Page 42 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

Sebastian knocked Hazel’s pool cue lightly with his. “Seems like you need practice now that I’m around. Then we can go again.”

She laughed. “You’re on.”

Something slammed into the sliding glass door, and they all jumped at the sound.

“What the fuck was that?” The bag of chips lay forgotten at Eli’s feet.

James’s gaze found Sebastian in a seemingly reflexive move, like his first instinct was to seek him out and check he was okay. It grounded Sebastian, made him feel claimed and cared for, even while his heart pounded in response to the sudden scare.

He reluctantly tore his eyes away from James and looked out into the dark. He couldn’t see anything.

“I’d say it was a shade hitting the door.” Parker walked right up to the glass, his nose almost touching it. “I can’t see anything out there now, and the house is warded, so we should be fine.”

A bang came from the kitchen.

“Something hit the window.” Eli pointed in front of him.

“What the hell?” Hazel stalked into the kitchen. “They can’t smash through the glass if it’s warded. What are they doing?”

More shades assaulted the house. Three hit the sliding glass door, and from the sound of it, at least one more hit the kitchen window. The shades on the other side of the glass door didn’t dissipate or retreat this time. They hovered, staring back at everyone inside.

Parker flicked a switch on the wall and floodlights lit his yard, much brighter than the ones he’d had on while they were grilling.

The shades didn’t retreat. They didn’t even seem to notice.

“Should we ignore them?” Sebastian shifted closer to James. “The ones at Storm House were always peering in at me, but pretending I didn’t notice usually prompted them to go away.”

“The ones at your house weren’t this aggressive,” James murmured, his attention fixed on the shades behind the glass.

“I know. But unless we want to go outside and start conjuring fireballs, what can we do? They can’t get in.”

“Let’s give it a few minutes. See if they get bored.” Parker turned down the hallway toward the front of the house. “If they keep it up, we’ll have to go out and get rid of them. I’m going to check the front.”

Eli followed Parker down the hall.

The shades at the back door slowly drifted away from the house. Just as Sebastian hoped they were leaving, they swooped back in and smashed into the wards protecting the glass.

He, James, and Hazel all flinched.

As the shades retreated again, likely readying for another assault, a dark shadow began to tinge the edge of the glass door. Tendrils of darkness crept along like feelers searching for something.

“What is that?” Hazel pointed at the shadow as the shades struck again, banging loudly against the wards.

It had to be shades in non-solid form, but if that’s all it was, why had the glass rattled this time? The charging shades shouldn’t have been able to impact the house. Right?

Eli and Parker returned from the front of the house. Parker frowned at the shadow now covering a quarter of his sliding door. “There are shades out front too, charging the windows, but we couldn’t see any lurking around the other houses on the street. I’ve got the bright lights on out front, not that it’s done anything.”

The shades struck again. The glass shook.

“If the place is warded, then why have those last two hits made an impact?” James asked.

“I don’t know. It shouldn’t be possible.” Parker pulled Eli behind him as the glass rattled again.

Shades had limited magic. They could shape the shadow that made up their bodies and incorporate themselves into the dark, but they couldn’t cast complex spells. They couldn’t counter human magic, which was why warding against them was a standard, simple practice. There should have been no way for the shades to weaken Parker’s protective spells.

“What if that shadow isn’t what we think it is?” Sebastian gestured to the growing darkness blocking out the glass door. It seemed similar to the river of shadow he’d seen in town last night. Had he been wrong about what he’d seen? “What if it’s not just more semi-solid shades?”

Hazel’s eyes widened in alarm. “What else could it be?”

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