5. James

5

JAMES

James and Parker took Sebastian to his duplex. He was alive, his pulse steady, but James wished they could have taken him to a hospital instead.

The sight of Sebastian unconscious in his bed made James sick with worry. His stomach cramped and he couldn't get it to settle. From everything James had heard about Sebastian's fight with the invading shade, he'd used way more power that day, yet he was knocked out from just one blast today.

James sat in bed next to Sebastian. He wasn't shivering like he had been when he'd used too much magic at Storm House, so James hoped that was a good sign. He clung to the fact that Sebastian's condition didn't seem to worsen. There wasn't much more he could do than wait. Even if he found a doctor who made house calls, he couldn't explain what Sebastian had done with the vein's power without revealing the curse.

It was a long afternoon.

Sebastian finally stirred as the sun set. He blinked and looked around in confusion but seemed to become alert much quicker than when he'd woken from his four-day sleep .

"We're at the duplex?" Sebastian sat up and leaned against James, the contact an immense relief.

"Yeah. Do you remember what happened?"

Sebastian rubbed his eyes. "The bear." He turned toward the window and the darkening sky. "How long was I out?"

"Several hours. It's still Monday."

Sebastian nodded. "Oh, good. Not too long." He sounded exhausted.

James stroked Sebastian's hair. "Want to come downstairs and have something to eat? Or I can bring it up for you?" James didn't know what else to do.

"I don't have anything here that you won't have to cook. We could boil some pasta and open a can of something to put on it."

"Parker and Eli are in the living room. They brought food over." James hadn't been able to get rid of them. They were worried about Sebastian, and James suspected they were worried about him too.

Sebastian smiled. "That was nice of them. Let's go down."

James stayed close to Sebastian on the stairs, but he seemed steady enough.

"Good to see you standing, Sebastian," Parker said as they entered the living room. He and Eli were settled on the couch, Parker reading a book while Eli worked.

Eli closed his laptop. "How do you feel?"

"Tired." Sebastian took a seat at the dining table. "But something smells good."

"That'll be Parker's pumpkin soup." James joined Sebastian at the table, not able to leave his side.

" Ugh , my pumpkins," Sebastian groaned. "Some of them have got to be past ripe by now. They're going to rot away."

Parker got up and headed to the kitchen. "Eli and I have kept an eye on your veggies. Don't worry."

Sebastian blinked in surprise. "Wow. Thanks."

They ate, and Sebastian seemed just as hungry as he'd been the day before. He might not be using his magic when he harnessed that blue power, but it sure depleted his energy.

"I thought you weren't going to try to connect to the veins again," James couldn't help saying.

"I wasn't." Sebastian put his spoon down and gave James his full attention. "I panicked and did the only thing I could. How else would we have stopped that bear?"

James took Sebastian's hand. "I don't know. I'm not trying to blame you or tell you off for using the veins. It's not like we could have outrun it."

Parker frowned thoughtfully. "I could have tried to cut its throat with a knife from the diner's kitchen."

James was glad Parker hadn't tried anything that rash. He would have only hurt himself. "It was on fire."

"And already a corpse. Stabbing wouldn't have done anything when it was dead," Sebastian reminded them, though maybe Parker hadn't noticed that. James hadn't talked to him about the incident since bringing Sebastian home.

"We could have hit its eyes with light. Or fire." Parker shrugged as if in defeat. "I'm not saying I could have stopped it, but it'd probably pay to have some ideas up our sleeves in case that isn't the only possessed—or undead—animal to turn up."

"You're right." Sebastian rested a hand on James's thigh. "I can't keep doing this, but if I'm backed into another corner, it's not like I'm going to give up without fighting with everything I have."

"I know, sweetheart." James rubbed Sebastian's back. Hopefully, the next possessed animal wouldn't be a dead one, and they'd be able to deal with it without Sebastian's extra power, but the only way to guarantee something like this wouldn't happen again was to stop shades coming through the gateway.

After everyone had finished eating, Eli and Parker said goodbye and left .

James rinsed their bowls and put the rest of the soup away. "Do you have a headache?"

"No, it's okay at the moment. I'm just tired. I think I'll go back to bed."

James followed Sebastian back up to his bedroom.

Sebastian flopped on the bed, landing on his stomach. "I'm surprised Eli and Parker hung around all afternoon."

James lay beside him and rubbed his shoulders. "They care about you."

Sebastian turned his head to the side, propping it on a hand. "I'm not used to it. Every time Eli hugs me, it startles me." Sebastian rolled his eyes at himself. "Not in a bad way. I like being able to tell they care. It's just that the voice inside me that keeps asking why hasn't gone away yet."

James's heart ached at Sebastian's honesty. "It might take time for you to get used to the idea that they'll keep showing up for you."

"Yeah, probably. I can't hand out trust easily, no matter how good I know people are." Sebastian scooted closer and tucked his face into James's neck. "Except with you."

James kissed the top of Sebastian's head and murmured, "I'm glad I can be that person for you."

He didn't discount how much Sebastian opening up meant. James would have understood if it had taken longer for them to get to a fully trusting place, but he was glad he didn't have to wait. He was ready to build on that trust and keep Sebastian forever.

His visions of their future had grown exponentially since leaving Storm House. Sebastian made James want to be brave. He wanted to be there for Sebastian and not let his anxiety about losing people stand in the way. Yes, it had scared him when Sebastian lost consciousness today, but that fear wasn't going to make him hold back from connections like it used to.

"Wish we were at your house," Sebastian mumbled sleepily .

James looked down at him. "Why?"

