Heather's Dedication

For my amazing typo-spotting team! I am grateful to you all.

Particular thanks go to Eve Power, Mardie Lowe, Melissa Gunn, Kerensa Leatherland, Jill Card Hazard, Ggprof Ny, Darlene Price Street, Mariaan Belinfante, Jo Shaw, Maria Turner, Matt S., Stephanie Underhill, Melissa Mattison-Thompson, Josephine Brennan, Roberta Mary, Gabrielle Hashimoto, Jamie Davis, Haley Gabriel, Sarah Metcalf, and – last but by no means least – Beba Andric. Thank you!

And thanks to my hard-core Patrons: Kate Potter, Amanda Peterman, Helen Steele, and Mel. I appreciate your support more than I can say!

Ella's Dedication

For Paula Easton – for giving me a kick up the butt when it was needed!

Copyright © 2025 by Heather G. Harris and Ella Stone.

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

No generative-AI used. Ever. Not in the writing, the cover or the marketing.

Contents

Foreword

1. Chapter One

2. Chapter Two

3. Chapter Three

4. Chapter Four

5. Chapter Five

6. Chapter Six

7. Chapter Seven

8. Chapter Eight

9. Chapter Nine

10. Chapter Ten

11. Chapter Eleven

12. Chapter Twelve

13. Chapter Thirteen

14. Chapter Fourteen

15. Chapter Fifteen

16. Chapter Sixteen

17. Chapter Seventeen

18. Chapter Eighteen

19. Chapter Nineteen

20. Chapter Twenty

21. Chapter Twenty-One

22. Chapter Twenty-Two

23. Chapter Twenty-Three

24. Chapter Twenty-Four

25. Chapter Twenty-Five

26. Chapter Twenty-Six

27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

30. Chapter Thirty

31. Chapter Thirty-One

32. Chapter Thirty-Two

33. Chapter Thirty-Three

34. Chapter Thirty-Four

35. Chapter Thirty-Five

36. Chapter Thirty-Six

37. Chapter Thirty-Seven

38. Chapter Thirty-Eight

39. Chapter Thirty-Nine

40. Chapter Forty

41. Chapter Forty-One

Other Works by Heather

Other Works by Ella Stone

About the Author - Ella Stone

Foreword

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Chapter One

My heart was thundering in my chest. ‘We’ve found it.’

We’d been searching for six weeks, praying we weren’t on a wild-goose chase. Four times now, my ragtag group of friends and I had shown up full of confidence, convinced we were in the right place – only to find ourselves standing beside muddy puddles masquerading as lochs, in villages full of non-magical locals.

We had found one small magical fishing village, but there was no sign of an Eternal Flame. I knew what its presence felt like and it just wasn’t there in those half-dozen crumbling houses that were home to a medium-sized pack of werewolves. They’d offered us accommodation but, given that the following night was a full moon and one or two of them had already shown a noticeable tension in Ezra’s presence, we went on our way.

But this time I could feel it. I couldn’t define what it was, but my scalp was tingling with excitement. I knew it was here. Somewhere.

‘I think you could be right.’ Fraser squeezed my hand. ‘There’s definitely something magical in the air. The Mother is strong here.’

Six weeks on the road with Fraser had definitely made us closer. I was learning more about the gorgeous selkie I was mated with – or at least had the option to be mated with – but we’d agreed to keep things between us at a glacial pace so we could focus on the task at hand. I was done with putting the Eternal Flame last on my to-do list; I was going to find it, and then I was going to be the best damned Guardian it had ever had.

‘What do you think?’ I asked, looking at Nour, Ezra and Maddie. ‘Can you guys sense anything here?’ We were standing together with both the car and Ezra’s bike parked behind us, looking down at a small village on the edge of a glittering blue loch.

‘This is it,’ Nour agreed triumphantly without a hint of uncertainty in her voice. ‘The light, the way it’s bouncing off the clouds around us – there’s some sort of protection spell on this place. I’d bet good money only magical people can find Hallowburn Harbour.’

‘Any chance you can use that magic of yours to locate the Flame’s exact location?’ I asked her optimistically.

‘I’m not sure,’ Nour admitted. ‘It might take me a bit of time to pinpoint it.’

As she turned towards the village, Ezra placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. ‘Can anyone else hear that?’ he asked, tilting his head.

I strained my ears but heard nothing, so I turned my attention to my friend. As a werewolf, Ezra had the best hearing in our group – even when he wasn’t in wolf form. His eyes were narrowed, his body tense. ‘We need to get a little closer,’ he said firmly. ‘I can hear something but I’m not sure what. Come on.’

He took the lead, moving down the hill at such a pace that I had to jog to keep up with him. We must have gone about half a mile when he stopped abruptly.

‘What is it?’ Maddie asked uneasily.

I’d stopped to catch my breath and now I could hear what Ezra had picked up on. There was a low thumping sound somewhere in the distance.

‘Honestly?’ He gave a slow grin. ‘It sounds like a party. A very, very big one.’

‘A party?’ Of all the things I was prepared for, a good knees-up wasn’t one of them.

‘Yeah. Singing and drums, that type of thing.’ He sounded excited at the prospect, but nerves were rattling me. A big party meant lots of people, lots of people with lots of emotions. Lots of people with lots of emotions who might not take kindly to our intrusion.

I locked down my mental shields as tightly as I could; I’d been working hard at strengthening them during the lulls in our search, and I was definitely getting better at it. I looked at Fraser, expecting to see the same trepidation in his eyes, but he looked pleased. ‘If it’s a big gathering,’ he said, ‘they won’t even notice a couple more guests. It’ll be perfect camouflage.’

We decided to walk into the village – a quick spell by a smart witch could take out your tyres or immobilise the engine in a heartbeat – so we left the vehicles just outside Hallowburn Harbour and trekked the rest of the way on foot.

‘What’s the plan?’ Maddie kept her voice low. ‘Bea, can you pinpoint the Flame?’

I was trying to do exactly that. ‘I don’t think so,’ I finally admitted. ‘It’s not my Flame, so I can feel a general presence but no more than that. Maybe if we were closer?’ My voice sharpened with frustration. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Hmm.’ Maddie tapped a finger against her lip as she considered. ‘Should we split up and ask people about their Flame, or stay in a group? I lean towards splitting up – we don’t want to look like we’re trying to intimidate them.’

‘We hardly look intimidating,’ Ezra scoffed.

Nour was dressed in a flowing skirt, a neat top and more bangles than a 1980s’ pop band, Maddie was rocking her favourite tie-dye hoodie and even Fraser was in jeans. Ezra was right: our group looked more hippie than hostile.

He continued, ‘I’m more concerned that we might not be welcome, in which case there would be safety in numbers.’

‘But we want to slip in under the radar,’ Fraser weighed in. ‘I think Maddie’s right and it makes sense to split up. Let’s find our bearings, decide on a time and place to rendezvous, then we can separate into two groups.’

Ezra nodded. It had taken a little while for the two natural leaders to establish peace, but after a long walk and talk one day they seemed to have sorted out their differences.

It was no wonder Fraser had become the leader of the water shifters at such a young age because not only had he been born to lead, he was also a planner. He liked to be organised: he thought through every possible issue that could arise for every task we were about to take on. In comparison, I was an impulsive hot mess, but somehow our yin and yang natures worked well together. I added some spontaneity to his life and he helped me take a second breath before I dashed in and caused chaos.

I felt bad that I’d taken Fraser away from his new role only days after he’d been promoted; I had also taken Ezra away from his responsibilities as beta of the Witchlight wolf packs, and Maddie away from Ernie’s tutelage. I’d tried to persuade them I could go on this expedition alone but they hadn’t listened to me, for which I was quietly grateful – even if it had left Yanni and Dove manning the phones again. Guilt pricked me at the thought.

Guilt was something I was feeling a lot of these days, particularly about Kaz. I knew my friends thought I was mad for harbouring so much regret about what had happened to the vampire; Kaz was a murderer – she’d killed Lorenz and tried to frame Sonny. Even so, I couldn’t shake my guilt about the state she was in now.

Every time I thought back, I was struck by how foolhardy I’d been and how recklessly I’d acted. It had only been a few days after my powers had started manifesting properly when I’d used them forcefully on her, powers that had been trapped under a bind that my parents had placed on me when I was practically a newborn, presumably to stop my deadly grandmother from hunting me down.

I hadn’t told any of the others that the head of The Nightshades, a deadly vampire group, had said that my grandmother was still alive. Candice had promised to tell me more about my grandmother if I let her see the Eternal Flame. I wasn’t sure I believed her, but I couldn’t afford to ignore her. So here I was, trying to find another Guardian who could hopefully help me restore my own Eternal Flame. Hopefully then I could use its power to heal Kaz’s fractured mind and maybe do a deal with the head of the Nightshades.

If my grandmother was alive, I needed to know where she was and if she was gunning for me. This time she wouldn’t find a weak-magicked teenager when she came knocking – but I needed the power of the Flame behind me or I’d be toast.

Chapter Two

Eva, my faithful retriever, took the lead as we walked towards the town. She’s incredibly good at spotting danger; she’s also incredibly protective of me and hellish smart. I could feel her happiness as she trotted forward; she liked having a purpose and being on a walk with me was one of her favourite things. Mine too.

The barrier around Hallowburn Harbour couldn’t be seen by the naked eye but I sure as heck felt it as we walked through it. It squeezed my insides as it weighed me up and, luckily, found me worthy of admittance.

We all let out explosive breaths as we emerged on the other side. The barrier was probably intended to keep out non-magical folk and anyone who threatened harm to the village, but we were coming in peace. Although it wasn’t as comfortable as it would be for a resident to pass through, we managed.

‘So, what? We’re just going to walk into the party?’ Maddie asked dubiously. ‘What if it’s in someone’s house and you need an invitation to get past the ward?’ She was wringing her hands; her anxiety had increased the longer we were away from home. I’d seen her biting her nails and though she always offered me a sunny smile when I asked if she was okay, I knew in my gut that she wasn’t.

Her energy levels were flagging and she wasn’t sleeping well; she had dark circles under her eyes. I needed to get her back to Witchlight, back to Ernie. Something was eating at her and I was petrified that the dark magic she’d used once had a vice-like grip on her soul that she couldn’t shake off without help. She needed support, and I was determined to make sure she got it.

Maddie continued, ‘What if the Flame’s being held by a group of anti-witch, anti-werewolf or anti-shifters?’

Ezra shook his head. ‘This party is big.’ His forehead furrowed as he focused on the sounds he was picking up. ‘This isn’t a house party – it sounds like the whole town is there. I reckon they’re celebrating something.’

As we moved ever closer to the village, the wind carried singing and music towards us. Laughter. I relaxed a little: surely Hallowburn wasn’t the type of place where they killed intruders, not when they were laughing and dancing together?

‘This way,’ Ezra said as we reached a junction.

We were in the village now, surrounded by cute houses painted in different colours. Most of them were surprisingly small, the doors less than four feet high, and I guessed there was a large fae community. The fae could vary wildly in size – and commenting on that was never a good idea.

‘We’re getting very close to the water,’ Fraser murmured, raw yearning in his voice. He was as much at home beneath the rippling waves as he was on land. Whenever possible, I’d tried to make sure he had a chance to swim, but the last time we’d been in a fishing village was more than a week ago and the strain was showing.

‘Sounds like the party is on the next street over,’ Nour noted quietly. She was right: in the last couple of minutes, the singing had grown undeniably louder.

Nerves bubbled through me and butterflies were kicking up a storm in my stomach. I’d thought that finding a place that housed another Eternal Flame would be our biggest challenge, but now that we were here I realised that was just the first step. I needed to find the Guardian and somehow convince them to share its secrets with me – and that would be easier said than done.

‘Are you okay?’ Fraser asked me quietly. He was still holding my hand. ‘I can feel your anxiety.’

I tried to tamp it down and rubbed my sweaty palms on my jeans. ‘Yes. Or at least I will be when we get the Flame back.’ I gave him an unconvincing smile.

‘It will happen, I promise you. If we can’t do it here, then we’ll find another village. We won’t stop until your Flame is back.’

I could hear it in his voice: he would go with me to the ends of the earth if that was what I needed. I was still trying to come to terms with what our bond meant for him – and for me – beyond the almost feral attraction that we felt for each other. ‘Thank you for this,’ I said. ‘And for your patience, with … everything. I’m sorry it’s been such a mess.’

‘You have to stop apologising. Think of it this way – if the Guardian here won’t help you, then I promise that next we’ll look for the Flame in the Caribbean.’ He winked.

‘That sounds like a deal.’ I laughed, grateful for him trying to bring some humour to the moment. Feeling a fraction less nervous, I gripped his fingers hard.

As far as being physical went, that was as far as we’d got: handholding, hugs, my head on his shoulder when I was shattered. We hadn’t shared another earth-shattering kiss yet; I was holding Fraser at arm's length both for my sanity and for my focus. If we got too close I knew we’d end up wrapped in each other, and we didn’t have time for that. We needed – I needed – to focus on the Flame. Everything else had to be secondary.

We hadn’t even had a proper date yet; we’d skipped that step and bundled straight into travelling in each other's pockets. And it would be difficult to make small talk over candlelight now that I already knew he loved coffee in the morning, hated wearing socks and named his houseplants after actors he liked.

Ezra cleared his throat. ‘I think you might want to see this.’ He was standing with Maddie and Nour. Unusually, Eva was cowering behind Maddie’s legs as if she were scared. A quick check of her emotions showed me she was exactly that and my own nerves immediately tightened; if Eva were scared, I probably should be too.

The others’ expressions were harder to read with my barriers up so I allowed myself the slightest glimpse of what they were feeling. While there was a heavy dose of anxiety in the mix, it was overwhelmed entirely by disbelief – and something else. Awe, perhaps? What the hell were they looking at?

Nervously, I edged towards the others to see for myself.

We were close to the water, looking over the loch with the mountains rising up behind it. At least three hundred people were gathered on the shore, but even with such a crowd it was what was in the water that made my jaw drop.

‘Erm, am I seeing things,’ I asked, ‘or is that the Loch Ness monster?’

Chapter Three

While there were definitely some similarities between the beast I was looking at and the Nessie that had been in newspapers and on postcards for decades, as the creature rose further out of the water I could see it wasn’t the monster. No: it was a freaking dragon splashing about.

No wonder Eva was scared. Its enormous body protruded from the water in three arches, but rather than the standard green of the cuddly toys stocked in almost every gift shop that we’d seen since we’d crossed the border, its skin was a deep purple ribbed with pale pink. On the third arch a pair of iridescent wings extended at least fifteen feet. Nessie didn’t have wings; this was something else entirely.

What was even weirder was that the great monster’s head was looking directly at a podium that had been placed at the end of a pier as if it were waiting to listen to a speech. Stranger still, it appeared to be smiling, flashing its teeth in a grotesque grin that somehow wasn’t threatening.

Yes, Purple Nessie was definitely smiling.

As we watched, a curvy woman with large pearly wings similar in colour to the dragon’s took to the podium. She was one of the fae folk. ‘Welcome, everybody,’ she started warmly, speaking into a microphone that ricocheted her voice around the harbour. ‘It’s lovely to see so many members of the community joining us today to give thanks to our dear knucker.’

A knucker. Of course: it was a water dragon. No wonder it was splashing around in the loch.

As the fae lady turned her head towards the monster and lifted her hand slightly, rapturous applause flooded the air.

‘I thought knuckers only lived in Sussex,’ Fraser muttered.

‘They famously live in Sussex,’ I countered. ‘But maybe the Sussex knucker is an exhibitionist and the others keep a lower profile.’ Fraser snorted with laughter.

Though I wouldn’t have thought it possible the knucker smiled even more broadly at the sounds of the thunderous clapping. It was flashing deadly teeth that were surprisingly clean. I wondered inanely if one of the villagers was tasked with cleaning those gnashers.

‘As we know, our life in Hallowburn Harbour is what it is because of the knucker, and we are so grateful for all that she does for us. The cleanliness of our water, the fertility of our land and, as such, the abundance in our farms, is down to her generosity. Like many of you, I, could speak for hours about the kindness and compassion of this great creature, but there is someone special here to say a few more words about our beloved knucker and her role in Hallowburn – none other than the High Priestess, Adele, Guardian of the Eternal Flame.’

Everything around me disappeared into the ether as my gasp resounded in my ears. I had found the Guardian of the Flame! The person I had spent weeks searching for – I had found her. Just. Like. That. She had fallen into my lap. I was obviously being blessed by something.

As cheers of support rose from the crowd, all I could focus on was the woman climbing the steps to the podium. Like me, her hair was an unnatural rich red, a colour that looked like it had surely come from a bottle though I knew that it hadn’t. Her gait was steady and she was dressed smartly in a blue floral dress, but the way she tugged at the skirt gave the impression of someone who was more at home in jeans and a T-shirt. I liked her instantly.

She was probably in her late forties, and that alone caused a knot in my stomach. She was almost exactly the same age as my mother would have been had she lived. When my parents had died, I’d tried to console myself by thinking that they were old and they’d had a decent run at life, but now I was almost thirty I recognised just how young they’d been. By my age, they’d already had a child – me – and I could barely take care of myself and Eva. I was young, dammit, and they had been too.

‘Thank you, Provost,’ the Guardian said to the fae woman before she cleared her throat and turned to the crowd.

‘So much for thinking we’d have to hunt down the Guardian!’ Maddie whispered excitedly beside me.

I didn’t respond; my feet were already moving towards the woman I’d been searching for. I needed her help; I knew instinctively that she had the answers I desperately needed, and I wasn’t letting her get away. Excitement and elation thrummed through me and I had to resist the urge to whoop loudly. I was so close now. Answers were within my reach.

The crowd was so dense that I knew I could lose her the moment she stepped off the podium. I wouldn’t let that happen; I couldn’t let that happen. ‘Excuse me, excuse me,’ I muttered as I pushed impatiently through to get to the front. My heart was singing with triumph, but I told it to calm down: I wouldn’t be triumphant until I was sitting beside that woman and her Flame.

Eva was barking from behind me and I heard Maddie shout, ‘Bea, hold up!’ I ignored her, gripped by an urgency I couldn’t have resisted even if I’d tried.

The crowd near the podium was even more tightly packed and harder to move through. My elation started to slip away, replaced by panic. I couldn’t lose her now that I was so close!

I jostled, shoved and apologised as I fought my way forward. There was a loud burst of applause and my heart lurched. I stood on my tiptoes to see: the Guardian’s attention was on the knucker, and she was nodding her head as if she were saying her farewells. Any second now she’d step off the podium but I was still a good fifty metres away, blocked by at least a hundred people.

‘Please, please move. I need to see her. I need to see the Guardian!’ The panic that was rising inside me felt very physical, and I felt hot and feverish.

I dimly recognised that something was very wrong with me – this heat and this anxiety were not normal. I could feel something trembling in my hands, desperate to escape. I tried to lock down my mental shields again but I was too far gone to do more than flail at them ineffectually. They were already locked down; whatever was going on inside me wasn’t coming from my empathetic powers.

The heat was growing stronger by the second and I was burning up, as I had done when Nour had tried to help me. It felt as if my skin would start to blister at any second. In desperation, I tried to push it out of my body.

Immediately there was an explosive crack, so loud that it bounced across the mountains. It echoed like thunder, only the sky was perfectly clear. A second later, someone in the crowd shrieked and several people started pointing. I turned away from the High Priestess to look at the other side of the loch.

The word ‘crack’ was spot-on: a huge chunk of rock had been dislodged on one of the fells exposing a deep crevasse. For a second it wavered as if it might stay put, but then the moment passed and the monumental boulder tumbled down the mountain towards the water.

People screamed as it hurtled towards them, though others like me remained rooted to the spot. From somewhere in the distance I heard Fraser call my name but I couldn’t draw my eyes away from the rock rolling towards us. The heat had left me now and I felt a strange emptiness, but at least I wasn’t burning.

The boulder was enormous and it was hurtling towards the bay. Was it big enough to cause a tidal wave that would engulf the entire village? From the way people were trying to run away from the water’s edge, they certainly thought so.

Fear swept through me so strongly that I staggered, not my fear but the fear of those around me. It was so strong and from so many people that it battered against the shield I had in place, defeating the high walls I had erected. This was why I hated crowds: the volume of emotions could overcome my shields, no matter how well constructed they were or how tightly I held onto them.

I struggled to draw in breath as the paralysing fear of the crowd crippled me.

Unlike me, the knucker was not paralysed. Her smile gone, she turned her head towards the sound then she stretched out her great wings and took to the sky. Water sprayed over us as the beast started to fly. Although her tail barely left the water, she flicked it upwards and curled herself into a deep U-shape. At first I thought she was also fleeing but no, she was hovering there, her wings fluttering to keep herself airborne. Horrified, I realised she was going to try and catch the rock.

I felt a whisper, a pull, then there was a shimmer of rainbow magic, a hastily erected ward made with an Eternal Flame. It wasn’t grounded and it wasn’t complete – it couldn’t save the town – but it could slow the rock sufficiently for the knucker not to be crushed under its weight and momentum.

When the rock met the ward, it hovered in the air for a moment then a second later the ward shattered with an audible crack, but the knucker was ready. She had risen higher and, as gravity did its thing and the boulder started to move again, she caught it in the curve of her body and arrested its fall. She didn’t try and slingshot it away but flapped her wings and slowly lowered herself to the bay, twisted and dropped it. It slid into the water, creating an immense wave that rippled across the loch.

For a moment there was disbelieving silence and then cheers erupted.

Though I was relieved, I didn’t cheer: the boulder was now sitting in the bay, one of its surfaces protruding from the water to remind us how close the village had come to disaster. All because of me.

I knew it in my soul. When I’d pushed away that heat, whatever the hell it was, it had sheared away half a fucking cliff and nearly doomed a whole village. Guilt threatened to choke me; I could have killed them all if the knucker hadn’t been there…

There were more cheers as the fae Provost took to the podium again and wiped the sweat from her brow. ‘Well, it seems like we made enough noise to cause a landslide,’ she said, her smile tight. ‘Perhaps a little less oomph on the drums next time.’ She pointed to the marching band in front of her, trying to make light of the situation, but I could see that she was completely unnerved by what had almost happened.

Keeping her smile professionally in place, she continued, ‘Thank you for the ward, Priestess.’ She bowed low to the other woman. ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy the rest of the celebrations and don’t forget to give your gifts to the knucker – I think we can all agree that she deserves them more than ever!’

A final round of applause filled the air as I looked around frantically. The Guardian, Priestess – whatever she was – where had she gone?

As she’d worked her magic, she’d been frozen to the spot but now she was moving again. I started squeezing my way through the crowd again. ‘Priestess! Priestess Adele!’ I shouted. ‘I need to speak to you!’

Several people looked at me, some rolling their eyes, others moving aside to let me pass, but it wasn’t until I was six feet away that she heard me. ‘Please!’ I said in a voice trembling with desperation. ‘Priestess Adele! I need to talk to you.’

It felt as though time had slowed to nothing as she turned to face me. Our eyes locked on each other and then she frowned. ‘Iris?’ she exclaimed. Her frown deepened as she realised that I was too young to be my mother, no matter the similarities in our appearance.

I swallowed hard. ‘No,’ I said. ‘I’m not Iris, I’m her daughter, Beatrix. And I really, really need your help.’

Chapter Four

Priestess Adele touched my shoulder lightly. ‘Peace, child. Just breathe.’

I realised I was panting, not only with the exertion of moving through the crowd but also with the fear that she might not help me. The exuberance of earlier had gone, leaving me shaky.

‘Head between your legs,’ she instructed. Which is why, when Fraser and the others joined me, they found me with my butt in the air.

‘Beatrix?’ he asked, panic in his voice.

‘She’s okay,’ the Priestess assured him. ‘Events must have caught up with her. She needs to take some deep breaths.’ Her soft Scottish brogue was calm and soothing; everything about her told me that she wouldn’t just walk away.

I straightened up. ‘I need your help!’

‘So you said, dear. You are the daughter of a Guardian, yet I can feel the mantle has not settled on you yet. Do you require my help or that of the Flame?’

I was damned if I knew. ‘I— Both?’

‘Both it is, then. Calm yourself as we walk. It never does to approach the Flame feeling overly fraught. I will take you to it and we will talk in its presence about what you require. That way, you won’t have to repeat yourself.’ She patted my hand then she led the way from the village towards the fells.

In Witchlight Cove, the Eternal Flame had sat comfortably in the fireplace of our home and had been almost a part of our family; this Flame obviously resided somewhere outside the village. As we walked, my heart settled and my breathing evened out. At the very least, the priestess was going to hear me out.

She led us up the fell towards the rocks at the foot of the mountain and paused at the mouth of a cave. ‘You can bring one other with you into the holy cavern,’ she said firmly.

I looked at my group: Fraser, Maddie, Nour and Ezra. As much as I knew the others wanted to see the Flame, if I could only take one person in with me it had to be Maddie. She’d guarded our Flame for a decade; of all of my friends, she deserved to be by my side now.

‘Maddie,’ I said softly. ‘Will you come with me?’

She nodded, her expression solemn. ‘I will.’

‘We won’t be long,’ I promised the others.

Fraser pulled me into a brief hug. ‘Stay safe,’ he mumbled gruffly into my hair.

‘I will,’ I promised. ‘I’m sorry I can’t take you all.’

‘We’ll see it soon enough when you restore our own Flame.’ His quiet confidence in me reassured me.

‘That’s not a certainty,’ I said.

‘I believe in you, Beatrix Stonehaven. I have yet to see you fail in anything you’ve set your mind to. Whether it takes a day, a month or a year, you’ll restore our Flame.’

The thought of it taking a year made me feel faintly sick.

I looked towards the sparkly water, just past the cliff’s edge. ‘You could go for a swim instead?’ I suggested.

I could see the naked desire to do exactly that in his face, but he shook his head. ‘No, I’ll wait here for you. In case you need me – or my pelt.’

‘I’m not going to get hurt,’ I promised.

‘Probably not,’ he conceded. ‘But I’ll wait here all the same.’ He gave me one last squeeze, pressed a chaste kiss to my forehead and stepped back.

This was it, the moment we’d been working towards for weeks. We’d not only found a Flame, but a Guardian who was willing to talk to us. I hoped and prayed with all of my soul that she could help us, that she knew how to fix a flickered-out Flame, because if she didn't I wasn't sure I could bear to undertake another search and fail all over again.

Maddie grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly as we stepped towards the priestess, and I could tell that she was as nervous as I was. Eva automatically followed at my heel and I bit my lip as I looked down at her. ‘Excuse me, Priestess? Can my dog come too?’

The priestess looked amused. ‘Why not? Her energy won’t affect the cavern. Come, this way.’ She took the lead once more, guiding us down a series of stone steps to a vast cavern, at the bottom of which was a pool of water.

The pool did not appear black, as water underground tends to; instead it was shimmery, pearlescent, as the light of the Eternal Flame reflected on its dancing surface. I gasped in wonder and tears pricked my eyes. I could feel it, truly feel it vibrating through my very being. I started to shake with relief at being in the presence of a Flame again.

I’d missed it, I realised. Really, truly missed not only its warmth and power but also something more, something deeper. The Flame was my purpose, and now I was standing in the presence of another one, I could feel that purpose roaring back to life. I was a Guardian.

‘Holy fuck,’ Maddie breathed.

I nodded wordlessly, awe making me mute as I looked around the cavern. Stalactites were hanging from the ceiling and there, in a small alcove cut into the rock, was the Flame itself lighting the cavern with a wondrous, iridescent light. And the warmth! It was unnaturally but familiarly hot, it was like coming home – if home had been a cavern in Scotland.

Watching the Flame’s flickering colours, I felt an unexpected yearning and sudden tears pricked my eyes. I’d forgotten how beautiful it was. I wanted my Flame back to undo the decade of running away. I wished to hell I’d never left its side.

‘It’s lovely, isn’t it?’ The priestess smiled at me.

‘Mesmerising,’ I agreed, finally finding my tongue again.

There was a large circular rug laid out on the ground surrounded by cushions. She motioned for me to sit down. ‘Come, tell me what happened.’

Those traitorous butterflies in my belly started fluttering again and my mouth dried. I licked my lips anxiously. What if she refused to help us when I admitted that I had abandoned my Flame?

Maddie settled down next to me, her eyes wide as though she couldn’t believe what she was seeing was real.

Beside the cushions were several hammered-metal cups. The priestess picked up a couple of them and filled them with water from the pool. She held them out to us. ‘It is just water from the lake,’ she said when she saw me eyeing it. ‘It is cleansed by the knucker, so it is perfectly safe to drink.’

I didn’t want to be impolite so I accepted the goblet, though I didn’t immediately take a sip. I’d been taught my whole life to boil water in the wild before consuming it – but this was knucker-cleansed, right? As I debated whether to sip or not, Eva moved from where she’d been watching the Flame intently, trotted over and took a hearty gulp from the pool. She turned back to me, water dribbling from her golden jowls, and her tail wagged wildly.

All right, then. I took a sip. It was delicious. ‘Oh, wow,’ I said to Maddie. ‘This is the best water I’ve ever tasted.’

The priestess settled on a cushion opposite Maddie and me with the Flame at her back. ‘Tell me how you came to be here,’ she said. ‘And why you need my help and that of the Eternal Flame. I should warn you that I am bound to serve the people of Hallowburn Harbour, and if what you ask of me goes against their interests...’

‘It won’t, Priestess,’ I said quickly. ‘At least, there is no reason I can think of why it should.’

‘There is no need to stand on ceremony. Call me Adele.’

‘Thank you, Adele. It’s a bit ... complicated.’

‘Anything to do with the Flames usually is,’ she said wryly.

It was difficult to know where to start. I would have started with my grandmother’s appearance and how I had abandoned the Flame in my home, but now I had far more information about my power and my grandfather’s role in the story, and I felt that Adele needed to hear it all.

I started at the very beginning, a beginning that even I hadn’t known about. Maddie reached out and took my hand, silently offering her support. I sent her a tight smile.

‘My father was the son of a very powerful sorceress and a very powerful witch. I didn’t know anything about his heritage until after he died – and I only found the identity of his father very recently. But I suppose I learned about my grandmother when she tried to kidnap me. When I was seventeen, she came to Witchlight Cove.’

‘Do you know why she wished to take you?’ Adele asked gently. ‘Did she wish to make you an acolyte or steal your powers from you?’

‘I don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘I always thought it was to train me to become a sorceress like she was, but I made that assumption because I always believed I was powerless.’

‘Powerless?’

‘Not completely. I grew up with very weak empathetic powers. I could sense some key emotions from magical people – more clearly if I loved them – but that was it. If the emotions were nuanced, I couldn’t untangle them. For the longest time, I thought I was a magical dud.’ I closed my eyes, experiencing again those teenage feelings of inadequacy that I’d battled but never truly overcome. Maddie squeezed my hand again.

