Sebastian

for Lee a few years ago. She took the box to the desk and set it in the bottom drawer. After locking the drawer, she slipped the key's chain over her head and tucked it into her shirt.
    This suite of rooms in the guesthouse at Sanctuary was the closest thing Lee had to a home of his own.
    Oh, he had a sitting room and bedroom in her house on the island, and his bedroom at their mother's house, but that wasn't the same as having his own place.
    He was twenty-eight and had never had a sweetheart. Because of her. Not that he'd ever admit that, but she knew whatever liaisons he enjoyed were kept casual because he hadn't trusted those women enough to expose his strong connection with his sister, the rogue Lands caper.
    It made her sad. He should have a wife to come home to, children to play with. He wanted those things.
    She knew he did. After all, no heart held secrets from Glorianna Belladonna.
    But sadness and doubt weren't what he needed from her right now, so she held out her hand and said,
    "Let's take a walk."
    He gave her a weary smile. "Do you know how many miles I've walked in the past few days?"
    "You should rent a horse when you can."

    He just grunted, pushed himself to his feet, and took her hand. "A short walk."
    She led him through the gardens and felt him begin to relax when he realized where she was taking him.
    Lee might not have a home, but he did have a place of his own.
    A stream separated the gardens from the open land beyond. Two bridges spanned the water at different points to provide access to the countryside. A third bridge went to a small island that had been formed by the stream splitting around that rough circle of land. Trees guarded the circle of stone that sheltered the heart of that small place.
    No flowers bloomed here. This was the silence, the peace at the heart of a wood. Ferns grew in the dappled light, and in the center was the fountain—a bowl of black stone that was fed by a length of hollowed-out cane. The mechanics of bringing water from the stream to the fountain were cleverly hidden, just as the drainage pipe that gave the water back to the stream was cleverly hidden. A bench provided an invitation to sit and linger, to listen to the song of water and stone, to breathe in the green of silence.
    The people from the various Places of Light that made up Sanctuary had helped her build this place as a private sanctuary, but the little island had resonated with Lee from the moment he'd set foot within the stone circle.
    And it was this place he could impose over any other landscape. A safe place because, when he shifted it, it existed nowhere except on the bridge of his will and yet was still rooted in Sanctuary. He could walk among the trees and see what lay beyond, but another person's eyes couldn't see the island. Only the right kind of heart could find it when it was imposed over another landscape.
    They settled on the bench and, for a while, did nothing but listen to the water and breathe in the green of silence.
    Finally Glorianna said, "For today, you'll eat and rest. Tomorrow we'll go to my island and walk through the gardens, and we'll consider how to protect what we can of Ephemera."
    Lee got up and took a few steps away from the bench. "And what if the Eater of the World finds a way into these landscapes through a stationary bridge I missed somewhere along the way? Or through a resonating bridge in a landscape I can't reach?"
    "Then we'll deal with it."
    "You mean you'll deal with it. That's what it comes down to, doesn't it?"
    It did, but he already sounded troubled, and she wasn't going to let him chew on blame that was undeserved.
    She walked over to him and placed a hand on his cheek. "We'll take each day as it comes, and if we can't destroy the Eater of the World, we'll find a way to close It back into Its own landscapes."
    He placed his hands on her shoulders. "Will you promise to keep yourself safe?"
    "I don't make promises if I'm not sure I can keep them."
    His eyes were bleak as he wrapped his arms around her. "I know. That's why I hoped you could give me that promise."

    *
    Hand in hand, Sebastian and Lynnea left the bordello and strolled down to Philo's.
    He missed his cottage, missed making koffee for himself when he woke up, missed cooking a simple meal he could eat in private.
    "We could get a meal at the bordello if you'd prefer," Sebastian said.
    "If you'd wanted to do that, you would have mentioned it sooner," Lynnea replied.
    He shrugged. Meals at the