The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 6 Bella Forrest (best books to read now txt) 📖

From his pocket, the Head pulled a large key and placed it in the lock. A loud clunk echoed across the silent lawn as he turned it. Nobody dared to speak, their eyes set on the gates, and the hope that lay beyond them. Virgil grasped one of the bars and yanked it with all his might, the gate giving with a reluctant squeal of ancient metal. Once one side was open, he pulled the other, until both swung wide, revealing the long road with the crumbling, derelict buildings at either side.

The street no longer looked grim and gray, however. Instead, it was as if someone had gone along the rows of buildings, coloring them in, in preparation for this day.

A roar of victory went up from the crowd, but Alex could not join in. His breathing was becoming difficult, his limbs shaking, his mouth dry. He wanted so badly to be able to whoop and holler with the others, but he simply lacked the energy.

“You are free to return home!” Virgil shouted.

With that, the crowd swarmed toward the gate, walking along the road to the very end, where the camouflaging magic of the manor gave way to the real world. The glamor to keep the magical realm hidden was still in place, but the school’s barrier was long gone.

It was a happy moment, and one that the five friends, flanked by Demeter, Ceres, and Virgil, watched together.

Finally, Alex could feel that the time had come for more goodbyes, though he didn’t know if he’d be one of the people leaving. As much as he wanted to damn everything and stride down that road, it was becoming clearer by the second that he wasn’t capable.

“Okay, well, I guess we should get going, right?” Jari spoke first, breaking the awkward tension.

Aamir nodded. “Yes, I imagine we will have to figure out a route home, and who knows how long that will take.”

Alex shook his head, feeling his chest tighten. “I won’t be going with you, just yet,” he said quietly.

The group looked at him.

“Dude, you have to—this is what we’ve been waiting for!” Jari exclaimed, the disbelief written across his face.

“I can’t… I have to stay and recuperate,” Alex explained miserably, hating every word. “Right now, I feel like a zombie. If I go home to my mom like this, I’ll never forgive myself. I want to see her so badly it literally hurts my heart, but I’d rather she got her son back than this feeble mess.” Bitter tears glinted in his eyes as he balled his hands into fists against the sorrow he felt.

Natalie put her hands on his shoulders. “I think you are making a very wise, very brave choice, Alex,” she said. “And I suppose it is a good moment to say that I will not be returning either—not yet, anyway. Helena has asked that I join her, taking up the role of Deputy Head of Stillwater House, and I plan to accept.”

“What about your family?” Aamir asked, dumbfounded.

Jari nodded emphatically. “Yeah, don’t you care?”

“Of course I care, Jari. I am not as heartless as you seem to think,” she snapped, but her tone quickly calmed. “The truth is, I will see them again soon enough, once I have everything settled at Stillwater. This is simply something I must do first. I feel as if this is my life now. I belong in the magical realm—perhaps it was always meant to be this way.”

“This is insane!” Jari barked. “You’re all coming home, right now.”

“No, Jari, we are not,” Natalie said, stepping toward the blond boy. “We will go when we are ready, and we will see you again, but we have our reasons for staying. Alex needs to recover, and I need to figure out a life for myself.”

“Ellabell, tell me you’re not buying this madness?” Jari sighed, turning to Ellabell.

The curly-haired girl couldn’t meet his eye. “I will stay too, for a short while, to assist in Alex’s recovery,” she murmured quietly.

“This is a joke, right? You’re all in on this?” Jari asked, his eyes wide. “Come on, this has to be a joke!”

“It’s not a joke,” Ellabell replied simply.

Alex gazed at the young woman standing beside him. “Ellabell, you can’t stay here. You have to go back to your family. There is a life waiting for you out there,” Alex insisted, feeling a twinge of guilt that he was somehow responsible for making her stay.

She smiled. “And it can wait a little longer. You won’t change my mind.”

“Ellabell, you have to go. I’ll come and find you when I leave here, but you can’t stay for my sake,” he said, desperate not to see her give up this opportunity.

“Like I said, you won’t change my mind,” she repeated. “Where you go, I go. I’ve waited a long time for these gates to open… What’s a few months more?”

Alex swallowed hard. “And what if it’s longer than that?”

“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” she said, taking his hand in hers.

Aamir and Jari shared a defeated glance. It was bittersweet; they had expected to walk through the gates together, but the group was splintering. It had done so before, under more strained circumstances, but it did not make the separation any easier. There was no telling how long it would be until they saw each other again, and the sad atmosphere that settled across them revealed that they all knew it.

“Looks like it’s just you and me for now, Petra,” Aamir sighed, forcing a smile onto his face.

Jari shook his head. “I can’t believe this.”

“We’ll see you again, both of you,” Alex promised.

“Yeah, you’d better! If you don’t, I’ll hunt you all down and make you,” Jari said, clearly trying to sound threatening, even though his voice was thick with emotion.

“Come on, Jari. We will return in due course. No need to worry,” Aamir encouraged, taking the tone of an older brother. Which, Alex reasoned, he kind of was.

They hugged