I opened my eyes. ‘I recently discovered that my parents placed a bind on my magic when I was a child. I can only assume it was to protect me from my grandmother.’

Adele paled. ‘Iris and I spoke of binding once.’ She paused. ‘I thought our conversation was hypothetical, but evidently not. Let me look at you for a moment.’ Her eyes blazed, flickering with the light of the Eternal Flame as she drew on it to look at me magically.

She nodded. ‘Yes, I see... The bind is failing now – it is dying, curling around the edges and falling away. In the coming months you will gain full access to all of your natural-born powers.’ The light left her and she looked at me with human eyes. There was no accusation in the words that followed. ‘You caused the rockslide.’

I swallowed and nodded. Immediately my best friend, Guilt, wrapped her arms around me as she so often did. ‘Yes, I think so. I’m so sorry. I was desperate to see you and it was burning me. I pushed it outwards… I didn’t know what would happen.’ I looked at her entreatingly, begging her to understand and accept that I would never do something like that on purpose. I wasn’t my grandmother.

‘I believe you, child. What you used was telekinesis,’ Adele told me calmly. ‘I can see it in your magic. You have a range of psychic magics, Beatrix. Telekinesis, telepathy, telempathy.’

Telempathy? That was way more than I could do. Telempathy wasn’t simply feeling other’s feelings, it was the ability to manipulate them – and it was often considered a darker power. No wonder my grandmother had wanted to get her evil hands on me. Would she have tried to siphon my powers from me?

There was no judgement in Adele’s soulful eyes. ‘You are a powerful witch, Beatrix Stonehaven, and it is essential that you harness your powers as soon as you can.’ Her tone was factual; I was grateful she didn’t say ‘lest you accidentally bring down whole mountain ranges’, but I heard it all the same.

‘Can you teach me?’ I asked desperately. I couldn’t – wouldn’t – be responsible for something so terrible happening again. I could have caused the deaths of scores of people.

Adele shook her head. ‘Your powers are rare. I’m sorry, but they are not in my arsenal.’

‘Ernie,’ Maddie said firmly.

She was right. Ernie had said his emotions could be volatile – he’d once sent Fraser flying across Sonny’s café. When my emotions had been volatile I’d nearly caused a tsunami. I was beginning to understand a little of the restraint my grandfather had exerted; if he hadn’t, Fraser would have been blasted through the café wall.

Adele studied me. ‘It seems likely that your grandmother wanted to take your extraordinary powers for herself. Iris and I spoke of her occasionally. Dahlia Bleakman scared her.’

I winced. Mum had been right to be afraid; my grandmother had killed her. ‘Yeah,’ I said, feeling sick. ‘The thing is, I only found out I had powerful magic a few weeks ago. Before then the binding had me wrapped up tighter than a mummy.’

‘What changed?’

‘A selkie... He broke the bind on me.’

Adele’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. ‘The selkie who is with you?’ I nodded. Her eyes narrowed. ‘Their magic is bound to their pelts.’

‘It is.’

‘And do you know what that means?’ she asked delicately.

‘It means I’m his one and only.’ I shook my head; the whole concept still seemed bizarre.

A smile flickered across Adele’s lips. ‘Exactly so. You are lucky to have a selkie mate. They are very loyal, very loving. He will protect you with all that he is.’

I smiled. ‘Yes,’ I said warmly. ‘I’m starting to see that – though we’re not properly mated yet.’

‘You haven’t accepted the bond?’ There was no implied criticism in her question, just surprise.

‘I … we haven’t known each other long.’

‘There is no time frame for true love,’ she advised, her eyes twinkling.

True love? My mind rebelled against the notion; true love was for fables and children’s stories. My parents had loved each other, of that I had no doubt, but could they have loved other people instead? I believed so; there wasn’t one fated mate for each of us and there were thousands of souls that would complement each other.

I changed the subject. ‘Anyway, after my grandmother came it was horrific. She killed my parents; she killed other people in Witchlight Cove. And I … I needed to escape from it all.’ It was confession time. I pulled the words from me with real effort. ‘As soon as I was eighteen, I did exactly that.’

Understanding shone in Adele’s eyes and I shifted uncomfortably on my cushion. She saw too much. ‘You left?’ she asked.

I was absurdly grateful that there was no censure in her voice. ‘Yes.’ I choked out the word. ‘I was eighteen. I wasn’t thinking about the Flame, I was thinking about all those people who looked at me as if I was responsible for the deaths of their loved ones. With my empathy skills, their feelings were overwhelming, unbearable. It was too much! I needed to get away from my own grief and other people’s feelings of grief. I went to live in the non-magical world where my empathy was muted and I could put the memories in a box. Where I could pretend that none of it had happened and that Mum and Dad were safe in Witchlight, waiting for me to come home.’

‘It must have been horrific for you,’ Adele said gently. ‘And I am not here to judge you. It is easy to assume how we might act in a situation but we never know until we face the trial ourselves.’

I sagged against the cushion, tears pricking my eyes. I’d lost a lot of sleep thinking about this moment and speculating about how another Guardian would receive me if we ever found one. Now that we had, I realised that all my fears had been for nothing. Adele was looking at me with nothing but compassion. ‘Thank you,’ I managed to say.

Adele turned to Maddie. ‘And while she was away, you looked after the Flame?’

She nodded. ‘Yes. Bea and I have been best friends since forever. I’m actually from a shifter family but I don’t have any shifting abilities. Bea’s father realised I had alchemy in me and he taught me to use the Flame to create potions and wards to help Witchlight Cove. I looked after the Flame while Bea was gone – she needed space and that was okay. But a couple of months ago…’ She trailed off and looked at me.

I took up the narrative. ‘The Flame disappeared.’

‘Disappeared?’ Adele was astonished. Clearly it wasn’t usual for Flames to wink out – and if it wasn’t normal, she might not have a solution.

Maddie nodded. ‘One day it simply vanished. I don’t think it was stolen because the house wasn’t broken into or anything – and all the wards around Witchlight Cove are still up. It was just ... gone from the fireplace.’

Adele nodded slowly and turned back to me. ‘Tell me, Beatrix, before you left to find solace in the non-magical world, did you bond with the Flame?’

‘Bond with it?’ I repeated. ‘I grew up with it. I knew its magic.’

‘That’s as deep as your bond went?’

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, genuinely confused. ‘What other sort of bonding could I have done?’

‘Oh, my dear... I mean, did you bond your soul with it?’

I stared at her. ‘What?’

Her smile had disappeared and I could almost feel a heaviness pressing down on us. ‘Well,’ she said, exhaling slowly, ‘I think we may have found the source of the problem.’

Chapter Five

‘Sorry, can I check I’ve got this right?’ I said faintly. ‘I was meant to bond part of my soul with the Eternal Flame?’

Adele nodded. ‘Yes, that’s how you cement your position as Guardian. That’s why I couldn’t see a guardianship mantle over you.’

Another realisation hit me. ‘So … my mother would have cemented part of her soul with the Flame?’

‘Yes, she did.’

I tried to steady my breathing as a dangerous cocktail of wild panic, grief and guilt swept through me. ‘You’re saying that when my mother died part of her soul remained in the Flame? The Flame that I let die?’ My voice wobbled. ‘And my mum’s soul died with it because I didn’t do what I was supposed to?’ Then my voice broke. ‘Because nobody told me that I was supposed to bond my soul with it?’

A sob escaped me. Maddie stroked my back; I was almost hyperventilating. ‘Why the hell didn’t Mum tell me what I needed to do?’

I’d thought that my parents had taught me everything about the uses and powers of the Eternal Flame. Even though my magic hadn’t seemed strong enough, they had spent hours every day teaching me to fight to protect it. But despite knowing I had a psychotic grandmother, they hadn’t thought it would be important to tell me I had to bond my soul with it? Feeling devastated and, yes, a little betrayed, I dropped my head into my hands.

‘No doubt they thought they’d have more time,’ Adele said. ‘They didn’t expect to pass the burden to you when you were so young. Iris must have been fearful of what it would take from you.’

‘What do you mean?’ Maddie frowned. ‘What it would take?’

‘The bond varies for all of the Guardians, but one of the most important aspects is that the Flame will choose which part of your soul it wishes to take.’

My soul. Which part of it would I willingly give up? The part that remembered my childhood, the part that inherently knew right from wrong, the part that enjoyed music and dancing?

‘Which part of your soul?’ Unknowingly, Maddie echoed my thoughts. ‘What does that even mean? What parts of the soul are there?’

Adele smiled. ‘There are more parts to a soul than there are stars in the sky. But you will never truly know the parts of yours until a part of it is taken from you.’

I struggled to kick my brain into PI mode. This was just another mystery to solve, and I needed to think analytically, not emotionally. But it was easier said than done.

Adele continued. ‘I have heard of ancestors who’ve had a tide of regret taken from them by the Flame, those who have lost the burden of a broken heart.’ She paused. ‘But I have also known those who have had the spirit of curiosity taken away, or the love they felt for those closest to them.’

That was horrible: I didn’t want to contemplate losing my love of Ezra, Maddie or Yanni. I deliberately didn’t add Fraser’s name to the list because surely I couldn’t possibly love him yet?

‘What happens to the part of the soul it takes?’ I asked. ‘Does the Flame look after it for a time, or is it destroyed by the Flame?’

‘Not destroyed by it but joined to it. Once the piece of the soul is joined with the Flame, it is forever a part of it.’ She looked at me curiously. ‘What did you think the Flame was made of?’

‘Magic!’

‘Yes, it is – but it’s soul magic.’

My heart thudded. ‘Soul magic is what sorcerers use!’

‘Unwillingly taken souls, yes, but we use freely given souls. And not the whole soul, just a shaving of soul, a snip.’ She said it as if it were a recipe: a pinch of salt, a shaving of soul. Just a snip, as if it were a lock of hair you wouldn't miss. But we were talking about my soul, my very essence.

I shook my head. What did it matter? ‘I won’t know what it takes until it takes it. Not that there’s even a Flame to take it now,’ I said bitterly.

This was a mindfuck. By not giving part of my soul to the Flame, I’d let a part of Mum’s soul die forever. What had it taken from her? Had it left Dad alone in the afterlife? The thought was horrific and I needed to focus on something else. Anything else. ‘If you don’t mind me asking,’ I started, ‘what did it take from you?’

Adele pressed her lips together tightly for a moment. ‘It is not something that I have ever told anybody,’ she said finally. ‘But I can see that you need to know.’ She took a deep breath. ‘It took my ambition.’

For a second I saw the wisdom of someone double her age glimmer in her eyes and I shivered. How old was she really? She was more than a witch – but what? There was something familiar about the feel of her.

‘I once vowed to be the most powerful Guardian to have ever lived,’ she admitted ruefully. ‘I even had thoughts of combining your Flame and mine, but it tore my ambition from me. It took me a while to realise what it had taken and for a time I thought I’d been left unscathed. Then I met Iris, and I realised I didn’t care that she was more powerful than me. I didn’t want to take her Flame. I realised that the Flame had made a wise choice – and I suspect it always does. The love it took from one Guardian was love of the wrong sort, the love of someone abusive, which is no love at all.’ She looked at me levelly. ‘As a Guardian, we have no choice but to trust what it takes.’

Trust what it takes. Those were the last words my mother had spoken to me as she lay dying in my arms. My God; all this time, I’d thought she’d meant to trust what it takes to survive. A whole decade had passed during which I hadn’t understood her final words to me.

As I started to sob, Maddie gave up on the back-rubbing and wrapped her arms around me. ‘Bea?’ She didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I couldn’t tell her. I was struggling to breathe as regret swamped me.

There was a clattering from the top of the cavern. ‘Beatrix?’ Fraser shouted, audibly distressed.

‘You may enter,’ Adele called up to him. ‘If I had known of your bond, I wouldn’t have kept you apart.’

There was the sound of hurried feet and then I was passed from Maddie to Fraser. ‘Beatrix?’ he murmured. ‘I feel your hurt, mo chridhe. Let me in.’

‘My mum,’ I choked out. ‘I finally understand her last words.’

‘Ah. I’m sorry.’ He also knew what it was to lose a parent, and I had no doubt that the final words his mother had spoken to him were engraved on his memory.

I sobbed my heart out as the scent of the sea and comforting vanilla wrapped itself around me. Fraser crooned to me, saying words I didn’t understand in a language I didn’t speak, but it didn’t matter; I felt the comfort all the same.

I sobbed and sobbed, and he held me while I broke.

By the time I’d finished crying, I had a monstrous headache. I slowly pulled away from Fraser and wiped my cheeks. I started to move out of his arms but his arms tightened. ‘A moment longer, mo chridhe. Let me have you a moment longer.’ Something in his voice told me that the embrace wasn’t solely for my own benefit; I’d prodded his wounds with my words. I hugged him again fiercely.

When his arms relaxed around me, I drew back to look at him. ‘Okay?’ I asked. He nodded, though his eyes were still sad. ‘Sorry,’ I murmured.

‘Don’t be. It’s good to remember our parents but sometimes it hits harder than others.’ He half-smiled. ‘Thank you for telling me.’

I nodded, but suddenly found myself mute. I was so broken that I yearned for an even deeper comfort, one I’d been holding back from. I needed to remind myself that despite Mum and Dad being gone, I was still alive.

Fraser was so close, his scent and warmth all around me. I looked into his ice-blue eyes that had turned almost silver-grey in the darkness of the cavern, felt his breath on my lips, and I wanted to feel something other than sadness and grief.

I tilted my head back and pressed my lips to his. His mouth opened willingly under mine and his tongue slid into my mouth, conquering it utterly. A soft moan escaped me and he pulled me closer.

The world narrowed to the press of his lips and the taste of him, wild and electric like the promise of a rough sea. My hands found his shoulders and I clung to him as though I might drift if I let go. When we finally drew apart both our chests were heaving.

‘We’re not alone,’ he reminded me gently.

His words were like a bucket of icy water being poured over my head. I looked around; Maddie and Adele had retreated to give us space, and the priestess was showing my friend the Flame. Even at a distance I could see that Maddie was looking brighter than she had in weeks.

I turned back to Fraser. ‘What does mo chridhe mean? You’ve said it a few times.’

‘It’s Gaelic,’ he said finally.

‘But what does it mean?’ I pressed.

He studied me, unsure whether to tell me or not. ‘My heart,’ he said finally.

My own heart lifted; it felt so full I thought it might burst out of my chest. I gave a shy smile. ‘I like it,’ I admitted.

‘Good.’ He squeezed my hand. ‘Let’s finish what we came here for.’

I squared my shoulders. He was right; I was here for answers and I wasn’t leaving without them.

Chapter Six

Maddie looked up at our approach and flashed me a cheeky grin. ‘Beatrix and Fraser, sitting in a tree…’

‘There was no tree,’ Fraser pointed out drily.

‘But there was kissing.’ She winked.

‘Thank God,’ Fraser muttered, making her snicker. Then he looked more closely at the Eternal Flame and his jaw dropped. ‘Wow,’ he breathed. ‘That’s amazing.’

Like it heard his reverence, the Flames flickered higher in a kaleidoscope of colours. It was beautiful – but I missed my own Flame. As I studied Adele’s, I could see the differences between them: this one had far more flashes of blues and greens whereas mine was more pink and purple.

Fraser turned to Adele. ‘Fraser Banks,’ he introduced himself. ‘Còmh-chàirde selkie. Please excuse me for failing to introduce myself earlier.’ He gave a respectful bow.

‘Ceannard.’ Her tone was warm. ‘A pleasure to meet you.’

‘Thank you for helping Beatrix.’

‘It is my duty as Guardian of the Flame to help other Guardians.’

I interrupted the niceties. ‘I’m grateful for all you’ve told us,’ I started, ‘but is there any way to get my Flame back?’

‘In truth, I do not know,’ she said firmly. ‘What I do know is that the Flame never really dies. It will be there in the tiniest embers, but in all likelihood it will not appear again until it bonds with a soul it believes is deserving of its power.’

In the silence that followed, I heard her unspoken words: how could I retrieve the Flame’s power when I had left it? How could it want to bond with me when I had deserted it in its darkest hour?

My heart had been so full of Fraser’s affection, but now it plummeted. We had travelled all this way and we had a solution, but not one I knew how to put it in action.

‘How do I bond with it?’ I asked Adele. ‘What do I do? Is there a chant, a spell?’

She shook her head. ‘None of that. You must simply sit in front of it and offer it your soul. And you must make your offering with no qualification or hesitation. It took me many days in my Flame’s light before we bonded. Have faith – you are of the Guardian line and it will come back to you.’

God, I hoped so, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that sliver of hope might be the thing that destroyed me.

‘Thank you,’ Fraser said warmly to Adele. ‘You’ve been a great help. If ever you find yourself in Cornwall, do come to Witchlight Cove.’

A smile touched her lips. ‘I’d like that. My mate would enjoy the seas there.’

Fraser nodded. ‘He would.’

‘How do you know that?’ I asked.

‘Her mate is a selkie.’ His tone was respectful.

‘I thought human–selkie pairs were rare?’

‘Oh, we are,’ Adele reassured me, her eyes sparkling. And that was when I realised what was familiar about her magic: she had the scent of the ocean about her, presumably through the mating bond that she had accepted.

Her eyes slid to Fraser’s bare feet. ‘Ross is always barefoot, too.’

I looked down. ‘When did you take off your shoes?’ I asked.

‘When I was waiting up top.’

Adele beamed at us. ‘I am so excited for your journey together. The Mother’s blessing on you both.’

Fraser bowed low. ‘Thank you – for everything.’

‘Your everything has just begun. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, Maddie and I need a little more time alone with the Flame.’

I blinked in surprise at her offer but it was obviously what Maddie needed. I wondered if Adele would let her work from it. ‘Of course.’ I looked at Eva. ‘Are you staying with Mads?’ I instinctively trusted Adele, but all the same I didn’t want to leave Maddie alone.

Eva barked and the sound reverberated in the cavern. Obviously enjoying the echoes that bounced around the cave, she did it again. I laughed. ‘You stay, but hush! They need to concentrate.’

Eva wagged her tail but didn’t make another sound. ‘How curious.’ Adele studied my retriever. ‘She is touched by magic.’

‘Yeah.’ I sighed. ‘She had an encounter with a powerful potion at an early age.’

‘It is more than that now.’ Adele’s eyes shone with the light of the Eternal Flame once again. ‘Magic is wrapped into her very being.’ Her eyes went back to normal. ‘She’s a very special dog.’

‘She always was,’ I smiled at Eva and told her, ‘Guard Mads. I’ll see you in a few minutes, Adele.’ I paused. ‘And thank you.’

‘You’re very welcome, Beatrix Banks.’

I flushed. ‘It’s Stonehaven.’

‘For now.’ Adele’s smile was entirely too knowing.

‘Actually,’ Fraser said, ‘I’d take her name if we got married. It would be much cooler.’

I gaped at him for a moment, then he took my hand and tugged us out of the cavern leaving Maddie to commune with the Eternal Flame.

Chapter Seven

The fresh air hit my lungs, and I found that I instantly missed the humid warmth of the cavern. I was about to stride into the daylight when Fraser stopped me. Before I could ask why, he touched his finger lightly to his lips to indicate silence and nodded towards Nour and Ezra. They were wrapped up in an embrace not too dissimilar from the one Fraser and I had been in moments before.

They had been tiptoeing around each other – and their clear mutual attraction and affection – for weeks, but being alone for the first time had clearly put the imps in the bushes.

I stepped closer to Fraser, intending to whisper, but he shook his head, tapped his ear and gestured to Ezra. He was right: with his werewolf hearing, Ez would hear and we’d interrupt their moment.

Fraser tugged me back into the cave, picked up a rock and threw it down hard enough for it to clatter. When we walked back out Ezra and Nour were standing apart, although her flushed cheeks and pouty lips would have told me what they’d been doing even if we hadn’t had an accidental peek.

‘Bea.’ Ezra cleared his throat. ‘Everything okay? Fraser said you were upset.’

‘It’s all a bit overwhelming,’ I admitted. ‘We talked about my magic as well as the Flame.’

‘And?’ Nour pressed.

‘She said I have telekinesis, telepathy and telempathy.’ I spoke the last word quietly. Nour would understand the implications.

‘You’ll want to keep the last one quiet,’ she advised softly.

I grimaced. ‘I know.’

‘Why?’ Ezra asked.

‘It’s the ability to manipulate other people’s emotions. It’s judged to be on the darker end of the magical spectrum,’ I explained.

‘Bea would never be dark,’ Ezra protested.

‘It’s not about what she’d do,’ Fraser interjected, ‘it’s about how she’d be perceived. She’s already struggled with the stigma of being Bleakman’s granddaughter.’

‘And the Flame?’ Ezra asked.

‘Apparently it’s not gone, not truly,’ I told him. ‘There’s the tiniest ember somewhere – but it needs to bond with a part of my soul to bring it back to full force.’

‘That’s not so bad,’ he said optimistically. ‘You can do that, right?’

‘Maybe – but there are two issues. One, it has to judge me worthy.’

‘And two?’

‘Two, it takes a piece of my soul forever.’

Fraser shook his head. ‘No. Absolutely not.’

My hands went to my hips and my eyes narrowed. ‘Excuse me?’

‘You’re not losing a piece of your soul simply to give us some extra magic.’

‘It’s not just a solstice blessing,’ I retorted, exasperated. ‘It’s the freaking Eternal Flame, Fraser. It’s my heritage – this is what I was born and raised to do.’

‘We’ll find you something else to be raised to do,’ he said stubbornly. ‘This is your soul we’re talking about, Beatrix!’

‘Exactly,’ I hissed back. ‘My soul. My choice.’

His jaw worked as he glared at me. ‘I need to swim,’ he bit out, then he turned on his heel and stalked towards the cliff edge. He dived off, making me gasp. As he leapt, he shimmered and shifted into his seal form. I watched, heart in my mouth, until he was safely in the ocean below.

I blew out a harsh breath. ‘Well, that didn’t go as well as it could have done,’ I said ruefully. ‘And he’s lost his clothes!’

‘Give him time,’ Nour advised ‘You’re not talking about giving away something physical to the Flame that he can understand but something nebulous. Ethereal.’

I stilled as I realised that she was both right and very wrong. It was something he could understand, I supposed, a little like giving away his pelt. That was what his mother had done and it had killed her. Suddenly I understood why he’d responded so vehemently.

Ezra interrupted my thoughts. ‘Where’s Maddie? Is she still down there? Is she okay?’

I nodded. ‘Maddie’s fine and Eva’s with her – actually, Maddie looks better than she’s done in weeks. Adele is letting her use the flame.’

‘That’s a relief,’ he said though Nour frowned.

‘What?’ I asked her.

‘Nothing.’ She smiled at me.

I wagged my finger. ‘Uh-uh, sister of the Wine Coven. You tell me what you suspect right now.’

She winced. ‘The Guardians of the Flame are bred for generations to use the Flame but Maddie wasn’t. Sure, she had training but without your mum guiding her. I’m scared she might have become addicted to its magic. That’s why she’s been so – erratic. When your Flame disappeared she turned to the dark magic in its absence, but without that and without Ernie to help her, she’s been struggling.’

I stared at her, aghast. ‘My God. Do you think she knows?’

‘I’m honestly not sure.’

I bit my lip. ‘Should I stop her from working with it now?’

Nour shook her head. ‘No, she shouldn’t go cold turkey. Hopefully this will give her a hit that will keep her going until we can get her back to Ernie. He can help detox her, though I suspect he can only do so much. If he can’t completely stabilise her then unless we can get the Witchlight back… I honestly think the withdrawal could kill her.’ She grimaced. ‘I was going to speak to Ernie about my suspicions before raising them with you.’

As if I needed another reason to retrieve the Flame. I’d do anything to save Maddie, even it meant giving up a piece of my soul. I had to get it back no matter what part of me it took. And if I couldn’t? Then I would get her a one-way ticket back here to Hallowburn Harbour.

I looked at Ezra and, more pointedly, the motorbike that rested behind him. ‘My brain is buzzing – I need to get out of here. Can we go now on your bike?’ I turned to Nour hastily. ‘Will you wait for Maddie and Eva and take Fraser’s car? I just... I need to—’

Nour nodded briskly. ‘You know that Eva’s not going to be happy that you left without her, though.’

‘She’ll understand.’

I needed to clear my mind – as much as it could be cleared – and hurtling down a mountainside on a motorcycle was exactly the way to do it.

Chapter Eight

I slipped the helmet off my head and clutched my stomach. ‘Next time I say go as fast as you like, remember that’s coming from a person who doesn’t ride motorbikes!’ I complained. ‘I think we must’ve nearly died about seven times.’

Ezra placed his own helmet on the bike before turning to me with the widest grin possible. ‘You said you needed a distraction.’

‘Not by hurtling off the side of the road!’

‘You were perfectly safe. That was slower than I go on my own – and admit it, it felt good, right?’

‘Good?’ I raised my eyebrows. I had lost my stomach so many times that I was starting to think the laws of gravity were on the blink.

‘Fine, maybe you don’t like going that fast,’ Ezra conceded. ‘But did it distract you?’

It had because I’d been focusing on clinging to Ezra for dear life. I’d quickly learned that no matter how loudly I screamed, he couldn’t hear me over the roar of the engine. Either that or he’d deliberately ignored me.

‘So, how are you feeling about everything?’ he went on.

‘Everything?’ I said. ‘That’s a pretty big category.’

‘Well, let’s start with you and Fraser. You seem close – and he seems like a good guy. Nour likes him and she has a good read on people.’

‘She’s great. And you two seem good.’ I said, trying to steer the conversation away from Fraser and me.

His dopey smile warmed my heart. ‘It’s going well. This trip has given us time to talk, reassess what we really want.’

‘And I’m guessing that’s each other?’

He grinned again, but it wasn’t like the mischievous smile he’d offered me earlier; this one was full of hope and excitement about the future. I didn’t even need to tap into his emotions to know that.

‘Yes, we want to be together,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have doubted that she can take on a role in the pack. If I can’t get them to respect my choice of partner then obviously I don’t have enough of their respect to be a beta – or an alpha in the future – and I don’t think that’s the case.’

He spoke so calmly that I found it hard to believe anybody, including the members of his pack, wouldn’t respect his choice of partner. He fixed me with a look. ‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on with you and the selkie, or are you going to keep dodging the question?’

He wasn’t letting the subject drop. Before I could respond, my phone buzzed in my pocket. ‘Sorry, I need to get this,’ I said. ‘It’s Maddie.’

‘Saved by the bell,’ Ezra smirked.

‘Hey, Mads,’ I said as I answered the phone. ‘Is everything okay?’

‘Everything is fine,’ she reassured me. ‘Adele let me use the Flame to make some spelled ink.’

‘She did? That’s amazing!’ I said, grateful to finally have something to feel pleased about. ‘Can you start your business up again?’

‘Not exactly.’ She sighed. ‘I can’t actually sell anything because they don’t use their Flame for profit, and Adele said it would be wrong to let an outsider do that. But at least I can offer free tats to some of the people who need them the most, and hopefully, buy a little time until we get the Flame back.’

The way Maddie said until we get the Flame back made my stomach clench. She believed I was worthy enough to bond with the Flame and I hoped to hell that she was right. But if she was wrong, then what on earth would we do? It was one thing admitting to myself that I’d ruined my family’s legacy but another thing entirely to admit it to the whole town.

Besides, I wasn’t completely sure how the whole lineage thing worked. Could someone from one of the town’s covens take over the Guardian position? Maddie had effectively been babysitting the Flame but she hadn’t bonded with it; she hadn’t become the Guardian in my absence, she was more like a steward. And if she hadn’t bonded with it in all that time, could someone else? Maybe it had to be a Stonehaven, in which case I’d have to wait until I had a child and hope that they would be deemed worthy.

I hadn’t even thought about having children yet, and there was no way I could have one purely to bring back the Flame. Children weren’t a commodity, and if I had one for that reason alone I’d be as bad as my grandmother.

I tried to clear my mind, to focus on the here and now rather than borrow trouble for the future. ‘Where are you all now?’ I asked Maddie.

‘We picked up Fraser from the bay – Eva had a romp in the water with him. Luckily, we had a dog towel and Fraser had a go-bag of spare clothes in the back of his car. We thought we’d stay at that hotel we used on the way up, the one with the weird stone statues in the garden. Are you two okay to head there?’

‘Sure.’ The weight in my chest that had faded during the motorcycle ride was returning with alarming speed. ‘I’ll let Ezra know. See you there.’ I went to hang up, but Maddie spoke again.

‘Bea,’ she said softly, ‘it’s going to be okay. I know you might not believe it, but it is. I can feel it.’

I smiled at her faith, but my heart remained leaden in my chest. ‘Thanks, Maddie. See you at the hotel.’ I tucked my phone in my pocket and turned back to Ezra. ‘Turns out I do want you to go fast again after all.’

He laughed. ‘Music to my ears. Let’s go, Trixie.’

Chapter Nine

Having completed our mission of meeting with another Guardian, now we wanted to get back to Witchlight Cove as quickly as possible. We woke bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to roll at the ridiculous hour of 6am. Well, everyone else was bright-eyed: I was a zombie.

I slid into the passenger seat next to Fraser, who was driving, and Maddie sat silently in the back with Eva. Nour had opted to ride with Ezra on his bike. We’d agreed that there would be no detours to visit picturesque villages, no lazy lunches looking out at spectacular views. We planned to stop only for food or when one of us needed a toilet break. Even with no stops it would be a ten-hour drive but we hoped to be home for 6pm.

Fraser and I hadn’t had a chance to talk privately and the atmosphere was still uncomfortably tense. If this was our first fight, I wasn’t enjoying it all that much. Part of me wanted to apologise because I understood why he’d reacted so negatively to the idea of me giving away a part of my soul and bonding to something other than himself. The other, more stubborn part of me was annoyed that he felt he could dictate my actions. I’d been living alone, running my own life and business for over a decade, and having anyone tell me what to do instantly put my back up.

After a couple of hours of silence, Fraser flicked on some music. A haunting female voice was singing, accompanied by the strains of a harp. She must have been singing in Gaelic because I couldn’t understand a damn word, but I could understand the emotion in the song.

As she sang, the tension slowly eased from Fraser’s shoulders. Impulsively I reached out to lace the fingers of my right hand with the fingers of his left. He let me and gently rested our joined hands on the gear stick. His eyes were still sombre when he looked at me, but he offered me a smile. Feeling less fraught, I settled back and let the beautiful voice lull me to sleep.

