As the end of the first day came to a close, Alex wished he’d told Helena to meet earlier. They had gone over the plan of action, with Hadrian promising to fetch another bagful of essence to replace the bottles that had been used in portal-building. After that, there hadn’t been much else to do, and the mood quickly became fractious. Adding to it was the fact that Agatha had taken ill again, which set Alex on edge. He kept expecting her to burst from the flimsy doors of her chamber and chase him down. Vincent was patiently seeing to her, with the assistance of Hadrian, who was feeding her a potent concoction the color of violets at regular intervals.

All Alex could do was pace and worry, and pace some more, and wait for the next day to be over. Keeping to his room for the most part, he went over and over the counter-spell until he couldn’t bear to look at it anymore. Even then, he kept going, forcing his eyes to move across the page, absorbing the text. No matter how many times he read it, he knew he could never prepare himself for the enormity of what was to come. At this point, there were still a lot of “ifs” flying around, and until they were cemented in reality, they were still at the starting line.

Finally, the next day dawned.

With two bulging sacks of essence, one refreshed, one being the spare that had never quite reached Helena and the others, they made their way down to the forest. Alex had the Book of Jupiter stowed safely away in a satchel, but he could not let go of it as they walked, his hands insistently clamped on the straps. Nerves were running high, nobody speaking much as Hadrian led the way, though he wasn’t coming with them. Nor was Agatha, who was being left in the capable hands of the nervous royal. Alex had been surprised that Vincent hadn’t attempted to stay too, but the necromancer had insisted he join the main group.

Vincent and Agatha had shared their farewells sitting off to the side, by one of the windows of the pagoda, where Alex had heard the woeful snuffle of Agatha’s tears. Regardless of the old woman’s hatred for Spellbreakers, she was a good person, and it was hard to hear the sound of her heart breaking as her best friend left her behind, potentially forever.

“I have lived a good old time, Agatha dearest, and if it is finally my moment to go, then I shall embrace the grim reaper with open arms,” Vincent had murmured to her, trying to soothe her.

“I will die a second later, if you’re to leave me,” she had wailed.

“Then, let it be so, and I shall see you on the other side, dear heart,” Vincent had promised. “You have been beside me for more years than I care to count, and death shall not change that. The universe guides everything, and it shall liberate the both of us.”

Vincent had put on his calmest face as he had emerged from Agatha’s sick room. The stoic expression was still on his face when he joined the others on their journey to the spot where they would open up the portal to Spellshadow Manor.

“Let’s agree to meet on the perimeter of the school, where the trees meet the smoking field. Aamir, you remember where that is, right?” Alex asked. Having come down through the pagoda and run to the safety of the trees, they had reached the point where they had to part ways, with Aamir, Demeter, Vincent, and Hadrian going one way, while Alex and Ellabell went the other. Hadrian had explained before they left that the old gateway to Spellshadow stood at the other side of the forest, in the section Alex and his friends had never ventured into before, which meant it was on the opposite side of the forest from the place Alex had left Storm, giving them no choice but to split up temporarily. Just as Alex and Ellabell turned to leave, however, Hadrian handed one of the bags of essence to Alex, who took it gratefully.

“Better chance of one of them making it through this way,” the royal joked.

Alex smiled tensely. “I’ll keep it safe,” he promised.

It felt strange to watch the others walk off in the opposite direction, with nothing but a gut instinct to say that they would see one another again. He tried not to dwell on it too much while they made their way toward the spot where Alex had left Storm. It was always a delight to see that she was still there, and hadn’t flown off in frustration. With a chirp, she rushed out to meet the duo, though she paused just short, tilting her head to one side. Alex could see that she was looking at something behind him, and when he turned to see what it was, he caught a glimpse of something flitting furtively in the shadows.

“He’s…he’s not exactly an enemy,” Alex whispered, stroking the soft feathers of Storm’s face.

She chirruped again, the tone a dubious one.

