2. Sebastian

2

SEBASTIAN

Sebastian watched comprehension wash over James's face. His eyes widened, but Sebastian didn't think James doubted his claim.

"Just because the energy looks similar doesn't mean the intersection is creating a passage between our worlds," Eli argued. "They're still fixed veins."

Sebastian tore his gaze from James. "You can test it all you want, but that shade-thing called me a gatekeeper. It seemed to know I couldn't leave Moonlight Falls. Like maybe it knew I was tied to the veins. I think it has a much better understanding of what was happening than we do. It makes sense for the intersection to be a gateway when there have always been so many more shades on my property than anywhere else."

"It explains why so many shades are in and around Moonlight Falls," Hazel added, though she didn't look pleased by the idea. "We've always wondered why they come here specifically."

"I'd love to know how many shades there were in the area before my ancestors messed with the veins." Sebastian rubbed his brow, a headache building behind his eyes. "I bet there weren't many." If Sebastian was a gatekeeper, his uncle and everyone who came before him must have been one too. "Storms have been holding the veins stable and apparently holding a passage to Beyond open. So until we figure out how to solve the imbalance and return the veins to their natural, stable state, the passage will stay open and that shade could return. It said as much to me before I banished it."

I will come back. Beyond isn't for the living.

The words echoed in Sebastian's head, the memory of the shade's eerie voice giving him chills.

There was a heavy silence in the living room.

"Well, if we weren't motivated to solve the imbalance before, we are now," Hazel said dryly.

Eli and Parker shared a quick look of alarm, but Eli's focus immediately returned to Sebastian. "The humanoid shade can't have come back yet. If it had, surely it wouldn't wait to attack again."

"Maybe." Sebastian shrugged. That didn't mean it wasn't still coming. Maybe the shade needed to bide its time and get its strength back. Either way, it wasn't gone for good.

James studied Sebastian, worry lining his face. "If it does come back, you can't fight it off again."

Sebastian didn't want to disagree, and even more than that, he didn't want to worry James. "But I don't see any other way to beat it. It was way too powerful."

"Then we'll need to get actual assistance next time. If there is a next time." James scowled, clearly determined to protect Sebastian from this. "Eleanor was right. Attacks from Beyond are not our responsibility to fight off."

"Getting help if this happens again might not be so easy," Hazel grumbled, slouching against the couch. "By the time anyone from out of town got here, things were back to normal and the officials started questioning Eleanor like they didn't believe there'd ever been an invasion."

James's brows flew up in shock. "You're kidding? "

Sebastian's heart sank.

"No." Hazel bit her lip in apparent frustration. "It's classic misogyny, really. Acting like Eleanor overreacted to the darkness and doesn't know what she's talking about rather than believing what she says. Like they can't trust her first-hand account."

"Why didn't you tell me Eleanor was having so much trouble?" James asked.

Hazel looked at him helplessly. "You had more than enough to worry about, James. And it's not like there's anything you could have done about the state not believing a shadow-being from Beyond tried to overtake the town. Of course, Eleanor has no idea how the invasion was stopped, which didn't help when she was trying to explain. But even now that we know what Sebastian did, it's not like we can tell her."

Hazel's voice rose along with the tension in the room. Sebastian's headache intensified, the familiar guilty feeling growing inside him doing nothing to help. They couldn't explain to Eleanor how he'd defeated the shade or banished the darkness without telling her about the veins and the curse.

"She knows we're hiding something," Hazel added. "She hasn't forgotten that I let slip we couldn't leave Moonlight Falls and won't stop asking me what I meant."

"Shit." James rubbed at his stubble-lined face.

"Not that this is the most important aspect of the whole mess, but lying to her is screwing with our relationship." Hazel heaved a heavy sigh. "She keeps accusing me of not trusting her."

"I'm so sorry, Hazel. But the only alternative to keeping it secret is trapping her," James said as if the words pained him. "If a gateway to Beyond is sitting open at Storm House, and there's a good chance that shade-thing will come back and do this all over again, we can't get her stuck here with us."

"I know," Hazel growled. "I don't want her trapped here if it's going to get dangerous."

Eli and Parker shared another apprehensive look .

Sebastian pointed at them. "What's with you two?"

Eli's eyes went wide. "Um…"

Parker put a hand on Eli's shoulder. "We might as well lay out all the problems."

Eli slumped, seeming almost guilty. "We've been collecting the data from Storm House and noticed the fuel cell is draining a lot quicker than before. The energy levels in the veins are higher too. And after Sebastian said he burned the darkness away using the veins, I think that could have made things less stable, and that's why we're seeing these changes. It would have been a huge amount of energy passing through a system that was already precarious."

Sebastian put his head in his hands. He couldn't deal with any of this right now, and it wasn't just because his head was killing him.

"How much quicker is the fuel cell draining?" James asked as he rubbed Sebastian's back.

"It's hard to say." Eli didn't sound confident. "It's a bit all over the place."

James's hand paused on Sebastian's back. "Let's go out and take a look."

Sebastian forced himself to sit up.

James caught his eye, a tender smile pulling at his lips. "You can stay here if you want."

It was a tempting offer. Sebastian no longer felt it was solely his reasonability to fix all this or that he had to solve problems to keep people happy with him so he wouldn't be abandoned, but he wouldn't be able to relax and rest if he stayed behind. He might as well go.