After our lunch stop, I volunteered to drive for a while. In the back, Maddie had also taken advantage of the long drive to have a snooze but her cheeks had some colour in them, and she still looked well. I didn’t know how to broach the topic of her potential addiction to magic; maybe I’d talk it through with Ernie first. He’d have a better idea of what was going on.

The drive had been painfully long and a couple of miles from home we got stuck in a series of red traffic lights due to roadworks. Each time my impatience to get back and see if I could bond with the Flame grew stronger and I dug my fingernails into the leather seat as I tried to channel my frustration into something other than my magic. The thought that I might lose control like I had at Hallowburn had me wrestling with the rising heat I was feeling – but as we reached yet another red light I gave a harsh huff.

The red light exploded instantly and glass shattered and rained down on the road. Fuck!

Fraser slid me a glance. ‘Was that you?’

I bit my lip. ‘I think so,’ I admitted uneasily. The heat had gone, leaving that same hollow feeling in its wake.

‘It’s okay,’ he reassured me. ‘Don’t feel bad. Your powers are new so you’re bound to have some teething problems.’

‘It’s badass, is what it is,’ Maddie chimed in.

‘It’s not really badass when it’s by accident,’ I disagreed. But I didn’t know what the hell I was doing and the last time I’d used my powers willy-nilly I’d put Kaz into a coma.

Ezra’s motorbike drew up beside us and Fraser wound down his window. Ezra flipped up the visor on his helmet so we could talk. ‘Any chance this was you, Trixie?’ He nodded at the traffic light.

‘Maybe,’ I admitted.

His eyes twinkled. ‘If I’d known you could take out red lights, I would’ve gone even faster the other day!’ As if I could have handled any faster. I glared at him.

‘I’m going to drop Nour back at her house,’ he continued, ‘then I need to see Dad about pack stuff. I suspect there’s a tonne of shit I need to shovel. I’ll message you later. Stay in touch and let me know how it goes. If you need anything, you know where I am.’

‘Thanks, Ez,’ I said. I leaned back to wave at Nour behind him. ‘See you soon, Nour!’ She waved but kept her face helmet in place so they were ready to take off.

‘Thanks for everything, Ezra,’ Fraser said. ‘I really appreciate it.’

Ezra extended his hand and fist-bumped Fraser through the window. I felt warm and fuzzy all over again: the men in my life were getting along, and that mattered a surprising amount to me.

Ezra snapped down his visor, revved the bike engine and rode off. We followed; we had finally reached the outskirts of Witchlight before Fraser spoke again. ‘Where do you and Maddie want dropping off? I’m happy to take you home, but there’s enough room at my place if you want to stay.’

‘Thanks,’ I replied, ‘but Yanni’s been looking after the cottage for long enough. We should get back.’

‘No problem.’ He hesitated. ‘I could pop over later with some food from the restaurant to save you cooking dinner?’

‘That would be amazing,’ Maddie said before I could reply. Fraser had already given up so much time for me, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t because the bond was forcing him to. In fact, I suspected that even if he hadn’t given me his pelt he would still have come on this journey with us.

‘Can you get me one of your delicious curries?’ Maddie asked.

‘Sure. Bea, is there anything you want?’ He paused and grinned. ‘Other than Oyster Bay?’

The way he’d assumed I probably needed alcohol wasn’t really a positive, but I was grateful all the same. ‘To be honest, I’m not all that hungry.’

‘Pizza,’ Maddie said decisively. ‘Bring her pizza.’

‘I probably wouldn’t say no to pizza.’

‘You’ve got it.’

When we arrived at my home, Fraser stopped the engine and climbed out to help us with our bags. In the six weeks we’d been gone, summer had well and truly arrived and it was still light. ‘Thank you,’ I said, sharing a moment alone with him while Maddie rifled through her bags for her house keys.

‘Eva!’ she demanded. ‘Where have you put my damned keys?’ Eva replied with a bark and pawed at a section of Maddie’s bag.

I met Fraser’s stormy blue eyes. ‘We still need to talk.’

‘We do,’ he agreed. ‘All I ask is that you give us a chance to do that before you do anything.’

‘Like bond my soul to a huge magical flame?’

A smile tugged at his lips. ‘Like that.’

I rocked back on my heels. ‘Okay, I’ll wait for you to come with food and maybe we can talk then.’

He nodded. ‘Sounds good.’ He stepped closer. ‘Do I get a goodbye kiss?’

We hadn’t kissed since our fight and I found that I really wanted to rectify that, but Maddie was still arguing with Eva only a few feet away so I gave him a demure brush of my lips. ‘Just a little one,’ I said as I moved away. ‘You can have a better one later.’

His eyes glittered. ‘I’ll hold you to that. I won’t be long.’

I cleared my throat. ‘And maybe we could pencil in that date we’ve been talking about?’

‘Agreed. Let’s put it in the diary for this week. We’ll do something, just the two of us.’

‘That would be nice,’ I admitted, as Maddie finally entered the house.

A moment later she screamed, a sound that pierced me to my very soul. Panic shot through me as I dived inside. Please don’t let it be Grandmother! ‘Maddie!’ I yelled as I raced in with Fraser behind me.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ Maddie yelled. ‘My eyes!’

Relief flooded me. She didn’t sound scared so much as sounded shocked and horrified.

I stormed into the living room, ready to demand what the hell was going on—

Then I saw them.

Yanni and Ernie.

Naked.

On the sofa.

Ah. That was the hell.

Chapter Ten

I squeezed my eyes shut whilst simultaneously turning around and covering my face with my hands to ensure I couldn’t possibly get another glimpse of what I’d just seen. Not that it wasn’t already burned into my retina and my memory. I had no issue with two consenting adults doing the rumba together, but this was my grandfather and the woman who was like a grandmother to me – and they were playing hide the snake. It really had taken me off guard because I hadn’t even seen a sizzle of attraction between them – though admittedly I hadn’t been looking for one.

‘On our sofa?’ Maddie yelled.

‘Do you think we could put some clothes on before we talk about this?’ Yanni said patiently, as she covered her generous bosom with one arm and her lady parts with her other. ‘If you insist on talking about this.’

‘Oh, you bet your exposed ass I insist,’ Maddie replied, folding her arms and glaring.

Fraser cleared his throat. ‘I should probably get going.’ He’d been lucky enough not to step inside after he’d realised what the commotion was about. ‘I’ll go now, but I’ll be back later with food. And just so you know, Eva’s sitting out here, too.’

Of course she was. I’d bet the whole entire cottage that my dog had known exactly what we were going to walk into but had she warned us? She had not. No pigs’ ears for her for a week.

‘I’m giving you two minutes to get dressed and then I want an explanation!’ Maddie said, foot tapping. ‘Two minutes!’

‘Really, Madelyn, I’m sixty-four years old!’ Yanni exclaimed. Uh-oh: Mads was in trouble. I’d only heard Yanni call her Madelyn a handful of times and each time it had been a big deal. I guessed Yanni didn’t like being dictated to; I could relate to that.

‘Then you should know better than to play hide the sausage on our sofa!’ Maddie spat, moving from shock and settling firmly into horrified. ‘I’m going into the kitchen to get myself a very strong drink. You’d both better be dressed when I get back!’

She grabbed me by the hand and dragged me into the kitchen. ‘That’s something I’ll never be able to unsee,’ she muttered, pulling two glasses off the shelf. She opened the fridge to find it devoid of wine and swore darkly; without her first choice of alcohol, she opened the cupboards and rummaged around in the back of them until she found a bottle of rum. She poured a hefty measure into one of the glasses, gulped it down, then refilled her glass and poured some into mine.

I grinned. ‘I’m actually okay.’

‘How can you be okay?’ Her voice was still shrill. ‘They were banging on our sofa. That’s a fabric sofa – it doesn’t wipe clean like leather. I mean, what’s wrong with a bed?’

‘I don’t think it’s the location that’s riled you so much,’ I pointed out.

‘It definitely is.’ She knocked back the other rum.

‘Maddie, love, I think that you and Yanni are so close that the idea of her being in a relationship with someone else scares you.’

She opened her mouth to make a retort but Yanni called out, ‘We’re dressed, but I need to be back at the station in half an hour, so this will have to be quick.’

‘I wonder if that’s what she said to Ernie, too,’ I snickered.

Maddie stared at me with horrified eyes. ‘Do not say another word. This is not funny.’

‘It’s a little bit funny,’ I disagreed, hoping to pull a smile from her.

‘No, it’s too soon for jokes. The scars are too fresh. Old people shouldn’t have sex.’

I snorted. ‘Now you’re being ageist. Firstly, age is just a number. Secondly, I plan to have lots of sex when I’m old. And thirdly, Yanni isn’t old – she’s a spring chicken.’

‘She’s a horny chicken,’ Maddie muttered darkly. ‘That’s what she is.’

I worked hard to suppress my laughter but a snort still slipped out.

When we walked back into the sitting room, Ernie was looking uncomfortable; he was studying the curtains as if they held the answer to the mystery of life – anything rather than look at Maddie. Yanni was sitting ramrod straight, chin up, expression confrontational. She was ready to lock horns.

If I’d walked in on them, I would have wanted to forget about it as quickly as possible; there’s a lot to be said for brushing things under the carpet. But Maddie seemed to want answers. ‘So let’s start at the beginning,’ she said coolly. ‘How long has this been going on?’

They both cleared their throats but it was Yanni who spoke. ‘Not that it’s any of your business,’ she said crisply, ‘but not long. I think this was only our seventh time.’

‘Eleventh,’ Ernie muttered.

Yanni sent him a flat look; he wasn’t helping. ‘Look, I really don’t understand what the big deal is,’ she continued. ‘You asked me to guard the house so people didn’t find out that the Flame had gone, which I did, but I needed help. I couldn’t rope in just anybody, I needed somebody who knew what had happened. I didn’t have that many options.’

‘I’m sorry? Are you saying that it’s our fault that you two were shagging on our sofa?’ Maddie shot back.

‘Don’t be facetious. I’m simply explaining how the situation arose.’

I snickered again. Yanni glared at me then continued her tirade at Maddie. ‘And can I remind you about the kitchen table incident with Jonah Crest? I was much calmer about that than you’re being about this, and we ate on that table afterwards.’

Maddie paled slightly.

I remembered the kitchen incident with Jonah Crest all too well because it had been the final straw to get me to move out. At the time, Maddie seemed to be making it abundantly clear that she was moving on with her life in a way I couldn’t – or wouldn’t. With a decade’s worth of distance, I knew now that the incident had nothing to do with me and everything to do with her teenage hormones.

‘We’re not talking about me,’ she retorted, flustered. ‘We’re talking about you.’

‘Fine.’ Yanni sighed. ‘One evening after I finished my shift, Ernie and I shared a bottle of wine, got talking, and ... one thing led to another.’

‘It’s not all about the sex, though,’ Ernie added. ‘I want you to know that my intentions towards your grandmother are honourable, Madelyn.’

‘Is that what you call it?’ Maddie said huffily. ‘Because, trust me, you don’t bend people over like that when you’re being honourable with them. And I don’t see a ring,’ she added stridently, then muttered, ‘except the one I wish I could un-see.’

I burst out laughing and she glared at me. ‘You’re not taking this seriously.’

‘I am! I am!’ I promised. ‘But I think you’re overreacting a little.’

‘I am not! If anything, I am under-reacting! I haven’t tossed a potion at anybody.’

‘Your restraint is admirable,’ Yanni said drily.

Ernie cleared his throat for the umpteenth time. ‘I know this might come as a shock to you, Maddie, but we have feelings for one another. This isn’t just sex, it’s companionship.’

That word struck a chord in me because I had felt a deep loneliness from both Yanni and Ernie. I lowered my shields a little to feel their emotions; though they were coloured by a good amount of embarrassment, there was happiness there, and excitement. And neither of them had a jot of loneliness left in them.

Maddie sighed. ‘Well, we’re home now so I’d be grateful if you could carry on with your – companionship – elsewhere.’

Yanni stood up. ‘I have to go to work.’

Ernie pushed himself up too and turned to me. ‘The Flame?’

‘It’s complicated,’ I admitted. ‘But there’s something we can try. I’ll fill you in later.’ Now wasn’t the time to discuss what had happened, not when Maddie was still so upset you could almost see steam coming out of her ears.

As they reached the door Eva slipped in, happy that both the confrontation and the risk of seeing any naked bodies were over. I glared at her. ‘You know what you did,’ I muttered. She grinned back at me, her doggy tongue lolling out. Yeah, she knew.

I followed Ernie and Yanni outside. Ernie offered me a weak wave before Yanni hustled him into the police car. As the door slammed shut, Maddie yelled after her grandmother, ‘And just so you know, you’re paying for the dry cleaning on that sofa! Premium dry cleaning!’

Chapter Eleven

‘I know you think I’m overreacting,’ Maddie said before I could speak, ‘but it was a shock seeing all that naked old-person’s ass. The whole thing will take some getting used to. That’s all.’

I nodded carefully. There was more to her reaction than she was telling me but I’d let it go – for now. ‘Let’s shower before Fraser comes back with food,’ I suggested. We’d left the hotel so quickly that morning that I still felt grimy.

‘Good idea.’ Maddie seemed relieved that I’d let her reaction go.

I let her shower first whilst I put some clothes into the washing machine and then went back into the lounge. I stared at the cold, empty fireplace and sighed. Adele had said an ember of the Eternal Flame would still be there, but if it was it was so microscopic that I couldn’t see it.

Eva padded in and rested her head on my lap. She looked up at me with beautiful doleful eyes and I let her presence settle me. I stroked her head. ‘I can’t see a Flame.’ I sighed softly. ‘Can you?’

Eva went to the fireplace, snuffled around it and turned back to me, her tail between her legs. She couldn’t see it either. My heart sank. If I couldn’t revive the Eternal Flame, what would I do about Maddie? If Nour’s suspicions were correct, she’d have to go back to Hallowburn.

‘Come on,’ I said to Eva. ‘Let’s feed you and then I can shower.’

I did both of those things in short order and I was dressing in some clean pyjamas when I heard a knock at the door. ‘I’ll get it!’ I hollered to Maddie as I jogged down the stairs to open the door to Fraser. ‘Hey,’ I greeted him.

He grinned broadly; that was when I realised my clean PJs weren’t necessarily the most appropriate. The top read: I’m great in bed. I can sleep for days.

‘Bold claim,’ he laughed. I blushed fuchsia. ‘Have things calmed down here?’ he asked.

‘A little. Ernie and Yanni are gone, but Maddie’s still rather volatile. She’s always been highly strung but her reaction was a little extreme.’

‘Just shock?’ he suggested.

‘Maybe.’

He followed me into the living room, set down the food and stared at the empty fireplace. ‘Nothing?’ he asked.

I sighed. ‘Not so much as a flicker.’

‘That doesn’t mean Adele is wrong.’

He knew me so well because that was exactly what I’d been thinking – that Adele might have been wrong. She’d been so convincing when we were with her, but now we were home with no ember in sight, my faith in her advice was faltering. ‘No, you’re right. But I hoped the ember would be obvious.’

‘If it had been obvious, we wouldn’t have had to go all the way to Scotland to find out about it,’ Fraser said drily.

‘True.’ I sat on the floor, opened the pizza box and snagged a slice. I felt a little better with every mouthful; whoever had said it was unhealthy to eat your feelings away?

After eyeing the sofa, Fraser choose to sit on the single armchair. ‘Let’s talk about giving the Flame a piece of your soul,’ he said after a few minutes’ silence.

I balked. ‘Really? We’re diving straight into that?’

‘We might as well while we have a few moments privacy.’

‘Okay – but Maddie will be down soon.’ I licked my greasy lips and started with the big guns. ‘Candice, the head of the Order of the Nightshades, said that my grandmother is still alive. If that is true, sooner or later I’m going to need the Eternal Flame to protect myself.’

Fraser rubbed his forehead. ‘You’ve been sitting on that information,’ he said tightly.

‘I couldn’t find the right time to bring it up,’ I offered lamely.

‘How about, “Fraser, my evil sorceress grandmother might still be out there plotting to kill or kidnap me”?’ he growled.

I shrugged. ‘I didn’t want to worry you.’

‘No, you were holding me at arm’s length,’ he snapped back.

I blew out a breath. Was he right? ‘Maybe,’ I conceded. ‘But I’ve spent a decade not letting anyone in and it will take time to work on that. I’m doing my best, so cut me some slack.’

Fraser leaned back into the chair. ‘I know, Beatrix. But that omission was an important one. How can I keep you safe if you won’t be honest with me?’

‘You don’t keep me safe. I keep me safe,’ I protested.

His eyes softened. ‘Of course you do, but I want to help. After all that happened with my mum, the need to keep you safe is as much a part of me as breathing.’ He pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Okay, let that go for now and let’s focus on the Flame.’ He was a born diplomat. ‘You say you need it to keep you safe from your grandmother – but you couldn’t work with the Flame before you left, could you?’

‘No,’ I conceded. ‘But that was before the bind on my magic started to unravel. What I can do already – albeit accidentally – scares me. That rock slide … the traffic light … all without conscious direction on my part. Imagine what I could do with training and with the Flame. I could protect us all from my grandmother, I’m sure of it.’ I locked eyes with him. ‘And if I need to give a part of my soul to the Flame as well as to you, then I will.’

He stilled. ‘You haven’t given me a part of your soul,’ he said finally. ‘I’ve given you mine but at the moment it’s a one-way street.’

‘Maybe it is now,’ I agreed. ‘But if we move forward, I’d want that to change. I don’t want any inequality between us.’

Maddie thundered down the stairs. ‘Food!’ she shouted happily. ‘Hey, Fraser.’

‘All right, Mads?’

‘Been better,’ she admitted. ‘Nana and Ernie bonking has me spinning a bit.’

‘Well, at least they’ve got an unlimited supply of handcuffs, if that’s what they’re into,’ Fraser joked. Maddie glared at him; it was still too soon. ‘Come on,’ he tried again. ‘You have to find it a bit sweet. I think it’s great that they’ve found each other. It’s something positive to come out of losing the Flame – and I’m guessing they’ve both been on their own for a long time.’

Maddie joined me on the floor: it seemed that none of us wanted the sofa tonight. We could have gone through to the dining room, but I wanted to keep an eye on the fireplace. The others must have realised that because they didn’t suggest moving.

‘Nana’s never had a relationship that I know of,’ Maddie admitted as she spooned curry into her mouth at dizzying speed.

‘I can see it from Ernie’s point of view,’ I mused. I still couldn’t quite see Ernie as my grandad, but I could see him as a lonely old witch who had once been seduced by an evil sorceress and had never trusted anyone with his heart again. ‘Yanni is a respected chief inspector. Ernie knows she has moral fibre and he can trust her – and her position comes with a lot of power, meaning that he doesn’t have to worry that she wants his. It makes a lot of sense.’

‘And from Yanni’s perspective, he’s an outsider and doesn’t belong to any of the sects,’ Fraser added. ‘Always being in a position of authority must be tough for her. Cross-sect relationships are always tricky because people immediately assume bias in favour of the partner’s sect. With Ernie being a loner, that pressure is off.’

Maddie gave a loud groan and hung her head. ‘Do you two have to be so logical about it? Fine, I’ll try to get on board with it – but I make no promises. If I see his hairy butt again, all bets are off.’ That was all we could ask for.

Given Maddie’s erratic emotions, it wasn’t time to bring up Nour’s theory about Maddie’s possible addiction to the Eternal Flame, but it was all I could think about. Conversation lagged a little as I struggled to find a safer topic.

Fraser turned at me. ‘What have you got planned for tomorrow?’

‘I need to spend a bit of time in the house to get my head straight. There’s no place like home.’

He checked his watch. ‘Speaking of home, I should go. I’ve got a load of council work to catch up on.’

‘Thank you so much for our food,’ Maddie said as he stood up. ‘We appreciate you.’

I walked with him to the front door. ‘Thanks for coming around, and for the food.’

‘Thanks for having me.’ He studied me. ‘I know we’ve been in each other’s pockets for weeks now, but the idea of being alone in my own home is suddenly less appealing.’ He leaned in and gave me a sweet kiss goodbye, then started to walk to the car. Suddenly he paused and turned back to me. ‘I understand why you want to bond with the Flame but I’m still worried about what it will take from you.’

‘Me too. But you know why I was upset in the cavern?’

‘You remembered your mum’s final words to you.’

‘No, I understood my mum’s final words to me. She said, “Trust what it takes.”’

He ran a hand through his untidy dark hair. ‘Well, shit,’ he said finally.

‘Yeah.’

He eyed me. ‘You’re going to do it.’

‘If I can. I have to trust what the Flame will take.’

He sighed. ‘I can’t argue with your mum’s last words to you.’

I grinned. ‘You can’t. Does that mean I win our argument?’

He looked amused. ‘In a relationship, I’m not sure anyone wins.’

‘But I totally won, didn’t I?’ I persisted.

His eyes sparkled. ‘Some time soon, Beatrix Stonehaven, you and I are both going to win.’ He closed the distance between us and kissed me with heat and fire. I melted into him and my mind went deliciously blank.

‘Sleep well, mo chridhe,’ he murmured huskily.

‘And you.’

I watched him drive away and wondered what the hell was wrong with me that I had let him go home.

Chapter Twelve

I closed the front door and joined my bestie in our living room. ‘Please explain to me why you are not bumping uglies with that man,’ Maddie demanded the second I walked back in. ‘He’s perfect for you.’

She’d been less than thrilled about Fraser when he had come into our lives, but obviously, the last six weeks had turned the tables. Spending so much time together could either make or break friendships; our time together had cemented the five of us into what I hoped would be a truly long-lasting group of friends.

I picked up another slice of pizza and took a bite before putting it down on my plate. ‘I like him a lot, and things are definitely heating up between us, but I’m still holding back. We can’t rush things – this is an eternal bond we have together. What if I start things with him and six months down the line decide that he’s not for me? That wouldn’t be fair on him. I have to be one hundred percent sure.’

‘But you’re already getting there,’ Maddie said astutely. ‘I can see it in your eyes. There’s no point lying to me – or yourself. You’ve never been like this with anyone, ever. I reckon you’re at least ninety-eight percent sure that you love him.’ As usual, she was a little too close to the truth. My skin felt hot and I busied my mouth with more pizza, so I didn’t have to lie to her.

From the floor, Eva barked loudly and pointed her nose at the pizza crusts perched on the edge of my plate. ‘Fine, go on,’ I said. ‘But only one, okay?’

She inspected my plate. After several sniffs, she pushed the crusts to the side and found the slice I’d taken a single bite from. Unsurprisingly, that was the one she chose. Cheeky minx.

The next morning, Maddie was up late like me. ‘Do you think people know?’ she said as she stood in the kitchen buttering a slice of toast.

I blinked. ‘Give me a clue? I haven’t had caffeine yet.’

‘About Yanni and Ernie!’ she said impatiently. ‘Do you think Dove knows?’

‘I don’t think anyone knows,’ I replied truthfully. ‘That’s why they were here.’

‘Acting like bloody teenagers.’ She shook her head in disbelief.

I’d hoped that after a good night’s sleep, Maddie would have considered that she might have overreacted, but clearly that wasn’t the case. ‘I really don’t understand why you’re so upset,’ I said, unsure how I could help her when I couldn’t understand her annoyance. Apart from when it came to the sofa usage, I definitely got the sofa thing, and Yanni and Ernie were totally paying for it to be cleaned.

Maddie pressed her lips together in a way that told me she wanted to say more but wasn’t sure if I’d want to hear it. ‘This is going to sound silly.’ She started wringing her hands.

‘Go on.’

She picked up the piece of toast then put it down again. ‘Do you know how hard I tried to help Nana meet a man? All through our teenage years, I was desperate for her to find someone.’

I remembered. The number of teachers Maddie had tried to set her grandmother up with had been embarrassing for both Yanni and the teachers. After that she’d extended her search to sports coaches and friends’ grandparents – anyone single, around Yanni’s age and with a pulse, although sometimes even that didn’t matter. If I remembered correctly, she’d actually sent Yanni on a blind date with a vampire who turned out to be an ex-con that Yanni had arrested more than once. Needless to say, it wasn’t a success.

‘She always insisted that she was absolutely fine, she didn’t need anybody, and eventually I bought it. I accepted it because I believed – I believe – that that’s how I will end up too. I needed to believe it was okay to be on your own forever.’ Blinking away tears, she looked up at the ceiling,

‘Oh, love.’ I gathered her into my arms. ‘If you want to find someone, you will. If you want to stay single, you’ll have a beautiful and fulfilled life without a partner. We don’t all need the same things. Plenty of people are happy alone – but you don’t have to be alone if you don’t want to be.’

She sniffled.

‘Mads, where has this come from?’ I demanded. ‘You’re the biggest believer in romance I know – think of all those terrible films you make me watch!’

‘There’s a difference between believing in something and thinking it’s going to happen for you,’ Maddie replied. ‘I believe people can go to the moon but I know that I’m not going to be an astronaut.’

‘Do you seriously think you’re not going to find love? You’re only twenty-eight.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Look at my family’s track record. My mum married such a loser that he didn't even stick around to look after me when she died. Nana – well, I don’t know what happened with my grandad because she won’t talk about it. My grandmother on my father’s side was on her seventh husband when she died. Seventh! And did you know that my uncle is getting divorced? It’s like our family is cursed when it comes to love.’

She cleared her throat. ‘You know that comment that Nana made about the whole kitchen-table thing with Jonah Crest? We only lasted six months and that’s still the longest relationship I’ve ever had. I’ve not been on a single date for the last eighteen months, but I’ve always thought it didn’t matter. Nana proves it’s possible to be perfectly happy on your own. But now ... I don’t know. It makes me feel like ... like maybe I can’t be alright on my own.’

No wonder she was feeling so overwhelmed. My heart ached for her. ‘Look,’ I said, ‘just because Yanni’s happy now she’s with Ernie, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t happy on her own. If anything, it’s amazing news for you.’

‘How so?’ Maddie wiped her eyes.

‘It shows that it doesn’t matter when– or if – love comes and finds you. Sure, Yanni was on her own but after all these years and all the heartbreak she’s been through, she didn’t close herself off to the idea of love. That’s incredible. Not that we’re using the L word yet, of course.’

She snorted, but I could see her resolve fading. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ she said slowly. ‘But after six weeks on the road with two completely loved-up couples, I felt like she was my last point of single solidarity.’

‘Fraser and I were definitely not loved-up,’ I reminded her. ‘We’re not even a couple.’

‘No, but you will be.’ She plastered a smile on her face that was very obviously forced and pointedly changed the subject. ‘So, what are you getting up to today? Are you seeing him?’

‘I might at some point,’ I admitted. Despite her woes, downplaying my own relationship wouldn’t help her. ‘I’m going to spend a bit of time in the house, just me and this damned invisible ember, see if I can make it accept that I’m worthy.’ I paused. ‘How about a girl’s night tonight?’

‘Oh my gosh, yes! That’s just what I need! How about we go to Shady’s?’

‘Sounds good. I’ll invite Nour.’ I pulled out my phone and shot off a quick text to see if Nour was free for a wine-based coven meeting at Shady’s later.

Maddie grinned. ‘Perfect. If you need me before then, I’ll be at the station – and to be honest, I’ll probably be grateful for any excuse to leave.’

I gave her a playful scowl. ‘No chance. You’re not using me as your reason to escape. Now go and have a great day working for your horny Nana.’

Maddie’s eyes flashed as she let out a groan.

‘Still too soon, huh?’ I asked.

‘Some days I really hate you.’

‘Yeah, but every day you love me, right?’

‘Yeah. Every day I love you.’ With that, Maddie left the house leaving me, Eva and the invisible ember.

Chapter Thirteen

‘So, how should we do this?’ I asked the empty fireplace, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible. ‘I guess I talk and you listen, right? I suppose that’s the best way to do it – the only way. Because you’re a Flame and not even big enough for me to see.’ I let out a groan. I was rambling to my fireplace. Thank goodness I was alone.

Well, almost alone. Eva was sitting beside me, but she never judged me no matter how crazy things got. She had, however, brought both her grey bunny and Maddie’s cuddly duck and set them down so they faced me. There was nothing like being judged by a couple of soft toys to realise just how insane my life had become.

‘Is there any point in doing this?’ I asked, directing the question at Eva rather than the fireplace. At least I knew she could hear me, which was more than I could say about the Flame or the ember or whatever the hell it was that was supposedly still in the hearth. I felt ridiculous, but if some cognizant part of the Eternal Flame could hear me, I needed to say my piece. I had to.

Taking a deep breath, I started again. ‘Sorry. This whole situation is a bit strange, but I’m trying to get used to it,’ I said, trying to start the one-sided conversation again. ‘I guess that if you’ve been in this house listening to everything that’s been going on, you already know a lot of what I’m going to say. But I’d like to explain things from my point of view, if that’s okay. And I’m sorry if I waffle but this is a little weird.’

I shook my head. This wasn’t the start I’d hoped for – but what exactly had I hoped for? Deep inside I knew the answer, even if I didn’t want to admit it to myself. I wanted a few quick words, the removal of a meagre, insignificant part of my soul, and the Flame back in the fireplace. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be that simple.

‘I know why you’re not here,’ I said, my voice quieter now. ‘You disappeared because the next Guardian of the Flame – me – hadn’t bonded with you. I appreciate you holding on for ten years until you winked out like you did, but you have to understand why I ran away. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to be your Guardian, it was because when I lost my parents I got a little lost myself. And I didn’t know about the soul bonding thing.’

I stared at the fireplace, hoping for some small sign that I was talking to more than granite, but there was nothing. I took a deep breath and pushed on. ‘But I know now. I’m sure that running away makes you think I’m unreliable and flighty, the worst possible person for this role. Maybe I was then, but I’m not now. I have my own business – people rely on me, trust me to solve their problems. That’s a big responsibility and I can shoulder more.’

The lump in my throat was growing bigger with every word. ‘Your power, your magic – it’s been at the centre of everything I’ve done since I was born. And if what I believe is true and there is a part of my mother’s soul inside you, then this next bit is for her…’

A tear trickled down my cheek but I didn’t bother to wipe it away; it wouldn’t be the last. ‘Mum, I am so sorry that I failed you. You have to know that letting you and Dad down was the one thing I tried my hardest not to do, and that was damned hard considering I felt like a failure every day of my life.

‘I didn’t know that you’d bound my powers – and I’m not blaming you for that,’ I added hurriedly. ‘I’m just trying to make you understand. With you gone, it was too hard for me to stay here. Maybe if I’d felt that I deserved to be the Guardian, I could have put my own needs aside. I’d have gone through every book in that bloody library to fulfil my responsibilities, but I didn’t. I ran away and I let you down. But please ... if you and the Flame give me this chance, I swear I will prove every single day that I am worthy of being the Guardian. And I swear I will never leave again. You have my solemn vow.’

