Page 5 of The Heart of Moonlight Falls

Storm House seemed the same as ever. Eli had driven the others in his car, and they all trooped up the driveway together. The sun was still shining brightly, so there were no shades. Part of Sebastian wanted to come out at night and camp out in the house just to see how many of the beasts were there, but the other part was still afraid to set foot back inside, especially after dark.

As soon as they reached the clearing, Sebastian noticed something was wrong with the fuel cell. It looked off-kilter, like it was tipping slightly to one side.

James crouched to inspect the base. “It’s sinking into the ground.”

“I don’t remember it being like that yesterday,” Eli said from beside James.

Parker put his hand on Eli’s shoulder. “Me either.”

James stood and looked at the indicator lights. “How’s this compared to when you were last here?” He pointed to the lights.

Eli had a look. “It’s dropped, but not as badly as when we first came out after the darkness disappeared.”

James nodded. “So most of this power was lost fighting the darkness?”

“Maybe half.” Eli opened his notebook. “There was another big drop yesterday.”

“Okay.” James scratched his chin. “Even if it keeps dropping this much every day, we won’t need to replace the fuel cell for a month or more. So, no immediate danger.”

“Unless it starts dropping faster,” Hazel cut in.

“We need to keep a close eye on it for sure,” James agreed.

Sebastian stared at the base of the fuel cell sinking into the ground. Was the dirt too soft? He wouldn’t have thought so. His head pounded dully and he hoped the painkillers would start working soon.

“Could you tell anything else about the veins, Sebastian?”

Eli’s question pulled Sebastian out of his daze. “Like what?”

“Anything that felt wrong or like something that needed to be fixed?” Eli gave him a hopeful look.

“No.” Sebastian had no idea how the veins worked, even though they were apparently connected to him. “I don’t want to delve back into them to try and check either,” he admitted. “I don’t actually know if I could get the connection back. It happened mostly by accident.”

The moment he’d connected to the veins had been so hopeless. The vision of being dead and buried wasn’t one Sebastian wanted to revisit.

“I don’t think you should try anything like that,” Eli said quickly.

James nodded at his brother. “Me either.”

Sebastian was grateful they were all in agreement but didn’t know how they were going to solve the problem. They had no new ideas.

“There must be a way to figure out how the veins were broken in the first place so we can work backward and find a solution,” Sebastian said, not bothering to disguise the pleading in his voice. He’d searched the house and found nothing that hinted at what exactly had caused the imbalance but maybe they could solve the puzzle another way.

“I’ll keep collecting data and doing research.” Eli bent to uncover one of the mechanisms. “I haven’t found anything helpful about imbalances yet, but I’ve still got a lot of resources to go through.”

Sebastian wasn’t sure that was enough. He appreciated Eli and knew he was doing everything he could. He just wished they had more than one avenue to explore.

They collected the receipts and added new rolls of paper to the mechanisms. With nothing else useful to do, they drove back to town.

3

JAMES

Eli disappeared off to Parker’s when they returned from Storm House. He’d been staying with James each night while Sebastian lay unconscious, but James insisted Eli didn’t need to keep him company again that night.

Sebastian went to sleep as soon as they got back. James let him rest and only hovered a little.

Around dinner time, James climbed into bed with Sebastian, planning to wake him to eat soon. Parker had given them a pot of vegetarian chili, which James thought Sebastian would enjoy, but before James could decide how to wake Sebastian, he opened his eyes.

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