Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

The next morning, Sebastian woke up feeling groggy.

"I should get ready for work," James said from beside him in bed.

Sebastian forced his eyes to remain open. "Hmm?"

"You know, work." James stretched and stood with a sigh before opening the curtains, letting in the meager sunlight. "I'll go feed the chickens first. Then, I need to talk to Hazel and explain everything. I'll bring The Magical Tales ."

Sebastian rubbed his eyes, trying to get his brain to absorb what James was talking about. "You shouldn't need the books."

James stopped on the way to the bathroom. "You think? Even after last time?"

Sebastian shook off his haziness. "The curse and the secret-binding are linked. That's how you got trapped, but now that we've escaped and the curse can't reach us, I doubt the secret can rebind itself. We've broken the feedback loop as well as the silencing spell this time."

"True." James rubbed his chin. He seemed satisfied with the logic. "Will you be all right here today? While I'm gone."

James asked the question without any judgment. Sebastian had no doubt he would rearrange his day if Sebastian admitted he didn't want to be alone. "I'll be fine," he lied, giving his best exasperated look.

"Great. And hey, feel free to go back to sleep. Have a relaxing day. You deserve it." James gave him an affectionate grin before disappearing into the bathroom.

Sebastian sank back into bed. He hadn't considered what he'd do while James was at work. It's not like he thought he'd go to the electrical shop with James. It wasn't normal for them to spend every second together, and feeling abandoned because he had to spend the day alone wasn't healthy, but it was exactly how he felt.

What was he supposed to do with himself? He didn't have a job. He had no friends. Reflexively, Sebastian's mind started running through all the chores he had to do at Storm House. He'd put off the laundry and needed to make the last batch of apricot jam. It was time to bake more bread. The garden always needed weeding, and he hadn't been clipping the newspapers while James was there.

He shook himself. He didn't have to do any of that anymore. He could throw his clothes in a washing machine and buy bread at the General Store in town. Hell, he could buy pumpkins and tomatoes and not have to grow his own. He never had to weed anything ever again if he didn't want, and he'd probably never look at a physical newspaper again.

Sebastian thought it would be a relief. Living at Storm House took so much work, and he'd begrudged almost all of it. But having nothing meaningful to do left him empty. He didn't know if he wanted to buy bread. What if it wasn't as good as his? He loved that first fresh slice when the loaf was still warm. It was more than worth the effort.

Tears prickled Sebastian's eyes. He wiped them away in frustration. Was he missing Storm House? That was fucking ridiculous. He never wanted to see the cursed place again.

He'd bake bread here, and everything would be fine .

Sebastian showered after James and dressed in the same clothes he'd worn yesterday. He went downstairs to find James in the kitchen eating cereal.

"Coffee's in the pot." James pointed with his spoon to the coffee maker.

"Thanks." Sebastian helped himself.

"I should run." James rinsed his empty bowl and checked the time on his phone. "Don't want the chickens to make me late. I'm not worried, but I'll text you after I'm done at Storm House to confirm I got off the property okay. If you don't hear from me, assume I got stuck somehow."

"Wait." Sebastian's heart rate picked up. He didn't want James to go. He wasn't ready to be left yet. Not that he was going to say any of that aloud. "Um." He paused. "I don't have a phone."

"Oh." James laughed. "Of course not. Why don't we drive down to Apple Valley and get you one later? I'll see if I can leave work early, but it might be best not to ask after I've left Hazel on her own for weeks."

Sebastian nodded, trying not to feel like a sad puppy facing a whole day without his only companion. He didn't want James to know how much this was bothering him. "Good luck with Hazel," was all he said as he handed over the key to Storm House's gate.

"I'll need it. Think she might be madder at me than Eli was." James leaned in and kissed Sebastian on the cheek. "See you back here at five, okay? Four if I'm lucky."

"Uh-huh. Yep." Sebastian tried to sound normal. Like he wasn't dreading the day.

And then James was gone. His absence settled in Sebastian's chest.