I stared at the fireplace, wishing with every fibre of my being that flames would suddenly sprout up from the hearth and fill the room with light and warmth the way they had all those years ago.

But there was nothing. If the Flame had heard me, it obviously hadn’t liked what I had to say.

I needed to get out of the house. I stood up and wiped the tears from my cheek. ‘Come on, Eva.’ I tapped my leg. ‘Why don’t we go for a walk?’

I was surprised by the relief that came with walking into my picturesque village. When I’d returned to Witchlight Cove I’d been filled with trepidation, but this time it was different. I knew I was welcome – to some of the residents at least. In the short time that I’d been back, I’d found my place in a way I’d never done in London.

Two weeks earlier I’d phoned and given notice on my flat in London. Now I needed to return to the city, fill Rosie Rustbucket to the brim with my possessions and drive her here, then Witchlight Cove would be my permanent address. It felt like a big step, a step that would bring me closer to Fraser, too, though I’d deny that if I was pressed to admit it.

‘What do you say we pop in and see how Sonny is doing and get ourselves a coffee?’ I said to Eva. Kaz had framed Sonny for Lorenz’s murder, but news of his innocence had circulated pretty quickly and I hoped his business hadn’t been too adversely affected by the whole sordid ordeal. He had enough misery to contend with.

As I walked to the coffee shop, I enjoyed the clear skies that were allowing the sun’s full force to blaze down on me. It felt like an ice-cream day rather than a coffee one, but I needed a caffeine hit. And I really did want to check on Sonny.

I turned the corner onto the high street and saw a massive queue snaking down the street. My fears had been unfounded: Sonny’s café – Insomnia Coffee, to give it its proper name – was absolutely rammed. Several people smiled at me as I joined the queue and I beamed back.

Helga and Volga, the witches who lived next door to me, gave me matching waves. The blue rinses had gone and instead they were both tinged Disney-evil green. I had only realised after I came back to the village that the ‘spinster’ women were in fact lesbians who were madly in love. Watching the way they looked at each other, I marvelled at how self-involved my teen self must have been not to recognise what they felt for each other.

Eva whined. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll go to the beach after this,’ I assured her. ‘You can have a swim and cool down. I might even join you.’

Her tail beat wildly in approval. Thoughts of swimming instantly took me back to Fraser, naked, coming out of the sea. Would he ever skinny dip with me? He had a private jetty in front of his house and it would be a real waste not to do a bit of skinny dipping together… That lovely daydream kept my brain happy as I queued.

After what felt like an age, I was finally close to the counter. The wait was worth it, and not simply because I was about to get my coffee, because Sonny’s eyes lit up the moment he saw me.

‘Beatrix Stonehaven!’ he said, before his face fell in an incredibly dramatic fashion. ‘Don’t tell me you queued! You did, didn’t you? You – my saviour – queued?’

Before I could reply, he raced around the counter and suffocated me in a strong hug not unlike one of Yanni’s bonebreakers. He seemed to have forgotten how strong he was. ‘Air,’ I wheezed.

‘Sorry!’ He released me and looked at me intently. ‘You never have to queue here, you hear me? You want something, you push in. I don’t care who’s waiting for their drinks – it could be the damned Prime Minister for all I care – you push past them.’

I didn’t tell him that I didn’t want to risk the wrath of the other customers; instead I examined him. ‘You look … good,’ I said, choosing my final word carefully. He’d lost a little weight and there were bags under his eyes, but he was clean shaven and his clothes had been ironed. Given that he’s lost the love of his life only weeks earlier, he could have looked a lot worse.

Sonny shrugged and offered me a faint smile that looked odd on his usually sour face. ‘It’s fair to say I’ve moped for a few weeks.’

‘Grieving isn’t moping,’ I corrected sharply.

‘No, perhaps not. But either way, last week Shady staged an intervention. He said that if losing Lorenz had taught me anything, it’s that life is precious and I shouldn’t waste a second. He’s right – Lorenz would have been furious if he’d seen the way I was acting. So I’m trying this instead, this…’ he grimaced ‘…happy approach.’

I grinned. ‘For what it’s worth, it suits you.’

He beamed back. It was odd not to see his fangs on display. With most vampires they emerge when they are angry or hungry and, due to his grumpy disposition, Sonny’s had almost always been on display. Seeing him now with normal pearly whites was actually pretty unsettling.

‘So, what can I get you?’ he asked. ‘Anything you want, it’s on the house for the next year at least.’

‘You don’t have to do that,’ I said. ‘Shady sent me some money to say thanks for helping you.’ That was an understatement: Shady had sent me a very generous payment which meant that I’d been able to pay bills on my London flat and here in Witchlight Cove. It had also helped fund the Scottish trip, though Fraser had quietly insisted on paying for virtually everything despite my protests.

‘I know, but I want to. It’s my way of saying thank you. So what do you want?’

It was kind of nice to see something hadn’t changed. A normal barista would ask ‘What can I get you?’ with a perky smile, but with Sonny it was always ‘What do you want?’ a shade aggressively as if he were about to start a fight.

I didn’t have to be asked twice. ‘I’d love a cappuccino, please.’

‘Just a cappuccino? Nothing else? I’ve got some lemon drizzle cake, almond croissants, baked cheesecake?’

‘A slice of cheesecake?’ I have a weakness when it comes to a good baked cheesecake.

Five minutes later, Sonny handed me a tray full of drinks and a massive bag that I was pretty sure contained an entire cheesecake rather than just a slice. ‘I did you a few spares, too. Take them down to those friends of yours at the station. They got the right answer in the end,’ he said grudgingly. ‘They work hard.’

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘That’s very generous. But next time I come in, you have to let me pay.’

Sonny shook his head firmly. ‘A year, Stonehaven. And then we’ll see.’

No wonder there was a queue: poor Sonny was rushed off his feet without Kaz there to help him. I put the tray and my bag down and then did a quick whip around to collect the dirty crockery. After a brief hesitation I went into the kitchen, loaded them into the dishwasher and started it.

As I came out, Sonny looked at me gratefully. ‘You’re an angel. If I were straight, I’d knock boots with you.’

I grinned. ‘Thanks. Maybe you need to think about hiring a replacement for Kaz.’

He grimaced. ‘Yeah, maybe.’

After I’d grabbed my bag and tray, Eva and I walked to the police station. I’d really enjoyed working with Yanni and Dove and getting to know Witchlight Cove again; what I hadn’t enjoyed were the early mornings. It was good to have a reason to pop in and see them all – in my own time frame – and to see how Maddie was coping with Yanni.

I opened the door to the station and stopped. Yanni and Dove had left their desks and were standing looking exasperated at a small, elderly goblin who had placed herself in front of them with her hands on her hips. ‘I don’t understand why you won’t listen to me!’ she shouted. ‘You’re meant to help people, so why aren’t you helping me?’

Chapter Fourteen

‘Four times!’ she said, stamping her foot on the tiled floor. ‘Four times I’ve been in here and you’ve done nothing. I’m telling you, they’re not lost, they’ve been stolen.’

Though her back was to me, the large ears jutting out at ninety degrees made it clear what she was. The slight warble in her voice paired with an outfit straight out of a 1920s’ issue of Vogue, complete with a real fox-fur stole, told me we weren’t simply dealing with a goblin but an ancient one.

Eva looked at the dead animal and whined, her eyes wide. ‘Don’t worry, girl. It’s fake,’ I lied.

On the other side of the reception desk, Yanni drew in a long breath as she tried to hold in her frustration. ‘Gwen, I hear you, I do, but I don’t understand what you expect us to do. We’ve been down to the shop and it’s very difficult to see where this grimoire was taken from. And as for the mug—’

‘It’s been in my family for generations,’ Gwen interjected forcefully.

‘I understand,’ Yanni said. ‘But is there a chance you could have misplaced it? I leave mugs in different places all the time, don’t I?’ She looked at Dove for confirmation.

‘Oh, absolutely,’ Dove said, jumping in with the enthusiasm she knew Yanni wanted from her. ‘In the police car, in the kitchen. I sometimes leave them in my bathroom too, but that’s normally when I’ve had a hot chocolate at night to relax. I’m not sure if Yanni does that.’

An image of Yanni sharing a bath with a very naked Ernie assailed me; from the way Maddie shuddered on the other side of her desk, I suspected she’d had a similar vision.

‘And you sell grimoires,’ Yanni continued. ‘Your shop is called “Grimoires and Goblets”. Could you have sold the missing one by mistake?’

‘Why would I have sold it?’ Gwen stamped her foot again. ‘It was a blank book – a display grimoire. As for the mug, I’ve already told you I didn’t lose it. It’s been stolen!’ Her voice rose even higher.

‘I know that’s what you’ve told us,’ Yanni said patiently. ‘But from what you’ve said, these thieves have stolen an old mug and a blank grimoire. They don’t sound like the most valuable goods to steal.’

Gwen still had her back to me, but when I lowered my shields her outrage struck me like a fist. She was certain she hadn’t misplaced the items.

‘It’s not only that,’ she insisted. ‘There’ve been other things, little knick-knacks. I thought my memory was getting worse, but it’s been happening for months. Shoplifters. But they made a mistake in taking that mug! I know I wouldn’t misplace that!’

‘Why don’t you buy some security cameras?’ Maddie suggested. ‘Then you could see if somebody is pinching your stuff.’

‘That’s not going to help with my mug, is it?’ Gwen shook her head. ‘My mother would be so disappointed in me. She absolutely loved that mug – she went on and on about it being the perfect shape to drink out of.’

I felt a twinge of sympathy. It may have been just a mug to others but clearly it meant a lot to the goblin, especially as it had belonged to her mother. But I could also see it from Yanni’s point of view. Police resources were scarce and it wasn’t feasible for her to spend even more time on something she’d already investigated when she had real police work to get on with, not to mention a Big-Ben-sized pile of paperwork to get through.

What Gwen needed was someone who had the time to look into the disappearances for her, someone who could either find where she’d put the misplaced items or confirm that they’d been stolen and recover them… Put simply, Gwen needed me.

Which was why I opened my mouth.

‘I’ll help you,’ I said to the goblin who still had her back to me. ‘I’ll help you find your things.’

I could see why Yanni thought Gwen might have misplaced the items. It took her a few minutes to grasp that I was a PI rather than a police officer and even then she seemed to get so muddled that I began to doubt that the items had been stolen. Still, there was no harm in checking so I passed over the coffees and cheesecake then headed down to Grimoires and Goblets with the aged goblin leading the way.

‘The shop has been in my family for more than two hundred years,’ she told me, ‘and its name hasn’t changed, not once. Although people call it Gwendolen’s Grimoires and Goblets, and before that it was my dad’s – Gordon’s Grimoires and Goblets – and before that my grandmother Gloria’s… You get the idea.’

I did. It seemed Gwen’s family had strict rules about names: each one had to start with the letter G. It was the world’s most niche G-string. I shuddered; thinking about the aged goblin and G-strings in the same moment was a mistake.

‘How long have you been running the shop?’ I asked. Gwen’s hair was white and her skin had more creases than my old case files rammed into my bottom drawer; at a rough guess, she was in her eighties.

‘Coming up to forty years now,’ she replied. ‘I want to hold on for the big fifty, at least. The last person who did that was my great-great-grandad, Gothering. He holds the record – he was in charge for sixty-seven years. I doubt I’ll manage that but I’m going to try. My Glenda isn’t that interested in taking it over anytime soon.’

From the way Gwen was talking about the shop, it was clearly more than just bricks and mortar to her. It was her legacy – and I knew exactly what that felt like. ‘So the shop is really old?’ I asked, more to keep the conversation flowing than because I didn’t grasp that it clearly was.

‘Old?’ she huffed. ‘It is ancient. I’ll have you know that my family were the first goblins to settle in Witchlight Cove before all those fae types arrived, not to mention the nasty shifter types and those horrible vampires.’

O-kay then. Distrust of other sects wasn’t uncommon – unfortunately – but Gwen was displaying more than a hint of prejudice. I’d bear that in mind when I was looking for suspects; maybe she’d pissed off the wrong horrible vampire or nasty shifter type. Assuming, of course, that the items had actually been stolen.

Grimoires and Goblets was one of the few shops in Witchlight Cove that wasn’t on the high street; instead, it was situated opposite the beach. As well as Gwen’s place, there was a fish and chip shop, a couple of shops selling crystals, jewellery and expensive tourist tat, and another one selling everything you needed for a day at the beach: inflatables, buckets and spades, snorkels, crabbing lines. You name it, they had it.

As the sea came into view, Eva looked up at me and whined pointedly. Darn! I’d forgotten that I’d promised to take her to the beach if she queued nicely, which she’d done. ‘Sorry, girl.’ I reached down to stroke her. ‘I need to help this lady first, okay? But I’m sure it won’t take long, and I promise I’ll take you there straight afterwards.’

I waited to see the beat of her tail to show me she understood but instead she gave me a low rumble. It wasn’t often that Eva got pissed off, but I could totally understand where she was coming from. The day was already sweltering and I couldn’t imagine how much worse it would be if you were covered in fur. Not to mention that for the last six weeks she had been ferried back and forth and had spent far more time in a car than any dog would want to. She was desperate for a proper splash about, one with no time limit.

‘Soon,’ I promised again, feeling guilty.

My gaze landed on a small ice-cream cart and its owner, just as the seller looked up and caught my eye. It was a socially awkward moment but it also gave me the perfect solution to my problem. The lady sold dog ice cream.

I turned to my Eva. ‘How about this? I get you an ice cream that you eat outside the shop, then when I’m done we have a swim? For as long as you want. How does that sound?’

Eva’s tail twitched; she was trying to keep her glare in place, but she couldn’t maintain it. Glaring wasn’t in her nature – though running, romping and retrieving were. Even so, she wasn’t fully on board so I sweetened the pot. ‘I’ll let you have a double scoop.’

Her tail wagged hard and her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she anticipated the cool treat. We had a deal. ‘Come on then, let’s go get it.’ I turned to Gwen. ‘Do you want to head to the shop? I’ll meet you there after I’ve bought Eva her ice cream.’

I watched as Gwen’s prune-like face considered the question. ‘It’s alright,’ she said shortly. ‘I’ll wait with you.’ She eyed me. ‘You talk to your dog like it understands.’

I smiled. ‘She’s very bright.’

Gwen shook her head and it was evident that in a few minutes flat I’d gone down in her estimation from hero PI to crazy lady who talks to her dog. Clearly, she didn’t have pets. Everyone with animals speaks to them: that’s the whole point of having them. They stave off loneliness. If Yanni and Ernie hadn’t started making whoopee, I would totally have bought her a dog. I thought I still might.

Clearly Gwen was concerned that I’d change my mind and do a runner before I could help her find the missing items, so she stuck to me like a limpet.

The ice-cream seller was a woman in her early twenties dressed in a blue pinstripe apron. Her little cart had been painted in white-and-blue beach colours. Her sunny blonde hair was pulled back in an austere bun that didn’t reduce her friendly vibe, but did make sure she didn’t drop strands into the ice cream.

As was often the case when I met someone new in Witchlight Cove, I couldn’t help wondering where her magic lay. She was working close to the water – was she some sort of shifter or mermaid? But maybe it wasn’t the water that drew her here but selling ice cream? Maybe she was a fae or a witch who used ice magic to create it. It made me think of a twisted little elf boy who’d once used ice to capture other elves to keep him company. I wondered if he was okay now; I hoped so.

Whatever flavour of supernatural she was, she had a warm smile, and judging by the number of people waiting to be served her ice cream was good. That was all Eva cared about – me too, come to think of it.

‘Two scoops of dog ice cream, please,’ I said when I reached the front of the queue.

‘It comes in pots,’ the woman said politely.

‘Two pots, then. Thank you.’

‘And what about you, lovely? It’s such a hot day!’

I admired her easy upselling. ‘Sure, why not? Gwen?’

‘No. Thank you,’ the goblin mumbled, looking at me like I’d suggested root-canal treatment.

The woman beamed. ‘You’ll have to tell me what flavours you’d like,’ she said. ‘But you only have to tell me them once. I don’t forget!’ Her eyes twinkled.

‘What have you got?’ I asked.

‘All the classics – vanilla, chocolate, strawberry,—’

‘Vanilla and strawberry, please.’

She nodded at Eva. ‘Your dog is lovely. Is she your familiar?’

‘Oh, no,’ I said. There were definitely some similarities between my dog and a witch’s familiar, such as her intuition and above-average intelligence, but familiars were born into that role and were more often cats than dogs. Eva had been born in a puppy farm in London, albeit a puppy farm run by a demon. ‘ She’s my pet.’

Beside me, Eva gave a rumbling growl. ‘Okay, okay! My companion, then?’ I amended. ‘Is that better?’ She growled again. ‘Best friend?’ I tried.

Eva’s tail wagged.

‘Well, hopefully, she’ll like the ice cream and I’ll have another loyal customer. Are you on holiday here? I don’t remember seeing you before.’

‘Enough small talk already,’ Gwen grumped.

I sent the ice-cream vendor an apologetic smile. ‘I live here but I’ve been away for a while. I take it you’re here regularly?’ Gwen gave an audible huff.

‘Every day the sun shines.’ The young woman grinned. ‘And some days it doesn’t!’

Because Gwen was being so damned rude, I made a point of reading the woman’s name tag. ‘Then I’m certain we’ll see you again. Thanks so much, Fran!’

I paid the extortionate amount for the ice creams and we walked the short distance to Gwen’s store. She muttered under her breath the whole way but I ignored her litany of complaints and licked my ice cream, which was divine. Outside the door, I put the two tubs of doggy ice cream down on the pavement for Eva, who attacked them enthusiastically.

When I’d finished my cone, I followed Gwen into Grimoires and Goblets. As I stepped inside, and looked around, my heart sank.

Now I understood exactly what Yanni’s problem had been.

Chapter Fifteen

It appeared that Grimoires and Goblets didn’t just sell grimoires and goblets: it sold anything and everything. Judging by the amount of stock, not to mention the cobwebs that were clinging to the ceiling, the last time the place had had a proper clear out was when Gwen’s great-great-grandad Gothering had been in charge.

I stood frozen in the doorway; I wasn’t a neat freak by any measure but this place took the biscuit. There was stuff everywhere, and I worried that if I put my foot in the wrong place it would set off a Mousetrap series of consequences that culminated in me being trapped under an oversized basket.

There were glass cabinets and wooden bookshelves against the walls and every one was crammed. There were some dedicated areas – I could see a couple of wooden shelves at the back of the room that were filled with grimoires – but even those were spilling out onto the floor. In some places, more grimoires were stacked on the carpet, while in others large baskets were filled with wands, candles and crystals. Others were filled with goblets – hammered goblets, glass goblets, china goblets, novelty goblets, ceremonial goblets, crystal goblets, carved goblets. The place certainly deserved its name.

Despite the grime, I could have spent hours exploring. I’d already seen a box of magic wands that I was keen to dig into; I’d never been much of a wand user, and both my parents’ wands had been broken in the battle with my grandmother, but now that I was getting more magic I needed to think seriously about getting one.

‘Okay.’ I took a deep breath. Despite the overwhelming clutter, I needed to start somewhere. ‘Can you show me where the items were taken from? Why don’t we start with the grimoire?’ That was the biggest of the two objects that were missing, so it might be easier to identify any clues to the supposed theft.

‘It was there, in the window.’ Gwen pointed to a spot in the window display. There was a pile of half a dozen books on top of which was an empty book stand. That was something, at least: I knew where it had been, though how long ago it had been taken was anyone’s guess.

I squeezed through the shelves and baskets to the window to get a closer look. ‘How long ago did you say it went missing?’ I fished.

‘You mean, how long ago was it stolen?’ she said pointedly.

‘Right.’ It clearly mattered to Gwen that I believed it had been stolen. If I didn’t get her on my side, there was no way she’d believe me if it turned out that they’d simply been misplaced. ‘How long ago were they stolen?’

‘About a week, more or less,’ she said firmly, her tone still distinctly unfriendly. ‘I’m not very good with days of the week, but you can ask that police officer friend of yours. She knows. I noticed it was missing straight away and I went up to the station immediately to tell her about it. And I told Scarlett, too. She was there that day.’ She rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, ‘Not that she’ll be any help to you – or anyone.’

I ignored her bitchy aside. ‘Scarlett?’

‘My assistant. She’s the laziest fae you’ve ever set your eyes on. If I hadn’t been friends with her grandmother…’

As Gwen continued her character assassination, I inspected the area. There was a thin sheen of dust on everything in the window – except the book stand. Not only that, there was a clean patch that extended beyond the limits of the stand, a thick rectangle of dustless space that could have been attributed to a large book.

‘Can you remind me what was in the grimoire?’ I asked absently, my head still in the window. ‘What sort of magic and spells did it contain?’

‘Magic?’ she said. ‘It didn’t have any magic, it was a blank! A display model. It had a beautiful cover – black with gold foiling – and there were some lovely gems on the spine. I always thought it was a strange place to decorate a book – why put the gems on the spine and not the cover? But I bet someone saw them and thought they were valuable.’ She snorted. ‘More fool them because they were all paste. I don’t put the good stuff in the window. Even so, that grimoire was one of my favourites – I’ve loved it since I was a kid.’

I remembered Gwen saying that the grimoire was blank; it was another reason why Yanni didn’t think it likely that there’d been an actual theft. With all the real grimoires in the shop, why would someone steal a fake one? Unless, as Gwen said, they thought the gems were real, but if that was the case why would they also steal a worthless coffee mug rather than one of the more valuable goblets?

I squeezed out of the display area and glanced through the glass of the front door. Eva had finished her first tub of ice cream and was starting on the second, half of which had already melted. Not that it would bother her; she’d certainly licked worse. Her own asshole came to mind.

‘Do you have photographs of the stolen objects?’ I asked.

‘I’m not sure,’ Gwen replied. ‘I expect I could dig one out from somewhere but I don’t usually photograph the inventory.’

The bell above the door jingled as someone stepped into the cramped shop. She was a fae, although I couldn’t tell at a glance what type she was. Her ears were large, but not as big as Gwen’s, her face was wrinkle-free and she was dressed for the weather in a strappy top and a skirt.

Rather than Gwen greeting her the way I expected her to do with a customer, the old goblin tapped her watch pointedly. ‘You’re two minutes late,’ she groused. ‘You know that means you’ll have to stay an extra five minutes to make up for it.’

The fae pressed her lips tightly together. It was obvious she’d have liked to snipe back but instead she turned and looked at me. ‘Hello,’ she said politely, blanking Gwen. ‘Are you looking for anything in particular?’

‘You work here?’ I said, stating the obvious as a conversation starter.

‘Yes. I’m Scarlett.’

I was guessing she’d been named for her looks; like me she had red hair, which today she’d paired with lipstick of exactly the same shade. I rarely managed such coordination; I rarely cared to.

‘Hi, Scarlett.’ I stretched out my hand to greet her. ‘I’m Beatrix Stonehaven. I’m helping Gwen get to the bottom of her miss— stolen items.’

A flicker of annoyance crossed Scarlett’s face. It was only small but it was obvious, and I wondered if the fleeting expression was because she was the thief or because, like Yanni, she thought Gwen was being ridiculous.

Knowing that I needed to get Scarlett alone to talk to her properly, I turned to Gwen. ‘Do you think you could get me a glass of water?’ I asked. ‘It’s hard to think in this heat and I’d hate to miss any clues.’

With a grudging twist of her lips that might have passed as a smile, she nodded. ‘Fine.’ She turned to leave, only to turn back and point her finger at Scarlett. ‘Why don’t you busy yourself with some dusting?’ she said. ‘Not that you’re any good at it. And don’t get in the detective’s way. She’s got a job to do. The last thing she needs is you slowing her down.’

With that, she disappeared, and I knew that if this were truly a theft I already had my first suspect. Disgruntled employees were the most common culprit behind corporate thefts, and judging by the way Gwen was talking to Scarlett, the fae had plenty of reasons to be disgruntled.

The game was afoot.

Chapter Sixteen

I waited until I was sure Gwen was out of earshot before I lowered my voice and began. ‘I’m not a detective, but I’m helping Gwendolen by looking into what might have happened with the missing items. I’m a private investigator.’

Scarlett looked at me blankly. ‘Okay.’

‘She doesn’t sound like the easiest person to work for,’ I said, still speaking quietly in case Gwen came back faster than I’d anticipated.

Rather than replying, Scarlett’s lips tightened and her cheeks drew inwards as if she were chewing the insides of them nervously. When she finally spoke, her words were carefully measured. ‘I’m very lucky to have this job. Gwen didn’t have to take me on but, like she said, it was a favour to my grandmother. I’m grateful to her for that.’

She didn’t say ‘if nothing else’, but I heard it all the same. I wondered why she felt lucky to have the job. Gwen evidently treated her like shit, so what in Scarlett’s past made her think she deserved that? She struck me as quite a diplomatic individual, though there was no reason why she couldn’t be skilled in both diplomacy and pick-pocketry.

‘What do you think about the mug and the grimoire? Do you think they were stolen?’ I asked. I lowered my mental shields a little to see what I could glean from her. I got annoyance and exasperation, but both of those could easily be explained away by being forced to answer my questions and by Gwen’s irascible nature.

‘I don’t think so,’ she said eventually. ‘Gwen loved that mug – she always had it with her. She clung to it like a child with a safety blanket and it was the only one she would drink out of. If it was stolen, the thief must have clawed it out of her hands, which doesn’t seem likely. And the grimoire was always on display in the window and now it’s not. I remember the day she realised it wasn’t there because she caused an absolute stink, so she certainly thinks it was taken.’

She lowered her voice. ‘But she’s forgetting things more and more. I came in the other day for my afternoon shift and the shop was closed. When I went round to her house to find out what had happened, she got angry and said that we didn’t open on Sundays. But it was a Friday, which is normally one of the busiest days of the week, especially when the weather’s like this and everyone is running to the beach on their lunch breaks.’

‘Can you remember exactly when the items disappeared?’ I asked.

‘I know she went to the police last Tuesday about the grimoire, but she was in a tizzy for a couple of days before that. It could’ve been about not being able to find the mug ... or not being able to find other things. I don’t know. Gwen often has moods and they’re not always to do with the shop. But I struggle to believe she’s simply misplaced the mug considering how obsessed she is with it. I could see it being at home on her bedside table, though.’

It was strange to imagine somebody having such an attachment to a drinking vessel. Me? I would drink my Oyster Bay out of whatever was available – pint glasses, mugs, a plastic beach bucket… My teenage years involved more than one drink out of a cauldron – alcohol obviously, not potions. Mostly.

I heard a noise that signalled Gwen’s imminent return. ‘Can you think of anybody who might want to steal these things? Do you get regular shoplifters? People hanging about?’

Scarlett shrugged. ‘There are always teenagers hanging about at the beach, but—’

Before she could say any more, Gwen trotted back in carrying a plate with a biscuit on it. She thrust it at me. ‘As if you need a snack on the job,’ she bitched.

My stomach sank. She’d clearly got muddled: I’d asked for water, not for cookies.

‘So, I suppose she’s been saying I’m losing my mind and that this is all some silly misunderstanding,’ Gwen snapped, glaring at Scarlett. ‘What has she told you? That I lose things all the time? That it’s like the situation with the three missing wands? Well, it’s not. And just so you know, only two of those wands reappeared. I still believe the other was stolen.’

A mug and a grimoire were one thing; was I going to have to start looking into wands now as well? ‘No, she’s not been saying anything like that,’ I said, feeling like Scarlett needed someone on her side since Gwen obviously wasn’t. ‘She was saying how much the mug meant to you.’

Gwen looked perturbed. ‘Oh, well ... yes. Yes, it did. It’s the perfect shape to drink out of.’

‘Uh-huh. I wondered if you might be able to get those images for me.’ I was keen to move the conversation away from Scarlett when it was clear Gwen had nothing positive to say about her. ‘Photos of the items?’

Gwen’s face brightened. ‘Yes, yes, hold on one second!’ She moved to the back of the shop and went behind the till where the wall was chock-full of framed photographs. They were all taken outside the shop; I assumed they were family images or pictures of employees.

She took one of the lower ones off the wall and came back. ‘Here,’ she said, handing me a mother-of-pearl picture frame, which thankfully gave me an excuse to set down the plate with the unwanted biscuit. ‘There, that’s it.’ She pointed to the middle of the image.

It took me a moment to see where. There was an old goblin, similar in age to Gwen and with similar features – her mother, perhaps? – standing and holding a mug. From what I could see, it was fairly nondescript but I could make out some sort of pattern on it. Hopefully a magnifying glass would make it clearer. ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘Can I take this?’

Gwen’s expression returned to a scowl, which I was now starting to think was her default response to any question.

‘I’ll bring it back to you,’ I added as her fingers held firmly onto the frame.

Her grip slackened and she released it. ‘I suppose. If it will help your investigation.’

‘Thank you. I want to get the image of the mug enlarged then I’ll bring the original straight back to you.’

‘Fine, but don’t you go damaging it.’ She wagged a finger at me.

Poor Scarlett. No wonder she had cultivated so much diplomacy. In her shoes, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold my tongue: ‘the customer is always right’ only takes you so far. But maybe Gwen wasn’t quite so mean when she didn’t have an audience. It’s impossible to know how people behave in different circumstances; people only show the side of themselves that they want you to see. I was as guilty of that as anyone.

‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘What about the grimoire? Do you have any photos of that?’

Gwen bit her lip; it was Scarlett who answered. ‘Yes, on the website.’

‘The website?’ Gwen said, frowning. ‘What website? We don’t have a website.’

Scarlett’s eyes rolled slightly, but once again she managed to keep the gesture discreet. ‘Remember we talked about doing a website? I was taking photos and uploading them.’

She looked at me. ‘It’s been a long job. I’ve got things going on at home, so it's taking longer than I expected, and with all this inventory you can imagine it’s a nightmare to catalogue. But I’ve already put the picture of the front of the shop online. The grimoire was definitely there when it was taken.’

She frowned. ‘I must be doing something with the hosting because the page is on the fritz. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not, like it’s being constantly unpublished.’ She shook her head to herself. ‘I’m not very techy,’ she confessed.

‘Thank you. I’ll check it out – if it’s there!’ I joked. ‘What’s the website address?’

Scarlett was about to respond when her phone started ringing. She pulled it from her pocket, looked at the screen and frowned. A flurry of anxiety came from her, taking me by surprise. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said tightly. ‘I have to take this.’ She didn’t wait for permission before she turned and headed to the far corner of the shop.

It was Gwen’s turn to roll her eyes, albeit far less subtly than her employee had done. ‘It’s all the time. Honestly, she’s an absolute nightmare,’ she muttered under her breath, almost as if she’d forgotten I was there.

