Page 54 of The Heart of Moonlight Falls

The ground shook harder. The shades thrown from the stone shrieked and fled toward the forest. Then everything went black.

Sebastian’s head throbbed and filled his world with agony. The only thing he could concentrate on other than the pain was his breathing. He tried to use it to relax, taking steady, deep breaths.

He must have lost consciousness again, and when he was next alert, the pain wasn’t so bad. Sebastian opened his eyes to a darkened room. He was at the duplex. A light lit the stairwell, so his bedroom wasn’t pitch black, but he was relieved the overhead light wasn’t on.

“James?” he croaked, throat dry.

“I’m here, sweetheart.” James lay next to him, an arm around Sebastian. He propped himself up and filled Sebastian’s vision.

Tears welled in Sebastian’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to be. You saved us. That’s nothing to be sorry for.” James stroked Sebastian’s forehead. “Can I get you anything?”

“My head,” was all Sebastian could manage.

James hurried from the bed and returned with water and a pill. Sebastian accepted gratefully. James passed him some nuts and an apple, and Sebastian forced them down. He knew he needed food but everything was so uncomfortable that eating didn’t feel as satisfying as it usually did after magic use.

The duplex shook.

Sebastian set the apple aside, directing a wide-eyed stare at James.

He grimaced. “Yeah, that keeps happening.”

Sebastian remembered the earth shaking before he passed out. “It’s not a normal earthquake, is it?”

“No.” James rubbed Sebastian’s back. “The tremors are strongest closest to the veins, and Parker said they’re even worse at the vein intersection.”

“He went out to Storm House?”

James nodded. “He and Hazel took one of the fuel cells while Eli and Eleanor stayed in town. They connected it to the veins just like we did, but it doesn’t seem to have had any impact.”

Sebastian tried to absorb James’s words. “You gave them the transfer spell to use?”

“Yeah. They returned it after. Everyone’s at Parker’s, but I thought it might be best if we stayed here. At least until you were awake.”

“How long have I been out?” The night sky gave Sebastian a sudden jolt. “The shades tried to bring back the darkness, but they failed. Right?”

James nodded. “It’s almost ten p.m. That’s nothing but a normal night sky outside.” The building shook again. James paused before saying, “The veins must not have been stable enough to hold the shades’ darkness spell this time. Their attempt to use the veins again seems to have caused the tremors.”

“Think it means things are close to exploding?” Sebastian whispered.

“Yeah,” James replied, voice low and fear in his eyes. “Most people have evacuated. Other than the ones who can’t.”

Sebastian grabbed James’s hand and squeezed. He let the reality of the situation sink in. They were at the end. They’d run out of time.

There was only one thing left to try.

Sebastian’s heart pounded. “We have to go to Storm House.”

Alarm flashed across James’s face as if he knew exactly what Sebastian was thinking. “No. Why would we go out there? We don’t have any way of fixing this.”

“Sacrifice is how magic works in the world of blood and bone,” Sebastian repeated the shade’s words. It had been right. Even the personal energy cost of casting spells could be considered a small sacrifice. “What if I was right about putting everything back together with me as the missing piece? That shade said it wouldn’t let me bar them from this world, so I must be able to do something.”

James shook his head desperately, and Sebastian felt immensely sad, like he’d fallen into a pit that had no bottom. James’s eyes shone. Sebastian wanted to take his pain away but didn’t know if he could, and that scared him.

Sebastian forced himself to remain as calm as he could. “Correcting the imbalance and closing the gateway would bar them from Moonlight Falls.”

“But this isn’t how it ends,” James pleaded, tears breaking free and falling down his cheeks.

---