Alex smiled, amused by the Thunderbird’s keen perceptions. “I promise you, he means no harm.”

They jumped onto her back, and Storm began to sprint along the ground, before lifting into the air with ease, speeding up with every beat of her enormous wings. It had almost become second nature to Alex. Where once he had felt riddled with anxiety, now he simply sat back and enjoyed the ride, though he couldn’t help but marvel at her skill. That, he guessed, would never lose its novelty.

As the swooped over the woods, Alex caught sight of the treehouses again, just visible beneath the dense canopy. Several figures moved slowly across the walkways between the boughs, their faces ordinary and pleasant, each of them dressed in a dark green uniform. There were soldiers too, stationed at every platform. Alex’s blood boiled as he watched one familiar-looking soldier shove a boy to the ground, pressing a heavy boot to the back of the young man’s neck as he pushed him perilously close to the edge of the walkway. The cruel cackle that emerged from the soldier’s throat rose up to meet Alex. He wanted to dive-bomb the cold-hearted man, but knew he couldn’t. After a moment, the soldier let the boy get up.

What will you do when you have nothing left to guard? Alex thought, hoping the soldier could feel his anger. What will your life be, when I strip it of purpose? I hope it is as sad and lonely as you are.

As hard as it was to watch such banal cruelty, it spurred Alex on, making him want more than ever to succeed in the task that lay ahead. Turning over his shoulder to check the horizon, he saw a familiar glint of something golden in the distance. It looked very much like the spires he had seen when they had crossed from Kingstone, and he wondered if that was exactly what it was. Another section of the same noble city, perhaps, or maybe it was an entirely new one? It bothered him slightly that he would never get to visit one of the glittering cities of the elite mages.

Who knows? Maybe if I get this spell done, they will parade me through the streets like a hero, he mused to himself.

The world around them began to stretch, and soon they were no longer in the autumnal realm of Falleaf. Ahead of them, beyond the edge of the forest where they had appeared, Spellshadow Manor stood in all its bleakness. Storm let out a chirp that sounded like a yelp as the manor’s overarching barrier met with her feathers, forcing her to fly lower in the sky than she usually liked, to avoid the edges of it.

With an awkward landing, she set them down on the very edge of the sickly-looking woods that ringed the smoking field before them. Ruffling her feathers, Alex could sense she didn’t like the feel of the place, and he couldn’t blame her—it was more than a little eerie to be back, at the beginning of all their grievances.

The others hadn’t arrived yet, which was to be expected, considering they had a portal to build. With the four powerful mages working on it, however, he knew it wouldn’t take too much longer. Gazing out upon the smoking field, the looming structure of Spellshadow in the distance, Alex felt a wave of discomfort crash over him. It was weird to be back, and with the strangeness came a flood of memories that seemed to belong to another life. Another Alex.

He remembered the terror of Derhin’s battle with Aamir, the way the professor had fallen, only to be carried away screaming by a reluctant Lintz. The excitement of discovering the wine cellar, and the good and bad times they had spent in that musty cavern beneath the earth. It had shaped him, in many ways, but how grateful he felt for that, he wasn’t sure. To be back in the place where it all began made everything seem twice as real. His friendships had flourished here. Without it, he’d never have met Aamir, or Jari, or Ellabell, or anyone who had joined them on their journey, for that matter.

Silver linings, he thought.

Back then, they’d had no idea what lay before them. Spellbreakers, mages, essence, Great Evils, they had been unknown to him then—the stuff of dreams and fiction. Now, they were almost ordinary. He thought about what might have happened if they hadn’t made the choices they’d made. If they hadn’t sought to destroy Finder, down in the tombs, where would they be now? Would they be wandering the halls still, going to lessons, learning what they could, stealing private moments in the wine cellar? Would they be as strong as they were now, if all they’d done was wait for the day when they would be called up to graduation? If Aamir hadn’t striven to defeat Derhin, would he be dead?

