Chapter 14

"What do you mean you're trapped at the house?"

Sebastian shook James. "What do you think I mean? I can't leave. I'm not some antisocial recluse avoiding everyone in Moonlight Falls by choice. I wasn't only bound to secrecy. I'm tied to this damn place—trapped by magic, cursed—and unable to tell anyone what's really going on."

James's stomach dropped. He suddenly felt cold. "So this isn't about the energy draining at all? You need me to free you? From Storm House?"

"Yes!" Sebastian's eyes were wild. He looked completely unhinged, covered in blood and shaking, his breathing getting shallow like he was starting to panic.

"Okay." James covered Sebastian's hands, where they still had a death grip on his hair. "We'll get you out. Unbinding your tongue worked. Things are better than they were this morning. You won't be stuck here now that I know you need to be freed."

Sebastian blinked, his eyes going shiny. "You're right. Oh hell, I can't believe this worked." He let out a shaky laugh and let go of James's hair.

James didn't release Sebastian's hands, bringing them to rest in his lap. "I can't believe those damn tales really were a coded message. I said that just to annoy you."

"Clever, right?" Sebastian smiled, filling James with relief even though the situation was much worse than he'd ever have guessed. He couldn't imagine what it would have been like for Sebastian to be trapped out here and unable to tell anyone.

"Let's get this blood cleaned off. Then I have about a million questions for you."

"There's a bathroom down the hall," Sebastian said, but he didn't seem to want to let James go. His grip on James's fingers tightened.

They stayed on the ground for a minute longer. Sebastian's hold on James was more desperate than sensual, but that was okay. James waited until Sebastian was ready to release him. He'd have sat there the rest of the day if that was what Sebastian needed.

When they got up, James almost fell back down, a dizzy spell hitting him hard.

"That was a lot of magic." James steadied himself and grabbed his shirt and jacket.

Sebastian peeled off the remainder of his ruined shirt and dropped it to the floor. "I'm feeling it too. We'll raid the pantry while I tell you everything."

They slowly made their way to the bathroom across the hall from the kitchen and cleaned up in the sink. Wiping off the mixed blood from above their hearts broke the link between their magic, sending a shiver through them both.

At least unlinking was less intense than linking. They didn't need more heightened emotions right now.

Sebastian picked up James's jacket. "Can I borrow this?"

James pulled his shirt over his head. "Sure."

Sebastian slipped the jacket on. It was too large in the shoulders for his slight frame. He pulled it tight around himself as he often did with his robe, but the sleeves rode up, too short on Sebastian's longer arms. It fit terribly, but James found the sight of Sebastian in his clothes more appealing than anything he'd ever seen.

In the kitchen, they piled food on the table. Apples, bread, butter, a tin of fresh-looking cookies, a bag of tortilla chips, and an unopened jar of salsa. They ate for a good ten minutes straight without pausing for more than a breath here and there.

"How long have you been trapped here?" James asked once his brain felt less foggy.

"Six years. Ever since I've been back. Well—" Sebastian paused to drink some water. "Not from the second I came back. From when my uncle died."

James had a very bad feeling about this. Mila said Stephen had hidden himself away and brushed off her offers of assistance. Was he no more of a voluntary recluse than Sebastian? "He was trapped here too?"

"Yeah, he was." Sebastian gazed morosely at a cookie, lost in thought. It was a defeated sort of sadness, unlike his frantic demeanor from the ballroom. "I didn't know it at the time." Sebastian's voice wavered, and he cleared his throat. "Uncle Stephen was trapped here my whole life. Since before I was born. The whole time I knew him, I thought he was just this antisocial, paranoid man who couldn't let go of the past, and none of that was true."

"He didn't tell you?"

"He couldn't." Sebastian tossed his cookie back into the tin. "He was bound to secrecy via blood magic, just like me. This curse and the secrecy spell go hand in hand. I only found out when I inherited it from him."

"What do you mean?" James leaned forward, his appetite forgotten.

"I had no idea when I came home." Sebastian looked desperate for James to understand. "Stephen was dying, and I just wanted to help take care of him. But he knew the curse would pass to me when he died. He knew my whole life that I'd eventually be a prisoner here like he was. He never tried to tell me. No one did. That was the whole point."

Sebastian let out a humorless laugh. "He didn't try to say anything until right before he died. That's when he explained it all, but it was too late for me to escape the property. The magic already had hold of me. As his life faded, it latched onto mine."