He poured some cereal and got the milk out of the fridge. His first bite was good. He hadn't had cereal in years. The second bite made him wrinkle his nose.

He set the bowl down. " Ugh . "

"Not a fan?"

Sebastian whirled around to see Eli standing in the doorway. "I forgot you were here."

Eli gravitated toward the coffee. "Yeah, well, I don't spend every night with Parker."

Sebastian frowned. He probably shouldn't spend every night with James either. Now that they weren't fellow prisoners, there was no reason for them to live together. It was too soon to move in with James. Sebastian needed his own place.

He didn't want his own place. The idea of living alone again made him faintly sick. Though maybe that was the milk. He wasn't used to having it, and the cereal didn't do enough to disguise the flavor he was no longer accustomed to. It was just another thing he'd thought he missed but had apparently moved on from.

It was like he wasn't even the same person anymore. And that was fine. People changed, but he didn't know who he was outside Storm House.

"You can have some toast if the cereal is upsetting you."

"What?" Sebastian felt like he'd forgotten how to carry on a conversation. Why hadn't he been this thrown off with James? Everything between them was so easy.

Eli bit back a smile. "You're looking at that bowl like it wronged you."

Sebastian tried not to glare at the cereal. "I shouldn't waste it."

"Here." Eli picked up the bowl. "I was gonna have some anyway." He grabbed a new spoon and dug into Sebastian's abandoned breakfast.

Sebastian busied himself making toast with the store-bought bread sitting on the counter. How had he missed this? So what if it was pre-sliced? His bread looked way better.

"So, I was thinking," Eli said when the cereal was gone. "I want to check out those veins of power you told us about."

Sebastian tensed. "Why? "

"I study them." Eli raised his brows like Sebastian should have known this. "I'm doing my master's thesis on the fixed vein in town. But now that you said there are two intersecting, fixed veins, I might need to change my project."

Sebastian nibbled his toast. It tasted okay, not great. "What's the mess on my property got to do with your research?"

"I have a theory." Eli bounced excitedly on the balls of his feet. "Last night, I was thinking—the reason I'm studying the vein running through Moonlight Falls is because it behaves unlike other fixed veins. There's no record of a second vein here. Its presence could be the reason the magic is different. Fixed intersections are the rarest of rare, as far as vein formations go. Hardly any studies have been done on them, and surely one of the veins on your property is connected to the one in town. I could probably do a whole PhD on this."

"Wow, okay." Sebastian tried to sound enthusiastic, even if the idea of PhD-level research on anything to do with magic made his head ache. "The only issue is my long-dead relatives already messed with the veins. The instability is really dangerous."

"But the fuel cell is holding it all together."

"Yes and no." Sebastian took a fortifying sip of coffee. "Messing with the veins, even stabilized, has consequences. The magic responds, and don't get me started on how it riles up the shades."

Eli gave him a funny look. "I'm not going to go out there at night."

Sebastian ran a hand through his hair. This was too risky. The transfer spell had caused the veins to explode with power. There was no way Sebastian could predict what Eli poking around might trigger.

"The magic could be dangerous regardless of the shades. It knocked James and me around pretty badly."

"But you handled it." Eli crossed his arms like he was gearing up to argue. "Getting blasted off my feet won't be the end of the world. Not when the research potential is this extraordinary. I can handle myself."

Eli was right. Getting knocked over wasn't the end of the world, but far worse could happen. Except Sebastian couldn't explain how dangerous the veins were to Eli when he was still hiding it from James.

"Let's talk to the others tonight and see what they think," Sebastian said to put Eli off. "Just don't go out to Storm House without telling me."

"Of course not. I'm not going to trespass. If I'm doing research, I need permits and permission." Eli's expression turned dreamy. "This is going to be great. A more complex research project is exactly what I was looking for to kick off my career. And you and I can hang out more if you want to see what I'm doing. I promise it'll be fun. Veins are so interesting."

