Anne Bishop - Sebastian

So the wizards would kill him.

But even as he died, he would keep what he cherished the most away from them.

Standing at the edge of the woods behind Sebastian’s cottage, Lynnea tried to clear her mind and heart of everything that wasn’t good, wasn’t positive. To travel lightly. Now, more than ever, it was important for her to travel lightly. Despite being in a different landscape, Nadia’s house wasn’t far from here, but to get there she needed positive thoughts. A gentle heart. They were going to cross the bridge that was on this path in the woods. They were going to find Nadia, find Glorianna, find some way to free Sebastian from those wizards.

And if Teaser didn’t stop taking forever to light the candle in the lantern he’d brought with him, she was going to find a large branch—or uproot a small tree—and give him a whack for every minute she’d stood there waiting.

No, no, no. She couldn’t think that way. It might be an honest feeling, but it wouldn’t help them cross the bridge.

Travel lightly. Travel lightly. Travel—

Finally! “Ready?” she asked.

“Guess so.”

But he was still crouched, staring at the lit candle. Not moving.

Bristling with impatience, certain that every minute they delayed might change her life in ways she didn’t want to imagine, she opened her mouth to yell at him. Then she took a good look at his face.

“Are you afraid to cross the bridge?” she asked.

“Maybe,” Teaser mumbled. “Some.” He shot to his feet. “All right, I’m afraid.”

He was. Had been, she suddenly realized, ever since he’d said he’d go with her. “But you’ve been to daylight landscapes when you’ve…” She trailed off, not feeling enough like a tigress to talk about things Teaser did with women, even if she did those same things with Sebastian. “And you’ve met Nadia.”

“This is different.” Teaser shifted from one foot to the other, looking at the ground, at the trees, anywhere but at her. “What if I can’t cross over to a landscape held by Sebastian’s auntie? What if my crossing with you shifts something when we reach the bridge and we end up someplace different, someplace…bad?”

“This is a stationary bridge that crosses only between the Den and Aurora. Nadia told me so.” Had made a point of telling her before she and Sebastian left Nadia’s house.

“Even stationary bridges don’t always take you where you want to go,” Teaser argued. “Not if you don’t resonate with that landscape.”

“You don’t have to come with me,” Lynnea said gently. “The bridge isn’t that far down the path. I’ll be safe enough.”

He shook his head. “You can’t go alone.”

She felt like she had tried to squeeze through an opening and had gotten stuck. He wouldn’t let her go alone, and he was afraid to come with her. She’d never crossed any bridges—at least, none that she remembered—until Ewan had left her on the side of the road instead of taking her to the Landscapers’ School. But she knew a stationary bridge went to only a few specific landscapes, so even if you didn’t end up in the landscape you wanted, you could usually get back to where you started. The resonating bridges, on the other hand, held the possibility of crossing over to anywhere, and only the secret places in your heart knew where you would end up. And even if you turned right around and crossed the bridge again, it wasn’t likely that you’d return to the landscape you’d just left.

Even though she knew the bridge in the woods crossed only to Nadia’s home village from this side and to the Den from the other side, she couldn’t deny that Teaser had a reason to worry.

But they couldn’t just stay there.

“Why are you coming with me?” she asked.

“Because you can’t go alone.”

Obviously that thought was set in stone. “And?”

“Because, if we’re family, I should help Sebastian.”

“And?”

He sighed. “Because it’s the right thing to do?”

“Yes. Because it’s the right thing to do.” Picking up the yarn bag, which now held a change of clothes, a few coins, and the letter to Belladonna, she held out her other hand. “I don’t think Ephemera will stop us from doing the right thing.”

He slung his pack over his shoulder, picked up the lantern, then took hold of her hand in a grip that made her wince. “I’m ready.”

We need to find Nadia, Lynnea thought as they hurried down the path. We need to find Glorianna. We need to save Sebastian. Nadia is the first step of the journey. We’re going to Nadia’s house. Travel lightly, travel lightly. We’re going to Nadia’s house and—

“Daylight!” Teaser ducked his head to protect his eyes from the dappled sunlight.

“We did it!” Lynnea looked back. There had to be a marker somewhere, something solid and stable enough to hold the magic of a bridge, but she didn’t see anything. Still, she couldn’t deny they’d left the Den. The daylight was proof of that.

Tugging her hand free of Teaser’s grip, she rubbed feeling back into her fingers while she waited for him to blow out the candle in the lantern. Then she followed the path, moving at a brisk pace.

“I remember this,” she said, slowing down after a few minutes. “We took the path that curved around this big stone to go back to the Den, so”—she pointed—“Nadia’s house must be that way.”

After a few more minutes that felt like forever, they reached the wooden gate in that part of the stone wall that surrounded Nadia’s personal gardens. Through the gate, over the lawn, and there she was, pulling open the screen door so she could pound her fist against the closed kitchen door.

“Nadia?” she called. “Nadia! It’s Lynnea! We have to talk to you!” She looked around the gardens, trying to spot something out of place, something that meant trouble had come here. Nothing looked wrong to her, so she went back to pounding on the door.

“Give her a minute,” Teaser said.

“Why isn’t she answering?” Lynnea cried, feeling the frustration welling up inside her. “Where could she be?”

“Maybe she’s…occupied. You know.”

Lynnea paused, fist raised, and stared at him. “You think she’s not answering the door because she’s having sex?” She pounded on the door with more vigor. “Nadia!”

“Not sex! I didn’t say sex. Daylight, Lynnea. You’re talking about Sebastian’s auntie. I just meant…ladies take longer to answer a call of nature.”

It took her a moment to work that out. Teaser was turning into a prude. Why couldn’t he just say what he meant? “Well, why is she sitting on the toilet when we need her to answer the door?”

“It’s not like she knew we were coming.” He took a step back and looked up at the house. “Besides, I don’t think she’s here. With you making all that racket, she would have answered by now, no matter what she was doing.”

Lynnea sagged against the door for a moment, then stepped back to let the screen door slap shut. “You’re right. She isn’t here.”

What was she supposed to do? She hadn’t considered the possibility of not finding Nadia. Her eyes fixed on the broken part of the wall, the part she and Sebastian had stepped over when they’d come here from…

“We’ll go to Sanctuary. People there know Lee, so they might know how to find Glorianna.”

Teaser backed away. “No. I’m not going to Sanctuary. I can’t go to Sanctuary. I’m an incubus.”

“So is Sebastian,” Lynnea snapped. “If he could go there, so can you.”

“But—”

“Stay here then. Or go back to the Den, if that’s what you want. But stop stalling!”