Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

They'd stopped moving. Sebastian had no idea what had happened.

"James?" he called, pulling himself up and pushing the deflating airbag away.

"Yeah. I'm okay." James looked around in confusion, eyes darting from Sebastian to the steering wheel to the road. "We crashed? How did we crash? What's happening?" He sucked in a breath, then another, like he wasn't getting enough air.

"We're all right. Look at me." Sebastian grabbed his arm.

James focused on him, eyes wild.

Sebastian pushed the power button on the dash, turning off the truck and stopping the annoying music. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

James looked down at himself. "No. I don't think so." His breathing came in increasingly short, rapid breaths. "I could have killed us. Are you hurt? Did I hurt you?"

"No." Sebastian took James's unsteady hand. "I'm fine, just confused. I didn't see that coming. It definitely wasn't your fault."

James didn't look convinced. " Sebastian ." He sounded terrified.

"I'm okay. You're okay." He smiled at James, not breaking eye contact, trying to project a calm energy.

James took a deep breath and nodded. He kept his attention locked on Sebastian until he was breathing normally. "You're okay," he agreed at last, almost like he didn't believe it. "We're okay." His fear of losing Sebastian was written all over his face. He repeated his own words again with a little more confidence. "We're okay."

"We are," Sebastian murmured in reassurance as his pounding heart slowed to a normal rhythm. He was impressed with how well James was handling himself. A car accident had to be a worst-case scenario for his anxiety. Sebastian wanted to wrap him up and save him from all the world's uncertainties but settled for gripping his hand.

Once he was settled, James looked around. Sebastian followed suit, sensing James's need for support waning as the desire to figure out what happened intensified. There wasn't anything out the window. No other cars, nothing on the road. He unbuckled himself and jumped out, quickly circling around the back of the truck to James's side and opening his door.

"Here." He helped James out.

James shook and didn't seem as settled as he'd been a moment ago. Sebastian checked him over. At least he found no injuries.

James looked desperately at Sebastian. "I've never been in an accident before."

Sebastian hugged him. "Me either. But hey, we weren't going fast. We're fine."

James buried his face against Sebastian's neck. Any sort of accident would be traumatizing for him after what had happened to his parents, and having someone in the car with him would trigger all his fears about losing people. The poor man didn't need the added stress right now. He'd been through more than enough.

Sebastian held him close, trying not to think about being the cause of James's distress or that his family and their curse had done this to him.

After a long moment, James pulled back. He ran a hand through his short hair, expression hard and unsmiling. "What the hell happened?"

Sebastian looked around helplessly. They'd hit something, but what? The front of the truck was smashed, only there was nothing around. No deer or other animal, nothing fallen in the road.

James examined the damage to his truck. Given they had no idea what the hell they'd hit, it was wild that the whole front bumper was smashed, along with the headlights. Even the hood was crunched. "The truck looks like I drove straight into a wall."

"Like an invisible wall?" Sebastian tried to joke. His delivery failed and ice ran down his spine. Could it have been an invisible wall? No. What was he thinking? They were done with all that, and it wasn't funny.

James's brows shot up. "It looks exactly like I crashed into an invisible wall. And the impact felt like hitting something head-on."

"But—" Sebastian couldn't move. That didn't make any sense.

James stuck out his hands and inched forward. Just a few steps past the smashed front end of the truck, he hit an invisible barrier.

James surged forward, feeling the solid air. He followed the invisible barrier, running his hands over it. They were standing in the road at the edge of town, not too far past the last houses. The invisible wall spanned the road in both directions and continued off the shoulder and into the trees beyond.

Before James was out of sight, he turned back. Sebastian hadn't moved from next to the truck.

"What the fuck?" James gestured at the invisible wall in disbelief .

"I don't know," Sebastian whined. He kicked the barrier, and pain shot through his foot.

This. Wasn't. Happening. Had the universe heard his hope for things to go well and laughed in his face? He kicked the barrier again.

"Careful. Kicking it is only going to hurt you." James grabbed Sebastian's hand and pulled him off the road, leading him away from the barrier. They stopped in a patch of grass and looked at each other. James swallowed. "What if we didn't actually escape the curse?"

