Sebastian

kindness. He took a mouthful of water, then closed the canteen and set it aside. Shutting his eyes, he sat very still, waiting for the pain in his head to subside again to a dull throb.
    Daylight, he hurt! But despite the lump on his head and the shallow cut from the first blow that had soaked part of his hair with blood, he didn't think he was badly injured. Hurt, certainly, but there didn't seem to be anything wrong with him that couldn't be put right with a headache powder and some sleep.
    Except for the feeling of rough fingers lightly scratching inside his head. Except for the whispering voices that were close enough for him to hear but too far away for him to make out what they were saying—
    voices that seemed to creep closer whenever his mind lost focus.

    Could wizards do that? Creep into a mind? Was that the way they determined whether someone was truly innocent? Not by the questions that were asked for the sake of formality, but by this intrusion?
    He wouldn't be able to keep them out forever. His body craved sleep—and sleep would leave him vulnerable to the voices. The light scratching would become a torment soon. But he could choose now what those voices would find when they finally breached his mind and what would stay hidden in the core of his heart.
    He should have insisted on having an hour to consider Koltak's request/command/plea. He should have given himself that hour to consider the good and bad of leaving the Den to come to Wizard City. If he had, he would have realized what had troubled him about Koltak's journey to the Den.
    Koltak had wanted him as bait for a trap but hadn't really wanted to find him, because Koltak had never wanted to be around him. Ephemera had responded to that heart conflict by making the journey difficult.
    That's was what had troubled him—the fact that Koltak had spent days trying to find the Den. But the words "to save Ephemera" had swept away the thought before it could form, before it could become solid enough to resist being influenced.
    Sebastian opened his eyes and stared at the wall. Was that what Koltak had done? Influenced his decision with the plea to save the world? But he hadn't felt this scratching, this sense of intrusion.
    Maybe that was why the council had chosen Koltak. Maybe there was enough similarity in resonance between a father and son, despite their animosity, that he wouldn't sense the intrusion. When Koltak talked about saving the world, the words had rung true.
    Liar. Deceiver. Raper of truth.
    If Ephemera truly gave each person what the heart deserved, Koltak would receive the reward of his ambitions—and the reward would be bitter.
    Now wasn't the time to think about Koltak. While he could, he had to take what was most precious to him and hide it away, deep inside his heart… where the wizards would never find her.
    He didn't dare let her name echo in his mind, but he pictured her—the blue eyes, the wavy brown hair, the expressive face that looked the most innocent when she was trying to learn how to be naughty. How she looked wearing that catsuit. How she felt when he made love with her.
    His rabbit, who was changing a little more every day into a tigress.
    For a moment he could feel her resonating inside him. Then he tucked away all his memories, all his feelings for her.
    Glorianna wouldn't come for him. He didn't want her to come for him. There was too much at stake to throw it away trying to save one man.
    So the wizards would kill him.
    But even as he died, he would keep what he cherished the most away from them.
     

 

     
     

Chapter Twenty-three

 

     
     

     
    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