Page 2 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

“Moonlight Falls is just a town.” Sebastian unbuckled his seatbelt. Honestly, it was like most of the people here had been brainwashed into loving the dirt under their shoes, like being raised here indoctrinated you into a cult.

James looked mildly offended. “You don’t like it here?”

“Why would I?” Sebastian got out of the truck. Seeing the diner and the little park beside it made him feel like a lonely kid again. What was there to like about that?

James frowned. It was his thoughtful frown, as opposed to his annoyed frown or his stressed-out frown. “Would you like to go somewhere else for dinner?”

Shit. Sebastian was ruining everything. He was supposed to be living out his teenage fantasy of a date with James—which had definitely included the diner as their date location—not bitching about how much he disliked Moonlight Falls. He knew James was practically in love with this town.

The town loved James back, so Sebastian couldn’t really blame him. Mutual affection was a heady thing.

Sebastian walked around to James’s side of the truck. “No, I don’t want to go somewhere else. Being back in town is just freaking me out. It looks so much the same that it’s like the last six years might never have happened. But not in a good way.”

James pulled Sebastian into a hug, and for one long embrace, Sebastian forgot all his negative thoughts.

“Those years definitely happened. The curse is more than enough evidence of that, and dealing with it isn’t over.” James pulled back to look at Sebastian. “We can’t leave the veins feeding off the fuel cell forever, so we’ve got to figure that out. And there’s a lot of people mad at me. Maybe it’s silly, but I want to do something nice with you. Something simple for us before we deal with the rest.”

Sebastian nodded. His mind was caught on all the times James had said we. Moonlight Fall’s golden boy didn’t need to help him with the Storm House curse now that he was free. But the fact that he said he would, like it was the most natural thing, made Sebastian ache all over.

“You’re right. We deserve this. Come on.” He pulled James’s hand, and they walked around the side of the diner to the entrance. “Just so you know, I expect a milkshake with two straws and a chocolate-flavored kiss on this date.”

James chuckled. “That’s very specific. Almost like you’ve been fantasizing about it.”

Sebastian’s cheeks burned, but he walked ahead so James wouldn’t notice. James was just teasing him. There was no way he knew how often Sebastian had pictured that scene. “Yeah, well, I’ve been fantasizing about ice cream and dairy in general since living without electricity for years.”

Sebastian entered the diner and froze. There were people, of course there were, but the sight shocked him. Before James turned up, Sebastian hadn’t seen more than one person at a time in six years. Before James, he hadn’t spent more than a few minutes with anyone, and now, suddenly, four people were staring at him.

He shrank into James’s leather jacket, hunching his shoulders.

“Hi,” Eli called out, wearing a dumbfounded expression. His mouth hung open.

James rubbed the back of his neck. “Hey.” He did his best to avoid his younger brother’s stare.

Eli marched over and put a hand on his hip. “Don’t you hey me,” he growled in a loud whisper. “You haven’t been home in weeks, and you’re just going to walk in here like it’s a typical Thursday?”

Pain laced Eli’s words, making guilt wash over Sebastian. It was his fault James had been trapped at Storm House. His tongue bound, like Sebastian’s, prevented him from telling anyone about the curse imprisoning them. He hadn’t meant to get James trapped—it had been an epic fuck up—but Sebastian had still dragged James into his mess and put James at risk because he didn’t know all the ins and outs of the magic he was messing with. And now James had to deal with the fallout.

“Sorry, Eli.” James clasped his brother’s shoulder. He was taller than Eli, who was slimmer than James’s broad-shouldered, muscular build, but the brothers had the same nose and well-defined jaw.

Eli huffed.

“We want to explain everything.” Sebastian tried to ignore the other three customers who were not so subtly watching their conversation. “I know James disappearing didn’t make sense, but—” His words trailed off. He was surprised he’d been able to say that much. The silencing spell keeping the curse’s existence secret was usually much stricter, not even allowing him to hint at anything being wrong.

“You and Parker should meet us at home after you get off,” James continued for him. “We’ll explain everything then, I promise.”

Eli crossed his arms, pulling from James’s grip. “What the hell, you guys? That’s all you’re going to say? We’ll talk later? That is not enough to make me drop this. How do I know you’ll even be home when I get there?”

“We’ll be there,” Sebastian promised. “This is all my fault. I’m sorry, Eli. I can’t explain it all now, not here.” He couldn’t help glancing at the people at the back of the diner.

“Fine.” Eli closed his eyes momentarily, then opened them with a forced smile. “Would you guys like some menus?”

James accepted the dark-blue laminated menus and led Sebastian to a booth by the window. He didn’t choose the one beneath the photo of himself, showing him off as the local swimming champion. Sebastian would have teased James about the old picture and his obvious effort not to look at the display, but he found everything in the diner too distracting.

Being here was surreal. The smells, the sounds, everything from the pie cases on the counter to the photos on the walls were so familiar, but it felt like he hadn’t been here in a million years. Like the last time he’d been to a restaurant of any kind was in another lifetime.

Sebastian slid into the blue vinyl booth across from James.

He gave Sebastian a sheepish grin. “Ideally, a date wouldn’t begin with my brother giving us hell.”

---