Page 33 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

“Oh. Huh. I had no idea.” Sebastian scratched his head. This information seemed significant to Eli, but Sebastian wasn’t sure if it was relevant to the problem they were trying to solve.

“It’s fascinating. I wonder how far past the clearing it stays straight. I wish I knew where the other vein went and if it’s straight or not.” Eli looked wistfully off through the trees.

“Feel free to explore.” Sebastian stood as Eli folded the map. “I don’t have a diagram of the veins. If there’s one in the house, I haven’t come across it.”

Parker brushed a stray leaf off Eli’s sweater as he stood. “Did your relatives record much about the veins?”

“Nothing technical like this. They wrote about them, vaguely, in journals and stuff. But I don’t have anything detailing exactly what Sullivan and Nelson did to fuck everything up.”

“That’s too bad.” Eli frowned. “It would make my job easier to know how the imbalance was created.”

“My ancestors really did not want to make anything easy,” Sebastian said bitterly.

“Hm.” Eli scowled, an expression that made him look a lot like James.

With everything set up, they walked back to the cars, where they found Hazel and James loading a trunk into Hazel’s van.

Eli and Parker were heading back to town since Parker was working the dinner shift at the diner. Before they left, Eli plugged Sebastian’s new number into his phone.

“I want to check on things tomorrow,” Eli said as he climbed into the driver’s seat. “I’ll text you if you want to come?”

Sebastian shoved his hands in his pockets. “Sounds good.”

Eli smiled like it was the answer he’d hoped for.

As the car drove away, Sebastian turned to the others. “Thanks for grabbing my stuff.” James and Hazel had already transferred his boxes from Eli’s car to the van.

“No worries.” Hazel closed up the back. “If you want any furniture, we’ll have to come back. It’s too bad we don’t have James’s truck when we need it.” She elbowed James, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

“There’s some furniture at the place already.” Sebastian didn’t want to ask too much of them. Not to mention, he had mixed feelings about moving into the duplex and wasn’t itching to fill it with things. “I’ll lock up, and we can go.”

He didn’t have much of a reaction to driving away from Storm House this time. Hazel had music playing from her phone through her van’s speakers, and Sebastian closed his eyes to listen.

Back in town, James and Hazel helped Sebastian bring the boxes and trunk into his new home. James used magic for the trunk since it was horribly heavy and no one wanted to drag it up the stairs.

Once everything was inside, the remaining boxes sitting by the front door, there was an awkward pause.

Hazel gestured over her shoulder to the van. “I’m off to my sister’s tonight. So—I’m gonna head out.”

“Thanks for helping,” Sebastian said again. He wasn’t sure if he’d conveyed his gratitude enough.

“Any time.” She smiled, and it seemed like she meant it.

James glanced between them, a contemplative frown in place. “Want me to leave you to settle in, Sebastian?”

He hesitated. “I don’t know.” Sebastian figured he should do this on his own, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t think he’d ever choose to be alone again, which was somewhat at odds with his social anxiety when there were situations that he needed to escape and would rather be alone than deal with.

James turned to Hazel. “Why don’t you head out. I’ll walk home if I need to.”

“All right. Keep me updated on Eli’s progress, and I’ll see you tomorrow night.” She closed the front door behind her with a quiet click.

“What’s tomorrow night?”

James cracked a grin. “Parker does Sunday dinner at his place. We barbecue when the weather is nice enough.”

“Cool.” Sebastian wondered what they barbecued, probably some sort of meat. He’d been vegetarian most of his life.

“You’re invited.” James nudged Sebastian’s arm with his.

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