Page 62 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

“Wait. You’re saying that all this time, I could have taken energy from the veins?” Sebastian looked at Eli in disbelief. “Then why didn’t my uncle or his predecessors do it? They could have been super powerful, done all kinds of amazing magic, not to mention cast spells to light up the whole dark, miserable house.”

Eli put up a hand, stopping Sebastian’s increasingly frustrated words. “I’m not saying it would be safe to take magic from the veins to cast spells. It probably wouldn’t be. It could be as near-impossible to do in a controlled way as extracting energy for electricity is. I’m just saying in theory, I bet the connection goes both ways. There could be a natural flow between the two, but this is all conjecture.”

James made a frustrated sound. “If it’s true, does it even help us?”

Eli shrugged. “I’m not sure it does. Seeing the energy levels dip could be evidence of Sebastian’s continued tie to the veins. A tie the fuel cell didn’t break. And a tie I bet the fuel cell now has to the veins. To know for sure, we’d have to take turns going to the clearing alone and see what each of us does to the energy compared to Sebastian. See if every time Sebastian is around, we get a dip. We’d need to try and measure any changes in Sebastian’s personal magic too. But I don’t think getting a conclusive answer will get us any closer to solving this.”

Everyone was quiet for a long moment. Sebastian felt faintly ill. There was an undeniable ring of truth in Eli’s theory. Sebastian knew he was connected to this thing more so than the others. But there was no way he could draw power from the veins or be so fundamentally linked to them that they were one unit. The idea horrified him. He didn’t want to believe it. It made him think he’d never escape this.

However, not wanting it to be true didn’t mean the theory was wrong. He thought back to Eli’s questions about how James had linked to him when doing the unbinding spell. If Sebastian had so little magical energy, where had the energy James had borrowed come from? Had James taken energy from the veins through Sebastian? He wanted to say no way. Sebastian had never been able to access extra power when he’d been too tired to conjure light, but if it was a natural flow between him and the veins, maybe James could have drawn on it through him just as he’d normally draw on any other person.

But if Eli was right, how would they ever untie Sebastian from the veins? Would solving the imbalance break a connection like that?

James tapped the counter like he was deep in thought. “We need to figure out why adding the fuel cell expanded the boundary. It clearly changed something, and if it didn’t untie Sebastian, we need to know what it did. Maybe that will help us find a solution.” He glanced at Sebastian with the ghost of a smile. “Or we can try and find a way to keep expanding the boundary until it’s essentially nonexistent. As long as the veins are stable enough to not cause problems, then we can consider this shit done.”

Parker snorted.

Eli looked between them. “The boundary is a smart thing to look into while we continue collecting measurements from the vein intersection.”

“Do you think connecting the fuel cell did anything to the veins in town?” Sebastian pointed to the laptop. “Maybe that will help us see what happened that day. If you were recording stuff then.”

“I was.” Eli turned back to his laptop and pulled up more graphs. “I haven’t looked at any of the data from my setup in town since you two came back to town, but at least it’s all imported automatically. It really is a pain that we can’t use electronics at Storm House. I’m getting sick of copying off of receipt paper.”

Eli studied the computer screen for a few minutes. James sipped his coffee. Sebastian had abandoned his. He still felt queasy.

“There’s nothing from the night you connected the fuel cell. It all looks normal.”

Sebastian’s shoulders sagged. Damn.

“Wait—” Eli’s brows shot up his forehead. “What night did you see that creepy shade activity in town, Sebastian?”

“Three nights ago.”

“There was a huge spike of energy that night. I have a monitor set up near the stone. Holy shit. Maybe the shades were doing some sort of magic. This part of the vein has had a steady flow since I started studying it at the beginning of fall. No way a spike like this is a coincidence.”

Parker leaned over Eli’s shoulder. “Was there anything the night my house got attacked?”

“No.” Eli scrolled through the information on the screen. “But if Hazel’s theory is right, and the darkness surrounding the town and whatever happened at your house are the same, what if it all started with what Sebastian saw around the stone?”

“There were weird shadows that night too.” Sebastian wasn’t sure how well he’d explained that to everyone when first describing what he’d seen. “I thought they were just shades not in solid form, but what if it was more like the stuff that attacked Parker’s house?”

“Could be.” Parker nodded, frowning thoughtfully. “We need to figure out more about the darkness and what’s going on with the shades. While it’d be great to solve the imbalance and free ourselves, that doesn’t look like it’s happening any time soon, and being stuck here is a lot more of a problem when we don’t know what’s going on or how dangerous it’s going to get.” Parker reached out and closed Eli’s laptop. “If there was an energy spike in town when we think this all started, the veins must play a part in the darkness somehow.”

“And not in a way that’s necessarily connected to us being trapped or the curse or imbalance,” Eli added. “What if that humanoid shade you saw is using the veins? We have no idea how intelligent shades do magic. They might have a better handle on vein power than humans do.” Eli trailed off, looking lost in thought. “I want to look at the darkness boundary.”

“Why?” Sebastian asked.

“I have a theory.” Eli turned to Parker. “I’m going to get my portable meter and map. You’re driving.”

Parker smiled fondly. “You got it, gorgeous.”

Eli rushed off down the hall toward his room.

Sebastian turned to the others. “But what’s the theory?”

“Probably something to do with the veins being straight,” James guessed. “But who knows.”

Eli dragged Parker away with him, and James and Sebastian drove across town to Gray Electrical.

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