he had run into the wall and knocked himself out. Concerned, Alex crouched and shook Aamir awake.

With a pained blink, the older boy came to, glancing around with a puzzled expression, as if trying to grasp at a slippery memory. More surprisingly still, he seemed to be entirely himself, with no need for Alex’s anti-magic. Whatever had knocked him out had clearly knocked the fog out too.

“What happened to you?” Alex asked.

“The last thing I remember was seeing a portal home… and trying to run into it,” Aamir admitted, albeit reluctantly.

Ellabell and Jari helped Aamir to his feet. As they hurried down the hallway, Alex could taste the finish line. It was within reach now, and once they crossed it, they could get back to the task at hand—that of locking Alypia away where she belonged.

We might actually fix this mess after all, he thought anxiously.

Now, they just needed to find Natalie.

Once they reached the subterranean floor of the keep, Alex paused in front of a familiar, empty cell. He was certain Caius would have moved the cot back into place once he’d left the pit.

But there was nothing covering the staircase to the catacombs now.

With a sudden surge of panic, Alex imagined Natalie stepping through the door at the end of the hall below, falling unawares into the pit itself, driven over the edge by imaginary monsters. He could picture the misty swarm of a billion vaporous particles, snatching at her essence, wanting to tear it out of her. Of all the places in the keep, how was it that she had found the most dangerous one? He had a feeling dark magic was responsible.

He motioned for his friends to follow him down the staircase, wasting no time on an explanation. The other three shared a look, but followed anyway, and they stormed down into the catacombs.

In the narrow corridor, the torches were flickering, and Alex was slightly relieved to find the large door at the end closed—it was one of the smaller side doors that was open, light spilling out. He raced toward it. Inside, he was met by the sight of a luxurious chamber, decidedly out of place in the dank, foreboding setting of the prison around them.

The chamber was softly lit with stained-glass lanterns that pooled a multicolored luminescence onto the plush, rug-covered floor and tapestry-draped walls. The place was adorned with soft, rich furnishings, including full bookshelves and many other beautiful things—shining jewelry boxes, sleek wooden trunks with brass fittings, exquisitely carved statuary. It might once have been a charming place, but much of the furniture looked as if it hadn’t been used in a long time, and a musty, mildewed scent clung to the air. Had it not been for the lack of windows, it would have been hard to tell that it was a prison cell at all.

Alex staggered backward, the others jumping