"The whole point? I— Sebastian, why would he have known you were going to inherit a curse and not try to tell you?"

Sebastian ran his hands through his hair. "I'm not explaining it well. The curse didn't start with Stephen. It started with Sullivan and Nelson Storm, my great-great-grandmother Selma's sons."

James's brow furrowed. "The grandma with the teeth?"

"That's her." Sebastian looked pissed off rather than sad now. "Sullivan and Nelson built this house, and while they were at it, they messed with things you aren't supposed to touch. There's a vein of power running through the property. Two of them, actually. They intersect in the woods. That's why they bought this land in particular. They messed with the veins and threw off the balance of energy transferring between here and Beyond. It was a big fuck up. Like almost blew up the whole town kind of fuck up. But Grandma Selma fixed it."

James didn't like the sound of any of this. "How?"

"To prevent the veins of power from exploding, there needed to be a constant energy debt paid. She bound Sullivan to the land so his life force would stabilize the veins."

James's eyes widened. "What about the other brother?"

"He ran off as soon as things went to shit. As far as I know, he never came back. Left Sullivan and Grandma to deal with everything."

James ran a hand through his hair, trying to peace it all together. "But that was ages ago."

"Yeah, nineteen forty. The catch is Grandma's fix didn't solve the problem. It just patched it. As soon as Sullivan's life wasn't there to hold things together, the veins would explode, so Grandma made sure her spell would transfer with her son's death to his son, who was only six years old at the time this all happened."

"She doomed her descendants to be trapped here?" James asked in disbelief. It sounded harsh, even if the alternative was some big explosion. Surely, there was another way to prevent disaster.

"They didn't know exactly what would happen to the veins if they exploded or how far the destruction would reach, so I think they felt it was a necessary sacrifice. And everything I've come across makes it seem like Selma wasn't sorry about punishing her sons for their mistake. They shouldn't have messed with the veins in the first place."

"Damn." It was a harsh punishment. James couldn't fault the woman for saving Moonlight Falls and the other residents, but still.

"I'm the fourth down the line to take on the curse." There was venom in Sebastian's tone, like he hated his ancestors, and James couldn't blame him. "Sullivan and his son, Simon, supposedly didn't mind being here and took it as a duty to protect Moonlight Falls from destruction. They had their families with them—wives and kids—and thought of themselves as guardians of magical power, looking after the balance between here and Beyond.

"Whether that's true or just what Simon told Uncle Stephen as he died and passed on the curse, who knows. Stephen clearly bought into it and accepted the curse as his duty. He couldn't tell me I'd be the next to bear the family burden directly—he couldn't even say the Storms were cursed—but he didn't even try to hint at it. Not like I did with you. He never implied anything was going on here, nothing big or sinister. And like"—Sebastian shoved his chair back and crossed his arms—"it's not as if I'd have run away and let the town explode, bringing unknown magical consequences to fruition, if I'd known. I'm not that selfish. But I could have been better prepared when I came home to take care of Stephen. I don't know why none of them ever tried to find a better solution to the problem. I don't get why they all accepted that we had to be trapped here forever."

Unless it was because there was no other solution.

James was overwhelmed and tried to push that hopeless thought away. This was so much more than he thought he'd be dealing with. He wasn't even remotely equipped to handle this. At least he had Eli. He'd know where to start. He studied veins of power and would know much more about what an energy imbalance like this meant. They'd sort it out. They had to. It was the only option.

"Is that why the energy is all wrong here? Why it feels haunted?" James asked.

Sebastian nodded. "I can't feel it because I'm essentially part of the property. I used to get all the creepy feelings when I was younger. But as soon as the curse claimed me, the unsettling sensations all went away."

James rubbed his chin. "Fuck. This is some serious shit, Sebastian."

"Tell me about it. I've been trying to covertly communicate with the outside world for six years, but no one sticks around long enough for any of my random actions to make sense. I used to try and stalk the mail man, wait for him to show up down by the gate, and try to get him to come in and talk to me for more than a minute. I think he thought I was a serial killer, trying to lure him into some sick trap."

It was heartbreaking. James didn't know how anyone could take the isolation. No phone, no computer or radio, no connection to the outside world except the newspaper and mail.

"How old were you when you got trapped here?"

"Twenty." Sebastian sounded every bit as bitter as you'd expect. "Didn't even get to finish college. And I'd just started dating this girl, Emily, before I came home for Stephen. We kept in touch while I was able to go into town and use my phone. You know, before it was too late. But I was still oblivious to what was coming. I had to break up with her via written letter, pretend I was choosing to push her away. And I didn't even get to say goodbye to my other college friends since I didn't have their home addresses."

