Page 61 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

“But we can’t take energy out of the veins.” Even Sebastian knew what an impossible task that was. Solving that riddle made Nelson Power one of the richest companies in the world, and the answer was kept tightly locked away.

Sebastian wondered if Nelson Storm had been trying to use the veins on their property to figure out how to extract magical power from the earth all those years ago, but he had no idea how Nelson might have done that. If that’s what Nelson and Sullivan had been up to in the clearing, it had clearly failed. And if sucking more energy out would have solved the problem, Nelson surely would have come home to save his brother once he’d figured out how to do it properly, not disappeared on him and never looked back.

“Of course we can’t take energy out.” Eli huffed at the suggestion.

“My family always framed the problem as an energy debt,” Sebastian said. “So adding more makes sense.”

“Only this doesn’t look like a lack of energy being filled.” Eli pointed at the graph accusatorily.

“Then what does it look like? Do veins ever behave like this?” Parker brushed back a stray lock of Eli’s hair that had fallen in his face. “Have you ever read anything about this kind of chaotic energy?”

Eli chewed his lip, looking up at Parker. “Shifting veins are much more variable, maybe even a bit chaotic. But this vein is fixed. Its path doesn’t change. I don’t know if its energy pattern resembling a shifting vein tells us anything about how to fix it.” Eli seemed overwhelmed and much less sure they’d be able to solve this problem than he had before.

Parker put a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “Eli, you aren’t going to have the answer instantly. We just need to do some research, like you said. We should see if the secret-binding is weak enough for you to write to your supervisor and ask for advice. Even if you can’t tell him the whole story, he might have some insight on what this data means, or he might be able to give you some general information on chaotic energy patterns.”

Eli took a breath. “You’re right. I just wasn’t expecting it to look like this. It threw me off. I need a new perspective or more data.”

“What about these bits?” James pointed to three dips in the mess of dots.

“I’m worried about those.” Eli frowned at the computer. “At first, I was like—yay—it seems like the veins calm down for a few minutes a day. It’s some of the lowest the energy gets. But those times correspond to us collecting the recordings on the receipt paper.”

“Why’s that worrying?” Sebastian didn’t get it.

“It means we’re probably interfering somehow. Who knows if it’s a real dip in energy or if it’s us disrupting the magic we set up to measure the veins.”

“Couldn’t we be affecting the veins themselves rather than the spells on the mechanisms?” Sebastian stared at the dots. “Maybe something about us being there calms things. Maybe we can use that.” As soon as he said it, he felt like he’d missed a step going down the stairs.

Parker leveled a stare at Sebastian. “You mean like trapping a person at the property to stop the imbalance from getting out of hand because their presence calms things?”

Sebastian’s mouth went dry. “What? No. The fuel cell is taking care of that. Or else, how did James and I get out?” But they hadn’t gotten out, not really. They were still stuck.

Maybe the fuel cell hadn’t done anything they’d thought it had. Maybe it wasn’t doing enough to stabilize the veins. Who knows if the energy had been this chaotic over the last six years while Sebastian had been trapped. Maybe it hadn’t been. Without past measurements, there was no way to know.

But if that was the case, and not having a person at the property was causing problems, wouldn’t things have exploded by now?

“The fuel cell is taking care of it. It has to be.” Eli pointed to the computer. “This is chaos but doesn’t look like explosive levels of chaos. The energy level needed to cause the kind of destruction you described, Sebastian, would be much higher than this. This would not blow up Moonlight Falls.” Eli frowned at his graph for a minute. When he looked up, he seemed hesitant. “But if these dips aren’t us interfering with the mechanisms, and it’s us affecting the veins, then I wonder if it’s not so much us but Sebastian influencing things.”

Sebastian took a step back from the group. He didn’t know why Eli thought that, but he didn’t like it. His heart pounded like it was trying to leave his chest. He didn’t want to be different. Didn’t want to be set apart from everyone else. It was too close to being cast out.

This wasn’t his fault.

“Hey.” James gripped his shoulder. “It’s okay. Even if you caused these dips, it doesn’t change anything. We’re still in this together.”

It was like James had read his mind. Sebastian sagged in relief. James knew him, understood him, and cared about him so fiercely that he didn’t mind dealing with any of this.

Sebastian wasn’t going to be abandoned, no matter what they learned.

“Sorry, Sebastian. I didn’t mean to imply anything bad.” Eli’s voice softened as he spoke. “I only think it’s you, not everyone, because of what you said yesterday and because the time Parker and I collected the receipts without you, there’s no dip.” He pointed it out on the graph for everyone to see. “You said the veins had access to your magic and drained it before they started draining the fuel cell. What if that connection is still there? The dips could be showing us that you’re still linked in a different way than the rest of us. Which we already suspected.”

True, that was nothing new. Sebastian knew that James’s and the others’ magic had never been affected, but he’d hoped that some of the hold the curse had allowed the veins to have over him had broken now that his magic was back. “You think the veins are still taking my energy?”

“If that’s the case,” James cut in before Eli could answer, “why would taking energy from Sebastian cause the veins’ energy to dip lower? Shouldn’t it be the opposite?”

“You’re right. That’s what I would have thought.” Eli narrowed his eyes. “So then, does this mean Sebastian is taking energy from the veins?”

“But we just said taking energy isn’t possible.” James looked at Eli like he’d lost it.

“It’s not possible. Normally.” Eli ran another nervous hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “At least not without the secrets of modern magical power. But what if Sebastian and the veins are so tied together that it isn’t really taking per se. What if it’s more like they’re one unit, sharing energy. It makes sense given the nature of the curse binding people and the veins together.”

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