"Sure." Sebastian was knocked for a loop by Eli's desire to include him. It was like he assumed the two of them would become friends.

Seeming happy with their discussion, Eli left to shower and get ready for his day.

Sebastian couldn't help wondering what Eli would think of him when he learned the truth about his parents' deaths. He might not be so keen on friendship then.

James and Eli's parents died in a car accident out on North Road. Sebastian had had no idea how close the crash site had been to Storm House until he'd found that old newspaper tucked away in his upstairs sitting room. The article he'd read had mentioned the mile marker where the car had been found the morning after the crash: September 23, 2009. Meaning the crash happened late at night on the twenty-second, the same night Uncle Stephen and his mom had transferred the curse from his sister Kira to him.

Sebastian had found the notes on the curse transfer spell tucked next to the article about the Grays' deaths. He could imagine Stephen reading the paper and putting it all together. The blast that had emanated from the veins that night, knocking them all down. The loud noise Sebastian had sworn he'd heard off in the woods. At the time, he hadn't known what it was and had wondered if he'd imagined it or if it had just been the energy exploding, but the article cleared that right up.

They'd heard the car crash, but with all the chaotic magic, no one had realized the noise had come from the road beyond.

The blast had knocked the Grays' car off the road, smashing it into a tree. The speed at which the vehicle had been traveling, combined with the impact of the blast, would have created a much more forceful impact than anything the Storms had experienced in the clearing. The car hadn't lost control, as the article stated. The crash was their fault. Sebastian's fault. His family's fault. They had killed two innocent people that night, all so Kira could be saved from Storm House. They'd been so reckless with magic that they hadn't even noticed its consequences.

After realizing what they'd done, Stephen must have tucked the instructions inside the paper. Sebastian remembered his uncle acting unlike himself a few days after they'd done the spell, when the article would have appeared. Stephen had been upset and angry at Sebastian's mom when they'd left to go back to Phoenix. This had to be why. No wonder Stephen hadn't gone back for the instructions or clipped the article and archived it. He'd probably wanted to forget it ever happened.

But it had happened, and Sebastian knew. He should have told James that day in the dusty sitting room, let James piece it together as he had. Instead, he'd hidden the truth and stopped James from looking at the paper. He'd let James be excited they'd found the instructions. But he couldn't keep this from James forever. Especially not if Eli wanted to go messing with the veins. Sebastian wouldn't let Storm House kill any more of James's family.

The curse had ruined both their lives, taken their childhoods, and twisted them in different but equally traumatizing directions. James should never have had to bear the burden of his parents' deaths, and he had a right to know that the man he wanted a relationship with was at the root of all his heartache, the reason he had to grieve his parents at fourteen, the cause of his anxiety and fear over losing people. He had a right to know all of it and decide for himself how much more of Sebastian and this curse he really wanted in his life.

Sebastian cleaned up the breakfast dishes, his mood the lowest it had been since James had started coming to Storm House. He hadn't expected to feel like this so soon after finding freedom. He needed to do something to keep his mind occupied so he didn't get stuck in a downward spiral.

Before going out for the day, Eli had let Sebastian know he'd gotten a text from James saying he was at work and hadn't had trouble feeding the chickens and leaving Storm House. This should have comforted Sebastian, but the idea of returning to the house still made his chest pinch.

He decided to make some bread. Baking soothed him. He enjoyed it, and there was no reason to give up the hobby just because he could go to the store and buy things. He dug around in the cupboards, looking for everything he needed, wondering when exactly baking had turned from a chore to a hobby.

He'd learned to cook with his uncle and had been uninterested at the time. But he'd gone along with it because there hadn't been a lot of other distractions at a house with no TV, video games, or internet. Then, when he'd first been trapped on his own, he'd resented having to do everything by hand and had grumbled about every meal he made. He knew then that his uncle had used all those cooking lessons to secretly prepare him to survive being isolated in the outdated house.

Now, he was choosing to bake, hoping it would make him feel better. It made no sense.

