Page 2 of The Heart of Moonlight Falls

“James? Sebastian?” Eli’s voice called from the front of the house.

“Yeah, we’re in here,” James called back. He took Sebastian’s hand. “If you’re still tired, I can talk to them and you can go back upstairs.”

“No. It’s fine, James.”

They headed down the hall to the living room, where Eli, Parker, and Hazel were waiting.

Eli enveloped Sebastian in a hug as quick as humanly possible. “We were so worried.”

Sebastian pulled back, blinking wordlessly, and received a shoulder pat from Parker.

Hazel looked Sebastian over like she didn’t quite believe he was all right. “Damn near gave me a heart attack when you ran into that horde of shades.”

Sebastian grimaced, looking around at them all. “Sorry.” He focused on Eli. “You were right about my connection to the veins.”

Eli had been almost as stressed as James over the last four days. His hair was a mess and James swore he had worry lines on his face he’d never seen before. “Seems like I was also right about the connection being dangerous to use. If it had killed you, it’d have been all my fault.”

“No, it wouldn’t have.” Sebastian crossed his arms. “If you hadn’t told me what you’d suspected about the veins, then I wouldn’t have been able to save James, and Moonlight Falls would still be in darkness.”

Eli didn’t seem reassured, but before he could argue, Parker cut in, “So you did banish the darkness? How?”

“We wondered if destroying that giant shade was what brought back the sun,” Hazel explained, glancing from Sebastian to James as if looking for answers. James was dying to know the details as much as the rest.

“It wasn’t that.” Sebastian flopped down in an armchair. “I don’t know how I did it exactly.” He closed his eyes. “Eli was right. The veins and I are like a unit. I could feel the darkness clinging to us and focused all my energy on it until it burned away. I wasn’t really using the veins’ power to cast spells. I was harnessing their energy and sending it where I wanted it.”

“No wonder it took such a toll on you.” James perched on the arm of Sebastian’s chair. He wanted to wrap Sebastian up as if holding him tight could protect him from the past.

Sebastian looked at him, eyes tired. “It hurt like hell. But at the time, I thought it wouldn’t work, and while it’s great things turned out okay, I’m really hoping I don’t have to do it again.”

“Why would you have to do it again?” James laid a hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “The shade is gone. If it’s so hard for complex beings to come into our world, I doubt it will return to Moonlight Falls.”

“Yeah, that attack seems like a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Hazel agreed from the couch opposite them.

Sebastian tensed beneath James’s hand. “Have there been many shades around?”

“We’ve hardly seen any,” Parker assured him, and Eli nodded in agreement.

Sebastian didn’t relax. “Even at Storm House?”

Eli perched on the couch next to Hazel. “We haven’t been out there at night.” He looked quickly at Parker, hovering beside him, then away.

Sebastian shifted in his seat, avoiding everyone’s eye. “So they could be regrouping and we wouldn’t know.”

James squeezed his shoulder. “Regrouping? What do you mean?”

Sebastian’s gaze found James, his expression even more exhausted than before. “I think I know where all the shades are coming from. And I think I know why the energy pattern at the intersection looks so weird.”

Eli’s posture stiffened. “Really?”

Sebastian kept his focus on James. “I think the vein intersection’s energy resembles what we see in shifting veins because, like shifting veins, the intersection is a gateway to Beyond.”

2

SEBASTIAN

Sebastian watched comprehension wash over James’s face. His eyes widened, but Sebastian didn’t think James doubted his claim.

“Just because the energy looks similar doesn’t mean the intersection is creating a passage between our worlds,” Eli argued. “They’re still fixed veins.”

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