Page 40 of The Heart of Moonlight Falls

James hung up the phone and rubbed his temple. How could someone violate Sebastian’s home like this, and how had they planned to keep him at Storm House? A horrible vision of Sebastian chained up in the musty old manor filled his mind.

“I think I want to live on a hobby farm,” Sebastian said out of nowhere.

James stopped rubbing his head. Sebastian was perched on the couch, curled into his hoodie, looking deeply serious. “What?” James asked.

“I don’t know if I want a house in the middle of one of the neighborhoods.” Sebastian took a moment to consider this, then nodded in agreement with himself. “I want more space than that and need a field for Miss Moo, not to mention lots of fruit trees and a garden. I just don’t want to be as far away as Storm House was or live anywhere that dreary.”

James forced his mind to shift gears. “A hobby farm sounds wonderful. Some of the places on the edge of town might work.”

Sebastian nodded. “I remember seeing a For Sale sign when we met Eli and Parker by the boundary before the horde of shades attacked.”

“We’ll check it out,” James promised, sitting on the couch next to Sebastian. It sounded perfect and so beautifully normal. Helping Sebastian settle into the life he wanted was what James should be doing, not dealing with veins and mobs of angry Moonlighters.

“I already didn’t like this place,” Sebastian all but whispered. “Having people break in has completely killed it. I can’t believe they were going to attack me and force me back to that house.”

“I know, it’s horrible. But they won’t be getting away with it.” James squeezed his hand. “Want to spend the rest of the night at my place.”

“Yeah.” Sebastian gave him a tired smile. “But you should probably put your pants on before we go.”

James laughed. “True. Can’t have anyone else seeing the goods. They’re only for you.”

Sebastian preened, smiling fully now. “Damn right.”

16

SEBASTIAN

A noise from downstairs woke Sebastian. He didn’t know what it was. Was someone there? Had more people broken in to kidnap him? His heart pounded and he didn’t know what to do.

Then he remembered he was at James’s house and the person moving around downstairs was probably Eli or Parker.

He let out a long breath, trying to calm his panicked response. Sebastian reminded himself the whole town didn’t hate him. A few bad people didn’t mean he wasn’t welcome here. Then he shook himself. Did it even matter? He was probably doomed to go down with the veins and here he was still trying to settle into his life.

Would he ever get that little house on a plot of land he’d envisioned last night?

James stirred next to him, groaning as he began to wake up. An arm wrapped around Sebastian’s middle, and James pulled Sebastian close as if he was James’s first thought and holding him was a desire that ran so deep James didn’t even need to be fully awake to express it.

“Morning, sweetheart,” James murmured in his ear, kissing his neck.

“Morning.” Sebastian laced his fingers between James’s, and they stayed like that, holding each other like nothing else mattered.

James kissed Sebastian’s neck once more. “Ready to get up?”

“Sure.” Sebastian wanted to stay in bed and hide from his problems, but it had gotten to the point that he wasn’t sure anything, even James, could distract him properly.

He and James met Eli in the kitchen. Thankfully, coffee was already waiting. James had bought some powdered creamer for Sebastian, who couldn’t stand the taste of half-and-half anymore. He smiled as he spooned it into his mug, even though his preference for the powdered stuff was a lingering Storm House habit.

“Parker is on the breakfast shift,” Eli informed them as they sipped their coffee. “Would you guys come out to the vein intersection with me to get my data?”

James nodded. “We should check on the hole as well.”

Sebastian put his mug down. “What if there are shades? We saw that hand, and after the one stealing Eli’s backpack, we can’t assume there’ll be none around.”

“We’ll be on our guard,” James promised. “But we can’t let the shades keep us stuck inside doing nothing. Once we check things out, maybe we should see about getting another fuel cell to link to the curse. We can do the transfer spell again. Even if we can’t recreate Selma’s original spell, maybe it will help stabilize things.”

Sebastian and Eli agreed. They might as well try.

An hour later, James pulled up to the Storm House gate. Sebastian spent some time with Miss Moo before heading to the clearing, James and Eli joining him rather than going ahead. The cow seemed happy enough out here by herself, even if she was overly excited to see Sebastian. Still, he’d be happier once he had a house with enough land to move her onto so he could see her more often.

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