Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

"I swear it's even darker today." Sebastian glanced over his shoulder as he got out of the car in front of the electrical shop. It was more like night than pre-dawn.

He caught sight of a few shades swooping around the duplex across the street. That wasn't a good sign. They hadn't seen any of the beasts in town yesterday. It seemed the prolonged darkness was making them bolder. A few had been floating in the town center when they'd driven through.

Hazel wasn't at the shop yet. James checked the time. "It's only ten past." He sounded worried but seemed to be trying to suppress it.

"Give her a call." Sebastian put a reassuring hand on James's arm. "It's probably nothing, but with what's going on, I'd say it's better to be cautious and check on her."

The tension in James's brow eased. "True." He pulled out his phone and dialed Hazel, pressing it to his ear. "Hey, you're late," he said grumpily when she picked up. "Don't huff at me. It's the apocalypse, remember? Are you coming in?" After a few more words, he hung up .

"She's alive and well?" Sebastian bit back a smile at the look of frustration on James's face.

"She's fine." He rolled his eyes, perhaps more annoyed with himself for worrying than with Hazel. Not that he was admitting it. "She's heading over now. Said she was with Eleanor."

Sebastian followed James as he crossed the shop. "What's she doing with Eleanor this early in the morning?"

James snorted. "I'm pretty sure they're sleeping together."

" What! " Sebastian squealed, causing James to snort another laugh.

"I've had a feeling something was brewing between them." James plopped down at his desk. "Hazel keeps deflecting every time I ask, but it's not like she's trying that hard to hide it either."

Sebastian perched on James's desk. "How old is Eleanor?"

James shrugged. "Mid-forties, I think."

Sebastian sucked in a breath, a shit-eating grin on his face. He loved gossip and hadn't had any in years. "An older woman in a position of power? Hazel doesn't mess around, does she?"

James gave him a bemused look. "You're making it sound way more scandalous than it is."

Sebastian swung his legs back and forth. "But it's more fun that way."

"Right." James captured Sebastian's legs, stilling them. He rolled his desk chair to position himself between them, hands sliding up to Sebastian's hips. "How are you doing?"

"Um?" Sebastian squirmed. "Good. But I don't think it's the best idea to get me all excited if Hazel is on her way."

James pinched Sebastian's side. "That wasn't what I was doing, you nightmare." His amused smile softened. "I meant after what Eli was saying about you and the veins being connected like a unit."

"Oh, that." Sebastian slumped. "I don't know. I'm not exactly looking forward to Eli testing his theory. The dips look pretty damning, even if it's not totally scientific proof. I just— Does it matter if he's right or not? I might not be able to do anything about it." Sebastian tried valiantly to fight a familiar hopeless feeling. "I have to believe that when we find a permanent solution to the imbalance, I'll be free of the veins, no matter how I'm connected to them now."

James pulled himself closer to Sebastian. "I just want you to know I'm here for you, no matter what we find out. No matter what it means."

"I know, James." Sebastian cupped his face. "That means so fucking much to me. It makes scary unknown magical shit easier to face. And I'm here for you too. If I can use this supposed two-way connection to help us, I will." Even if he didn't want it, and even if it meant he'd never be rid of this mess, Sebastian would do anything for James, and in the end, he believed they'd still be together. No matter what. They'd make this work.

They were inevitable. Bound together through their pasts and the choices they'd made in their present. Nothing could separate them.

James held on to Sebastian's hips and looked into his eyes. Sebastian reached out and traced his jaw. There was so much affection in James's expression, and even in the dark, surrounded by magic he didn't understand, James made Sebastian feel light.

They sat quietly for a while, but Sebastian didn't want to dwell.

"I bet Eleanor is holding Hazel up." Sebastian waggled his eyebrows at James ridiculously. Hazel still hadn't arrived.

James cracked a grin. "I'd say it's more likely Hazel is holding Eleanor up. Eleanor is too responsible to be late for work, especially in a crisis.

"Ha. You're right. I feel like Hazel and I have that penchant for misbehaving in common." Sebastian wrapped his legs tight around James, who was still sitting between them. "She seems like fun. "

James shook his head. "She is. Just be careful. You mess with that woman at your own risk."

"Oh, now I can't wait to get to know her better." Sebastian beamed.

The door banged open, and Hazel rushed into the electrical shop, out of breath. Sebastian's smile disappeared as she leaned heavily against the closed door. "Shit, the shades aren't being calm today."

Sebastian and James jumped up.