Spellshadow Manor still held a plethora of unanswered questions. The truth was, they had taken the path they had taken, and there was no going back. He just had to continue to convince himself that it was all for a reason, that they had done all of this for a greater good. Even if he didn’t make it out alive, he knew he had to remember the reasons they had gone down this road in the first place. Where there was injustice, there had to be a leveling. It just so happened that he was the leveler.

“Do you ever wonder what life we might be leading, if we hadn’t escaped?” he asked, turning to Ellabell, who had come to stand beside him.

She smiled wistfully. “Sometimes.”

“Do you think we’d be better off?”

“I think we did the right thing… We took the action nobody else would,” she replied quietly.

“Being back here, it’s weird,” Alex murmured.

She nodded. “It is. It’s like coming back to the scene of a crime.”

“I just hope this is all worth it.” He sighed.

“It will be,” she assured him, squeezing his hand tightly.

A rustle behind him broke his reverie. For a moment, he felt a flutter of panic, which was swiftly squashed as Aamir, Demeter, and Vincent appeared between the crumbling trunks of the trees, seemingly unhurt.

“You got through okay?” Alex asked, turning to greet them.

Aamir shrugged. “We had a bit of a close call with some guards, while we were building, but Hadrian managed to steer them away. We had to close it as soon as we came through,” he explained, his dark eyes turning toward the gloomy façade of Spellshadow. Alex smiled, imagining his friend’s expression mirrored his own—a mixture of dread and anticipation.

“Weird, right?” Alex chuckled.

“Very weird,” Aamir agreed. “I never thought we would end up back here.”

“I don’t think any of us did,” Alex muttered. “But, we’re here now—we should probably head for the gardens,” he suggested, thinking of Helena and the others, who should have been through by then.

“What is that?” Demeter asked, pointing at the gigantic bird hidden in the trees.

Alex smiled. “This is Storm. She’s a Thunderbird—perhaps the last.”

“May I?” Demeter asked, walking up to the feathered creature.

“By all means,” Alex replied.

With tentative steps, Demeter approached Storm, laying his palm flat. Alex glanced at the ex-teacher in bemusement, not knowing how it was that the auburn-haired man knew more about these creatures than he did. Perhaps, somewhere in the annals of Spellbreaker literature that Demeter had read, there had been a passage on taming these magnificent beasts.

“She’s a beauty,” Demeter marveled, as Storm placed her beak in the palm of his hand.

Alex nodded. “She certainly is.”

“So, this is the fabled Spellshadow Manor?” Vincent asked, staring out at the barren landscape, toward the school.

“Welcome,” said Alex wryly, turning his attention back to what lay before them.

With nothing more to say, the quintet began to move across the field, with Storm flying low overhead. However, as soon as they set foot on the dried earth, something felt wrong. This place was unearthly, and the eeriness didn’t fade as they took a few more steps. It became clear, seconds later, why it felt so utterly unpleasant. With a gathering groan, the ground began to rumble, the cracked earth splitting in places, puffs of searing-hot steam erupting from within.

“Run!” Alex yelled, as the smoky streams began to turn into long, snake-like creatures.

The quick-moving apparitions followed Alex and his friends as they sprinted toward the rise of the hill in the near distance. Snapping at their heels, the snakes were persistent, moving fast, but the quintet was faster, reaching the edge of the smoking field before the summoned beings could do any real harm. At the grassy lip between hill and field, the snakes retreated, slithering back down into the scorched earth.

Even so, Alex and the others did not slow down, scrambling up the hill until they reached the summit. Only then did they dare to turn and look back, just in time to see the snakes sucked back into the ground, lying in wait for the next trespassers. Catching his breath, Alex wondered what the creatures were, given that he had never seen them before. He wondered if it was simply because he had never ventured across the wasteland before, or if it was a new addition, put in place by the Head to ensure added security, after the debacle of their failed uprising. It would certainly be an escape deterrent, he thought, recalling the serpents in the moat at Kingstone.