Sebastian shook his head. That wasn't a reality he was willing to accept. "But we did."

"Then where did this barrier come from?" James gestured at the wreck in the street. "It would explain why breaking the secret-binding isn't working. The curse still has us, but the area it's trapping us in has grown. That's why it's been able to rebind our tongues." He stopped talking abruptly, face paling.

"Meaning we've trapped Eli, Parker, and Hazel by letting them break the binding and telling them the secret," Sebastian finished, his stomach dropping.

There went his hope for Moonlight Falls being where he found his people. They were all going to hate him.

"Shit." James ran his hand through his hair again. "Maybe we're wrong," he added desperately. "Why would the area expand? And the secret-binding is definitely weakened. That must mean something. Maybe the others aren't trapped."

Sebastian hoped not, but things never went his way. This was only proof he couldn't have anything good in his life without it turning to shit.

He pushed his self-pity to the side. It wasn't helping. "We need to find out if the others are trapped. It might help us figure out what the fuck's going on."

James pulled out his phone and called Eli. "Have you left Moonlight Falls today?" After waiting for a reply, he shook his head, indicating Eli had stayed in town. "No, never mind. It's just— Can you meet us at the south end of Willow Road? Right before the highway." A pause. "No, now. Um. Don't worry. I'm okay, but I crashed my truck."

James winced at Eli's reaction. After James assured Eli that he and Sebastian didn't need an ambulance or even a first-aid kit, he hung up, eyes traveling to Sebastian's. Their shared gaze was one of mutual hopelessness.

They waited in silence for Eli to arrive.

Sebastian mentally ran through the transfer spell they'd performed. The fuel cell was definitely feeding the imbalance on his property. His magical ability returning to normal proved that. He'd never have been able to summon fire while the curse was allowing the veins to feed on him. But standing next to a new barrier, there was no doubt they hadn't been released from the curse like they'd thought.

Eli's compact car pulled up behind James's truck with its hazards on. He jumped out, wearing a frantic expression. "Are you guys all right?" He rushed over.

After assuring Eli they were uninjured, minus some bruising that was bound to appear where the seatbelts had caught them, they explained what happened.

Eli's eyes got wider and wider until it looked like they were about to pop out of his head. "So if you're still trapped, am I?"

Sebastian tried to be hopeful but couldn't manage it. That flicker of light had died. "We don't know."

James showed Eli where the barrier went off the side of the road and into the trees. Eli came forward and pressed his hand to it. He pushed against it but was unable to get through.

"Fuck." James looked at Sebastian in horror.

"And you think this barrier goes all the way around town?" Eli asked, much more calmly than Sebastian would have expected, almost like he couldn't help being fascinated.

"I have no idea where it goes. I guess we can check, though we'll have to be careful if we're driving." Sebastian gave the barrier another kick. "It will probably encircle us in some fashion. I doubt it's just a wall stopping us from going south that we could get around if we found the end."

They all gazed into the trees off to the west.

"We have to talk to Parker and Hazel," James said, his mouth disappearing into a tight line. Sebastian's stomach twisted with a fresh wave of guilt.

"Yeah, I'm not going to lie. This isn't ideal." Eli shook his head. "I may have changed my mind about Moonlight Falls, but I wasn't planning on never leaving."

"We'll fix this," Sebastian promised, the horrible feeling inside him growing exponentially.

Eli grimaced like he wasn't confident in that. Sebastian couldn't blame him. He'd been screwing this up from the start, and now his curse had spread to more people. Yes, being trapped in Moonlight Falls was nowhere near as bad as being trapped at Storm House, but they were still prisoners, even if the cage was larger.

How had Sebastian messed up this badly? No wonder no one chose to keep him in their lives. He was a disaster. Everyone was better off without him. That much was clear. It was one thing wondering if James would want him forever when he thought they were free, now there was no hope. James wouldn't want someone who was not only the source of his past trauma but all his present problems.

Sebastian was a liability, a curse that spread to everything he touched.

"I just don't get it," he pleaded to no one in particular.

James shrugged. Was he annoyed? Of course he was. Sebastian was lucky James wasn't furious and yelling like he had been when he realized he couldn't leave Storm House.

