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  This wasn’t the first time Alex had heard such a phrase spoken, and he hoped his friend might be able to shed some more light on it, in a way nobody else seemed willing or able to.

  “It has been said before, that others might try and use me—what do they mean?” he pressed. “Do you know what it means?”

  Aamir lifted his gaze. “I’m not sure. All I know is there is a myth surrounding Spellbreakers and the Great Evil, but it was never elaborated upon. It was just that—a myth, the details forgotten.” He shrugged apologetically.

  While this frustrated Alex, he could see the honesty on Aamir’s face. The older boy was telling him all he knew, at long last. But there was one question left, conjured by the last words from Elias as he had disappeared into the shadows.

  “Aamir—have you been here before? To Stillwater House?”

  A flash of panic glittered in Aamir’s eyes. “I don’t think so,” he replied, a touch too quickly.

  In that moment, Alex knew his friend was lying. After almost believing every word, he was back to square one again on the trust board, but he could not understand why Aamir was being so cagey about having visited Stillwater before. What wasn’t Aamir telling him?

  “I should be going,” said Alex, standing swiftly. “I’ll see you later.”

  “Yeah, see you later.”

  “And, Aamir?”

  Aamir nodded.

  “Thank you for being so honest,” Alex spoke, keeping his voice as even as possible.

  On the edge of the bed, Aamir’s face crumpled. With that, Alex left the room and returned to his own.

  Running a bath and sitting in the tub, Alex went over the things they had discussed. As they had been talking, Aamir’s answers had seemed complete and honest, but thinking about them in retrospect, Alex could see the holes and gaps in the stories he’d been told—all of the “I’m not sures” and “I can’t remembers” and the constant line of “there are gaps in my memory, and there are things I was never told.” He wondered gloomily if he would ever be able to fill in the missing pieces.

  Chapter 30

  After several failed attempts to get his book, finding himself perpetually halted in the corridor by the stern glare and probing questions of a uniformed guard, Alex drifted toward the infirmary, spending a short while with Jari and the others, until Jari grew too tired for company. He was recovering nicely, but still had a way to go. There was a greater sense of calm among the rest of his friends, after they had received the understanding that they would all be permitted to stay, without further consequences for what Alex had done. Alex himself still felt on edge, unable to trust a word of it, but Alypia had not come to tell him otherwise.

  On his way back from the infirmary, he tried to slip out once more toward the villa wall, only to be stopped again by a curious guard who seemed to materialize out of nowhere, forcing him to retreat to his room, where he began trying to figure out the anti-magical equivalent of some of the spells he’d seen at the arena of late, hoping they might be useful in the future. It seemed a better use of his time than moping about, hoping the guards in the hallways would disappear.

  A knock at the door disturbed Alex from his spell inversions. He opened it to find a slender young woman with fiery red hair standing in the hallway.

  “The Headmistress wishes to see you,” she commanded.

  Fear gripped Alex’s stomach as he slipped the sheets of paper he’d been working on into his pocket, hoping they’d be safe there. “Now?”

  She nodded. “If you’d be so kind.” There was a note of sarcasm in her voice that got Alex’s guard back up as he followed her.

  For a brief moment, he thought about defying the red-haired girl, refusing to go with her to see the Headmistress, but after the trouble he’d caused in the arena, and the already tentative safety of his friends, he didn’t feel like he had any choice but to go willingly. As much as he wanted to fight back, he wasn’t stupid; he knew he was in a sticky spot, with his choices influencing what might happen to his friends. To be taken to Alypia’s office by force, after causing more trouble—he had a feeling Alypia wouldn’t take too kindly to that.

  They moved quickly through the hallways and corridors, Alex noting the familiar route as he ran to keep up with the red-haired woman’s swift stride. She didn’t seem willing to talk as she led him toward the Headmistress’s office, her eyes set dead ahead, her mouth unsmiling. It was another glorious day, the sun beating down warmly on his face as they crossed one of the piazzas, the scent of flowers hanging heavily in the air, emanating from the vivid roses that draped the pale stone walls. He drank in the sights and sounds and smells, wondering if it would be his last taste of sunshine and fresh air as they ducked back into the shadow of another walkway.

  Arriving at the tall, white double doors, he thought his heart was about to explode, it was racing so fast. He hadn’t seen Alypia since the arena, though he had expected her to summon him, but now that it was happening, he wanted to turn and run as far from that place as possible. Sensing his hesitation, the red-haired girl opened the door and pushed him inside with an unexpectedly brutal shove.

  He staggered into the beautiful, glass-ceilinged office, struggling to regain his balance and stop himself from sprawling across the marble. It wasn’t exactly the elegant, confident entrance he had hoped to make.

  Sitting at her desk, Alypia beckoned him forward, the friendly smile on her face worrying Alex more than any dour expression might have done. “Fionnula can be a little forceful—my apologies,” she purred, clearly amused.

  Regaining his composure, he walked over to her desk and slowly sat down in the high-backed chair with the white fur covering, the fibers tickling his neck as he shuffled backward, trying to get comfortable. He figured he might as well, if she were about to sentence him to some unknown torture.