‘Well,’ I said, wondering if she would acknowledge me again. ‘I’ve got plenty to start looking at. I’ll be in touch as soon as I’ve found out anything.’

‘You know where to find us. Give me your number in case I need to contact you.’

When I handed her my business card, she snatched it and placed it on one of the desks. Rather uncharitably I thought the chances of her finding it later were slim – which was just as well. She struck me as the type of client that would pester me continually for updates.

We discussed my rates and she agreed to pay me a retainer upfront. She took some cash from the till – and I officially had myself a new case.

Chapter Seventeen

After my trip to Gwen’s shop, I took Eva to the beach as I’d promised. Her delight as she frolicked in the cool water made me beam. She ran at the waves then ran away from them as they got closer. After she’d played ‘chase the sea’ for a while she laid down in the shallow water looking delighted with life.

Eva had been splashing about for more than thirty minutes when I felt his presence behind me. I didn’t know if it was the bond between us, my ever-growing psychic powers, or simply the way his presence seemed to electrify the air, but before he even cleared his throat or gave me a chance to turn around I knew Fraser was there.

‘Hey,’ he greeted me as he came closer. He sat down next to me, evidently not caring that he was dressed in a suit which was as far from beach attire as it was possible to be.

I watched as he removed his shoes and socks and buried his feet in the sand. ‘What happened to your shoes in Hallowburn?’ I asked abruptly. ‘When you jumped off the cliff?’

His eyes twinkled. ‘I imagine they’re making a nice home for a family of mice right about now. I always have spare clothes in my cars – including shoes.’

I looked at his bare feet. I’d never found feet attractive before but I was starting to revise my opinion. ‘You want to paddle?’ I asked, gesturing to the sea.

‘Will you join me if I do?’

How could I resist? I slipped off my trainers and socks, we both rolled our trousers up to our knees, then walked to the breaking waves where Eva lay basking in the sun and the sea.

Fraser should have looked ridiculous, in his black suit with the trouser legs rolled up, but he didn’t. He looked delicious. ‘I was about to ring you,’ he said with a smile, ‘but this is even better. I’m glad I didn’t resist the Mother’s call today.’

I smiled. ‘Me too.

‘How’s your day been?’

‘It’s going okay,’ I said. ‘I’ve got a new case, helping the old goblin up at Grimoires and Goblets.’

‘Sounds interesting,’ he said. ‘Not a murder this time, I take it?’ He was only half-joking.

‘No, just some stolen items – possible stolen items. It’s also possible the owner misplaced them. How’s your day been?’ I asked.

‘Mostly back-to-back meetings. This is the first time I’ve had five minutes to myself.’

‘And I’ve stolen it!’

‘I’m more than happy for you to interrupt any “me time”. Always.’

Something in his tone made me feel hot under the collar. ‘Good to know,’ I said, a tad breathlessly. With an effort, I turned my brain away from what Fraser Banks might do alone and back to serious matters. I took a deep breath. ‘So, I tried to talk to the Flame, but there was nothing.’

‘I’m sorry, Beatrix.’ He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and squeezed me before releasing me.

‘I’ll keep trying.’ I shrugged. ‘I can’t give up.’

Never give up, Bumble Bea. My mum’s words rang in my head and my heart ached at the thought of her. I could remember her words but not the timbre of her voice. Try as I might, I couldn’t hear her anymore and that just about killed me.

Eva gave a great bark: she was playing again, trying her hardest to catch the foam on a wave as it broke. No matter how fast she swam, it raced away from her and disappeared by the time she reached the shore. She did it several more times and I laughed as she barked in frustration, telling off the sea for being too fast as if she could command the waves.

As I watched, Fraser leaned into the water and plunged his fingers under the surface. This time the foam stayed unnaturally still, long enough for Eva to catch it. She barked repeatedly at her triumph and Fraser pulled his fingers out of the water. ‘Did you help her win?’ I asked, incredulously.

He smiled. ‘Losing all the time is demotivating. Look at her now.’ He was right. Eva was back to living her best canine life, frolicking in the foam. ‘I wondered if we could go on that date tonight?’ he went on. ‘I have some council business but I can wrap it up by eight at the latest if you’re free.’

I wanted to say yes, I really did, but I couldn’t. ‘I’m sorry, but Maddie, Nour and I are having a girls’ night. I’m finally going to Shady’s.’

‘You know that you just spent six weeks with them?’ Fraser sounded bemused.

‘I spent six weeks with you, too,’ I reminded him, jostling him lightly with my hip. ‘And like with you, we didn’t actually get any private time. Nour hasn’t had a chance to fill us in on what’s happening with her and Ezra.’

Fraser grinned. ‘We’ve already seen what’s going on with her and Ezra.’

‘True, but there wasn’t any time for proper women’s talk,’ I said. ‘Maddie needs it after the shock of seeing Yanni – you know, the other night. So we’re going to Shady’s and, depending on how late we stay there, we might all go back to ours, do a face mask and watch a romance film.’

‘Romance, hey?’ Fraser grinned. ‘You know, I’m pretty sure I could show you a few of those tricks you watch in the movies.’ He moved closer towards me and I felt the buzzing in the air growing stronger and stronger. My body was being drawn to his by more than magic, and every cell in my body was screaming to be connected to him.

‘Show me what you’ve got,’ I challenged him.

He didn’t hesitate. One hand slid into my hair, the other gripped my waist and then his mouth was on mine: hot, demanding, devastating. His kiss was all swagger and heat, like he had something to prove and every intention of proving it. His tongue swept against mine, slow at first, teasing, before deepening with a hunger that made my knees buckle. Sparks danced across my skin where he touched me; magic and desire tangled into something that was far too good to resist.

Somewhere in the back of my mind a thought whispered through the haze – this was the man who’d given up his one shot at love to save me … and I was starting to think he hadn’t made the wrong choice after all.

Chapter Eighteen

‘It was out of this world good,’ I confessed. I hadn’t planned on telling the girls about things heating up between me and Fraser, especially after what Maddie had said to me the previous night: I didn’t want to make her feel any more of a third wheel. But the minute I’d walked into Shady’s, my wide grin had given me away.

‘Oh my God,’ Maddie screeched as I walked in. ‘You did it, didn’t you? You finally shagged Fraser Banks!’

I slid into the dark leather booth. ‘No! No shagging! Just a kiss – a few kisses.’ In the sea, in the sun, in the most amazing moment I’d remember for the rest of my life.

‘Was it romantic?’ Nour asked, resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

‘Absurdly,’ I admitted. ‘We were at the beach, Eva was swimming, and we went paddling in the sea together. He was so sweet with Eva – I totally get why there are single-dad romance novels – and that just melts me. He asked me out on a date.’

‘When?’ Maddie demanded, eyes wide. No doubt she was already plotting my date-night outfit. She had a glass of white wine ready for me, and she slid it across the wooden table to me.

I took a grateful sip of the crisp white wine before replying. ‘Well, now actually – but of course I turned him down. Witches before itches.’

Nour burst into laughter. ‘That’s not a phrase!’

‘Well, it should be because he’s definitely an itch I want to scratch.’

‘If you’re scratching it, you probably need to check for sexual diseases,’ Maddie said sagely, and we all burst into peals of laughter. This time together was so what we all needed.

She went on, ‘I’m pleased for the guy because it’s been torture watching him mope for the last few weeks. It’s clear as day that he’s dying to rip your clothes off.’ Her eyes widened. ‘Did he? Did you? Was there mutual ripping? Did it go that far?’

‘We were on the beach in the middle of the day, Maddie! No, it did not go that far,’ I said. Although that didn’t mean I hadn’t wanted it to. ‘And then, when she came out of the water Eva shook herself dry all over his suit.’ I snorted with laughter.

‘She was telling him not to mess with you,’ Nour said, and even in the dim light I could see that she approved of Eva’s actions.

‘I think you’re right. But apart from that, they get on like a house on fire. He’s even looking after her tonight. Anyway, enough about me. Nour, spill the goss about you and Ezra!’

Maddie leaned forward. ‘Tell us you’re back together.’

A small private smile turned up the corners of Nour’s lips. ‘It’s not official yet, but yes, we are.’

Maddie threw her arms around her. ‘I knew it!’

But at that moment Nour’s phone buzzed and as she opened the message, she frowned. I made sure my barriers were up so that I couldn’t inadvertently invade her privacy, then I did what any normal friend would do and asked, ‘Is everything alright?’

Nour’s eyes remained fixed on her phone. ‘Honestly? I’m not sure. My sister has sent me this video.’ She turned the phone around to face us and pressed play.

There were similarities between Nour and the woman in the video – dark skin, dark hair, stunning – but Nour’s sister was far taller than her and had more angular features. Although it was hard to see her face clearly, given that she was engulfed by a sphere of fire. She was grinning, so it didn’t seem she was in any immediate danger.

‘Your sister’s a fire witch?’ Maddie asked in surprise.

‘A powerful one, by the look of things,’ I added.

‘That’s the thing,’ Nour said, frown deepening. ‘I mean, she’s got a little fire witch in her, but she’s always been the weakest in our family. She can make flames – we never need a lighter when she’s around. That’s how she got the nickname Zippo. So she’s a fire witch, but she’s never been capable of high-level magic like this. And she’s spent the last couple of years focusing on potions and developing that strand of her magic. I thought she’d pretty much stopped working with her fire.’

‘Maybe she’s been studying, learning new techniques,’ Maddie suggested. ‘Like Ernie is meant to be showing me.’

‘Meant to be showing you?’ I homed in on her word choice.

‘I chickened out of going today.’ Maddie grimaced. ‘I still can’t quite get the image of him – you know…’

‘You mean because you’d seen him buck-naked and bouncing up and down on your nana?’ Nour said, grinning wickedly.

‘Oh God, don’t.’ Maddie covered her face.

‘All joking aside, Mads, when are you going back?’ I asked. ‘You need Ernie’s help. You’ve got that ink from Hallowburn Hollow, but it won’t last forever.’

‘Soon – as soon as I can face him again. It’s bad enough seeing Nana at work.’ Her expression was sombre. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going to resort to other measures.’

As close as we were growing to Nour, I was fairly sure that Maddie hadn’t told her about the dark magic and I could see she didn’t want to continue this conversation. I changed the subject. ‘Hey,’ I said in a low voice. ‘You remember that vampire from the Nightshades?’

‘The sexy one? Lestat?’ Maddie asked.

Nour laughed, ‘A vampire called Lestat?’

‘They pick cliché names on purpose,’ I explained. ‘Apparently. Anyway, Lestat is at a booth over there, and I think he’s got a thing for brunettes with pink tips because he can’t drag his eyes away from you.’

‘Really?’ Maddie brightened.

‘Erm…’ Nour started. ‘Just so I’m clear, are we talking about the deadly Nightshades, a group of murderous assassins? Those Nightshades?’

‘Maybe he’s retired,’ Maddie said optimistically. ‘And even if he hasn’t, I could really do with getting laid.’

‘Maddie!’ Nour blushed.

‘If you think about it, I’m probably safer with him than with any other man. He only gets his diplomatic status if he kills sanctioned hits, so he won’t harm a hair on my head.’ She was looking over at him with increased interest.

‘Unless he’s been hired to kill you!’ Nour hissed.

Maddie laughed. ‘No one who hates me has the money for that.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘No one hates you, full stop. You’re adorable and lovely and creative and kind. You’re even tattooing your clients for free.’

‘Exactly – so that means I’m totally safe with Mr Tall, Dark and Sexy over there!’ Maddie looked over her glass at the brooding vampire who was lingering alone in the large black leather booth. She gave him a sultry smile, raised her glass and saluted him.

In one smooth movement, he stood up and a beat later he was by our sides. Nour yelped.

‘Nice trick,’ I greeted him.

‘Miss Stonehaven,’ he nodded to me. ‘Do introduce me to your friends.’ It was less of a request than I’d have liked, but because he was a murderous assassin, former or otherwise, I didn’t argue – though I lowered my shields to scan his emotions.

Absolutely nothing: the man was either dead inside or he had some sort of mental shield. Given what I’d experienced when I’d tried to get into Candice’s head, I was betting on the latter. Damn.

Belatedly, I made the introductions. ‘These are my friends, Nour and Maddie.’

Lestat reached out and took Maddie’s hand, bowed low and kissed the back of it as if he were the hero in an historical romance. If a regular guy had done that it would have come across as creepy or weird, but with Lestat it seemed right. Possibly he’d been raised in a different era when people had actually done that shit.

‘Enchanté,’ he murmured to Maddie.

‘Are you French?’ she asked, eyes wide.

‘No, but I spent a long time there. And the French do some things … better.’

‘My drink’s nearly empty,’ Nour squeaked. ‘I’d better go to the bar. Bea?’

‘Right, yes. Me too. I’ll come with you.’

We abandoned our virtually full glasses and headed to the bar. By the time we’d been served and returned to the booth, Maddie and Lestat were wrapped around each other like a pretzel; it was hard to tell where one began and the other ended. Luckily the music had picked up volume, and the wooden dance floor was tantalisingly empty.

‘Dance floor?’ Nour suggested.

‘Abso-freaking-lutely,’ I replied.

An hour later a flushed, happy-looking Maddie joined us on the dance floor. She had a hickey and a telephone number, and she was delighted by both. Cocktail hour had never been hit so hard – especially when we learned that Shady was only charging me half-price for saving his brother.

‘We really should be the White Wine Coven,’ Maddie slurred as we stumbled back towards the cottage. ‘You know, like the White Witch Coven, but the White Wine Coven because we’re good witches and we also drink wine. White wine. Bea hates red.’

Nour and I cheered and giggled as if she’d said the most hysterical thing ever. We may have been a touch inebriated. ‘That’s amazing,’ I pumped my fist. ‘Yes, the White Wine Coven!’

‘But I like red wine!’ Nour whined. ‘Does that mean I can’t be in it?’

‘I don’t know,’ Maddie said, mock-serious. ‘We should probably discuss it over some more alcohol.’

Like the others, I was struggling to walk in a straight line, partly because Maddie had draped her arm over my shoulders and kept pulling me to the side. For a small woman, she had a crazy amount of strength; how one of us hadn’t already twisted an ankle was beyond me.

When we arrived at the cottage, I pulled out my keys determined to get us into the house safe and sound, but I stopped before I could unlock the door. There was a large brown paper bag sitting on the doorstep.

‘Should we touch it?’ Nour asked. ‘It could be cursed by the mortal enemies of the White Wine Coven!’ She giggled; oh man, she really was shitfaced. Ezra was going to yell at me for not making sure his girlfriend had been drinking water as well as wine. Hydration as you drink is always wise, but wisdom had not been in evidence at Shady’s. There’d been plenty of fun, though, and that was the main thing.

I stared at the brown paper bag. It didn’t look evil but I wasn’t ruling out the idea that someone might curse something and dump it on my doorstep. Given that the White Wine Coven had only been in existence for less than three minutes, though, surely it wasn’t long enough for us to have secured any mortal enemies? Or any enemies at all, for that matter.

Unlike Nour and I, who were looking at the bag suspiciously, Maddie showed no such restraint. ‘It could be from Lestat!’ she said, picking it up and looking inside. She gave a loud gasp. ‘Oh my God, this is amazing.’

‘What is it?’ Nour asked.

‘Everything,’ Maddie said dreamily, clutching the bag to her chest.

Moderately confident that whatever it contained wasn’t cursed, I opened the door and we fell inside. The moment we set foot in the living room, Maddie emptied the contents of the bag onto the coffee table. There were Alka-Seltzers, electrolyte sachets, cans of Diet Coke, chocolate, a carton of eggs, a loaf of bread, three cooling eye masks and a note: To help with your hangovers. F x

Nour elbowed me. ‘He’s like the perfect man. Other than Ezra, of course!’ she added hastily.

‘Yeah, he’s not bad.’ I smiled.

Maddie was standing in the middle of the living room staring at the fireplace, a look of total shock on her face. ‘Maddie?’ I said, suddenly feeling a lot more sober than I had a moment ago. ‘What is it?’

My skin prickled in the silence and for a split second I feared the worst, that she’d slipped away from us the way she had done when she’d been using black magic. I went to grab hold of her shoulders and shake her as hard as I could, but she spoke before I could touch her.

‘I think... I think I just saw a flame,’ she whispered. Her voice cracked in her throat. ‘I think I just saw the Eternal Flame.’

Chapter Nineteen

The next morning, while Maddie and Nour were sleeping soundly upstairs, I was still in front of the fireplace staring at the cold, empty hearth with eyes that felt sandpaper-rough from exhaustion. After Maddie’s declaration the night before, the three of us had sat in silence for almost an hour. I had willed with every bit of my soul that Maddie really had seen the Flame flicker into life, albeit just for a heartbeat, but there had been nothing to see. Not a single bloody ember.

‘Still nothing?’ Maddie asked with a yawn.

I turned around to find her standing in the doorway with a cup of tea in her hand. It was a sign of how absorbed I’d been that I hadn’t even heard her come downstairs. I shook my head.

‘I’m really sorry. I was so sure I saw it.’ She hesitated. ‘I had been drinking, though.’

‘I know. It’s okay.’ She’d been so shocked, so stunned, that I genuinely believed she’d seen the Flame reappear, but now doubt was creeping in. She was right: we’d had a lot to drink, and I knew Maddie was as desperate for the Flame to return as I was. Wishful thinking was a thing.

I changed the subject. ‘Are you going to work today?’

‘No,’ she said. ‘I booked the day off. Figured I’d have a bit of a sore head.’ She shot me a rueful smile. ‘And boy, was I right.’

‘Are you going to see Ernie later?’ I asked pointedly.

‘Maybe,’ she said lightly, but she avoided my gaze.

Maddie always gave the impression of being so freaking strong, and every time in my life that I’d needed her she’d put herself second in order to help me. It was time I did the same. If she was addicted to the Flame and I couldn’t get it back…?

I needed to speak with my grandfather – not to mention that he was the only one who might be able to give me some guidance on my wild magic.

It had only been a couple of months since I’d learned that Ernie and I were related and a lot had happened in that time. We still had several decades to catch up on but we were closer to a relationship than I’d ever envisaged that day when he’d spoken those fateful words.

When I texted him and asked if he was free later on that morning, he replied that he was always free for me – which was lovely but made me wonder if he used the same smooth words with Yanni. The thought made me shudder a little.

Before I could see Ernie, I had to pick up Eva from Fraser’s house, so I showered, put on a little make up and picked up my backpack. I slipped in Gwen’s photograph of the cup, as well as my lockpicks, some poo bags for Eva and water for us both, then walked to Fraser’s home.

As if he’d sensed me approaching, he opened his front door as I was walking down his drive. The sight of him barefoot in jeans did weird and powerful things to me. I didn’t even bother to say hello – the moment I reached him, I was kissing him again.

Without hesitation, his mouth met mine. One of his hands slid into my damp hair, the other anchored at my hip, grounding me even as the kiss unravelled my every coherent thought. It wasn’t soft, it wasn’t sweet: it was all the tension we’d been dancing around crackling to life in the space between heartbeats.

I finally drew back, wide-eyed and panting. This thing between us was far more than a bond; the chemistry between us was off the charts.

‘Thank you for the bag of goodies,’ I managed. ‘They were really appreciated. Nour was frying some eggs when I left,’ I added inanely.

‘You’re welcome. I had to go back to yours anyway. Eva started whining like crazy at about ten o’clock, and I realised she didn’t have her bunny. I was going to call Yanni to let me in, but Eva hopped out of the open window of the car and a minute later came back with the bunny in her mouth. I have no idea how she got in. You might want to check your security.’

I snorted. ‘She has her ways. Maybe I should get you a key cut,’ I mused aloud, only to realise how forward that comment sounded. ‘Just in case you ever need to get something from the house again, not so you can stay there. Unless you want to stay there? Which I’m totally not against, apart from Maddie being there, and I haven’t really done anything to my room since I was a kid and maybe—’

‘You know,’ he said, sounding warm and amused, ‘you’re very cute when you're babbling.’ He cut short my rambling with another bone-melting kiss.

Reluctantly, but by mutual agreement, we finally separated before clothing was removed. Much as I wanted that, I had a meeting with Ernie.

‘So, what are you doing today?’ Fraser asked.

‘I’m going to speak to Ernie then do some more research on the goblin’s missing items.’

‘I’m glad you’re building a relationship with Ernie. He strikes me as someone who has been very lonely.’

And didn’t that hit me? He was right – as usual. ‘Me too,’ I admitted. ‘But I’m actually visiting him for Maddie. Much as she’s trying to hide it, she’s struggling – and last night she thought she saw the Eternal Flame in the fireplace.’

‘What?’

‘Yeah. She said there was a flicker in the fireplace.’

‘Was there?’

I shrugged. ‘Honestly? I don’t know. She was so convinced that I believed her in the moment, but we sat there for hours and saw nothing, not even a spark. I stayed up all night but the fireplace was dead. I need to speak with Ernie and ask him about Maddie getting addicted to the Eternal Flame.’

Fraser smiled softly. ‘You’re a good friend. She’s lucky to have you.’

‘I was a very, very shit friend for a whole decade and I have a lot of making up to do, but I’m trying my hardest.’

This time when Fraser kissed me it was far more tender than before, and somehow that only made me want him more.

‘If you’ve stayed up all night,’ he began, ‘do you want a coffee?’

‘So, so much,’ I confessed.

Laughing, he tugged me into his kitchen where he made me a strong coffee doctored with two sugars and a lot of milk, exactly the way I liked it. The bond was freaky: there were some things about me he seemed to know instinctively. I wished it were a little less one-sided; it would be nice to know how he took his coffee. I realised there was an easy solution to that. ‘How do you have your coffee?’ I asked.

‘Just a dash of milk.’ He demonstrated as he made one for himself.

‘No sugar?’

A smile played around his lips. ‘I’m sweet enough already.’

I snorted.

His smile widened. ‘I’d forgotten that my mum used to say that.’

We sipped our drinks in companionable silence and the caffeine did its thing, resurrecting me like a necromancer’s plaything. I looked around the kitchen. There were several plants on the windowsill and a smile tugged at my lips. ‘So which one is George Clooney?’

He didn’t bat an eyelid. ‘This one.’ He pointed to a money tree.

I laughed. ‘Naturally. And Keanu Reeves?’

He pointed to the cactus.

‘Makes sense,’ I agreed. ‘That poor guy has survived in harsh conditions. Steve Zahn?’ I asked. He pointed to a spider plant. ‘I’m not following the logic with that one,’ I confessed.

‘Sprouts in unexpected directions but it always works,’ he explained.

I snorted. ‘True. Zahn has an eclectic backlist. When did you start naming your plants after actors?’

‘Someone once gave me a black orchid. It was stunning, sophisticated, and I named her Catherine Zeta Jones. After that, I had to have a Michael Douglas and it kind of grew from there,’ he confessed.

Finally I slid off the bar stool. ‘I should go,’ I said reluctantly. It was only when I prepared to leave that I realised I still hadn’t actually got Eva; not only that, she hadn’t run out to see me. ‘Fraser Banks,’ I said sternly, ‘what have you done to my dog?’

A mischievous glint shone in his eyes. ‘She’s having breakfast, that’s all.’

Normally even food wouldn’t stop Eva greeting me when we’d been apart for the night. I followed the scent of bacon and eggs to the dining room then burst out laughing.

Eva was there, not with her food bowl but with a proper plate on the dining-room table. She was standing on a chair happily wolfing down sausage, bacon, hash browns and eggs. They had all been cut into bite-sized pieces, which she was picking up one by one then dipping delicately into brown sauce before gobbling them down and moving on to the next. She had a bib tied around her neck.

I turned around to look incredulously at Fraser. ‘What?’ he shrugged. ‘I’m not above bribing her for her affections.’

I shook my head. Eva was going to be cross every time I didn’t feed her like that in the future.

‘Well, just so you know,’ I said drily, ‘that officially means you’ve cooked for my dog more times than you’ve cooked for me.’

‘It does, doesn’t it?’ He stepped forward and swept me into his arms. ‘Dinner tonight? And I won’t even get it from the restaurant. Just you and me. How does that sound?’

‘That sounds perfect,’ I replied, my stomach already fluttering with anticipation. ‘And I’ll bring—’

‘You’ll bring the Oyster Bay,’ he finished for me.

Considering I’d never had a proper boyfriend before, having one that could finish my sentences felt almost too good to be true. Then again, I was pretty sure that anyone who had known me for longer than a month could have finished that particular sentence.

Knowing that if I didn’t leave soon I wouldn’t leave at all, I whistled Eva to my side. ‘Come on, girl,’ I said, as she swallowed a piece of hashbrown. ‘You’ve had enough. It’s time to go talk to Ernie.’ I glanced back at Fraser. ‘See you tonight,’ I said.

‘I’m already looking forward to it.’

As I walked down his driveway, I was already wondering if I was going to have a chance to go underwear shopping before the evening.

Chapter Twenty

The first time I’d turned up at Ernie’s house unannounced, a phenomenal magic ward had thrown me from his front door across his garden; the second time I’d visited, I’d been holding Maddie in my arms. The last time I’d seen him had been in my house when he’d been far too busy with a woman I considered family. Fingers crossed that this visit would be calmer.

I knocked on the door and he opened it immediately. ‘Hi Beatrix, I was pleased to get your message. Come on in.’

As I stepped inside, I noticed a few homely touches that I didn’t recall seeing before – some cushions, a throw, some candles. Ernie had worked hard to make the place more inviting, and it showed.

‘I wanted to talk to you about Maddie,’ I said. ‘And about my magic, and the Eternal Flame.’

‘We can do all of that,’ he said calmly. ‘Would you like a drink?’

I yawned. ‘A coffee would be great. Milk, two sugars.’

‘Sure.’ As he pottered around his kitchen, humming under his breath, I was struck by how much happier he seemed. Whatever was between him and Yanni, he hadn’t been lying when he’d said it was more than sex and that made me feel better about the whole thing.

‘So,’ he said as he warmed his hands on his mug, ‘what shall we start with?’

‘I think everything is linked. I think Mum and Dad put a bind on my magic to stop my grandmother finding me. When I was shot and healed by Fraser’s pelt—’

‘What?’

Ah. Maybe he hadn’t heard that part of the story; we’d been focused on Maddie at the time. ‘I was shot and I was dying. Fraser saved me by putting his pelt on me.’

Eyes wide, Ernie asked, ‘Do you know what that means?’

‘I’m his mate. He can’t ever be with anyone other than me.’

He paused then asked, ‘And how do you feel about that?’

‘Very conflicted,’ I admitted. ‘I was attracted to Fraser and we’d started to get to know each other, but I wasn’t ready to think about spending the rest of my life with him.’

‘You used the past tense,’ Ernie noted quietly. ‘Are you ready now?’

I chewed on my lip. ‘No, but I’m… We’re definitely heading into relationship territory and I want to give him a fair chance. Even without the bond, he’s special. I like him. A lot.’

He smiled. ‘Okay.’ His smile faded. ‘Tell me what makes you think you were put in a magical bind.’

‘You know already that I was a magical dud. Well, I’m not any longer. I can see visions of people’s past – their memories. I’ve even caught the odd thought. And,’ I hesitated, ‘I’ve accidentally used telekinesis. Nour thinks Fraser’s pelt saw the bind as something detrimental to me and started to remove it, but the magic I’m acquiring scares me. I dived into Kaz’s mind and confirmed she’d murdered Lorenz, but in doing so I harmed her. She’s retreated into her mind and now she’s in a coma – and it’s my fault for blundering in without knowing what my magic is or does.’

Ernie reached out and squeezed my hand. ‘She was a threat to you and to Yanni. You did the right thing, no matter how guilty you feel. I hope we can restore Kaz – but only so she can face the justice she deserves. Sonny deserves to get some answers, too.’

He took a deep breath. ‘I have no empathy magic so I can’t help you with that, but I do have strong telekinesis. I can teach you how to harness it safely.’

I slumped back into the chair, surprised by how relieved I felt. ‘Thank you. When we went to Scotland, I accidentally used it.’ I explained about the rock schism and its potentially fatal effects. If it hadn’t been for the water dragon…

‘How did you feel when the rock fell away?’

‘Totally panicked,’ I admitted.

Ernie nodded as if that were the response he’d been expecting. ‘That makes sense. I’m always at my most volatile when my emotions are high. I’ll teach you a breathing and meditation exercise to control it.’ He stood up and went to his bookshelf where he dug around before withdrawing a slim volume. ‘This will teach you some of the theory.’

I took the book gratefully. ‘Thanks.’ I took another deep breath. ‘When we were in Hallowburn, we found an Eternal Flame and Maddie worked with it for a while. In that moment, she looked about a thousand times better.’

I met his eyes and saw sorrow in them. ‘You know,’ I whispered. ‘You already know that she is addicted to the Eternal Flame.’

‘I suspected that she was,’ he admitted. ‘Hopefully the interaction with the Flame in Hallowburn will buy us some time, but in the long term she needs exposure to the Eternal Flame that we can gradually reduce. Using the Flame was safe for her when your parents were alive because of your mother’s guardianship, but I suspect Maddie was too vulnerable to use it for a protracted period of time when it wasn’t protected by a full Guardian.’

I nodded. ‘In Scotland we learned that the Eternal Flame needs to take a piece of soul from the Guardian in order to form a bond.’

‘I suspect it has been drawing on some of Maddie’s soul to sustain itself during the last decade, but for some reason a full bond didn’t form. The symbiotic relationship that should have existed has been bastardised, and both Maddie and the Flame have suffered because of it.’

Because of me; because I hadn’t been there to take my place as the Guardian. I pushed away the tide of guilt that flooded me. I needed solutions not self-pity. ‘What do we do?’

‘We restore the Eternal Flame and we wean Maddie off it carefully.’

‘And if we can’t restore the Eternal Flame?’

‘Then she’ll have to go back to Hallowburn. If she doesn’t, she could die.’

I swallowed hard. ‘How long do you think we have before it becomes critical?’

‘I don’t know. I need to reassess her magic after that hit of Flame at Hallowburn then we’ll know more accurately what we’re looking at. Realistically it should be a matter of weeks rather than months.’

I swallowed hard. I had only a few weeks to restore the Eternal Flame or Maddie would suffer. I tried to focus on something else before guilt swept away my thoughts; I needed to keep a level head.

‘So we restore the Flame and we wean Maddie off it. What then? If she can’t work with the Eternal Flame, how will she make her ink? She dreams of opening her own tattoo shop and I don’t want her to lose that. She deserves her dreams.’

‘She has significant potential as a potion maker,’ Ernie confirmed. ‘If she can learn to harness her magic into a potion version of the ink, there is no reason why she can’t still succeed. I believe that is possible for her.’