"What happened?" James rounded the counter.

Hazel pushed off the door, brushing past him and beelining for the coffee maker. "A small swarm of them attacked my car as I was driving."

James crossed his arms. "Why not just run them down?" When shades were hit by a vehicle, they usually dissipated, meaning it was more like driving through smoke than colliding with something.

"Gosh, I wish I'd thought of that," Hazel snapped.

"It didn't work?" Sebastian guessed.

Hazel switched the coffee on. "They burst into shadow but didn't scatter. It was like they were expecting me to drive through them and covered my windshield in wispy darkness. I couldn't see."

James joined Hazel by the coffee. "What did you do?"

"I got out of the car and banished them." Hazel redid her ponytail. "There were more when I got to the shop. They surrounded the car, and I had to fight my way in here."

"Shit." Sebastian came over to stand next to James. "They didn't bother us at all."

"I'm going to call Eleanor." Hazel took out her phone. After a quick call, she let Sebastian and James know the mayor hadn't had any issues getting to the elementary school, where she was meeting with Tony that morning .

James made a call, checking on Eli and Parker, who were also fine. "Eli wants to know if we'll go out to Storm House and get this morning's data."

Sebastian grimaced. "I thought we decided figuring out the darkness was more important right now."

Hazel sipped her coffee. "We might as well go. Sitting around here isn't helping anything. We'll just have to be careful driving."

No one else had had trouble with shades that morning, so the beasts weren't exactly a reason to stay in and do nothing, but Sebastian wasn't thrilled to go to Storm House today. He had no real reason for it, so he didn't say anything. It would be better to get it over with and get Eli his data.

They piled into Hazel's van. As they headed north, several cars passed, going the other direction. A family that lived in one of the last houses out this way was piling in their car with a bunch of suitcases as they drove by. Sebastian wondered how many other people were leaving town.

No shades bothered them as they wound their way to Storm House. Instead of being relieved by the lack of trouble after what happened to Hazel, it made Sebastian uneasy.

At the iron gate, Hazel conjured a small ball of light so they could see. Sebastian unlocked the chain, trying to suppress a shiver that had nothing to do with the temperature. Something felt wrong, but he wasn't sure why.

The property was quiet, and something unsettling hung in the air. They all hesitated at the bottom of the driveway.

"Snuff out that light," James whispered to Hazel.

She obeyed, leaving them in darkness.

It took a minute for their eyes to adjust. Once they did, Sebastian could see the property better. The house was dark and abandoned. He inched up the driveway, feeling the others following closely behind him. As he passed the trees blocking the rest of his land from the road, he stopped .

There were shades everywhere. Hundreds, maybe close to a thousand, given it was hard to make out what lay in the distant corners of the property other than shifting shadow.

"The place is crawling with them," Hazel muttered, her voice unsteady.

"Come on." James grabbed Sebastian's hand, pulling him backward.

Sebastian was rooted to the spot. There were even more shades than there'd been the night they'd linked the fuel cell and had almost been crushed to death. "Where are they all coming from?"

"I don't know." James pulled him again, and this time, Sebastian moved. "We need to go."

They hurried back to the van. Sebastian's hands shook as he locked the gate.

"Why do they like my property so much?" he asked as they drove away.

James twisted around in the front seat to look back at him. "It was like they were gathering there. Do you think it has to do with the fuel cell?"

The fixation some of the shades had on the fuel cell was odd, but Sebastian didn't think it was what was drawing them in. "There's always been way more shades around Storm House than in town. Whatever's drawing them has been here a lot longer than the fuel cell. It has to be the veins, right?"

"But why would shades care about the intersection? And why are there so many more now than ever before?" James didn't sound like he expected Sebastian to have any answers. They all had to be wondering the same thing.

"At least they're not in town," Hazel pointed out.

James grunted his agreement before adding, "There's nothing stopping them if they decide to head into Moonlight Falls, and with so many out here, how do we know there aren't large groups of them in town too? Or in the woods? It's not a good time to be wandering around." He pulled out his phone and made a call. No one answered, and he hung up.

Sebastian could feel the tension in James growing. "Calling Eli?"

"Yeah. I don't like not knowing where he is. Not with that many shades so close and this darkness going nowhere."

Sebastian understood. James's fear of losing Eli ran deep, and while he could deal with every day worries, this situation was way higher risk. Anyone would be stressed.

