Sebastian

what you expect it to be. Because the Den is a reflection of you."
    "Are you saying I let that thing come into the Den to hunt?"
    "No. You couldn't have stopped It from coming into the Den. But It can't change the Den if you don't allow the Den to change."
    Sebastian laughed harshly. "My will against something so evil and deadly It can change our whole world into a nightmare? Do you really think I can do that?"
    "You did it. You did it," she repeated when he just stared at her in disbelief. "You said it yourself, Sebastian. The alley started to shift and become a different landscape, and you didn't allow it to happen . You held on to what the alley was supposed to be, and you got away. You can't stop It from coming into the Den. There are plenty of bridges that connect the Den to other landscapes not in my keeping, and until those are broken, It can find a way in, and It can create small access points. But It can't control the heart of the Den as long as you hold on to this place."
    Philo. Mr. Finch. Teaser. All the other residents in the Den. He felt the weight of their lives on his shoulders. He had never bargained for that kind of responsibility.
    Then he looked at Glorianna and realized the burden she carried was a thousand times heavier.

    He laid his hand over hers. "What are you going to do?"
    She sighed. "All I can do right now is hold on to the landscapes in my care and protect them as best I can. Lee can help with that—once I find him."
    He heard the worry in her voice . He didn't try to offer false comfort. After what she'd told him, that would be no kindness. So he just kept his hand on hers, offering the connection of family, telling her silently that she wasn't alone.

    Glorianna walked up the Den's main street, resisting the urge to rush back to Philo's place and tell Sebastian not to take Lynnea to the Landscapers' School. She didn't think he'd run into any real trouble while he was there, not with all the Instructors who lived at the school and the other Landscapers who were always returning to tend their gardens. Maybe they had already contained the Eater of the World.
    And if they couldn't contain It by themselves, they'd summon the wizards to help them. After all, wizards were good at containing problems.
    No, she didn't think Sebastian would run into trouble, even though she'd made sure he knew of another way out of the school. It was the thrumming of two heart wishes in the currents of power that flowed through the Den that made her want to push him into the decision she wanted him to make.
    You can guide, but you cannot take control. You cannot take away the choices a person must make in order to fulfill his life's journey.
    Opportunities and choices. People were offered opportunities to fulfill heart wishes all the time and either didn't recognize them or couldn't find the courage to reach for the very thing they wanted.
    She couldn't interfere with Sebastian's journey, wherever it might lead him. She'd given him an opportunity, an excuse, to back away from the decision to take Lynnea to the school, and he'd chosen to ignore it.
    Knowing she was doing the right thing by letting him make the decision didn't stifle the urge to give her darling cousin a swift kick in his newly polished honor.
     
     
    By the time he said good-bye to Glorianna and went up the street to find Lynnea, Teaser and two younger incubi were finishing up some kind of impromptu skit full of double meanings. Bawdy, yes, but too exaggerated and good-natured to be lewd.
    And there was Lynnea, standing at the edge of the crowd, laughing and applauding, shining like starlight.
    No, not like starlight. She was too warm to be starlight. Sunlight, then. The kind of warmth that never touched the Den—until she had walked here, laughed here.
    He applauded with the rest of the crowd, not because he'd seen the performance but as a way of acknowledging Teaser's help in creating these few hours when his little rabbit could feel like a tigress.
    Lynnea turned, as if she recognized the sound of his hands, and smiled at him. "Aren't they wonderful?"
     
    "Yes, they are," he replied, returning the smile.
    "Did you have a nice visit with your cousin?"
    "It was fine." He slipped a hand into the pocket of his leather jacket and touched the folded linen napkin.
    Glorianna had insisted on drawing him a crude map of the school. It had seemed silly, since there was only one road into the Landscapers' part of the school grounds, and that led