Page 30 of The Cursed Sebastian Storm

Sebastian hugged her neck. He felt bad for leaving her here, but he couldn’t exactly bring a cow to his duplex. “Oh no.” He looked at James in alarm. “We didn’t feed the chickens this morning.”

“I can go do it now.” James gestured to the barn where the feed was kept.

“No.” Sebastian glanced over at the chicken run. “I’ll do it after I show everyone the veins.”

As he led the group through the trees, Sebastian realized his dread of returning to Storm House had been forgotten. The sight of the house hadn’t triggered him like he’d expected. He’d been too distracted by all the little things around the property that needed doing and too focused on taking charge of the vein problem. His need to show the others he was more than a hopeless mess and the cause of their problems had eclipsed everything else.

Why hadn’t returning here filled him with loathing? Why hadn’t it triggered his fear? Was it because he’d acknowledged to himself that he’d been strong here? That he’d done everything he could to survive the curse and had succeeded and was hoping that confidence would find him again so he could sort out the rest of his life?

He wasn’t sure.

They reached the clearing and stopped at the edge of the trees. The fuel cell hummed faintly in the center. The dried blood from the ritual looked sinister on the shiny metal. A chill went down Sebastian’s spine. His fear wasn’t totally banished.

James caught his eye. He looked up and Sebastian followed his gaze. No shades lurked in the trees, so that was a bonus. But on a sunny day like today, he hadn’t expected them.

Hazel went to inspect the fuel cell. “This is kind of amazing.” She narrowed her eyes at James. “I can’t believe you pulled this off.”

James shrugged. “It was pretty straightforward in the end.” He joined her next to the fuel cell. “Doesn’t look like much energy has been used, so that’s good.”

Eli set his case on the ground. “But the veins are draining its energy. This is such an interesting combination of magical principles. I’d never have thought blood magic would work on a non-living source.”

Sebastian came closer so he could see what was in the case when it opened. “What are you planning to do exactly?”

Parker handed Eli the books. Eli sat cross-legged and began flipping through them. “I need to see what the veins are doing. If we don’t know exactly what’s happening, we can’t fix it.”

“The old methods of measuring power flowing through the earth are all magic-based,” Parker explained when it was clear Eli had gotten too wrapped up in the books to explain how he would see what the veins were doing. “I’ll cast the spells once Eli has everything set up.”

“I don’t have any magical ability,” Eli explained.

“No, you’ve just got an incredible knowledge of how this all works.” Parker looked affectionally down at Eli, who bit back a smile, still focused on the book.

Eli and Parker were sweet together, but Sebastian had other things on his mind. “What kind of spells?” He clenched and unclenched his fists. “How do they interact with the magic in the veins?”

“It’s all passive,” Eli replied without looking up. “Nothing like the magic you were doing with transferring the curse. That magic had a direct effect on the veins, linking you or the fuel cell to them to correct the imbalance. All I’m doing is reading what’s going on beneath the surface. Observing.”

“But the observational magic will still interact with the veins to some extent,” Sebastian argued.

Eli finally looked up, studying him. “You’re really worried.”

Sebastian gave Eli a helpless look. How could he not be?

“We’ll be casting spells on the instruments, not the veins themselves.” Eli opened the case to reveal several wire-framed contraptions and a pencil case.

“The spells will detect what’s going on around them, and the mechanism will record it.” Parker pointed at the wire frames. “There’s no reason the veins should react to either. That’s kind of the point.”

“Yeah, it’d be impossible to observe what magic is here naturally if measuring it affects the magic we’re looking at. Data integrity is key. Everything I’m doing is scientific, even if the methods are dated.” Eli gave Sebastian a reassuring smile. “I’m confident the observational spells won’t cause an explosion of power or anything like that. I researched the theory this morning.”

“Okay.” Sebastian finally relented. He had to trust Eli, and now that everyone knew the risks, there was no reason to think they’d disregard them.

Hazel and Parker helped Eli set everything up. Spindly-looking structures were placed at four points around the clearing and one next to the fuel cell. They would ward the mechanisms once they were ready to go to stop any shades from messing with them. Apparently, shades liked to ruin Eli’s experiments, though Sebastian had no idea why.

Sebastian turned to James. “I might go feed the chickens since I’m not really contributing.”

“Want me to come?” he offered without hesitation.

“You don’t have to.”

James gave him a stern look. “I know that. But I’m not contributing either, and I’d like to come with you. Unless you want the time alone.”

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