Hazel drove past the electrical shop into the center of town. A few shades hovered around the stone while others swooped between the streetlights. Most of the shops were dark. The diner had its lights on, but the closed sign glowed in the window. It seemed like everyone had been happy to go on as usual yesterday, but the sun not rising a second time was too much, even for Moonlighters.

James made another phone call as they drove around the circle. "Where are you?" he barked as soon as someone picked up.

As James spoke into the phone, Hazel took them past the bed and breakfast where a couple was loading suitcases into a car and the elementary school that only had the lights on in the main office and two cars parked out front.

The whole place had a creepy, deserted vibe that even the cheerful, well-maintained building couldn't counteract. The fall leaves blowing across the road didn't give off the same cozy feeling they usually did on crisp mornings. The sight gave Sebastian a sense of dread he'd only ever felt late on winter nights at Storm House. Alone in the dark, in a world that felt deserted.

James hung up the phone. "Parker and Eli are out on Pine Steet, past the bridge."

Hazel took the next left. They drove through the east side of town, where more lights were on in the houses, making it seem like people had chosen to stay in, protected by their wards, and wait out whatever was happening .

Word must not have gotten out about the wards on Parker's house being penetrated, but since that night, Sebastian hadn't seen any more of the shadowy tendrils. Not even at Storm House. None of the houses seemed to be under attack, and it looked like there were fewer shades out this way, so at least there was that.

The houses grew thinner, giving way to larger plots of land and small paddocks. Trees loomed in the distance. Past the creek, Parker's car was pulled over next to a plot of land for sale, the car running, high beams on, and hazards flashing. He and Eli were standing in the road, Parker holding a flashlight.

As Hazel pulled over behind them, Sebastian noticed something odd about the trees in the distance. It seemed almost brighter over there, but somehow, the light wasn't reaching the cars.

"Found the boundary." Parker gestured in front of himself as they approached.

Eli stood in front of Parker, pulling on a rope tied to a skateboard.

"What are you doing?" James grumbled, hands shoved in his pockets. "I thought you were staying in the car, driving around, and measuring things? There are about a million shades at Storm House. You shouldn't be standing out here like this."

"Hold on." Eli sounded exasperated as he pulled the skateboard back to himself. A metal box sat on top of it. "We're figuring out important shit. The darkness boundary is in the exact same place as the barrier trapping us." He stepped forward and pushed on an invisible wall. "See?"

Parker handed Eli his laptop. "We've been to the spot where you crashed your truck already, James. It was the same there."

"Ha!" Eli exclaimed as he looked at his laptop screen.

James rubbed a hand over his face. "Can we go somewhere the shades can't get to us? Then you can tell me all about whatever you found. "

"You said the shades were at Storm House. That's miles from here." Eli looked up from the laptop. "I know you want to wrap us all up in bubble wrap, James, but how are we going to fix anything if we do nothing but hide?"

"I'm not saying that." James's expression pinched, showing his hurt.

Sebastian put an arm around James. He couldn't help wanting to protect everyone.

Eli must have noticed James's reaction. He looked down at his feet. "Sorry, I know."

James didn't seem to know how to respond. He probably still wanted to get everyone somewhere safe, but Sebastian knew he was fighting against his sometimes-irrational anxiety of losing people and wouldn't want to seem overbearing. Though Sebastian thought he was being perfectly reasonable right now.

After a strained moment, Hazel asked, "Why would the two boundaries be the same?"

"The veins end here." Eli pushed on the invisible boundary again, like he was glad to finally get back to explaining. "I sent the skateboard with one of my meters on it past where we're trapped. I was able to record energy flow in the veins right up until here, where it disappears completely."

Sebastian eyed the boundary. "Is that normal?"

"Sure." Eli shrugged. "Veins don't go on forever. Fixed ones have set boundaries. The theory is that where the flow ends is where it leaves this world and goes back into Beyond. Whatever created the darkness has to be using the veins to do it. There was an energy surge when we think it was created, and it looks like the darkness is tied to the veins with some sort of magic, just like we are through the curse."

Sebastian turned away from the barrier and looked back down the road toward town. Knowing the darkness was another problem tied to the veins made his heart sink. If he knew anything, it was that they were terrible at untying anything from the damn veins. Even if the darkness wasn't related to his curse, dealing with it felt just as insurmountable.

Sebastian caught movement in the sky off in the distance. He grabbed James's arm, turning him around. "Look." He pointed.

"Shit." James grabbed Eli. "Come on. Time to go. That looks like a whole lot of shades heading this way."