Belladonna

to pout embarrassed her, so she stepped away from him. "I'll get my own damn koffee." She turned on her heel and stomped toward the cottage. Right now, adulthood was a frayed scarf, and the harder she tried to hold onto it, the faster it frayed. In another minute she was going to resort to childish name-calling and shin-kicking. Well, not name-calling. She'd never indulged in name-calling. That would have hurt Sebastian too much. But when they were eight years old, she'd done her share of shin-kicking.
    As she reached the lane, his hand gripped her shoulder, stopping her. She considered giving him one little shin-kick as a present to herself, but his expression warned her that he wasn't above retaliating. So she grabbed the frayed ends of adulthood and wrapped them around herself — and realized being annoyed with him had eased the wistfulness that had made her heart ache.
    Which, she was sure, had been his intention. Even when he wasn't slipping into someone's dreams, sometimes Sebastian read emotions much too well.
    "So," Sebastian said, tipping his head to indicate the break in the trees. "I know why I'm up at this time of day. Why are you?"
    Now that the question had been asked, she really didn't want to talk about the reason she had sought him out so early in the morning. "Lee snores."
    "Uh-huh."
    "Well, he does."
    "Tell that to someone who hasn't slept in the same room as Lee on occasion. Unless there's something unusual about the acoustics in Jeb's old cottage, Lee doesn't snore loud enough to keep someone awake — especially someone in another room."
    Sebastian gave her an astute look. "Unless you were having trouble sleeping to start with, and you're dumping the blame on him."
    Caught. What excuse could she give that Sebastian would believe — or, at least, accept instead of pushing?
    There wasn't one. Her brother Lee, feeling the weight of his own efforts to protect Ephemera's shattered landscapes from the Eater of the World, wouldn't push. Sebastian would.
    She looked at her cousin. His hair was dark brown instead of a true black, but he had green eyes like she and Lee did, and in build and face he and Lee were similar enough to be mistaken for brothers. But where Lee's handsomeness was tempered by a natural friendliness, Sebastian was all dangerous sensuality. Now that the wizard side of his heritage had manifested, he was not only an incubus but the Justice Maker for the Den of Iniquity.
    Despite his gifts and his new role as the Den's protector, Sebastian didn't have the responsibility for so many lives as she did, being a Landscaper, or as Lee did, being the Bridge who kept her pieces of Ephemera connected. Maybe because he wasn't directly involved with the gift that had given her too many sleepless nights lately, she gave in to voicing her fears.
    "It's been over a month since I stood outside Wizard City and performed Heart's Justice, depriving the Eater of the World of some of Its strongest allies," she said, looking away from him. "There's been no sign of It since then. At least, not in the landscapes under my control or in Mother's care. But after It killed the Landscapers at the school, It had access to all the pieces of the world anchored in all those gardens. It could be anywhere at this point, sowing fear in people's hearts, nurturing feelings that feed the Dark currents. Without realizing it, people will diminish the currents of Light that would have given them the hope and strength to turn aside the Dark. In the end, if there is no Landscaper to impose her will on the world, Ephemera will reshape pieces of itself to resonate with those darkened hearts — and other nightmare landscapes will be born."
    "Could the Eater have been destroyed when you took the Dark Guides out of the world?" Sebastian asked.
    She shook her head. "It was formed from the dark side of the human heart. As long as the heart is capable of those feelings, It will continue to exist."
    "Then how can we destroy It?"
    "Not 'we.' Me. I'm the only Landscaper strong enough to light It. And I'm not sure I'm strong enough to defeat It." There. That
    was the fear that plagued her nights. If she couldn't find a way to contain the Eater of the World as the first Landscapers had so long ago, nothing would stop It from changing the world into manifestations of humans' deepest fears. Those first Landscapers, the Guides of the Heart, had shattered Ephemera during their battle against the Eater. That had worked to their advantage,