Belladonna

he wasn't looking forward to facing Glorianna's brother.
    Then Sebastian turned around, and those sharp green eyes looked right at him. Right through him.
    He kept walking toward the courtyard. Sebastian stepped away from the tables and chairs, meeting him on the cobblestone street. They stopped just out of reach of each other.
    "Threat and promise is what you called me," Michael said quietly. "I've made good on the threat, for the sake of the world."
    "What have you done?" Sebastian asked, his voice rough with restrained, but rising, anger.
    "Told a story. Provided a key to a locked door."
    "In clear words, Magician."
    "I told Glorianna how to stop the Eater of the World. She's gone to the Landscapers' School."

Chapter Thirty
    T hey couldn't reach Lee, who had used his little island to go to the Island in the Mist, and Michael thanked the Lady of Light for that blessing. The timing had been a little off. Just enough. Based on what Yoshani had told them, Lee must have gone to Glorianna's island within minutes of Michael crossing over to the Den.
    So Lee was wasting time checking the house and the walled garden, while Glorianna ...
    They were all at Nadia's house now, waiting for Lee because his island was the best chance of reaching the landscape that held the school. Nadia couldn't cross over from any of her landscapes. Yoshani and Teaser, as unlikely a pair to become friends as he'd ever seen, had tried, separately, to cross over to the school by using the resonating bridge near Nadia's house. But the bridge no longer worked. At all.
    Ephemera was frightened. It wasn't words he was picking up from the world, it was story-songs. Mood-songs. It was being asked to do things it didn't want to do — was afraid to do. Asked by a heart it trusted. Commanded by a will so strong it couldn't disobey.
    Hearts had no secrets from Glorianna Belladonna. She understood the people who loved her all too well.
    And they were all here now. Teaser and Yoshani. Lynnea and Sebastian. Nadia and Jeb. Even Caitlin Marie and his aunt Brighid.
    It felt like a deathbed vigil — the women talking in the kitchen while they made mountains of food no one wanted to eat; the men in another room, talking in hushed voices, trying to fill time with words while they all waited for the transportation that would take them to the site of the grave.
    Not enough room in the house. Not enough air in the house.
    He was outside, staring at a flower bed in Nadia's personal garden with no clear memory of how he'd gotten there. He didn't turn around to see who had followed him out of the house. Didn't have to. Even lowered by sorrow, the music of Yoshani's heart was a clear song.
    "What brought you here this morning?" Michael asked.
    "Your aunt," Yoshani replied. "All day yesterday she had been quiet, thoughtful. Except when she would go to the koi pond and 'sing the day' as she called it. There was a radiance in the air around her in those moments, and what flowed through Sanctuary made a person want to weep and smile at the same time. This morning she gave me a letter Glorianna had left for me and said she needed to speak with Nadia. She asked me to come with her."
    "And Caitlin Marie came this morning for her lesson."
    "Yes. So you, too, have your family around you during a difficult time." Yoshani paused. "This story you told Glorianna Dark and Wise. Would you tell it to me?"
    Michael shook his head. "Maybe sometime, but not now."
    For a moment, he thought Yoshani would argue, but the man simply bowed his head.
    "It took courage to let her go, Michael the Magician," Yoshani said gently.
    Before Michael could think of a reply, Lee hopped over a broken part of the wall. Looking toward the house, he hollered,
    "Hey-a, what's going on? The resonating bridge near the house is gone, just gone, and I can't find ..."
    Lee saw him and stopped. Stared.
    Words had not been spoken yet, so Lee's mind didn't understand what his heart already knew.
    His expression turned grim. He took a step toward Michael.
    And Sebastian was suddenly out the kitchen door, both distraction and threat. The Justice Maker flicked a glance at Michael, then focused on his cousin.
    "Lee," Sebastian said. "We need to talk."

    *
It tasted her fear in the currents that flowed through the school. It tasted her doubts. And It lapped at the Light as It flowed beneath the paths of the school, easily evading the silly traps the True Enemy had set to capture It.
    The Dark Guides had succeeded in