Eli seemed deep in thought, chewing on his bottom lip. After a moment, he turned to Sebastian. "What if the transfer spell was never able to release you? What if it can only spread the curse to someone new, as it's intended to do in case the Storm bloodline dies out, and it can't release the current holder of the curse."

Sebastian frowned. "But what about Kira? They transferred it to me, freeing her."

"She was never trapped," Eli said, like Sebastian had just proven his point. "The curse never had her. She was just next in line. It would make sense for the transfer in that scenario to be complete, but not in yours or James's case."

"Then how do we fix it?" Panic gripped Sebastian's chest. This was his responsibility to solve, but he desperately wanted someone to come in and rescue him.

Instead of telling Sebastian there was no we and he should clean up his own damn mess, Eli considered the question seriously. "Maybe the only way to escape, now that we've all been caught, is to correct the power imbalance. The curse's purpose is to feed the imbalance. If the imbalance no longer exists, the curse can't tie us to anything. Because we're tied to the veins, not the Storm property. Surely, that's what the expanded barrier means. You must have been tied more tightly to the intersection before now, and the fuel cell loosened the leash, so to speak."

"Okay." James nodded encouragingly as if this was somehow good news. "Do you know anything about imbalances in veins of power?"

Eli scrunched his nose. "No," he admitted. "But that doesn't mean I can't figure it out. I need to take a look at what we're dealing with. See exactly what's happening at the vein intersection. Then, I can use my remote access to the university library to research the problem. I can look up practically any study published on this sort of thing through our online archive. Even if the secret-binding prevents me from asking anyone for advice, I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out."

"Damn, we are lucky to have you, Eli." James clapped his brother on the shoulder, shining with pride .

Eli went pink. "Library access isn't that impressive."

"It's not just that. You're smart," James insisted. Eli seemed pleased with the praise and didn't argue further. James turned his attention back toward town. "Should we head out to Storm House before meeting the mayor? I don't get why linking the fuel cell to the curse expanded the area we're trapped in. We need to figure out how that happened."

"No," Sebastian blurted out in alarm. "We can't look at the veins now."

Eli and James stared at him.

He swallowed audibly, trying to calm down. "I mean, we need to stop and think. Make sure we aren't going to do anything to make this worse. If there's one thing we know, it's that we have no fucking clue how this curse works."

"Isn't this us stopping and thinking?" James asked.

"What?" Sebastian's insides twisted. "No. We need to make sure it's not dangerous poking around the veins."

James didn't look concerned. "Dangerous, how? As long as we aren't messing around at night when the shades are there to get riled up, I don't think we have to worry."

James thought hordes of shades were the worst-case scenario. Sebastian needed to tell him the truth. James and Eli deserved to know, but he couldn't find the words.

He ran a hand through his hair. "I don't see why we have to rush out there now. What if we get caught up investigating and miss the meeting? Besides, we have to warn Parker and Hazel that they're trapped. We can't risk anyone else trying to drive through the barrier."

James scowled. "True. We should tell the others before we do anything else."

Sebastian was overcome with relief.

"All right," Eli agreed reluctantly. "Let's call a tow truck, and I'll drive you two back to town."

James made the call while Eli retreated to his car to sit and look at his phone as they waited. A car drove past, only to pull over and ask if they were okay. James assured the driver that they were fine, and they continued on, heading to Apple Valley to pick up their teenager from the high school. Watching the car disappear proved the barrier wasn't something that affected everyone, not that any of them had expected it to.

James put his arm around Sebastian. "You don't have to come to Storm House with us."

Sebastian cringed. James seemed to think his hesitation about looking at the veins was anxiety-based and was trying to protect him. Sebastian wondered if his guilt would eat him alive until there was nothing left. "I know I don't have to come, but I want to be there." He had to be there. He couldn't let everyone else deal with this while he hid. The fact that they were still willing to help was already more than he deserved.

James's brow creased in concern like he didn't believe Sebastian. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Sebastian tried to sound confident. "What's there to be afraid of in going to the house? We're still trapped. It's not like I can get doubly stuck."

James made a humming sound of agreement, kindly not pointing out that Sebastian's reluctance to return to Storm House was about more than the fear that he'd never leave again.