“What?” Eli gave him a bewildered look.

“Does it?” Sebastian shook him.

Eli jerked away. “Yeah, it does.”

The stone and the vein’s positioning felt significant, but Sebastian wasn’t sure why. He had to get to James. He had to use everything he knew to save him. He hadn’t finally found the one person who’d chosen him, only to lose him like this. He would not let the good in his life be ruined. He needed James. He needed this town and the people living here to be safe. He was going to make his home here and live out his days with the man he loved, and nothing would stand in his way.

Sebastian deserved better than to lose it all like this. He’d been through hell and survived despite wanting to give up every day he’d been imprisoned. A horde of beasts from Beyond was nothing compared to the years he’d spent alone. He wouldn’t let them ruin the life he’d fought so hard for.

Anger and determination burned inside him. There was a vein running underground a hundred feet away, and he was going to test Eli’s theory and see if he could use it. He’d suffered through his curse, bound to the natural magic of this region, and now he was going to take his due. If the magic in the veins was part of him, he would force it to do something good for once.

He sprinted down the sidewalk.

“Where are you going?” Eli yelled after him.

Sebastian didn’t look back as he lunged into the crowd of shades. They hissed and scratched at him but didn’t grab or pin him down. He pushed his way through, running as fast as he could until he was level with the stone on the north end of the circle.

The vein was beneath him, and he was going to steal its power.

He knelt on the ground and splayed his palms on the asphalt. Shades pulled at his hair and others jabbed his back. He ignored them. He needed to find the connection that Eli thought was there. If he couldn’t, he’d lose everything. He’d lose James and the life they were meant to have together. If he had to go through that, Sebastian would lose himself too.

Sebastian delved within, feeling his own magic. It was familiar, not very strong, and weakened from the day’s fights. He prodded at it, trying to find the shape of it. Somewhere inside was a link to the vast power beneath his feet.

He couldn’t find it. His arms shook from holding himself off the ground. His knees ached, pressing into the road, but it was no good. There was nothing there. He felt no link, nothing beyond himself, his aching body, frazzled mind, and mediocre power.

The realization this wasn’t going to work paralyzed Sebastian with hopelessness. It reared its head like the mother of all the internal demons he’d been fighting for years had finally come to end him.

James was going to die. Sebastian would lose him, and so he might as well die too. He couldn’t save James, and maybe in the end, that meant he wasn’t worthy of good things. Because he’d failed. If he deserved better, then why couldn’t he prove it and keep the one person he needed more than anything?

Sebastian wished the ground would open up and swallow him so it would be over. He hated that he’d found someone to love and lost them. It hurt more than if James had chosen to leave. It was like a taunt. A tease, showing him what he could have had. But all he deserved was to be buried in the ground like his uncle and everyone who’d come before them. Alone.

Sebastian pictured himself in the ground, not even in a coffin, surrounded by dirt, as tears fell down his cheeks. Something about the image felt right, like he was coming home. Like he’d always been underground.

Something stirred within him, responding to his envisioned homecoming to the earth. It was like a small crack. His magic quivered before giving way to a vast ocean of power.

The smell of dirt and decayed leaves filled Sebastian’s nose. He didn’t need a connection to the vein beneath him because he and the veins were one. He was beneath the earth as much as he was kneeling in the street. He felt himself and his vast power moving through the soil, and he clung to it.

He felt along the vein until he found something cold and foreign. He knew in his gut it wasn’t part of him. He pulled on it, and pain shot through his skull.

“Fuck.” Sebastian spat blood on the ground. He’d bitten his tongue without realizing. It had to be the darkness he’d felt, but he didn’t know what to do about it. It was tied to him, but he didn’t know how to dislodge it.

He shook himself. He needed to get to James first. Everything else could wait.

Sebastian pushed himself up. As he stood, he pulled the power of the veins with him. It flooded his human body like fire. He let out a pained wail but didn’t stop drawing on the raw energy that was apparently a part of him, yet not meant for a human to possess. It heated his skin and sent pain down every one of his nerve endings.

Something blue crackled at his fingertips.

Sebastian stepped forward, unsteady at first, then with more confidence as he pushed the pain away. He moved toward the stone, breathing heavily like he’d run a marathon. The shades let him pass, some hissing and cocking their heads while others stared without blinking.

The large shade’s voice filled his head, and he pushed himself to move faster. It was chanting unfamiliar sounds, and Sebastian could feel the magic of Moonlight Falls responding.

A nearby shade lunged at him. Sebastian grabbed it with his electric-blue sparking hands, and with a flare of bright-blue light, the shade burst into nothing. The ones around it screeched and grabbed at him. He fought them off, letting power loose from within him without restraint. He pushed the beasts out of the way, banishing them with sparks of blue energy, and no matter how many times he did it, the power within him never diminished.

Sebastian stumbled onto the grass in front of the stone and looked up. The dark form of the shade loomed above him. It had a stone dagger held aloft in one limb and clutched James in the other. It stood frozen, its faceless attention fixed on Sebastian.

Sebastian launched himself forward. A black tendril caught him around the waist, and he cried out in surprise. He grabbed hold of the tendril but instead of feeling icy pain, he only felt the hot power burning through him as he scorched the shadow away.

The tendril screamed and broke off from the rest of the writhing mass on the ground, bursting into nothing. Sebastian thrust his hands toward the shade holding James captive and willed power to flow out of him. He screamed with the effort, his head spinning sickeningly as energy tore through him.