"I'm so sorry." James had to resist the urge to rush around the table and crush Sebastian into a never-ending hug.

"It's not your fault." Sebastian made a visible effort to rally. He grinned mischievously. "I'd love to know what Emily thought of my letter. She probably took me for the biggest dickhead ever, saying there was no need to discuss the breakup over the phone, let alone in person." He laughed.

James smiled grimly at Sebastian's ability to find any of this amusing. "When you're out of here, you can ask her what she thought. Tell her what really happened. Reconnect with your friends."

Sebastian huffed. "Don't think that'll be on my to-do list, to be honest. Everyone I ghosted six years ago has moved on and forgotten me."

"Oh, maybe." James was saddened by Sebastian's dismissal, but thoughts of reconnecting with people might be premature. "So what do we do now?" he asked, hoping like hell Sebastian had a plan.

From the look of panic that flashed across his face, James wasn't sure he did. "I still can't believe you figured out my tongue was tied so quickly."

"It would have been faster if you had shoved Little William's story under my nose."

"I tried that." Sebastian grabbed a chip, dunked it in the salsa, and ate it. "I got the book out of the library upstairs, intending to wave the story at the next delivery person to come by, but I ended up burning it instead."

"Why?"

"The magic. Like how it made me run from you. It wouldn't let me do anything to communicate what was happening so directly. So it made me get rid of the book."

At least they were past that now. James was relieved he'd figured it out. It seemed like his tendency to over-worry had resulted in something positive for once. "So you don't know how to break the curse? How to get out of here without blowing up Moonlight Falls?"

"Not exactly," Sebastian admitted.

James tried to not panic under the weight of Sebastian's request to free him. "I'm going to have to ask for help on this."

"Go for it. Tell whoever you want. I just want to get out of here." He fixed James with a serious stare.

James stood from the table. "We'll find a way, I promise. But I should go talk to some people. Eli, for a start, and do some research. And if that doesn't work, we need to report this."

Sebastian nodded. "I'm not against telling everyone exactly what's happening out here. Report it now. I would have done it myself if I could have."

"True, of course." That was a weight off James's mind. This mess needed a professional solution, magical practitioners whose job it was to help people deal with this sort of thing. "I'll head back to town and get started. Make some calls."

Sebastian stood in a rush. "Now?" His brow creased with worry. James had never seen him look so anxious.

He paused. "We shouldn't delay. You've been here long enough."

"No, I just—" Sebastian pulled James's jacket tighter against his bare chest. "You'll be back soon, right? I don't like being left out here. I don't want you to go." Sebastian looked down, avoiding James's eye. "Please don't leave me here," he said in a small voice.

James moved closer, putting a hand on Sebastian's shoulder. He had no idea how to respond to the anguished request. Sebastian had to be traumatized by all the years of involuntary solitude and in desperate need of company. How many times had he longed to ask someone not to leave him, only to be stopped by the secret-binding? James wanted to stay and comfort him, wrap him up and never let go, but he needed to go get help.

After a heavy pause, Sebastian turned away, his face going red. "Sorry."

James squeezed his shoulder. "Don't be. I'd stay?—"

"No," Sebastian interrupted. "You're right. I've waited long enough." He rolled his eyes unconvincingly.

James didn't let go of Sebastian's shoulder. "I promise I'll be back as soon as I can tomorrow."

"Yeah, got it. It's fine." Sebastian shook him off. "I can deal with it. I'm just bored out of my mind." It couldn't just be boredom, but if Sebastian wanted to take back his moment of vulnerability, that was okay.

Sebastian walked James to the gate. It was late afternoon, and Hazel wouldn't be pleased he'd left her on her own for so long with only a measly text as an explanation. At least she would understand when he told her about Storm House. She wasn't going to believe this shit.

James waited as Sebastian unlocked the gate, deciding not to ask for his jacket back. "I'll come by at lunch tomorrow—at the very latest—and let you know what everyone says. I'd come in the morning, but I've got to keep working on the lights in town, and I don't know if I'll have anything figured out before then."

"Sounds like a plan." Sebastian was acting like he didn't care, but James hoped knowing when to expect him would help him cope with the isolation.

James headed for his truck, a million things circling inside his mind. Something hit him out of nowhere, pain shooting through his face as his nose crunched.