That should have been a cause for me to celebrate, or at least have provided a sense of relief, but I could hear a word lingering in the air. ‘But...?’

‘But it’s the same as it is in so many of these cases – something is holding her back from moving disciplines.’

‘What’s holding her back?’

‘Guilt,’ he said simply.

‘What does Maddie have to feel guilty about?’

‘Like you, she carries a lot of it, starting with the death of her mother in childbirth and going through to not being able to do more for you when you lost your parents. And she is battling guilt because the Flame went out.’

‘That’s not her fault! It was mine for not being there, for not bonding with it.’ A sigh escaped me. ‘How do I help her?’

‘The best thing you can do is to be her friend. Be there for her, make her feel she’s indispensable. I can tell you that from experience, which means more than you could know.’ His eyes met mine as he smiled, and I knew he was no longer talking about Maddie but about himself – about us.

This conversation hadn’t been as hard as I’d feared; in fact, it had been quite easy. I could envisage popping in sometimes to talk to Ernie, maybe even making a habit of it – although I had enough on my plate without adding in dates with Ernie. Thinking of my ever-growing to-do list, I remembered Gwen’s missing items.

‘While we’re talking about helping,’ I said to Ernie. ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got a magnifying glass I can borrow, have you?’ He struck me as the type of person who would have one.

‘I’m sure I do,’ he said. ‘Just give me a minute.’ He went to one of the cabinets and started pulling open drawers and tossing things out – a rabbit’s foot, a broken pair of glasses, what appeared to be a leather-studded collar – until finally, he gave a little aha noise. ‘Here it is. What do you want to magnify?’

I pulled the mother-of-pearl frame out of my bag and showed him the picture. ‘It’s that part there – the mug. I wanted to see if there are any markings on it that might be useful in tracking it down.’

As Ernie held the magnifying glass over it, I saw that the small symbols were runes. Although my dad had tried to make me study runology, my knowledge was mainly about those used by witches, not those used by fae folk – and it was definitely the latter engraved on the mug.

I took a photo with the magnifying glass held over them. ‘The goblin who owns it says it’s been stolen, but I’m not certain it has been. Her memory’s not so great and there’s every possibility that she’s simply misplaced it.’

When Ernie didn’t reply, I looked up at him questioningly. He remained exactly where he had been, rigid as if he had been frozen.

‘Ernie? Are you okay?’ The silence was so overwhelming it made my stomach muscles tighten. ‘Ernie?’ I said again.

He blinked then stared back at me. ‘That’s not a mug,’ he said finally. ‘That is the Calix Sanare.’

Chapter Twenty-One

Ernie spoke as if it should be perfectly clear what he meant, but unfortunately I hadn’t the faintest idea what he was talking about. ‘The Calix Sanare,’ I repeated. ‘And that is…?’

‘You may know it by its other name,’ he said. ‘The Cup of Completion.’

‘The Cup of Completion?’ An icy chill passed through me as I recognised the name, and I had a clear memory of me in my early teens sitting in my father’s library.

We had spent the day discussing powerful relics. The type of people who would come after the Eternal Flame would come after any magical power – and the Cup of Completion was on Dad’s list.

‘It was carved by the first goblin and imbued with the power of stardust from the first constellation,’ Dad had said, ‘Whatever power lies within the one who drinks from it will be multiplied by every star in the sky.’

‘Literally?’ I had asked, eyes wide.

‘Well, probably not literally.’ Dad had grinned. ‘But close enough. Drink from the Cup of Completion and you’re next to God. Naturally it’s guarded by the goblins who created it.’

‘Would it work on non-magical people?’ Or, more importantly, on magical duds like me?

‘It wouldn’t work if they were truly non-magical,’ he’d said, clearly pleased by my interest. ‘If their lineage didn’t contain a hint of magic as far back as the first dawn, then it would have no effect. But if they had a great-great-great-great ancestor, so far back in their history that the magic had all but gone and they didn’t even know it was part of their past, then it would bring it to the surface and they would likely become powerfully magical.’

I had felt a huge pang of excitement; if I could get my hands on the cup I might finally take my true place in Witchlight. ‘So what do you do? Drink from it and that’s it? You’ve got massive powers?’

From the way his smile dropped, I suspected he had suddenly realised what I was thinking. I was grateful he didn’t call me out on it. ‘Surprisingly, the cup’s ability to magnify powers is not the reason it is coveted. It’s difficult to use and the process can only occur on specific days when the first constellation is in line with the North Star.’

‘Which is how often?’ I asked, trying to appear only casually interested.

‘About once every 427 years.’

Disappointment struck so hard that I struggled not to let it show. ‘So why do people want it if not for the power?’ I had asked when I was finally sure I could speak calmly.

‘For its ability to heal,’ my father replied.

‘Heal?’

‘Magical or non-magical, the cup knows no bounds. A sip of elixir from its rim is said to be strong enough to regrow a fae’s severed wings, reverse the petrification of sick stone giants, even soothe and regrow the skin of a burning vampire. It is said that nothing is beyond its capabilities.’

‘If it can do all that then surely it should be being used?’ I said. ‘Couldn’t hospitals benefit from it?’

‘Absolutely – but as with all power, the problem is the abuse that could occur.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Take what I said about the Fae. A kind and gentle fae would not have had their wings severed in the first place because that’s a punishment for the darkest deeds. It is done as a last resort – as is making a vampire face sunlight without a protective ward. While good people deserve the power of this cup, it is those with darkness in their souls who would gain from it, as is so often the case. Besides, twice a millennium may not sound like a great risk for this item to fall into the wrong hands, but that’s merely because you’ve not known what it is like to live under dark power.’ He smiled at me, but his smile was tinged with a bitterness that I had rarely seen in him.

That memory had left a deep impression, and it hit me harder than ever now that I knew about Dad’s childhood.

For the first time since I’d taken this case, I was truly starting to believe that Gwen was right: the cup had been stolen. If that was the case, it had probably been stolen by a magical person – and that made me uneasy. There was only a very small chance that the one day that occurred every 427 years would occur while I was around, but judging by the way life had gone for me so far I half-expected that it would.

‘Was anything else taken from the shop?’ Ernie was looking at me intently.

‘Yes, a grimoire, but it was blank. There was nothing in it.’

Even as I finished my sentence, I wanted to facepalm. Had I not learnt, only days ago, that the fireplace in my house, which looked completely empty, still contained the embers of the Eternal Flame and the fragments of the souls taken from all the Guardians before me? Just because the grimoire looked empty, I should have known better than to believe it actually was.

I was rapidly joining Team Gwen: these items had been stolen and I needed to find out by whom – and fast. My dad’s concerns echoed in my brain: people who sought out objects of power rarely wanted to use them altruistically.

I opened up my phone and searched for the shop website online. Like Scarlett had said, the home page showed a large photo of the front of the shop and there in the middle was a fancy looking black-and-gold grimoire. ‘Do you recognise this?’ I asked Ernie. ‘Gwen believed it was full of blank pages, but now I’m not so sure.’

Ernie perched a pair of glasses on the end of his nose and I held my breath. Then, unfortunately, he shook his head. ‘Sorry. I believe you when you say that it’s probably hiding something, but it’s not a book I recognise from my studies.’ He winced. ‘Although it’s worth noting that the darkest of grimoires aren’t pictured in textbooks because even their image can have power.’

‘Could it make a website flicker, disappear and come back again?’

Ernie shrugged. ‘Quite possibly.’

This wasn’t good. If the grimoire was strong enough to affect a website with its picture, we were in real trouble.

‘Thank you so much for all of your help,’ I said to Ernie. I hugged him tightly before realising that it was the first hug I’d ever given my grandfather. I pulled back quickly, took his hand and shook it instead. If the hug hadn’t been weird, shaking hands afterwards definitely was, but although he looked amused he didn’t say anything.

‘Come on, Eva,’ I said. ‘We need to go.’

‘Hang on. Before you run off you need to learn the meditation exercise, or at least the basics.’

I blew out a breath. ‘You’re right.’ I sat back down. ‘Let’s do this.’

Chapter Twenty-Two

After my session on breathing and meditating, my mind did indeed seem clearer and more purposeful. Feeling better than I had in a long time, Eva and I raced back to town with a single destination in mind: Grimoires and Goblets.

It was an absolute scorcher of a day so I was sweating like a mermaid at a fish stall by the time I got there.

With the grimoire in the centre of the window display – and online – everyone in Witchlight Cove had probably seen it dozens of times. The mug, however, was normally in Gwen’s hand with tea inside, so far fewer people would have seen the Cup of Completion – and fewer still would have recognised it for what it was. That meant the thief was probably someone who’d been a customer in the shop because otherwise they wouldn’t have spotted it.

Except for Scarlett, who must have seen it regularly. I texted Maddie and asked her to do a discreet background check on Gwen’s assistant. She sent me a thumbs-up emoji in response.

‘Vanilla and strawberry, or something different?’

I blinked and looked up as I tucked away my phone. ‘Sorry?’ I said before my brain connected the dots. ‘Oh, hi Fran! No, I’m okay today, thank you.’

‘Sorry! I assumed you were thinking through your options!’

‘Just thinking,’ I corrected. ‘How’s it going?’

‘It’s a bit slow today,’ she confessed.

Next to me Eva whined pointedly and looked at Fran. I leaned down and patted her. ‘We can’t have ice cream every day or we’ll get fat. Maybe tomorrow.’ Eva looked at me grumpily; I guessed she wanted ice cream today. ‘The wait will make it taste all the better,’ I wheedled. Her flat eyes called me on my bullshit.

‘See you, Fran,’ I said as we moved towards the shop.

She waved but her shoulders slumped as we walked away and I felt a prickle of guilt at not buying something from her. Tomorrow – I’d definitely grab something tomorrow.

As I opened the shop door I heard the now-familiar tinkle of the bell. Gwen was sitting behind a desk at the back of the shop surrounded by objects like the Queen of Trinkets.

‘Hey, Gwen,’ I called as I made my way through the towers of precariously stacked items. She grunted at me in lieu of a proper greeting; she really was a charmer. ‘No Scarlett today?’ I asked.

‘No, she’s visiting her mum in hospital.’

I bit my lip. ‘Her mother’s ill?’

‘Yeah, terminal.’ Gwen didn’t sound in the least bit sympathetic and I had to grind my teeth for a minute to stop myself from snapping at her.

The fact that Scarlett’s mum was sick changed everything: Scarlett had both the opportunity and the motive to take the Cup – and I bet she wouldn’t feel bad about the theft given that Gwen treated her like shit. Maybe that was why I’d felt guilt when I’d checked Scarlett’s emotions.

I grimaced: perhaps I was becoming too reliant on my empathetic powers now I was in Witchlight. People could feel differently about different things.

I studied the goblin so I could see her reaction and then I lowered my barriers. Why would I not use a weapon in my arsenal? ‘Did you know that the mug was an important goblet? The Cup of Completion?’ I asked directly.

A wave of shock hit me. ‘How did you find out?’ she whispered.

‘I’m a private investigator – it’s my job to find things out. You didn’t think it was relevant, something you ought to have told me?’

She winced. ‘I’m sworn to keep it hidden, to keep it safe. I’m the guardian of the cup so I can’t go around telling every Tom, Dick and Harry what it truly is.’

Fantastic: that was just what we needed – more guardians. Maybe if I presented Gwen to the Flame, it would judge her worthy to bond with. After all, she might be a crotchety curmudgeon but she’d never abandoned her post.

I pushed the thought aside. ‘I’m not Tom, Dick or Harry,’ I pointed out. ‘I’m the PI in your employ, and this information was important. I needed to know it – and Yanni needs to know it because it changes everything. Does Scarlett know what it is?’ I asked.

Gwen snorted. ‘Absolutely not. No one else in the village knows.’

I fixed her with a stare. ‘And the grimoire? I know it’s not blank, and I know it’s a dark grimoire of significant power. That’s why the website isn’t working properly because even its picture has power.’

She paled then her tongue darted out to wet her lips. ‘It’s the Codex Tenebrae.’

My jaw dropped and it took me a while to find my next words because they needed to be diplomatic. Despite that ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ was what came out.

Gwen pushed a pen around her desk. ‘No, I’m not.’

The Codex Tenebrae was legendary: a dark tome full of the darkest, most evil magic that had ever existed, supposedly recorded on pages made of human skin. I went cold. That was the kind of thing my grandmother might be interested in. Could she be in the area? Could this be her doing?

I shook myself. There were plenty of dark magic practitioners in the world and just because Granny Dearest had been in Witchlight before didn’t mean she’d come back. Except the binding on my magic was there to keep me hidden from her … and now it was broken. I could be acting like a fucking beacon and luring her here. And maybe she had already come – and found something even better than me.

It was supposition. Paranoia. It probably wasn’t her. Probably.

I pushed my fear aside and focused on the here and now. ‘You had the Codex Tenebrae,’ I said to Gwen, ‘and you had it in the bloody window display?’ The words came out a shade hysterically.

‘No one would ever put the Codex Tenebrae there,’ she argued. ‘Only an idiot would do that. Hiding it in plain sight was a brilliant idea. The grimoire was far safer in the window than trying to hide it in a safe powered by wards that anyone could work around.’ She huffed. ‘Anyway, it’s all your fault. I asked your mother to ward the shop using the Eternal Flame’s power and she said it wasn’t used for commercial properties.’ She sniffed.

I gaped at her. ‘Did you tell her you had the Cup of Completion and the Codex Tenebrae?’

‘No! Of course not.’

I groaned. ‘She would have warded the shop if she'd known what you were trying to protect.’

Gwen was right: Mum had only used the Flame to protect essential properties and she wouldn’t have wanted to tax it further by protecting places like shops. Owners could install their own wards and charge it as a business expense. And, as Mum had pointed out multiple times at town meetings, there were a lot of businesses in Witchlight Cove; if she warded one she’d have to ward them all, and that would have demanded too much of the Flame considering it also powered the barrier. But she would have warded the shop containing the cup and the grimoire if she’d known of their existence.

‘You have to ring Yanni,’ I said flatly. ‘Tell her the truth. She needs to prioritise the thefts.’

Gwen glowered at me. ‘I’ve hired you. You prioritise them.’

‘I am!’ I protested. ‘But Yanni has more resources and manpower. Not telling her the truth will hamstring her investigation.’ The investigation that she had already closed.

‘You’re my employee,’ Gwen ground out. ‘I call the shots. You can’t tell Yanni because we can’t have the knowledge getting out. It’s bad enough I’ve had to report the thefts to the goblin’s Clutch. They’ll be sending someone soon.’ Her tone was faintly ominous, as if she didn’t want them sending anyone at all.

‘That doesn’t sound good.’

Gwen swallowed. ‘Their solutions tend to be … permanent.’

I chewed my lip. ‘For the thief?’

The goblin tugged at the neck of her shirt. ‘And for the Guardian that failed.’

I gulped. The stakes had risen. ‘Right. Okay, I’m on it,’ I promised.

‘You’d better be,’ Gwen said darkly. ‘Because if you don’t find it soon…’ She trailed off.

Neither of us needed to finish her sentence: if we didn’t find the missing items soon, it would be curtains for Gwen.

Chapter Twenty-Three

My phone lit up: Maddie Calling. I answered. ‘Hey, you okay?’

‘I’m more than okay,’ she whispered. ‘I’m at work. I sneaked in after I got your message.’

‘Why are you whispering? And what happened to your hangover day?’ I asked.

‘I’m undercover! This is more important.’ She paused. ‘Isn’t it?’

‘More than you know,’ I admitted.

‘This is so cool. I’m a spy!’

I grinned. ‘Well, James Bond, what did you find out about Scarlett Briar?’

‘She’s got a record,’ she whispered triumphantly.

‘What?’ I was shocked – but maybe I shouldn’t have been. Scarlett had said she was lucky to have the job in Gwen’s.

‘Assault,’ Maddie confirmed. ‘I took a quick look at the records. It looks like an ex-boyfriend raised a fist to her so she raised a frying pan.’

I blinked. ‘Well, she was defending herself.’

‘Maybe it started out that way, but she had a black eye and he was mincemeat. She broke his jaw, fractured his skull, broke numerous other bones. She kept whaling on him long after he was down, and the judge said self-defence didn’t include almost pulverising your victim. She got ten years but was released in five for good behaviour. She’s only been out of jail for a year.’

‘Wow.’

‘Yeah – and besides that she’s single, she’s a witch with the illustrious Night Moon Coven – though somewhat shunned due to the GBH – and,’ she paused dramatically, ‘she used to date a particular village sleazeball we both know and dislike.’

‘Who?’

‘Archer.’

Ugh. Archer Arden was a werewolf and a total deadbeat. He’d worked briefly for Lorenz, before being fired for general incompetence; he couldn’t even hold down a job for more than a few weeks.

Maddie’s voice softened. ‘Her dad’s dead and her mum’s sick – she’s in hospital. Scarlett called Yanni a few months ago and complained that Archer had pestered her when she was walking to the hospital one day. Yanni spoke to Archer. There were no arrests, just a warning to leave her alone. He seems to have done that. At least, there are no more complaints on the file.’

‘That’s brilliant! Thanks, Maddie – and thanks for going in on your day off. I really appreciate it. Have you got Scarlett’s address?’

Maddie read it aloud and I thanked her again. ‘I owe you!’ I added.

‘Just promise to give me the skinny later!’

I grimaced. ‘I can’t. Client confidentiality. But I have a date with Fraser – maybe you could help me get ready?’

She squealed happily. ‘I’m all over it. I’ll dig out some options. See you later!’

I hung up. With Scarlett's chequered past and her mum being sick, I definitely had a prime suspect – and her link to Archer deepened my suspicions. He wasn’t exactly an upstanding citizen and I’d bet good money he’d know how to fence stolen goods. If he couldn’t hold down a job for long, he’d have to get an income using other methods.

‘Come on,’ I said to Eva. ‘Let’s go and see if Scarlett is home.’ And if she wasn’t, I wasn’t above a little light breaking and entering to search her premises. If she had the cup and the grimoire, I needed to find them.

Scarlett lived in a cottage not far from the shop on a street where the gardens were large and the homes looked inviting. The paintwork and lawns were well-tended and Scarlett’s place, Gable’s End, was no exception.

I knocked on the door and waited patiently but there was no response. I peered in through the clean windows: no lights on, no sign of Scarlett. Eva and I went round to the back of the house, which wasn’t visible from the street. The rear garden was equally tidy.

I knocked on the back door but there was no answer and no noise from an alarm. I put down my backpack and pulled out the lockpicks. ‘Go to the front,’ I murmured to Eva. ‘If someone comes towards the house, give me three clear barks.’

Eva barked three times to show she understood her mission then trotted off.

Thankfully the lock was fairly basic and there were no bolts securing the door so I soon had it open. As I pushed it ajar, I prayed Scarlett didn’t have any wards in place, then I held my breath and went inside. I let out an explosive breath when nothing happened when I crossed the threshold then left the door open so I’d hear Eva if she barked.

Scarlett’s home was as neat inside as it was outside. In the kitchen the dishes were washed and stacked on the draining board, and the work surfaces had been wiped down. I gave the room a cursory inspection – though I did check her cabinets thoroughly in case the Cup of Completion was nestled in amongst her bird-related collection of mugs. I grinned at a cup that said: Birds, because people are dicks, but there was no sign of the cup I was looking for.

The small dining room was so clean as to be almost sterile, and the lounge was very tidy. There were a couple of framed photographs on the wall; Scarlett with a bird of prey on her arm; Scarlett with a woman who was no doubt her mother.

I checked under the sofa and the coffee table but there was nothing there, not even dust. Upstairs were three modest bedrooms and a bathroom. There were no knick-knacks, no safes where a grimoire could be stored, no sign at all that Scarlett was anything other than a witch recovering from a significant bump in the road, working in a shop and trying to make ends meet.

She didn’t have a practice room, and I found no items that suggested she utilised her powers: no cauldron, no ingredients, nothing. She might be a member of the Night Moon coven, but it didn’t look like she was a practising witch. No wonder the property wasn’t warded: wards were expensive, so most witches did their own. Evidently Scarlett just hadn’t bothered.

Three sharp barks rent the air and I moved to the stairs – but I could already hear the key turning in the front-door lock. Shit!

I scampered back to the second bedroom, which backed onto the garden, and hastily opened the window. I climbed onto the sill, turned onto my tummy and lowered myself down, praying that Scarlett wouldn’t go straight to the kitchen. I quietly closed the back door as I passed on my way to the front of the house.

‘Eva,’ I called softly. She burst out of the hedge of a neighbour's garden and came to my side. ‘Good job,’ I praised her. ‘I definitely owe you some doggy ice cream.’ I patted her head.

‘Now, let’s do things the official way.’ I winked at her and knocked on the door.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Scarlett looked a little nonplussed when she opened the door and saw me standing there but she recovered quickly. ‘Beatrix,’ she said, a professional smile gracing her lips. ‘How can I help you?’

‘I’m here for a chat,’ I said. ‘Can I come in?’

She was obviously surprised but nevertheless stepped back to let me enter. ‘Of course, come in.’ Her eyes lingered on Eva.

I thought of the immaculate state of her home and turned to my dog. ‘Stay out here. Guard for us.’ Eva wagged her tail then turned and sat on her bum facing the street, ready to protect hearth and home.

This time I kicked off my shoes as I walked inside. ‘Thanks,’ Scarlett said with a warm smile. ‘I just got in myself. Would you like a cup of tea?’

All the caffeine from the day’s coffee was burning a hole in my gut but tea sounded like a good idea. I was operating on empty. ‘Yes, please.’

I followed her into the kitchen while she flipped on the kettle and grabbed two mugs. I grinned at one of them: a picture of a Blue Tit, a Coal Tit and a Great Tit with the caption: Show us your tits. Bird humour: I loved it.

‘So you’re an ornithologist?’ I asked as the kettle boiled.

‘It’s a recent hobby,’ she admitted. ‘I enjoy the outdoors but don’t know anything about the science of birds.’ She smiled. ‘I’m just a twitcher.’

‘No pets of your own?’ I made a production of looking around.

‘No, I love birds but I prefer them in nature.’ She paused. ‘It’s the poo. The thought of it dropping around the house…’ She shuddered.

‘I understand – your house is wonderfully neat. How do you cope working at Gwen’s?’

‘If anything, Gwen’s has made me even tidier,’ she admitted conspiratorially. ‘I come home from there and I have to make sure everything is where it should be. I long to clean up the shop, but Gwen is so particular about leaving things in certain places.’

‘That must be difficult for you.’

‘Not really,’ she shrugged. ‘It’s a job. I do what she wants and I collect my pay. It keeps things ticking over.’

‘Work to live, right?’ I made a show of looking around again. ‘But your home really is beautiful.’

‘Thanks. It was my mum’s until she couldn’t cope with it any longer. She moved into a residential home a year or so ago.’

‘Does she still get to visit?’ I asked guilelessly.

‘No. She’s not very well – she’s in hospital at the moment.’ Scarlett’s bottom lip trembled. She turned back to the kettle and the mugs.

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ I said. She’d missed five years of life with her mother and now her mum was dying. That sucked.

‘Thanks. It’s not looking good.’

‘There’s nothing the medics can do?’

She shook her head. ‘No.’ She pressed her lips together. ‘Why are you asking me about my mother?’ Suddenly her gaze narrowed on me. ‘What’s this got to do with anything?’

‘I believe the items that were stolen from Gwen’s have certain powers, powers that might be useful to you or your mum. Healing powers.’

Her eyes widened for a moment and hope flared before it faded and her shoulders slumped. ‘It was a shitty blank grimoire and Gwen’s favourite tea mug – and we don’t even know that they were stolen. I’m sure she just left them somewhere. Whatever she’s told you, it’s only to make you work harder. Both objects are next to useless.’

I shook my head. ‘No, they’re not. An independent expert corroborated it.’ I looked straight at her as I changed direction. ‘What can you tell me about Archer Arden?’

She flinched as if I’d shouted boo from behind her door, but she didn’t reply. ‘You filed a complaint against him,’ I coaxed.

Her cheeks were reddening and her hands were trembling. ‘I shouldn’t have done that,’ she muttered.

‘Archer has trouble keeping a job so he has to get an income from somewhere. Why not a little thing here or there from Gwen’s?’

Scarlett flinched again and her eyes flew to mine; they were wide and a little scared, and I knew immediately that I’d hit the nail on the head. I lowered my shields and her guilt and anxiety swamped me.

‘It’s not what you think.’ Her voice cracked as she spoke.

‘I really hope it’s not, because if it is I need to call Yanni right now.’

‘No!’ Now on the verge of tears, she raised her hand. ‘Please, please don’t. You’ve done your research – you know I’m just out of jail. I can’t go back there.’ Her hands clenched. ‘I won’t. Mum hasn’t got long, and if I’m not with her at the end I’ll never forgive myself. I’ll tell you everything – but leave me out of your report, okay?’

Relief flooded me. This wasn’t about my grandmother and dark magic after all, this was simply a case of a young werewolf with sticky fingers. I’d get the objects back and Gwen could get the goblin Clutch to call off their … whatever they were sending. Then I could focus on the Flame again. Easy.

I stood there, waiting for Scarlett to do as she had promised and tell me everything about the missing items, but rather than speaking she continued to wring her hands. ‘Scarlett,’ I pressed, ‘I need you to tell me what happened to Gwen’s belongings.’

She nodded, but she didn’t seem to know where to start.

I prompted, ‘I assume your mother being ill is the reason that you stole the mug and grimoire?’

‘Hecate no!’ she recoiled. ‘I didn’t take anything!’

‘Okay, let’s say I believe you for now. How long has Archer been stealing from the shop while you looked the other way?’ I pressed.

Her hand shook as she lifted her mug. ‘I wasn’t looking the other way, not at first. I have no idea how long it’s been going on for but I caught him about three months ago when I made that complaint to Yanni. I chickened out of telling her the real reason I’d called. He said that if I told anyone he was stealing, he’d send me back to the slammer and that would speed up Mum’s decline.’ Her ragged breath showed how much the idea had terrified her.

She shook her head. ‘I dated Archer for a while and he knew where to hurt me. I couldn’t risk jail or him harming mum. Even with those threats hanging over me I swear I was going to tell Gwen, but then he put some money into my bank account. He said if anyone caught him, the payment would make it look like I was an accomplice.’

Scarlett wrapped her arms around herself. ‘He’s made a number of small deposits since then, enough for people to think we’ve been working together. With my record, I’d be screwed. No one would believe I wasn’t involved.’ She stared at me, begging me to believe her.

I lowered my shields again and felt nothing but her desperation.

She gave a long sigh. ‘He had me between a rock and a hard place, and I decided to do nothing about it. I know it was a terrible decision and it’s been eating me up inside ever since. But it’s not like Gwen has any idea what’s in the shop – and Mum’s medication is expensive. His small deposits did help. And there was this new treatment, and I thought that…’

Her voice faded before and she paused before she spoke again. ‘These last couple of weeks, I wished Gwen would catch him just so it would be over. I know I’d probably get sacked – with my rap sheet, Gwen would never believe I was innocent. Last week, when Gwen realised a real theft had occurred, I told Archer he had to stop but he won’t. And he says that if I try to turn him in, he’ll drag me down with him.’

She was shaking like a pixie in a thunderstorm and my heart ached for her. Archer was an asshole. He’d probably found out about her record and specifically targeted her, dated her, found her weak spots, maybe stolen her bank details … and here we were.

‘Archer stole the grimoire and the mug?’ I asked.

‘I guess so. But honestly, I’m not sure how or why he’d take those – he tends to pinch things he can fit in his pocket and sell on easily. The grimoire was quite big. And he didn’t want Gwen to realise what was happening, which she wouldn’t have done if he’d stuck with the small things. One of the reasons I started cataloguing the stock is because I thought it would dissuade him from thieving, but it’s an impossible task. Taking something she loved like her mug was a stupid risk, especially for something that’s not even worth anything. He’s got a good thing going, so I don’t see why he’d risk it all.’

Maybe because she’d threatened to turn him in and he thought his easy payday was coming to an end, I thought, but I didn’t say any of that.

‘You said the objects could heal,’ Scarlett went on. ‘Are they genuinely powerful?’ Her voice wavered. ‘Is it dangerous that he took them?’

‘Yes,’ I said simply. ‘It is.’

A stray tear rolled down her cheek. ‘I’m so sorry, I really am. And if I can do anything to help you get it back…’

‘What you’ve told me will help enormously,’ I said truthfully, before I handed her a card with my number on it. ‘If you need to get hold of me, my number’s on there. Steer clear of Archer until I’ve spoken to him, but if he contacts you in the meantime then call me straight away.’

Fingering my business card nervously, she nodded. ‘I’m a mess,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I don’t know what to do.’

I offered her a smile – and then inspiration struck. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a twenty-pound note. ‘Here.’ I held it out to her. ‘Maybe you could go and grab an ice cream from Fran? She’s having a bad day too.’

She stared at me, her expression blank. ‘Life’s too short,’ I said softly. ‘Get an ice cream, maybe take one to your mum? Hospital food sucks and Fran’s ice creams are divine.’

She took the twenty and a cautious smile tipped her lips. ‘Mum would love that. Maybe I can see if she can get day release and I can push her in a wheelchair around the harbour for an hour or two.’

‘The sea always helps clear my head,’ I agreed. ‘And … speaking as someone who’s lost both her parents, this time you have now is more precious than you realise. Try and take a few guilt-free moments to enjoy it. Create a few happy memories.’

A fierce determination rose in her eyes. ‘You’re right.’

‘I really am sorry about everything you’re going through,’ I said softly. ‘I’ll try and keep you out of it if I can.’

The sad reality was that not only bad people did bad things; sometimes it was good people being pressured or bullied or simply led astray.

Chapter Twenty-Five

In my investigations, I’d repeatedly come across the same characters. In London, a break-in that involved a crowbar? Carl D would be my first suspect. A break-in with a clumsily picked lock, however, and I’d be looking at Vicky Crofton.

Living in Witchlight Cove, I sensed that Archer had the potential to become a fixture in my investigations if Yanni couldn’t put him away for what he’d already done. The evidence so far was circumstantial at best, but if I could find a few of those stolen items on him, the case against him would be ironclad.

I was suddenly pretty damn invested in getting him out of Witchlight and out of Scarlett’s life. I believed her, I really did, and she deserved a fresh start. She was trying to keep her nose clean, and Archer was there trying to dirty it.

I made a call and then, with Eva at my side, walked towards the far end of the village where several of the wolf packs lived. Thankfully this time when I knocked on the door Archer answered it fully dressed, although he was still wearing that arrogant, ‘clearly thinks he’s God’s gift to anything with a pulse’ smirk on his face.