  Looking up, he met her gaze as fearlessly as he was able. “You took your time,” he remarked brazenly, trying to regain the upper hand.

  She chuckled softly. “I thought I’d give you the chance to calm down first, before I called you here.”

  Her words made Alex feel like a child being scolded at elementary school, needing a timeout for losing his temper. “That was kind of you,” was all he could muster, though he knew how paltry it sounded.

  “I trust you are fully recovered after your outburst the other evening?”

  “I am. My friend is still in the infirmary, however,” he replied curtly.

  Her eyes flashed. “An unfortunate incident,” she said diplomatically. “I have ensured he is getting the best care, to aid in his recovery. The problem is now—what am I supposed to do with you?”

  Alex frowned. “I don’t follow.”

  “While I abhor disobedience, you certainly gave me food for thought with your show of power. I had my suspicions about you, Alex Webber, as I presume you well know?” She waited for him to respond.

  He nodded. “I thought you might.”

  “My little brother suspected too, but you slipped out of his fingers before he could get you to break,” Alypia explained. “Now, I knew you didn’t need breaking in order to show yourself. I knew it would simply take something big to get the confirmation I needed, of how powerful you were. You would never have revealed your secret willingly, and so I had to… How shall I put it? Encourage you to show me. I had to see your strength with my own eyes.”

  Alex felt anger twist in his stomach. She had set him up. She had clearly longed to see the impressive extent of his power, and she had set a trap, to try to get Alex to show his hand. And he had, just as she’d hoped he would. He wasn’t sure whether he was more annoyed with her for doing it, or himself for performing exactly the way she had wanted him to.

  For the life of him, he couldn’t understand the woman’s motivations in arranging such an extreme ploy. Surely, there would have been an easier way to test whether he was a Spellbreaker? She could have fired a tiny morsel of magic at him, and she would have seen the truth. It seemed to Alex
that Alypia was something of a dramatist, relishing the spectacle of things—it would explain why she had chosen to present the extraction of life essence in such a theatrical manner, making it a bold, exciting event instead of conducting it beneath the cover of secrecy. That flair for the theatrical, combined with her clear taste for sadism, created a worrying picture as to what lay behind her beautiful exterior. She had wanted him to suffer.

  “How could you?” he hissed.

  “Oh, quite easily. You see, I know a little of your kind already.” She smirked.

  “The Head?”

  “So you did notice his little peculiarity?” she teased. “Quite sweet really, that you should find each other in this strange world of ours. Now, of course, he’s not quite like you—he’s what we call an abomination, whereas you are simply a surprise,” she quipped, speaking coldly of her brother with apparent ease.

  “I won’t let you use me,” Alex growled.

  She smiled icily. “Who said anything about using you? I presume you’ve heard this nonsense from my dear brother,” she sighed. “I don’t wish to use you, Alex—I wish to improve you, nurture you, assist you in becoming a very powerful Spellbreaker.”

  The word sounded strange, coming from the lips of such a fearsome mage. “Why would you want to help me?” He glared.

  She tutted with irritation, toying with a pen on the marble top of her desk. “This is what we do here. We create the world’s finest mages. Why would we not want to do the same for you? It would be the highest honor to have the world’s greatest Spellbreaker in our midst—admittedly the only one, as far as I know, but that doesn’t mean you have to wallow in mediocrity. With me, here, you could be wonderful,” she encouraged, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “If you were willing to stick to the terms we have already laid out, I would be willing to overlook your little transgression. I mean, you were only trying to protect one of your own, and I am not a monster: I see the nobility in that. It shows the strong bond you all share, and I could certainly forgive that, if you were to stay,” she taunted. Alex realized she could very well use that “strong bond” against him, and no doubt would, given the opportunity. After all, she already had done so, to make him reveal what he was.

  Silence gathered between them. She was waiting for an answer, and Alex knew she wasn’t a patient woman.

  “I have one condition,” he said finally.

  Her eyes narrowed. “I am not usually one for negotiations, Alex—but I will hear you out.”

  “I will remain a student here, and abide by your terms, if you permit Jari to stay. I realize he turned down your offer, but that is my condition. He stays, or I refuse,” he demanded, knowing he had nothing to lose, but his friends had everything to lose if he couldn’t get her to agree. Even though she hadn’t come for Jari, and it was implied that he was allowed to stay, Alex wanted to hear the words directly from Alypia’s mouth. As untrustworthy as she was, she seemed to put a lot of importance on the value of agreements.

  Alypia tilted her head at him. “This is highly unorthodox, you realize?”

  “I do.”

  She frowned, tapping her manicured fingers against her chin in thought. “Well, I suppose this way, we both get what we want,” she sighed. “I will agree to this new term, if you will agree to remain within the walls of Stillwater until such a time as you are ready for Ascension.”

  He cleared his throat. “I agree.”

  She smirked. “Oh, I do wonder how that will play out. Perhaps it won’t be fair to whomever you are pitted against, but it will certainly be a spectacle,” she chuckled coldly, no doubt delighting in the fantasy of such a dramatic conclusion. “Well, then, it seems we have a deal, and I must say it is a most satisfactory one.”

