Page 43 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

Sebastian had no answer.

“Get back,” Parker barked as the shades struck again. There were more hitting the glass now, at least five that Sebastian could see.

Everyone retreated to the back wall of the room. Sebastian pressed his shoulder against James.

James gripped Sebastian’s hand, pointing with his other. “That looks like a crack.” Sure enough, there was a jagged fracture in the middle of the glass.

“Fuck.” Parker ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, they’re breaking in. We can figure out how later.” He moved forward, reaching for the door handle. “I’m going to open it. If the wards have been broken, the shades will rush in, and we’ll need to send fire at them. There’s no need to wait for them to shatter the glass.”

Everyone made sounds of agreement.

Parker unlatched the door and pulled it open, sending fire out in the process. Sparks flew through the air and caught on the first shade. Flames erupted and it burst into wafts of smoke, banished back to Beyond.

The other shades didn’t hesitate as their fellow was taken care of. They charged the now open doorway and smashed into an invisible barrier. It seemed the wards were still mostly intact and hadn’t been weakened enough for the shades to do more than a little damage to the glass.

Sebastian, James, and Hazel rushed forward, helping Parker send sparks after the beasts. Fire caught on each shade, and they exploded, leaving the physical world behind.

“Look!” Eli shouted.

The shadowy feelers were making their way into the room, creeping along the floor. It looked almost like they were squeezing through an invisible crack in the wards, seeping in and then expanding outward.

“How is that possible?” Hazel asked as she sent sparks at the invasive shadow.

“Don’t light the house on fire,” James growled as he stomped out a stray spark.

One of Hazel’s other sparks caught on a tendril of dark shadow. It screeched and writhed, breaking off from the rest of the shadow before it exploded into nothing.

“Did it just scream?” Sebastian looked at the others in disbelief. They seemed as shocked as he felt.

“Fuck.” James lurched back as some of the shadow reached his foot. Hazel shot sparks at the tendril as it wrapped around James’s ankle, and it burst.

Eli appeared behind them with a fire extinguisher. “Just in case.”

Parker positioned himself in front of Eli as he helped the others fight back the shadow crawling along the floor like the tentacles of some deep sea monster. The shadow’s ability to break off into separate pieces made it impossible to banish completely. A new tendril replaced each one that was destroyed as more flowed in from outside.

More shades appeared. Sebastian concentrated on sending his sparks through the open door at them, but he was starting to get winded. His magical ability wasn’t that strong. Definitely not as strong as James’s or Hazel’s, and nowhere near Parker’s level.

He sent sparks at a shade, and it caught fire. Several more swooped around the yard, hissing and charging at the house. At least there weren’t hordes of them. The situation was still manageable unless more were lurking just out of sight. As Sebastian searched for more shades in the distance, he realized the yard was much darker than it should have been, considering Parker had his floodlights on.

The others continued to battle the shadow twisting along the floor, but Sebastian was fixated on the yard. He could barely see the back fence when, before, every corner had been lit up. Were there more shades back there? Was that why it was so dark? He strained, trying to see if there was any movement.

Nothing moved, but he swore there was a hulking figure lurking behind the tree.

Sebastian blinked, and the thing came into focus. It was a shade but not quite. The frame of its upper body was more like that of a large man. The longer Sebastian looked, the more drained he felt. Exhaustion swelled, and his head spun.

He staggered, blinking rapidly, his gaze leaving the figure in the yard as his vision darkened around the edges. Sebastian swayed and fell.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Sebastian!” James’s urgent shout sounded close to Sebastian’s ear. Strong arms held him steady.

“I’m all right.” Sebastian braced himself against James, regaining his balance. He looked back into the yard but couldn’t see anything by the back fence.

James pulled him back, away from a tendril snaking along the floor. The shadow coming into the house wasn’t stopping.

“We need to find out where it’s coming from. Attacking it like this isn’t doing enough.” Parker stepped closer to the open doorway. “I’ll fix the fractured ward. Then we need to go outside and find the source of this shadowy mess and stop it that way.”

Hazel swept the hair that had escaped her ponytail out of her face. “Sounds like a plan.”

---