It dropped satisfyingly quickly as soon as he registered who was on his doorstep. Aw, he remembered me. I was flattered.

‘What do you want?’ he growled.

‘Archer, how lovely to see you.’ My voice was laden with sarcasm, though I wasn’t sure he was intelligent enough to recognise it. He genuinely believed all women were pleased to see him. ‘I was wondering if I could come in and have a little chat with you.’

‘About what?’ he scowled.

‘Oh, I don’t know... How about the things that you’re stealing from Grimoires and Goblets?’

He tried to slam the door shut but I got there first and jammed my foot in the gap, grateful for the steel-toed boots I’d had the forethought to put on despite the hot weather.

Archer scowled but gave up on trying to get rid of me and switched to a charm offensive instead. ‘Darling, I don’t know what you’re on about.’ He gave me his widest smile

‘Maybe I could come inside? See if I can jog your memory.’ I winked at him.

This time, he darted forwards through the door and slammed it closed behind him. He really didn’t want me to see what he was hiding inside.

I smirked. ‘Did you lock yourself out of your own house to stop me from coming in?’

A faint grimace rippled over his jaw. Yep, he totally had.

My smirk widened. ‘I hate to tell you, but that lock won’t keep me out – a good sneeze would open that door. You need to invest in home security, and home security will invest in you.’

‘Fuck off back to London,’ he snarled. ‘No one wants you here.’

That was a direct hit to all my insecurities; he knew how to find someone’s weaknesses and exploit them. A few weeks earlier I might have felt intimidated but I’d spent weeks on the road with my friends and I knew that it simply wasn’t true. If nothing else, they wanted me there.

‘Get lost, or I’ll make you go,’ he spat. ‘You’re not the fuzz and you don’t have a warrant.’ While he seemed to think his threat would be enough to scare me off, it actually made me laugh even more.

Yanni had impeccable timing. ‘I’m not the police,’ I agreed. ‘But she is.’ I looked over my shoulder at her – and that was the moment Archer decided to bolt. Luckily, I was more than ready for him. Using his momentum – and the fact that I’d already hooked my foot around his ankle – I slammed him onto the ground and wrenched his wrists behind his back.

While he was still swearing, Yanni cuffed his hands behind him. She was smart so she used magical cuffs that would inhibit him shifting and weaken his normal physical strength. When he was secure, she hauled him upright and read him his rights then checked him for weapons, rifling through his pockets while he painted the air black and blue.

She took him to her vehicle and put more cuffs on him – leg ones this time – then locked the door and strode back to me. ‘You’d better be right,’ she murmured to me. ‘We need more than Scarlett’s word to hold him.’

‘I’m right,’ I said.

Yanni smiled. ‘I’ve got to admire your confidence.’

‘And my awesome detecting skills.’

Her smile widened then she looked at the door. ‘He didn’t have the key on him?’

‘Nope.’

She backed up as if she was going to kick down the door but I stopped her. ‘If you’re planning on destroying the door, can I practise a bit of magic first?’

Yanni shrugged and stepped out of the way.

If emotions were the key to not letting my telekinesis rampage, then I was fairly sure that the opposite was true. Fortunately, I was good with emotions.

I faced Archer’s front door and thought about how shitty he was for stealing from Gwen, and for bullying and blackmailing Scarlett, for threatening to send her back to jail and to hurt her mum. What an asshole he seemed to be the way he sneered down his nose at women as if one hadn’t given birth to him. I let that trickle of anger grow and swell then I directed it at his flimsy door.

It erupted with a bang, throwing splinters everywhere. Instinctively, I drew up my hands to shield my face. Whoops, there was kicking down the door and then there was chipping it to pieces – but as the chips settled, I could see stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.

I grinned. I wished Yanni would let me sit in on the interview; I’d have loved to hear his explanation as to why a werewolf needed nine wands.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Yanni stared at the destroyed door. ‘Nice work. Your powers really are growing.’

‘So, it seems,’ I replied. ‘Look – even from here you can spy some stolen goods.’ I pointed to the collection of wands Archer had shoved into an old vase. Had the vase been stolen, too? I wouldn’t have put it past him.

We crossed the threshold and immediately saw why he’d not wanted to let me in: there were dozens of candles, crystals and more wands. Scarlett had been right, though: they were all small items.

Rather than looking pleased at having recovered such a mountain of stolen goods, Yanni looked crestfallen. ‘I think I owe Gwen an apology,’ she said. ‘I really did think she was forgetting things because of her age.’

‘In your defence, I don’t think she had any idea this much had been stolen,’ I said. ‘She only came to you about a mug and a grimoire.’

‘Our young werewolf seems to be trying to build quite an enterprise for himself.’ Yanni cast her eyes around the living room. ‘There must be at least a hundred stolen items here.’

While most of them looked like they belonged in Grimoires and Goblets, I suspected there were some that had come from elsewhere. Besides the wands, crystals and candles, there were amulets and rings, and several jars of herbs and potions that had probably came from the nearby apothecary. There were only a couple of miniature goblets and everything was small enough to slip into a large pocket. Other than a notebook-sized specimen, I couldn’t see any grimoires.

‘Do you mind if I have a look through these things?’ I asked. ‘I’m pretty sure Archer didn’t realise what the mug and the grimoire are.’

‘Which is?’ Yanni looked at me expectantly.

Crud. I stared back at her. ‘My client doesn’t want me to tell you and I have to respect her request for confidentiality. Ernie identified one of them for me.’

To my surprise, she didn’t give me shit; she simply pulled out her phone and dialled her beau. ‘Hey, Ern,’ she said, her voice suddenly softer and – dare I say it? – coquettish. ‘Beatrix said her client forbade her from telling me what the object was that you identified. What was it?’

As I watched, her jaw dropped then, uncharacteristically, she swore. ‘Fucking hell! The Cup of Completion? And Gwen’s been drinking her tea out of it?’

I couldn’t hear Ernie’s comments but I felt better that Yanni knew at least half of the equation. ‘The grimoire is a big deal too,’ I said.

She spoke into the phone. ‘Do you know what the grimoire is?’ Ernie obviously answered in the negative. She put him on speakerphone. ‘Do you know any famous grimoires that would make Bea nervous?’

‘The Bathmory grimoire?’ Ernie suggested.

‘Nope. Keep going.’

‘The Radlin Memoirs?’

‘Nope.’

‘The Codex Tenebrae.’

I grimaced: I couldn’t have stopped the involuntary reaction if I’d tried. And I hadn’t tried.

‘Bingo!’ Yanni said triumphantly. ‘What does that mean?’

Ernie’s voice was solemn. ‘It means we need to find that damned grimoire now. It’s pretty much the darkest tome there is, and it’s supposedly written on human skin. If dark practitioners knew it was in Witchlight, we would be inundated with sorcerers. This is bad. Very, very bad.’

Yanni swallowed, hard. ‘Well then, we’d best find it.’

‘Can I help?’ Ernie offered.

She laughed. ‘I don’t know, can you?’

‘Not as far as I know,’ he admitted. ‘But let me think about it. I’ll see you later?’

‘Of course,’ she agreed. ‘But I’m not sure what time.’

‘Let yourself in – you know where the key is. Join me in bed no matter the hour. Bye, love.’

‘Bye.’

She hung up, but the damage was already done: Yanni’s skin was pink. ‘He didn’t mean join him in bed for hanky-panky,’ she blurted out. ‘He sleeps better with company.’ She paused. ‘And so do I.’

I smiled. ‘Somebody should be getting some. I’m fully on team—’ I broke off as I tried to come up with a couple name for them, then grinned as I realised that mashing Yanni and Ernie together just made them Yannie. Similarly, if I took Ernie’s beginning and added the end of Yannie’s name, I got Ernie. I snickered to myself.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘Your couple name…’ I started.

She let out a sigh. ‘Yes, we know.’

‘Aw, you two already talked about a couple name?’

Her cheeks warmed further. ‘Let’s look for the evil book, shall we?’

I laughed. ‘I love how you prefer to talk about the vilest book in several generations rather than your feelings.’

She winced. ‘You’re not the only one to notice that. Apparently, I’m a little closed off.’

I nudged her shoulder. ‘Yanni, you’ve been single and putting the job first for a lot of years, and you’ve seen a lot of shit. Anyone would be closed off – but that doesn’t mean you can’t open yourself up.’

‘And you, Bea? Are you letting Fraser in?’

I smiled. ‘Do you know what? I think I actually might be.’

Her answering smile lit up the room.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Yanni lent me some gloves and we started searching Archer’s house in earnest. I explored the kitchen first, where it quickly became apparent that he was not the culinary type. He owned one knife, one fork and one spoon, one large plate, a pasta bowl, two chipped glasses and two mugs, neither of which was Gwen’s.

One of the mugs had an image of a green-and-red dial and the words My Giveashitometer. I was fairly sure that was where his level of wit started and ended. I wondered whether he’d bonded with Scarlett over some mug humour, poor girl.

As I searched the rest of the cupboards, I didn’t find a single pot or pan; judging by the filthy inside of the microwave, it was clear Archer’s idea of cooking involved pressing ‘3 minutes’ and ‘Start’. Even so, I checked every cupboard and drawer before moving upstairs. I really wanted to find the mug in this house but a sense of foreboding was creeping up my spine. Something told me we were going to be out of luck.

Eva snuffled round at my heels, but she didn’t indicate that she smelled anything out of the ordinary.

I had never had less desire to look in someone’s bedroom or bathroom than Archer’s but I was nothing if not thorough, so I sucked it up like a big girl. Much to my surprise, the bedroom was fairly tidy. A grey bed sheet was spread neatly across the double bed and an electric guitar hung on the wall beside an array of framed vinyls. A thick layer of dust clung to the guitar, which made me suspect that Archer couldn’t actually play it. It was probably there to impress the ladies, though that could only have worked on women with very low expectations who didn’t actually ask him to knock out a tune.

With nothing immediately visible, I had no choice but to look under his bed and through his drawers. As I could have predicted, there were half a dozen magazines I did not want – or need – to flick through to work out what they were, but there was still no sign of the mug or the grimoire. Eva sniffed around the room; although she didn’t look impressed by the musty smell, she didn’t find anything interesting either.

The bathroom was definitely a bachelor’s, but besides the dire need for bleach in his toilet bowl there wasn’t much to see: no interesting drugs in his cabinet, no hidden book or mug.

‘They’re not here,’ I concluded as I walked down the stairs to join Yanni. She’d turned the living room and dining room upside down and her face was glum: she’d reached the same conclusion. I voiced it. ‘Either he’s already sold them on, or he never had them in the first place.’

‘I’ll question him about them but what does your gut say?’ she asked.

I thought back to Scarlett’s comment and sighed. ‘Honestly? I think the grimoire was too big for him to have taken. As for the mug, he knew it was special to Gwen and stealing it would ensure that his game was up. Besides, he was stealing things he thought he could sell for money, so unless he knew what the mug and grimoire really are, there’s no way he would have taken them. Too much risk.’ I sighed unhappily. ‘I don’t think he took them.’

Yanni nodded. ‘I agree, but I’ll press Archer and see what I can get out of him. He’s facing time in jail, so I reckon he’ll sing like a canary about anything he knows.’

I told her about Archer paying small deposits into Scarlett’s bank so he could implicate her if necessary. I had no doubt he’d try to point the finger at her. Yanni shook her head. ‘This is a mess. I’ll need to interview her and take a statement.’

I winced. ‘She won’t like that – she asked me to keep her out of it. For what it’s worth, I don’t think she was helping him willingly. Anxiety and guilt were rolling off her, and I sensed that she was desperate for me to believe her.’

Yanni put an arm around my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. ‘You were right about Mrs D, and you were right about Sonny. I believe you’re right about this, too.’

The lump in my throat was sudden and choking. She believed me. Just like that.

The sting in my eyes was surely due to the dust in the air and nothing else. I cleared my throat. ‘Thank you. Well, I guess the hunt for the grimoire and cup continues.’

Yanni nodded. ‘Let me know if you need anything. In the meantime, let’s see what Archer has to say for himself.’

‘You’ll tell me?’ I asked in surprise.

She winked. ‘Unofficially.’

‘Thank you.’ I checked the time and my eyes widened. ‘Shit! I have to get ready! I have a date with Fraser!’ I bolted from Archer’s home, Eva jogging at my heels. We ran all the way home and burst in the door panting.

Maddie was pacing the hallway. ‘You are cutting it fine, Beatrix Stonehaven! I can’t work miracles you know!’ She wrinkled her nose at my appearance. ‘Shower. Now!’

‘Yes, ma’am!’ I took the fastest shower of my life but still took the time to shave the parts that needed to be smooth. Maddie had set out my favourite black-lace underwear, and who was I to argue with her? I slipped them on and pulled on my dressing gown. ‘I’m decent,’ I hollered down.

‘Doubtful,’ she sassed back. She came out of her room with her arms piled high with clothes.

I suddenly realised that she’d done her own hair and makeup. ‘Where are you going?’

She flushed. ‘I have a date with Lestat. That’s why you need to hurry your red-haired ass up!’

‘My ass isn’t hairy!’ I shot back and started to paw through the clothes whilst she dried my hair.

In the end I picked a black denim skirt, some black knee-high boots and a pale-blue top that complemented my colouring. As I dressed, she swore at me for moving and when my hair was done, she did my makeup like a professional. ‘Wow,’ I admired the effect. ‘You should have been a makeup artist.’

She’d piled on a tonne of makeup but by the time she’d finished highlighting and blending it, it didn’t seem like I was wearing any at all: my friend had made me into a natural beauty. ‘Thank you!’

‘You’re welcome! Now, I have to run. You be good – and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’

In unison we both said, ‘Which isn’t saying much!’

Maddie air-kissed me and skittered out of the house on her way to her own date. Things were looking up for the women of Stonehaven Cottage.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

‘I’m sorry I’m a little late,’ I said as Fraser opened the door. ‘I didn’t want to run and ruin all Maddie’s hard work.’

He smiled. ‘You do look stunning – but I’ll still dream about the kiss in the sea,’ he admitted. ‘You looked stunning then, too, without a hint of makeup.’

‘Thank you.’ I smiled shyly; I felt awkward receiving compliments.

He looked delectable as usual. He was out of his customary suit and was wearing washed-out jeans and a T-shirt; that touch of a surfer vibe made my insides a little hot. As usual, he was barefoot and he smelled divine. He was so delicious … and he was mine, if I wanted him. And boy, did I want him. I wanted him so much I was tempted to skip dinner and dive straight into dessert…

‘Follow me to the kitchen,’ he said, oblivious to my lecherous thoughts. ‘I’ve got a glass of Oyster Bay with your name on it.’

I needed a glass to calm me down, so I followed him. He reached into the huge American-style fridge and handed me a wine glass with Beatrix written on it in swirly black letters. A laugh burst out of me and my heart lifted. ‘Oh my gosh! It really does have my name on it! You must have searched everywhere to find it.’

‘It was worth it to hear that laugh.’ The smile faded from his lips and his eyes darkened. ‘I’d do almost anything to hear that laugh.’

We’d skated right into flirty territory. I bit my lip. ‘I make other sounds too,’ I admitted, my voice a shade breathier than I’d intended.

‘Do you, now?’ he asked and I nodded as he stepped closer. ‘Let’s see if we can coax a few of them out.’

His mouth found mine in a kiss that stole my every coherent thought. It started slow and teasing. Then he deepened it, one hand curling around the back of my neck, the other tugging me flush against him. The heat between us flared as I felt the hard lines of his body against me. I parted my lips, breath hitching, and when his tongue swept in, a soft moan escaped me. He smiled against my mouth like he’d won something, and I was too far gone to care.

He pulled back after a few breathless minutes. ‘We have dinner,’ he said regretfully. ‘We’re going to eat together, Beatrix, because I can see you’re running on empty.’

‘And when I’m refuelled?’

His smile sent a jolt of desire right through me. ‘And then, mo chridhe, I’ll tear some more of these sounds from your throat.’

My mouth went dry. ‘That sounds good,’ I squeaked, making him smile even more. I sucked at dirty talk.

‘Food first,’ he insisted.

I licked my lips and tried to remember how to make normal conversation. ‘What is it? The food, I mean?’

‘Home-made ravioli with burrata and truffle stuffing and Tuscan sauce, served with rosemary and garlic focaccia, followed by a crème brûlée.’

I stared. ‘You made all of that?’

‘I’m good at cooking. Applying heat, using juices to maximal effect.’

I gulped and took a large sip of my wine.

He grinned. ‘I need to heat things through.’

‘You are the master of heat,’ I murmured.

‘I’m glad you think so. The Mother knows I’m trying.’

He set down a plate of food for Eva, this time on the floor rather than the dining-room table. That honour was reserved for us tonight.

As he continued stirring his sauces, I asked, ‘So what’s your ideal date?’

‘My ideal date? Apart from this, you mean?’ He smiled but I sensed that it was true: all he really wanted was him and me together. Everything else was window dressing.

‘Okay, but what about a date that doesn’t have George Clooney standing guard in a plant pot?’ I teased. ‘Is there somewhere you’d like to take me? Things you’d like us to do together?’

‘At some point I’d like to take you to where I grew up. It’s beautiful – you can sit on the rocks and watch the pods of dolphins dipping in and out of the water. It’s so peaceful.’

‘I’d love to see it,’ I said truthfully. ‘I love being by the water. We don’t often see dolphins here – and I really adore Scotland.’

‘I thought about taking you when we were up there,’ he admitted. ‘But with the timing and everything – I didn’t want to make a flying visit. There’s a lot to be said for savouring the moment.’

It wasn’t the first time I’d thought about how considerate Fraser was. He’d known how important finding the Flame was for me and he hadn’t wanted to delay me by suggesting taking a couple of days out of our search to show me where he’d grown up.

‘I’d have liked that,’ I said.

‘I don’t go there often and even when we were closest to the place, it was still a four-hour drive away. I’ll take you there soon and show you the places Mum and I used to go.’

Fraser’s mum’s story was heartbreaking and I didn’t want him to be sad, so I cast around for something else to talk about. ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you,’ I said. ‘When you swim in the sea do you ever eat fish? Do you catch them with your mouth?’

Fraser turned to stare at me and burst out laughing. ‘Where did that come from?’

‘I was wondering, that’s all. I’m guessing you’re fast enough to catch them?’

‘Yes, I am,’ he said. ‘And I have done that, but only when I’ve been on a long swim and not left the water for days. I wouldn’t just pop into the ocean for a quick snack – I prefer my meals without bones and entrails.’

Fraser picked up our plates. ‘Why don’t we sit down? Can you bring the wine?’ I picked up the open bottle and our glasses and noticed that his had remained untouched.

I turned to Eva. ‘You want to stay here? The underfloor heating is lovely.’ Plus then we could have some privacy. She tapped her tail and stretched out on the warm floor; no wonder Fraser was always barefoot.

I followed him into the dining room and stopped abruptly. ‘Fraser, this is beautiful!’ The table was covered in tiny fairy lights and there were candles in the middle. ‘You didn’t have to do all this.’ Nobody had ever done anything like this for me.

‘I didn’t have to.’ He put the plates on the table and slipped his arms around my waist. ‘I wanted to – I want to do everything to make you happy. And not just because of some magical bond, but because you are the most amazing person in the world, and I… I—’ He stopped abruptly before he said too much too soon.

I knew the feeling: we were both dancing around the same word. I was coming to accept that, in spite of everything I had thought about soul mates and perfect matches, I might have found mine.

‘And I need to eat,’ he said. We both knew that wasn’t the way he had planned on finishing his sentence. ‘Let’s tuck in before the food gets cold.’

I met his eyes. ‘Just, hypothetically, if we were to … progress things physically, does that progress our bond too?’

He smiled. ‘No. The bond is one of heart and soul, not the flesh. We can do whatever we like without it affecting the bond.’

‘Cool, cool, cool,’ I said, like a dweeb. I licked my lips. Whatever we like sounded all too good, and I knew there was no way Eva and I were walking home tonight.

We ate companionably. Every morsel was like tantalising foreplay. The food – and the company – was delicious. I should have been exhausted, but whether it was the copious amounts of caffeine I’d swallowed during the day, or the way Fraser was looking at me, I found that sleep was the furthest thing from my mind.

We checked on Eva, making sure she had fresh water and her bunny to snuggle, and left her lolling on the kitchen floor.

Fraser tugged me upstairs where he proceeded to demonstrate how long he could hold his breath, so he never had to pause for something as paltry as breathing.

Suffice to say, I gave him all the noises.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The next morning, the walk of shame didn’t feel shameful in the slightest; in fact, I couldn’t stop smiling. What was developing between Fraser and me felt right.

My eyebrows shot up when I spotted Nour’s car parked outside my house. I let myself in and hollered hello, and Eva joined in with a loud bark.

‘We’re in the kitchen!’ Maddie called.

I joined them. ‘How was your date with Lestat?’ I asked.

She grinned. ‘It was lovely – but evidently not a patch on your date with Fraser!’ She shot me a wink and my face warmed.

‘It was good,’ I admitted.

‘We can tell,’ Nour said. ‘You’re beaming. That’s the look of a well-satisfied woman. You want an omelette?’

‘Fraser made me some toast,’ I admitted. ‘But I do love a good omelette, so I won’t say no.’

‘Cheese, ham?’

‘Yes please!’

She bustled around the kitchen making us each an omelette. I loved that she felt so comfortable in our home.

Maddie looked tired again. Was it her late night with Lestat, or was the boost from the Flame at Hallowburn Harbour already wearing off? If it was, it hadn’t lasted for long. ‘Late night?’ I asked her.

‘Not as late as yours!’

‘You came around early,’ I said to Nour.

She shook her head. ‘I popped around late. Maddie texted after her date and I came over so we could drink wine and gossip about the fact that you still weren’t home. I stayed after too many glasses of wine.’

My tension eased; maybe Maddie looked tired because she was tired. It was hard to know.

Maddie waved a wooden spoon at me. ‘I got up early and baked blueberry muffins. I figured it would probably take a little while for you to fill us in on the details, so I made some for us and some to take to the station later. I’ve finally persuaded Nana to divert the calls to my mobile so I can spend some extra time with you. Or live vicariously through you – that’s probably a better way of putting it. Now spill. How was it?’

‘If things with Lestat heat up, you won’t need any vicarious living!’ I pointed out.

Maddie smiled. ‘Here’s hoping.’ Then she pinned me with a stare. ‘Stop avoiding the questions and spill!’

‘Well... Well...’ I struggled to know where to begin. I started filling the kettle for my second cup of tea of the day. ‘It was... It was perfect,’ I confessed. Then I started at the beginning with the amazing dinner he’d cooked, though I stopped the recital when Fraser and I had got to the bottom of the stairs. They didn’t need to know the rest.

I’d almost finished when Nour’s phone lit up with another message. ‘This is getting ridiculous,’ she said, frowning at the screen. ‘I know my big sister’s somehow got all these big, mystical, magical powers.’

I had just taken a bite of omelette; even though it was still warm, an icy trail trickled down my throat. ‘Nour, how long ago did you say your sister got these powers?’

Nour pressed her lips together as she considered my question. ‘I don’t know. She started sending me messages before we got back from Scotland – about a week or so ago, I suppose.’ She flicked through her phone. ‘Yeah, it’s eight days since she sent me the first one.’

‘Eight days?’ That was around the time the items were stolen from Gwen’s shop. ‘Sorry,’ I said, standing up and trying to look casual. ‘I need to make a phone call.’ I headed to the door, then turned to look at Nour again. ‘Don’t go anywhere yet, will you?’ I said. ‘I think I might need to talk to you about something.’

I went up to my room for some privacy and called my grandfather.

‘Beatrix,’ he answered warmly. ‘How are you? Have you made any progress on finding the Codex Tenebrae?’

I groaned. ‘Next to none, but I might have a lead on the cup. You said it can heal and that the magic-amplifying only happens every few centuries. I know the chances of it aligning with the stars and all that are thin—’

‘It’s not for another sixty-seven years,’ he confirmed. ‘I checked.’

My shoulders sagged with relief. Whoever had the cup couldn’t use it immediately. A vampire or another creature with a long lifespan could afford to kill time, but it also meant we had sixty-seven years to find it. Surely I could do that.

‘That’s great. Hypothetically, what if a normal healthy witch was to drink from it? Could it have some effect on them?’ I gnawed on my bottom lip. ‘For example, make their powers stronger but not by the magnitude of all of the stars?’

‘Most things are possible, I suppose,’ Ernie said after a few moments.

That wasn’t the answer I had wanted. ‘Okay, let’s not talk possible but probable. Do you think it’s likely the cup could have that effect? Or do you think it’s more likely to have no effect unless you’re unwell?’

The pause extended so long that I wasn’t even sure Ernie was still on the line and I checked my screen to make sure he hadn’t hung up. ‘Ernie?’ I prompted.

The sound of rustling met my ears. ‘Sorry,’ he mumbled. ‘I’m thinking through what I know about the cup. Give me a minute – I’m going to check some books.’

I sat on my bed and waited. Even if they weren’t my favourite activity, stakeouts had taught me patience. After a few minutes, Ernie stopped turning pages and made a musing noise. ‘Anything?’ I asked.

‘Bits and pieces,’ he admitted. ‘But nothing concrete. I don’t think it would make any difference if you were drinking your daily cup of tea from it, but if you use an elixir with the ability to draw out the magic from the cup, then yes, I believe it could have some effect, though nowhere near the amplification levels that make it legendary.’

An elixir … that felt like something a fire witch who’d been focusing on potions would be able to do. Was Nour’s sister the thief? It was beginning to look distinctly possible and definitely worth questioning her about.

‘Thank you, Ernie. I appreciate your time,’ I said as I prepared to hang up.

‘Beatrix?’ Ernie’s voice stopped me.

‘Yes? What’s up?’

‘You’ll stay safe, won’t you? Don’t take any unnecessary risks.’ His voice sounded shaky and I realised that he cared about me. ‘I’ll try,’ I said around the sudden lump in my throat. ‘Thanks.’ I ended the call before I did something impulsive like talk about my feelings.

For a moment I wondered what my parents would have thought about Ernie Jacobson. I knew the answer instantly: if my father had met him, he would have let Ernie into his life. I sighed. I would do the same.

I leaned down to stroke Eva and that settled me. ‘Come on, girl,’ I said. ‘I’m going to want you beside me while I talk to Nour.’

I knew Nour wasn’t particularly close to her sisters but that didn’t mean she’d take kindly to me accusing one of them of being a thief. I needed to lay out the facts and let her draw the logical inference, the same way I had done, then I’d ask her to arrange a conversation between me and Farah. I didn’t need to go in guns blazing.

I walked back downstairs. ‘Hey, Nour,’ I said, surprised to find both her and Maddie sitting on the floor in the living room. We’d had the sofa professionally cleaned so there was no need to avoid it in favour of the rug.

They both turned, their faces pale and their eyes wide with shock. Did they already know what I suspected? ‘What is it?’ I asked. ‘What’s wrong?’

Maddie opened her mouth as if she was about to speak, but no words came out.

‘It happened again, Bea,’ Nour said, her voice hushed with wonder. ‘The Flame ... it flickered. And this time, I saw it too.’

Chapter Thirty

The Eternal Flame had stuttered into life for a second time – and once again without me being there. I felt absurdly hurt though I tried to hide it with some questions. ‘What did it look like?’

‘It was pink and purple,’ Nour said.

‘It was purply-pink,’ Maddie exclaimed at the same time.

The descriptions alone confirmed what I already knew. They were telling me the truth.

‘I’m not drunk this time,’ Maddie said, standing up. ‘It really was there.’ Her tone entreated me to believe her.

I shot her a tight smile. ‘It’s okay, I believe you.’ I had last time and this confirmed it. My eyes remained on the now-empty hearth. Why the hell would it choose times when I wasn’t here to appear? Was that the whole point – that it didn’t want me in the house? That it didn’t want me to be the Guardian? My stomach clenched.

The negative thoughts tore inside me like serrated blades. I’d spent a decade running from my birthright, but now that I’d decided to embrace it, it was running from me. It was a bitter pill to swallow. A part of me feared that it knew I wasn’t worthy and that’s why it was showing itself to Maddie and not me. She’d been the one who had remained steadfast and true, and insidious doubt whispered that the Flame wanted her to be the Guardian.

‘Do you want me to do something?’ Maddie said, eyeing me like I was a ticking time bomb. She wasn’t stupid; she could draw inferences too. ‘I don’t need to go in to work. I’m happy to stay here and see if it appears again.’ She chewed her lip. ‘Or I could help you follow up on your leads so you can stay?’

‘I don’t have anywhere to go until this afternoon,’ Nour joined in. ‘The three of us could wait here together.’

I shook my head. ‘Thanks for the offers,’ I said, ‘but I don’t think that’ll be a productive use of any of our time. I tried that before, remember? For hours.’ It would obviously only appear when it wanted to; this was the most frustrating game of peekaboo ever.

The Eternal Flame was something that was beyond my control, meaning that right now, more than ever, I needed to focus on the things that I could do. ‘Nour,’ I said. ‘I need to ask you something, and I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, okay?’

She nodded and stood up. ‘You want to be alone with Maddie. It’s fine. You’re besties and I don’t want you to think that I’m an interloper—’

‘Hey!’ I interrupted her. ‘That wasn’t what I was going to say at all.’ I touched her shoulder. ‘I love having you here – we both do. You’re welcome here whenever you want to come. White Wine Coven, right?’

She smiled. ‘Well, if you don’t want me to leave, what is it you’re nervous about asking me?’

Oof: she’d seen right through me. There was no point beating around the bush. I had started and now I needed to finish. ‘Those videos of your sister ... the way you said her magic seemed to have grown so much it was barely recognisable. Do you think there’s any way—’ I hated saying this ‘Do you think there’s any way she might have used something to try and increase her powers?’

She stared at me. ‘What?’

‘Something’s gone missing, something with extraordinary power.’

‘You’re talking about the mug that was stolen from Gwen’s?’ Maddie interrupted. ‘The one that looks all old and boring but is actually a magical goblet? Nana spoke to me about it last night. Do you think that could be increasing Nour’s sister’s powers?’

‘Maybe.’ I turned back to Nour. ‘The thing is, if it is what Farah’s using, that cup holds serious magic. It’s not the type of thing she can mess with, even if she thinks she’s got control of it.’

Rather than replying immediately, Nour gave a low whistle. Her eyes skirted mine as she chewed on her bottom lip. ‘I don’t know,’ she said truthfully. ‘There was a time I would have said she’d do anything to increase her magic, but I haven’t spoken to her for months. I keep getting these messages in the family chat. We…’ she hesitated. ‘She was one of the more vocal ones against my relationship with Ezra and things have been rocky between us ever since.’