  “Will I be studying with my friends?” he asked.

  “Oh, goodness no, we couldn’t have that—think of the distraction! No, I will teach you alongside another teacher who has some knowledge of the Spellbreaker histories, with more grasp than most mages of the theory behind anti-magic,” she clarified.

  “How do you plan to teach me?” he asked, intrigued despite himself.

  “I’ve been thinking about that. I was going to enlist my brother’s help, but you seem to have kept him very busy of late, and I doubt relations would be particularly warm between the two of you.” She smiled thinly, a touch of threat in her voice. “I’ll figure something out, don’t you worry. We’ll see to it that you have an excellent education here.”

  “Is that everything?” Alex sighed, putting his hands on the armrests of the chair, as if to stand.

  She raised a hand, demanding he sit back down. “We aren’t finished, Alex. Now, I am a fair woman, but I have certain provisos also. As long as you and your friends toe the line, they can all stay. I do not accept any bending of the rules. There will be no misbehavior, no midnight jaunts outside the House’s walls, no lateness, no defiance, no disobedience of any sort. Is that clear? I will hold you as responsible for the actions of your friends as if it were you, yourself, who had done the deed.”

  Alex swallowed hard. “I understand, Headmistress. May I go?”

  “One more thing,” she said sweetly. “I won’t stand for anything like what you all did at Spellshadow Manor, so I suggest you quash any remaining feelings of rebellion you might have. I’m not stupid, like my dear brother—I can sense your desire for revenge. I can see it, bristling all around you, and I am warning you to cease and desist. There is no point. If you try it, I will crush you.” Her eyes blazed with malice.

  “I agree to all your terms, Headmistress. Consider my feelings quashed,” he said drily. The agreement, though he didn’t mean it any more than he had the last time, would still buy him more time to forge a plan, and, though there would be restrictions, he sensed it might give him and his friends a fragile cocoon of security to hide behind, while they figured out a way to leave.

  Plus, despite everything, he could understand the value of Stillwater, and how much the others could learn from it, in a magical sense. It was a beneficial place, with people to challenge and educate them to the best of their abilities. At Spellshadow, they had been pushed to a point, but here, they might actually learn something they could use later on, when it was needed. He guessed there would be a time when they might need such experience, in the fights that were undoubtedly to come—when the moment came for them to battle their way back home, to the real world.

  “I’m very much looking forward to having a Spellbreaker here at our fine school,” she purred, something strange lurking behind her eyes.

  “I look forward to learning here,” he replied bitterly, trying to feign enthusiasm, though he knew neither of them was buying it.

  “Our history and that of your kind are so closely linked, it makes perfect sense.” She smiled, her delicate wrist gesturing out toward the glittering lake behind her.

  Alex forced down the bile that threatened to rise up his throat as he watched the smug expression spread across her face. He didn’t trust himself to speak, but that didn’t mean Alypia wasn’t going to. It was clear she had something she wished to get off her chest. A look of delight flashed in her peculiar eyes as she opened her mouth to speak.

  “Let’s not forget,” she whispered menacingly, as she turned to glance out toward the gleaming water, “the very foundation of Stillwater House is built upon the backs of Spellbreakers.”

  Chapter 31

  It didn’t take long for class schedules to arrive, though Alex suspected Alypia’s hand in the swiftness of their delivery; the sooner she could distract the five friends, the better. The others had all received theirs, but they were different from Alex’s, as he had known they would be.

  His sessions, as promised, were to be with the Headmistress and one other teacher, named Master Demeter, one-on-one. Alex wasn’t sure how he felt about that, wondering if it was intentional to make him feel isolated from the others. At no point in the schedule did his educational path cross with those of his friends, not even fo
r subjects such as Clockwork, which he didn’t think he needed to be segregated for. It confirmed Alex’s suspicions that he was being kept away from them as much as possible.

  He wasn’t the only one with a differing schedule, however. On closer inspection, it appeared that Aamir’s was different too. Alex supposed it made sense, considering Aamir had been in his final year at Spellshadow. But the older boy’s skillset was not up to the standard of final-year Stillwater students, so it was revealed that he was to have private, one-on-one sessions also, to build him up to the same levels that were expected of a final-year Stillwater student. The two of them shared a curious look as they went over their schedules. Alex could tell Aamir was wondering why he had been segregated too, when he could just as easily have joined a year-group of a similar skill level. Alypia, it seemed, was still playing games with them, although to what end, Alex couldn’t be sure.

  Natalie seemed excited about the prospect of learning again, especially from teachers who were so formidable and encouraging of their students. There was only so much that could be self-taught, as Alex knew too well, and all of them knew they were a touch rusty after so long without any real guidance.

  “I wonder what we will learn?” Natalie squealed, a renewed vigor in her dark eyes as she looked over the lessons she would be attending. Alex peered over her shoulder at her schedule and spotted some unusual class titles, including Mechanoid Magic and Barrier Combat.