Sebastian stood. "I just need some painkillers, and then let's head out."

James caught his arm. "If you aren't feeling well, you should go back to bed."

"I'm not going to be able to sleep. All I'll end up doing is wondering what you all are seeing in the clearing."

James nodded in understanding, concerned gaze raking over Sebastian. "What hurts?"

Sebastian rubbed his brow again, even though doing so wasn't helping. "My head."

James pressed a gentle hand to Sebastian's cheek. "Do you think it's from the magic you did?"

"I don't know, maybe." Sebastian followed James to the downstairs bathroom, where James opened the medicine cabinet. "Using the veins made my head feel like it was splitting open. This feels nowhere near as bad."

James handed over a bottle of painkillers with a strained expression. "Will you let me know if anything else feels off?"

Sebastian swallowed a pill. "Definitely. I really hope there aren't any lasting effects from using the veins." Fear that he'd hurt himself in some irreversible way hit Sebastian for the first time. He hadn't had a chance to worry about it before.

James brushed a stray lock of Sebastian's hair from his brow. "I hope not too, but I'll look after you either way."

"Thank you," Sebastian murmured, his heart aching.

James squeezed his shoulder, affection radiating out of him in everything from his touch to the set of his brow. "I've got you, Sebastian. You're mine, remember?"

"Yeah." Sebastian returned James's soft look. "But I still like hearing that it hasn't changed."

"Your truck is back." Sebastian paused as he and James entered the garage. He hadn't thought he'd be so pleased to see the familiar vehicle.

"Good as new." James patted the hood before climbing in.

"I'm taking it as a sign of good things to come that we're returning to normal." Sebastian climbed into the passenger seat. "James in his jacket, driving his truck."

James shook his head. "Thought you might want the jacket back."

That was a good point. "True. In that case, things are returning to a better version of normal."

James snorted. "Fuck, I love your optimism. You don't stay down long."

Sebastian's cheeks heated at the admiration in James's tone. "I guess I've had a lot of practice pushing through the worst."

James squeezed his knee. "True, but now you've got me to help you. We'll figure this out. We'll get through it."

"I sure hope so." Sebastian leaned back in his seat. He closed his eyes in an attempt to rest his head as James drove.

Despite everything, it felt good to face things with James and not have any secrets between them. It was ridiculous what a difference trust made, even when his faith in James was the only thing Sebastian was sure of. Everything else was up in the air and likely to be a disaster, but Sebastian knew he wasn't facing it alone.

They would take care of each other.

Storm House seemed the same as ever. Eli had driven the others in his car, and they all trooped up the driveway together. The sun was still shining brightly, so there were no shades. Part of Sebastian wanted to come out at night and camp out in the house just to see how many of the beasts were there, but the other part was still afraid to set foot back inside, especially after dark.

As soon as they reached the clearing, Sebastian noticed something was wrong with the fuel cell. It looked off-kilter, like it was tipping slightly to one side.

James crouched to inspect the base. "It's sinking into the ground. "

"I don't remember it being like that yesterday," Eli said from beside James.

Parker put his hand on Eli's shoulder. "Me either."

James stood and looked at the indicator lights. "How's this compared to when you were last here?" He pointed to the lights.

Eli had a look. "It's dropped, but not as badly as when we first came out after the darkness disappeared."

James nodded. "So most of this power was lost fighting the darkness?"

"Maybe half." Eli opened his notebook. "There was another big drop yesterday."

"Okay." James scratched his chin. "Even if it keeps dropping this much every day, we won't need to replace the fuel cell for a month or more. So, no immediate danger."

"Unless it starts dropping faster," Hazel cut in.

"We need to keep a close eye on it for sure," James agreed.

Sebastian stared at the base of the fuel cell sinking into the ground. Was the dirt too soft? He wouldn't have thought so. His head pounded dully and he hoped the painkillers would start working soon.

"Could you tell anything else about the veins, Sebastian?"

Eli's question pulled Sebastian out of his daze. "Like what?"

"Anything that felt wrong or like something that needed to be fixed?" Eli gave him a hopeful look.

"No." Sebastian had no idea how the veins worked, even though they were apparently connected to him. "I don't want to delve back into them to try and check either," he admitted. "I don't actually know if I could get the connection back. It happened mostly by accident."

The moment he'd connected to the veins had been so hopeless. The vision of being dead and buried wasn't one Sebastian wanted to revisit.

"I don't think you should try anything like that," Eli said quickly .

James nodded at his brother. "Me either."

Sebastian was grateful they were all in agreement but didn't know how they were going to solve the problem. They had no new ideas.

"There must be a way to figure out how the veins were broken in the first place so we can work backward and find a solution," Sebastian said, not bothering to disguise the pleading in his voice. He'd searched the house and found nothing that hinted at what exactly had caused the imbalance but maybe they could solve the puzzle another way.

"I'll keep collecting data and doing research." Eli bent to uncover one of the mechanisms. "I haven't found anything helpful about imbalances yet, but I've still got a lot of resources to go through."

Sebastian wasn't sure that was enough. He appreciated Eli and knew he was doing everything he could. He just wished they had more than one avenue to explore.

They collected the receipts and added new rolls of paper to the mechanisms. With nothing else useful to do, they drove back to town.