After a thorough search of the kitchen, Sebastian's fresh bread plan was thwarted. James and Eli didn't have any yeast. Sebastian could bake something else, like sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, banana bread, the list went on, but he'd been set on plain old bread.

He supposed he could walk to the General Store and buy dried yeast. How often had he wished he could easily go grab something he'd run out of? Sebastian kept Storm House well stocked with essentials, but he'd often run out of his treats. He'd be dying for a potato chip and would have to wait weeks for his next bulk order to arrive.

James had left Sebastian a spare key and his laptop in case Sebastian wanted to go online. He placed the key in his pocket before slipping James's jacket on. He had no idea what to even do on the internet anymore. He had no one to message. So he was going out instead.

Sebastian walked to the front door. Nerves fluttered uncomfortably inside him. He didn't understand why. Walking the few blocks to the town center was no big deal. He didn't particularly want to be alone in James's house all day, so why was it equally hard to go out?

He opened the door, annoyed with himself. Pushing away his discomfort, he locked up behind him, shoved his hands in his pockets, and stalked down the street.

Wandering Moonlight Falls didn't exactly bring back good memories after being banished here during summers growing up. Sebastian briefly wondered if he should call his mom. What would she think of his escape? It was doubtful she'd be happy about it. She'd probably fear the curse coming back on Kira. That was all she'd ever cared about .

Fallen leaves coated the sidewalks. If Sebastian didn't look at Moonlight Falls through a personal lens, he could acknowledge its charm. The town was quaint and well looked after. It was the kind of place tourists like for its character. The shades and spookiness were a big part of Moonlight Falls, but that didn't mean the place had to look uninviting or rundown. Cute with a hint of creepy was the general aesthetic.

Sebastian passed the small elementary school and the bed and breakfast. The ice cream shop on the corner wasn't open yet. The diner was open on the other side of the street, but it didn't seem busy.

There weren't too many people out walking. Sebastian didn't come across anyone in his direct path, just a few dog walkers ahead of him. He spotted a couple of touristy types entering Beth's souvenir shop on the other side of the circle, but the post office, library, and town hall were all quiet. It was a weekday morning, so most people would be at work and the kids in school. It made Sebastian glad he'd chosen this time to go out.

He entered the little grocery store next to Moonlight Diner. The place hadn't changed since the last time Sebastian had been in, and he found the yeast without any trouble. Sebastian was the only shopper, so he should have been relaxed.

He wasn't. Something about being here made him distinctly uncomfortable. He was on edge, and it wasn't a feeling he was used to. Was he just worried people would come in and startle him?

The cashier was reading a book at the register. As he approached, she put it down with a smile. "Morning."

Sebastian didn't recognize her. She was young, probably in her early twenties, if he had to guess. "Hi." He set the yeast down.

"Just this?" She picked it up, her glittery nails catching the light.

Sebastian nodded, and she rang him up. He wasn't panicked like he'd been in the diner, but this interaction didn't feel typical. He was beginning to suspect that nothing would feel like he remembered. This anxious, unsure state was starting to look like his new normal.

"Cash or credit?" the woman asked.

Sebastian froze. His whole body flashed hot in panicky embarrassment. He didn't have any fucking money. What a ridiculous thing to slip his mind. It was like he'd never functioned in human society before.

"I just realized I forgot my wallet," he muttered. For some reason, failing at this task made him want to cry. The reaction was extreme, and he knew it wasn't just about forgetting you needed money at the store. It was everything. Sebastian wished he'd never been stuck at Storm House and that none of these changes had happened to him. It wasn't fair.

"Oh." The woman gave a friendly chuckle. "I'd start you a tab, but I don't recognize you."

"That's okay. Sorry." Sebastian glanced over his shoulder toward the exit. "Maybe I'll be back later. Should I put this away for you?"

"No, it's fine," she waved his offer away. "I'm Carla, by the way."

"Sebastian," he said, trying not to squirm. He hurried out of the shop before she could say anything else.