No longer fearful of snapping snakes of fiery steam following them, the anxious group walked toward the walled garden, which lay just up ahead. Alex went first, climbing through a broken section in the wall, trying to sense any traps that might ensnare them. Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any, and he squeezed through to the other side.

As the others clambered through after him, Alex took the time to look around. The sickening feeling of déjà vu was even stronger here. The gardens were exactly as they had left them, though the barrier around the place felt infinitely stronger. He didn’t even need to touch the wall to know that; his body was already attempting to retaliate. Forcing the impulse down, he wandered toward a lichen-covered water fountain, and found himself picturing it in its heyday, when everything was bright and beautiful. It was a hard image to conjure, but he managed it, and wondered if one day it might return to that, or if this place would be left to rot, as it ought to have been long ago.

The increased potency of the barrier surrounding the school seemed to be another example of Virgil’s heightened security levels, but it didn’t release anything foul, which provided some comfort to Alex’s shattered nerves. Either that, or the Head knew they were coming, and this was his way of letting them know. He hoped not.

Knowing she would be noticed if she came with them any farther, Alex decided to leave Storm in the relative safety of the gardens, tucking her away in a spot where she blended seamlessly into the masonry, her silver feathers barely visible against the pale stone. It didn’t feel right, leaving her there, but he knew he had no other choice. She wasn’t exactly discreet.

They moved farther into the grounds, Alex keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign of Helena and her team.

Wherever they went, everything felt strange, like the worst kind of nightmare. Glancing around, Alex could see that his feelings were shared—everyone looked uneasy, with the exception of Demeter, who seemed to be his usual cheerful self, despite everything. It was a disposition Alex envied, though considering his theory as to how the teacher had ended up like that, he didn’t think it was something he’d like to share. However, he did wish the auburn-haired man would use a little of his empathic ability to reduce the tension in the ranks.

Coming to an abrupt halt behind one of the low walls, Alex caught his first glimpse of the Spellshadow students walking around the grounds. They were strolling in pairs, speaking in low voices, their faces miserable. Alex recognized one of them as Billy Foer, the boy who had never seemed to have much luck, and he wondered whether or not to call out to his old acquaintance. He stopped short, realizing he didn’t know who could be trusted in this place anymore. After what had happened last time, he knew they might not be so willing to help out, given that he and his friends had all but abandoned them to their fate. He couldn’t blame them for any distrust they might feel toward him. The only person who had stood up for them and protected them was Gaze, and she was gone.

Keeping silent, they waited for the students to pass by, pressing back tightly against the wall so as not to be seen. As soon as the students had moved on, Alex peered back over the wall, only to be met with another familiar sight. Stalking the stairwell that led up to the school were two of the old final-year students, Aamir’s peers, now dressed in the unmistakable robes of professors. One of them was Jun Asano, but the young woman beside him wasn’t quite as familiar.

“Do you know her?” Alex asked Aamir, keeping his voice to a whisper.

Aamir nodded. “Her name is Catherine de Marchmont. She was one of the best in our class,” he murmured. “A force to be reckoned with.”

Alex could well believe it. There was something about the robes they wore that made them both look imposing, and more than a little menacing. He couldn’t recall whether he’d felt that way about the other professors, but there was definitely something about these two that spelled danger. Scrutinizing them more closely for a moment, he saw the unmistakable glow of golden bands visible on their wrists. Even if he had wanted to recruit them to the cause, he knew he couldn’t—the Head already had control over them. It was a shame, but there was no time to break the bands and hope the two former students returned to their normal selves, the ones who might have been eager to fight the hierarchy before.

As he watched the two new professors go back inside, Alex was glad he and his friends had decided to approach the school with stealth, instead of going in all guns blazing. If there were more like Jun Asano and Catherine de Marchmont inside, he knew they were going to have a tough time of infiltrating the building.

The Head, however, was nowhere to be seen, which was to be entirely expected. If he was at home, he would surely be awaiting them inside.