Page 11 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

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.”

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