Sebastian untucked himself from James. "I don't like this place."

James studied the bare room. "You might like it better once you make it yours."

Sebastian wrinkled his nose. "I don't want to make it mine."

"But you still want to live on your own, right?"

Sebastian thought for a moment. "Yeah. I want to spend every second with you, but I also want to build a normal life and…I don't know."

James smiled. "I want to spend every second with you, too, but it's not really practical."

"No." Sebastian matched his grin.

James wrapped one of Sebastian's curls around his finger. "What don't you like about the duplex?"

"It doesn't feel right. I think it's too small, maybe?" Sebastian chewed his lower lip. "Don't get me wrong, Storm House was too big and a way worse place to be, but I don't think I want to live here either."

"This could just be a temporary home that you stay in while you figure out what you want more permanently."

"True." Sebastian tucked back into James. "I hadn't thought of that. I guess there's no rush to figure out what I want. I don't need to stress so much about what comes next for me."

"No, there's no rush." James kissed his curls. "I'll be here with you as long as it takes for you to decide, whatever it ends up being."

"That feels really fucking good." Sebastian squeezed him. "Which is silly considering where I want to live and what I want to do with my time are far from my biggest problems."

"No, but they matter and will only matter more once all this is over. One problem doesn't discount all others. The veins aren't your whole life. It's good to look ahead. "

Sebastian hummed a happy sound. "Something to look forward to."

James and Eli went to Storm House together the next morning, leaving Sebastian in bed. He woke briefly but told James he'd rather sleep than go look at the fuel cell with them. James was happy to let him rest. Sebastian hadn't had any more headaches, but there was no reason to push him when they didn't need extra help in the clearing.

The sun had gone, leaving clouds darkening the sky. When James and Eli reached the clearing, it seemed quiet. There weren't even birds pecking at the ground or flying between the trees. The fuel cell tilted to the side even more off-center than before.

Eli shrugged his backpack off. "Why is it falling over?"

"I don't know." James approached it as Eli went to uncover the mechanism closest to the path. "It's heavy, but I wouldn't think it'd sink into the earth due to its weight. The ground isn't exactly soft out here."

As he rounded the fuel cell, he stopped short and almost tripped. "What the hell?" The ground in front of the fuel cell—not visible from the path because it was on the opposite side of the large cylinder—opened into a hole.

James backed up.

Eli looked up from his notebook. "What's up?"

"Come over here, but be careful. Don't get too close to the fuel cell."

Eli approached. When he rounded the fuel cell, his mouth dropped open. "Where's my fifth mechanism?"

"What?" James looked around. The tarp-covered crate and mechanism that had been next to the fuel cell were nowhere to be seen, just the hole and the fuel cell tilting toward it.

"Did it fall in?" Eli stepped forward.

James caught his arm. "Wait. What if the ground is unstable. It doesn't look like that hole was dug. There's no dirt around."

Eli moved back. "You think it's a sinkhole?"

James held Eli tight. "It must be."

The hole wasn't much bigger than the small missing crate. The fuel cell wasn't in danger of slipping in and disappearing unless the hole widened, but there was nothing to say that wouldn't happen.

Eli groaned. "It's eaten all my data from the last day."

James marveled at Eli's unwavering focus on studying and data. "I don't think that's the most important thing right now."

Eli ignored that. He probably disagreed. "We should look inside. What if the crate and everything is just under the surface. I could fish it out. It's not like it's a hole to the center of the earth."

James wasn't so sure. "Given it's a mysterious hole at the vein intersection, it could be anything."

Eli shrugged. "So tie a rope around me and let me get closer. We need to figure this out."

James wanted to say hell no, but Eli's suggestion was smart, and he had a point. They needed answers, and looking at the hole from five feet away wasn't giving them much.

They trooped off to the barn, saying hello to Miss Moo and checking her hay and water trough before returning to the clearing with a sturdy rope. James secured one end to a tree and the other to Eli. Maybe they were being overly cautious, but James was taking no unnecessary risks.

James held the coiled rope, giving Eli enough slack to get close to the hole.

He approached and peered down. "Okay, that's deep. "

"How deep?"

"I can't see the bottom."

"Really?" James was shocked, despite his concern the hole could be something exactly like this.

"It's so dark." Eli leaned over the hole. "The ground feels fine next to it. Not unstable, at least in this spot. I don't see my mechanism." Eli turned and walked back to James.

James began removing the rope from Eli. "We should move the fuel cell. It's tied to the veins magically, but I don't want to lose sight of it."

Eli agreed.

The only way to move it was levitation. James performed the spell and shifted the fuel cell over toward the path. He didn't put it directly next to a mechanism in case another one got sucked into the ground. The fuel cell had drained more since they'd been here last, but the drop wasn't any bigger than the worst of what Eli and Parker had seen earlier that week.

"I have no idea why this would have happened," Eli said as he crouched over another crate, getting the data from across the clearing.

"Could it be because the intersection is a gateway?" James leaned against a tree to rest after doing the levitation spell. "How does that even work? I don't get how a gateway to Beyond can be underground."

"They always are. Veins are in the earth and shifting ones are no different. For shades, it doesn't matter. They can leave their solid form, move through the space between worlds created by the shifting energy, come out here, and return to solid form once they've moved through the ground to the surface."

James glared at the hole. "Could the ground be getting sucked through the gateway to Beyond?"

"I want to say no, that's never happened anywhere else that I've heard of, but this situation is pretty much unprecedented, so I have no idea. "

Eli always liked facts or having data-based theories, but to James, the hole seemed exactly like things from this world falling through the gateway to Beyond.