‘I’m sorry to ask this, but could you take me to see her? I need to speak to her but I don’t want to make things any more awkward between the pair of you.’

She scoffed, ‘They could hardly get worse. Farah is queen of making things awkward.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘She’s probably still at home. She doesn’t start work until midday during the week.’

‘Let’s go, then.’

‘Shall I come too?’ Maddie said, looking hopeful.

I was torn. I didn’t want Farah to feel like we were ganging up on her, three against one, because people in a corner tended to fight and I needed her to talk. At the same time, I didn’t want to exclude Maddie. I remembered what Ernie had said: Maddie needed to feel useful.

Nour could drive her own car and head home afterwards. ‘Could you drive me down there, Mads? Maybe take Eva for a walk while we’re inside?’ In some situations, asking people to look after their dog wasn’t exactly a big deal but Maddie knew how much Eva meant to me. I hoped she realised that it wasn’t a casual request; it meant I trusted her completely with my girl.

‘Sure,’ she nodded. ‘Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about anyway.’ From the way that Maddie’s gaze shifted and her voice tightened, I got the feeling it wasn’t going to be a good chat. I racked my brains, wondering what sort of roommate code I might have inadvertently broken.

We trooped out and locked up the house. The moment I’d closed the passenger seat door, Maddie started to speak. ‘I don’t want you to take this the wrong way and I don’t want you to think it’s what I believe – or that it’s even what I want. It’s a suggestion, that’s all,’ she began.

Nerves were rolling off of her with such force that I had to strengthen my mental shields. I smiled at her. ‘Whatever you need to say is okay. Just say it.’

She started the engine, keeping her eyes fixed on the road ahead.

‘Just say it. Better out than in,’ I wished I could say something more to put her at ease.

She gripped the steering wheel tightly. ‘I know this is going to sound completely ridiculous, but do you think… Do you think it’s possible that the Flame appeared both times to me because ... maybe... I don’t know ... it—’

‘It thinks you should be the Guardian?’ I finished for her.

She blew out a long shaky breath. ‘Sorry, I didn’t know how to say it. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Of course it is.’

‘No, it’s not,’ I said as evenly as I could. ‘I had the same thought because it’s logical. The Flame has sentience, and if it doesn’t want to pick me it knows it must find someone it can trust to be its Guardian instead. With all the time you’ve spent with it, it wouldn’t be surprising if it chose you. I wouldn’t blame it – or you – in the slightest.’

Maddie’s knuckles on the steering wheel were white. ‘But if it’s sentient, it will have seen my dalliance with the dark side.’

‘Which you came through,’ I pointed out.

‘Yeah, maybe,’ she said wistfully. ‘But I’m still not quite right. My magic is still sluggish.’ Then, sensing how her last comment had unsettled me, she added quickly, ‘I haven’t done any more of that stuff, I promise, but I don’t know if you ever truly come out the other side of it or whether it lingers. Not consciously or anything – and I’d never use it again.’

It was my turn to come clean. ‘Ernie and I have been talking about your magic. After you worked with the Flame in Hallowburn you seemed brighter, more energetic. But now… We wondered if your work with the Flame without the protection of the Guardian bond has made you a little…’

‘A little what?’ Her tone was brittle.

‘Addicted,’ I finished bluntly.

Maddie swallowed hard a few times. Her breathing had speeded up and I didn’t need to be an empath to feel her panic. ‘If you are,’ I said gently, ‘it will be okay. We know where there is another Flame. You have options.’

‘I kept having to draw on more of it to get the same effect, the same energy boost,’ she said tightly. ‘That’s addiction, isn’t it? When you need more for the same effect?’

‘Not always,’ I said. ‘But … maybe. We need to get the Flame back and wean you off using it.’

‘And we can’t do that if it chooses me as its Guardian.’

I licked my lips. ‘I don’t know. Maybe the bond will act retrospectively and undo any damage it has caused already.’

She nodded jerkily. ‘Right.’

‘I’m sorry, Maddie. This is all my fault.’

She shot me a glare. ‘You didn’t make me work with the Flame so much, I did that all by myself. Stop shouldering guilt for other people’s actions, Beatrix Stonehaven!’

I couldn’t help but think of what Ernie had said, how I needed to make Maddie realise how grateful I was for everything she’d done for me. To make her realise how much I still needed her.

‘You know I wouldn’t have coped with what happened to Kaz without you, don’t you?’ I said, breaking the silence that was filling the car. ‘Or the hunt for the other Flame?’

Maddie dismissed my words. ‘You would have been fine. You had Ezra, Nour and Fraser. I was just a third wheel. Well ... a fifth wheel.’

‘Maddie, that’s not true at all! All the time I was living in London, the hardest thing about being away from Witchlight was being away from you. I never worried that you wouldn’t be able to look after the Flame or that you wouldn’t build a life without me, because I knew you could. I’ve always seen you as much stronger than me, but strong or not, you need support. I’m sorry I didn’t see that sooner – sorry I didn’t provide it sooner. Whether the Flame chooses you, me or some random Bob off the street, I still want you to live with me.’

She lifted a hand to wipe away a tear. ‘I think I’m finding it so hard because I had everything planned. I was going to open a shop, maybe open another somewhere in London. I had ambitions and ideas, and now that’s all gone.’

‘I know how you feel,’ I said softly. ‘I had visions of opening a proper office, expanding my business one day, of being the PI to go to in London. And now I’m back here, still finding my feet. Magical PI work is totally different to human PI work, and I’m scared I’m not as good at it.’

She snorted. ‘You were right about Sonny, and you were right about Mrs D. You’re good at it.’ A smile tugged at her lips. ‘It’s kinda nice to hear you say so, though. It makes me feel like I’m not the only screw-up.’

‘Excuse me?’ I said, dragging out the vowel sounds for effect. ‘At what point did you think I wasn’t a screw-up?’

This time, her laugh was full-bellied. After shifting the gear up, she reached across and took my hand. ‘I love you, Bea,’ she said.

‘Back at you.’

Eva gave a loud bark from the back, breaking the moment. At first I thought she wanted an undying declaration of love too, but then I saw Nour had pulled over. ‘ It looks like Nour is parking up ahead,’ I said, pointing to the side of the road where Nour’s red car was reversing in front of an old camper van.

Time to accuse my new friend’s sister of theft. Awesome.

Chapter Thirty-One

Judging from the amount of smoke coming out of chimneys on such a warm summer’s day, it was safe to assume that Farah wasn’t the only witch living on the street. Nour had told me that her family all lived close by, but she had moved away because they disapproved of her relationship with Ezra. I needed to be as tactful as possible with my questioning.

‘Thanks again for bringing me here,’ I said when I joined her outside.

‘It’s no problem,‘ Nour replied. ‘But just so you know, my sister can be a bit prickly. Please don’t take anything she says to heart.’

‘Trust me, I’ve got spikes of my own if I need them,’ I said, then quickly added, ‘not that I plan on being spikey to your sister. I only want to talk.’

‘It’s fine. I know you’ve got a job to do. This is serious.’

Nour looked as if she were giving herself a pep talk as her hand hovered in front of the door for a full five seconds before she finally knocked on it.

Usually I enjoyed speaking to suspects or witnesses; even if they weren’t particularly pleasant, it often resulted in a couple of extra pieces being added to the jigsaw, even if it was simply clearing their name and crossing them off the list. This time, however, I wasn’t looking forward to it at all; I didn’t want to make things worse for Nour and Ezra.

In the videos that Nour had received, Farah had always been standing alone with no visible background, which meant it had been difficult to tell how big she was. I hadn’t expected her to be over six feet tall even when standing barefoot on the tiled floor. She was wearing a skirt and shirt, her dark tresses piled in an elaborate updo, and she was clearly ready to leave the house.

‘Look at that,’ Farah sneered, looking down at Nour like she was dirt on her shoe. ‘My baby sister comes crawling back.’ Her eyes sharpened. ‘And that only means one thing – you want something.’ Technically, she wasn’t wrong.

Nour inhaled audibly. ‘You know I want something, Farah, because I sent you a message on my way over, which I know you saw even if you couldn’t be bothered to reply. As the message said, my friend wants to ask you some questions.’

‘Ah yes, your mysterious friend.’ Farah twisted slightly so she was looking down her nose at me. ‘You can certainly pick them, can’t you, Nour? First that werewolf piece of trailer trash and now the wonky witch with the screwed-up powers who landed that poor vampire in hospital.’

Her insult hurt but I tried to ignore it. ‘I’ll be sure to let the beta of the werewolf pack know that you called him trailer trash,’ I replied. Farah flinched and her smirk faltered a little. ‘We can do this out here,’ I continued coolly, ‘or inside, where the neighbours can’t see or hear.’ Her faultless exterior suggested she was someone who cared about appearances.

‘Whatever,’ she spat, stepping back to let us in. ‘Come in, if you must. You’ve got five minutes. I have an appointment.’

Unlike Nour’s place, Farah’s house was a stereotypical witch’s home. There were flowers drying on rafters and jars on display, some containing things I recognised like frogspawn and pickled spiders’ egg sacks, other containing things I didn’t want to recognise. Beside the jars were small bottles in various colours, and I wondered if one of them was the elixir she’d used to draw out the magic from the cup of completion. If indeed, she had the cup.

Farah didn’t offer us a seat but I sat down anyway. ‘So, what is this about?’ she demanded. ‘As I said, I’m busy.’ As she waved a hand to emphasise her words, a Flame appeared in the middle of her palm. Although she looked relaxed, when I lowered my barriers slightly I could feel a buzzing excitement radiating from her. That told me that this magic was new to her and she was still enjoying it.

‘I wanted to talk to you about some items that have been stolen from the shop Grimoires and Goblets,’ I said.

‘Grimoires and Goblets?’ Farah said. ‘Why on earth would anybody steal from that cesspit? The owner sells junk and trinkets to unsuspecting tourists who think it’s edgy.’ Her nose crinkled as if the very existence of the shop disgusted her.

‘There are some useful things in it, too.’

She shrugged. ‘Well, each to their own, I suppose,’ she said. She leaned forward; despite herself she was interested. ‘What was stolen?’

‘There are two items I’m looking into. One is a cup that may increase a witch’s strength.’

‘Well, I could see that could be useful,’ she said. ‘But why are you here?’ It took barely a breath for her to realise she knew the answer to her own question. She glared at her sister. ‘You’re not serious? You told this wannabe detective bitch that I stole it? How dare you?’

‘No, I didn’t,’ Nour said firmly. ‘She drew her own conclusions from the information she’s got. You have to admit that it’s strange timing, Farah. The cup was stolen and suddenly your powers increased massively.’

‘Is this a joke?’ Farah shook her head, her expression disgusted. Her jaw was so tight with tension that her teeth were clenched. ‘You’re so self-involved, you really have no idea, do you?’

Nour was trying to hold herself together in the face of her sister’s anger. ‘No idea of what?’ she asked tightly.

Farah sidestepped the question. ‘I can’t believe you have the audacity to accuse me of stealing something to strengthen my powers. You were the one Mum nearly went bankrupt for, having to pay for all those cleansing options and rituals after you decided to play with dark magic!’

‘That wasn’t what happened and you know it.’ Nour’s voice was trembling.

‘And you have the gall to come here and accuse me of stealing?’

‘You know that what happened to me was because of—’

‘I don’t know anything about what happened to you, Nour. Like you don’t know anything about what has happened to me. That’s because we never got on and we don’t talk – we may share parents but that’s about it. We’re living proof that family isn’t always everything.’ She stuck her nose in the air. ‘But I’ll do better than Mum with my own kids.’ She patted her tummy pointedly.

Nour’s eyes shot to Farah’s middle.

‘If you’d actually bothered to speak to any of us, you’d have found out that the reason my powers have strengthened is because I’m pregnant!’

Silence swallowed the room.

I’d never been close to a pregnant witch before but I’d heard stories about how it could change their magic. Often the baby’s magic would try to manifest through their mother, and if they both had the same kind of magic it could result in a significant increase in the mother’s power.

‘You’re pregnant?’ Nour said quietly.

‘Yes. Mum insisted we tell you in person – so here we are. You’re going to be an auntie.’ She gave a hard, cynical laugh. ‘I actually thought the reason you were coming round was because someone had told you and you wanted to congratulate me. But of course not!’ she snarled. ‘And an accusation is rich coming from you. You know there’s only one person in our family who’s done something that goes against the coven’s code.’ Her implication was clear.

She glanced down at her watch. ‘I need to get going. I’ve got a doctor’s appointment – you know, for the baby?’ she said. ‘I take it you can show yourselves out?’

She cast one last glance my way, at which point her features hardened even further. A moment later, she picked up her handbag and strode out of the house.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The slamming of the door resounded and, for the first time since setting foot in her sister’s house, Nour sat down. Although ‘collapsed’ would have been a better description. The minute she landed on a chair, she dropped her head into her hands.

Guilt rolled through me. My suspicions had been warranted and valid, but I had caused an even bigger rift between Nour and her family. ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said.

Nour looked up with a wry smile. ‘It’s okay. It’s really not your fault. Things have always been difficult between us.’

Before I could apologise further, we were interrupted by a hammering on the door. ‘Bea! Nour! What’s happened?’ Maddie’s panicked voice called from outside.

I went to answer it, letting Nour stay where she was.

‘I saw Farah storm out and I headed right back,’ Maddie said. ‘She looked steamed.’

‘Yeah, that’s putting it mildly.’ I let her and Eva into the house.

‘What happened?’ Mads followed me back into the living room, where Nour’s head was once again buried in her hands. Maddie hastened to her and threw an arm around her.

‘Farah didn’t have the cup,’ I said. ‘But Nour is going to be an auntie.’

‘Oh boy,’ Maddie said, her eye widening in understanding. ‘That’s what made her powers grow.’

‘Yeah. Apparently so.’

Maddie winced. ‘Sorry, Nour. This confrontation is going to make things even more difficult for you, isn’t it?’

Nour sighed. ‘No more than usual.’ She offered us a watery smile. ‘I should have thought to ask the question. She and Ash have been together for years and she’s always wanted to have a family. She’s in her early thirties … she had mentioned in the family chat that she had a few food aversions, but I thought she was being picky.’ A single tear trickled down her cheek and she brushed it away. ‘That stuff she said, about me going against the coven’s code—’

‘You don’t have to explain yourself to us,’ I said firmly.

‘Yes, I do,’ she said. ‘And I want to.’

Maddie and I exchanged a look, then sat down on either side of her. We waited until she was ready to speak.

‘The thing about being a light witch is that you want things to be brighter, you know? You’re always looking for ways to amplify the power of the light because that’s how you amplify your own power.’ She sniffed. ‘I was about sixteen – it was way before I dated Ezra – and I was focused solely on my magic.

‘One of the ways to make something look brighter is to put something dark next to it, like artists do. Something that’s a mid-tone can look much darker if it’s next to white, or a whole heap lighter if it’s next to a deep colour. I was working on ways to make the light brighter. I didn’t realise that by doing that I was playing with dark magic; I swear to God I didn’t. By the time I realised... Well, you heard.’

She glanced away. ‘Mum had to work overtime for months to pay for the cleansing my soul needed afterward. I swear I didn’t know what I was doing and since then I’ve avoided any type of shadow spells, I promise.’ She looked between us both, entreating us to understand.

As Maddie’s’ eyes met mine, she gave the tiniest of smiles. She would tell Nour her own story, too.

‘You’re not the only one who has dabbled inadvertently,’ she admitted. She sniffed. ‘They really should make it clearer what magic is dark and what isn’t. When the Flame disappeared, I needed something else to fuel my magic. I honestly didn’t realise I wasn’t using my own magic but the life force of things around me.’ She met Nour’s eyes. ‘That’s why I’ve been working with Ernie. He’s trying to cleanse me.’

Nour’s eyes closed. When she opened them, she drew Maddie into a hug. ‘Thank you so much for telling me that. I know how hard that confession must be.’

‘You feel so stupid,’ Maddie mumbled. ‘How could I not have realised?’

Nour nodded.

I stood up. ‘I’m going to leave you guys to talk it all through,’ I said awkwardly, wanting to give them time alone to share their experiences. ‘But if you need me then call me, day or night. Always.’ I looked between them. ‘Both of you. The White Wine Coven forever.’

Nour gave a little laugh. ‘I thought you might kick me out,’ she sniffed.

‘Are you kidding?’ I snorted. ‘I have an evil sorceress grandmother and I pushed Kaz into a coma. If anyone should be leaving, it’s me.’

‘No one’s leaving,’ Maddie said firmly. ‘We all make mistakes. It’s what we do afterwards that defines us.’ She looked at me. ‘I’m going to tell Nour about the potential addiction, too.’

I didn’t tell her that Nour had been the one to come up with that particular theory. I took a deep breath. ‘While we’re confessing things, I’m not a hundred percent sure my grandmother is dead. In fact, the head of the Nightshades said she was definitely alive. I’m not certain I believe her but I can’t think why she’d bother to lie to me about it either.’

Nour blew out a breath. ‘That’s heavy.’

‘It’s going to get heavier,’ Maddie warned.

‘And on that note, I’m off,’ I told them. ‘I need to work out what to do next about the cup and the grimoire. I need the walk, so I’ll leave you here. See you later, ladies.’ I called Eva and stalked out of the door, leaving them to talk.

I’d been walking for about ten minutes when my phone rang. An involuntary smile crossed my face.

‘Good morning, beautiful,’ Fraser said, as I answered the call. There was something about the way he called me beautiful that actually made me believe it.

‘Good morning yourself,’ I replied. ‘What are you up to?’

‘Nothing planned this morning,’ he admitted. ‘But this afternoon I’m going to look at an old restaurant off the high street, see if it’s possible to bring it back to life. How’s your morning been so far?’

‘Interesting,’ I said ruefully. ‘I thought I had a lead but it turns out I was very, very wrong.’

‘That sounds rough.’

‘It wasn’t exactly great. We accused Nour’s sister of stealing the cup and that didn’t go down well. It turns out her sudden flare of power is due to pregnancy.’

‘Ah.’ He paused. ‘Well, becoming an auntie is lovely news for Nour.’

‘She doesn’t get on with Farah at the best of times, and I totally made it ten times worse.’

‘Don’t go blaming yourself,’ Fraser said firmly. ‘It was a logical conclusion.’ He changed the subject. ‘I was wondering if you’d like to come over tonight? I’ll cook dinner again?’

I smiled. I loved that he was doing the literal opposite of ‘treat ’em mean, keep ’em keen’. There were no games between us; he was showing me how much he wanted to see me, and I loved that he valued me so much. ‘I’d love that, but you cooked dinner for me yesterday.’

‘I enjoy cooking,’ he confessed. ‘And most selkies have the urge to look after their … girlfriend,’ he finished lamely.

I grinned. ‘You can call me your mate, if you want to. We’re not there yet, but I know it’s the closest term to what I am to you.’

‘Thank you, mo chridhe. Seven-ish? Work dependent, of course, in case you get called into some big important case or find some new leads to follow.’

‘Seven-ish would be great,’ I replied. ‘Barring any unforeseeable hiccups.’

‘Sure.’

‘Great.’

There was a slight pause at the end of the line as if one of us might add something else, but neither of us did. Instead I blurted out goodbye and hung up, timing it perfectly with my arrival at the beach.

Fran and her ice-cream cart were situated there and as usual she had a small queue of customers, though it was the ones at the front that I recognised. Scarlett was ordering a double scoop for a woman in a wheelchair whom I recognised from the photos in her home.

Scarlett looked pale, a little shocked and off her game; I guessed the whole affair with Archer had shaken her more than she liked to admit. Her mother looked frail but she was laughing, her eyes alight with joy. A warm sense of satisfaction filled me. I had done that; if I’d managed to spread even a little bit of kindness in the world, that was enough.

For a second I thought about going over and talking to them, but I changed my mind. They had little time left together and all of it was precious, so instead I headed to the shop to speak to Gwen. Maybe she could give me the names of some other regular customers I could look into; customers who might have realised what the Cup and the Grimoire really were.

It took a couple of minutes after stepping inside for Gwen to appear. ‘Oh, it’s you again,’ she said, her tone nasal with annoyance. ‘I thought you’d abandoned me like the police did.’

‘Not at all.’ I deliberately kept my tone even. ‘I’ve been busy following up leads.’

‘You’ve got something?’ she asked hopefully.

‘The lead didn’t pan out, but it’s another avenue of inquiry crossed off,’ I admitted. ‘Yanni told you about Archer?’

She glared. ‘That little miscreant! I thought he was lurking around to try and get Scarlett back! I bet he dated her as a smokescreen.’

I’d had the same thought. ‘Quite possibly,’ I agreed, keen to make sure she saw Scarlett as a victim in all this rather than complicit. ‘I wanted to ask you more about the grimoire.’ I’d been focusing my attention on the mug because I knew what its powers were, but as that had got me nowhere fast, I’d decided it was time to change tactics. Perhaps knowing what the grimoire could do would help me track it down. ‘It appeared to be blank, right?’

Gwen nodded.

‘So how do you get it to reveal its knowledge? Does it need a specific revealing spell or something else?’ I doubted it was a simple blood ward; a prick on the finger wouldn’t break this bad boy.

She was quiet for a moment as she weighed up whether she could trust me with the information. ‘It’s got an ancient ward on it. The only way to reveal its secrets is with a death.’

‘Chicken or goat?’ I asked.

She shook her head. ‘Human.’

Yikes. Whoever had taken the grimoire would need to have no compunction about killing someone to access its dark depths. And one person came immediately to mind.

My grandmother. My grandmother would do that.

Chapter Thirty-Three

I left Gwen’s and rang Fraser. ‘Any chance you can give me a lift to Ernie’s?’ I asked. ‘I don’t want to waste time walking there. Can you pick me up outside Grimoires and Goblets’

‘See you in five minutes.’ I loved that he didn’t ask me a raft of questions. I needed help and he was coming; that was it.

Calling Fraser for a lift reminded me that I needed to go to London to empty my flat and drive Rosie down to Witchlight Cove. I wasn’t sure my rust bucket would make it, but I had to try. I had a ridiculous emotional attachment to that hunk of metal; she’d been the only constant in my life since my parents had died.

I texted Ernie and told him I’d be round in ten minutes; he responded by saying he’d put the kettle on and find some biscuits. That was something grandparents did, wasn’t it? Spoilt their grandchildren with cookies and cake? It made my heart ache that my parents would never do that for my kid, if I ever had one.

And for the first time ever, I realised I did want one. I could see myself with Fraser, a child crawling around at our ankles. I needed to get over my resistance to the idea of the bond because the idea of a life with Fraser didn’t freak me out at all.

I was still imagining our potential future when he pulled up. I opened the back door for Eva, then slid in to the front seat.

‘Okay?’ he asked.

I probably looked pale, not only because of my fears about my grandmother but also because of the realisation that I wanted what others had: a family of my own. Not that I could tell him that.

‘I’m a little freaked out,’ I admitted. ‘I dismissed the idea that my grandmother might be a suspect for the theft when I realised Archer was the thief – only he wasn’t the only thief. Gwen told me that to unlock the Codex you need to murder someone and that means you’re looking at a sorcerer – so Granny is back on the list of suspects. I need to talk to Ernie. The thought that she might be involved is terrifying.’

Fraser’s jaw tightened. ‘Indeed.’

When we reached the house, Ernie was standing in the doorway. He gave us a jaunty wave. ‘Do you want to come in?’ I asked Fraser. ‘If you have time before your restaurant appointment?’

‘You’re more important,’ he replied. ‘I always have time for you.’

When we emerged from the car I grinned as I watched Ernie fuss over Eva. The key to unlocking my heart was loving my dog.

‘Come in,’ my grandfather said. ‘I’ve made a pot of tea. Plenty for three.’ Eva whined. He winked at her. ‘I have something for you, too.’

We sat in the living room and Ernie came in moments later with a tray set with mugs, a teapot and milk, and a plate of chocolate cookies. He ducked back into the kitchen to retrieve Eva’s treat and came back moments later with some sort of peanut-butter cow-hide chew that sent her tail tapping into overdrive.

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘She loves those.’

We sat in silence for a few minutes as we drank our tea until finally I set down my mug and looked Ernie full in the face. I had a feeling he knew what I was about to say. I cleared my throat. ‘The head of the Order of the Nightshades, Candice, told me that my grandmother is still alive. Candice has information on her whereabouts, but she won’t share it until she’s seen the Eternal Flame.’

‘Which is problematic,’ Ernie noted.

‘Just a little,’ I agreed drily. ‘The Codex Tenebrae and the Cup of Completion are drawn to sorcerers. Any practitioner of the dark arts would want them. I know it’s a leap, but…’

Ernie sighed. ‘Dahlia was obsessed with grimoires – books in general, all knowledge. It was one of the things that attracted me to her in the first place.’ He gestured to the shelves behind him that were crammed with books.

‘Do you think she could have stolen the grimoire in Gwen’s shop? Do you think it’s my grandmother?’

‘I don’t know. After what happened that day when she caused so much destruction I know the village wards were tightened, but you’d have to ask Yanni for the details. The changes in the wards were specifically aimed at keeping her out.’

‘Yanni let me believe Dahlia died that day.’

‘She disappeared – you always knew that.’

‘No, Yanni said her body wasn’t found.’

‘Well, that was true. Yanni thought you deserved to live without fearing your grandmother’s return, but she never lied to you – you just drew your own conclusions. I’d like to hear the story of what happened from you one day, but I know it will be incredibly hard to talk about. Even so, perhaps it would help to know what methods she used to better prepare for a return visit.’

It was the day I never wanted to talk about, the day I’d tried to push from my mind, but perhaps if I told Ernie the full details he would see something that could help us catch Dahlia before she could use the cup and the grimoire to become the worst version of herself. The current version was scary enough.

I tapped the seat next to me and Eva jumped up, not only to listen but also to comfort me as well. Lord knows, I needed it.

‘I was seventeen and a half, and I was feeling a bit down. My magic still hadn’t manifested, and time was running out – everyone knows you get your full powers by the time you’re eighteen, and I still couldn’t do much more than the feeblest of wards.’

I drew in a long breath. ‘Mum and Dad tried to cheer me up and we went out for pizza. Mum had made me some colour-changing hair potions that I’d liked when I was little. They even invited Maddie over and tried to have a kitchen disco with spelled lighting and everything.’ I closed my eyes. ‘It was lovely, but I was upset and I wanted to be treated as an adult. It felt like they were clinging to my childhood, treating me like a kid.’

A tear slipped down my cheek. My parents had tried so hard to lift my spirits. ‘Soon,’ Mum had promised, as she’d held my face in her hands. ‘Soon everything will change. Your powers will come.’ Her voice had been so certain. At the time it had made me rage – but now?

My God, had they been planning to lift the binding?

Fraser took my hand in his, a wordless comfort that I was so grateful for.

‘Maddie had stayed with me for a couple of nights already and finally my parents’ molly-coddling got too much and I snapped. I said I was going to stay at Yanni’s with Maddie because I needed some space.’ I could still see the way Mum had tried to keep her smile in place as if my words hadn’t hurt her. That damned smile haunted me.

‘We were halfway to Maddie’s place when she approached us,’ I continued.

‘Your grandmother?’ Ernie asked.

‘Yes. Obviously I didn’t recognise her. I know you said we look alike, but she was dark haired to my fiery red, and she was old. She was walking along the high street and she asked us if we knew where to find the Stonehaven Cottage. She said she was a friend of Dad’s. I asked how she knew him and she smiled and said, “We used to do witchy stuff together.” And she winked at me.

‘I knew she was being deliberately vague, but people were often secretive about why they wanted to talk to my parents. I told Maddie I’d show her the way and she could go on to Yanni’s. I planned to walk the woman to the end of our lane and point to the right cottage.

‘“I didn’t realise Greg had a little girl,” she said and that comment annoyed me even more, given how much I hated being thought of as little. I grunted a reply, but then she changed the subject and asked the quickest way to leave town. I told her there were a couple of different paths through the woods but you couldn’t get cars down them. Unless you were on a mountain bike, the main road was quicker.

‘“The road it is, then,” she said. Then she flicked her wrist, the doors of a car nearby flew open and before I realised what was happening, I was thrown inside.’

I wanted to stop the story there, wished the story ended there.

‘The seatbelts bound me in place all by themselves. I tried to get out but I couldn’t move.’

Fraser gave a low moan of distress and put an arm around me. I wasn’t sure if he was comforting me or himself,

‘You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to,’ Ernie said gently.

‘I do,’ I said. ‘I need to get it off my chest and you deserve to hear what happened to your son. Closure for us both.’ I hoped it was true.

I took a deep breath and continued. ‘Dahlia was so smiley, so calm. I remember her saying how she’d always wanted a daughter, but granddaughters were supposed to be even better. She said she was going to show me things I could never have imagined, all the things my father would have shown me if he’d had any backbone.’

I swallowed hard, aware of the tears trickling down my cheeks, unable to wipe them away.

‘I thought she was going to take me away but then the car hit the barrier. The ward on it sensed her ill intent, and anyway teenagers can’t go through it without parental consent. That safety measure had been in place for over a decade – Ezra, Maddie and I used to mess around with it. We thought it was outdated and stupid, especially when we were seventeen. We would walk into the barrier just so we’d rebound off. But this time, it didn’t simply push us back, it set off the alarms too. The sky lit up and a wailing siren rang out.

‘My grandmother didn’t stop, though. She dragged me out of the wrecked car, bound my hands with purple vines and started shooting charms at the air, determined to break the ward. She was still firing them when the villagers started arriving – Yanni, Chief Inspector Magill, Mrs D, Mr Bentley, Mrs Siracuse, witches, shifters, vampires. Anyone who was close by. And my parents came, too.’

The tears were coming thick and fast now and I could hardly breathe. Fraser bundled me into his arms, rocking me back and forth, his own distress painfully evident, and I realised that he could feel my agony down our bond, feel my guilt and regret. I still wished that alarm hadn’t sounded and that the barrier had failed because then I would have been the only one who had died that night.

I let myself take comfort in his arms then I continued. ‘She … she took control of the vampires. Their eyes went black and their movements were jerky, like they were puppets on a string. But that didn’t stop them attacking Chief Inspector Magill or Mrs Siracuse, the head of the Night Moon coven. They killed Jimmy Fells, a werewolf shifter who was barely eighteen. Mum used her wand, called on the Eternal Flame and sent fire towards my grandmother, but she countered it somehow with black flames of her own.’

Ernie’s jaw dropped. ‘Souls,’ he murmured, horrified. ‘Stolen souls used to fuel her spells.’

I didn’t need to ask how she’d collected the souls in the first place; I knew the answer.

‘And that’s when she summoned a demon.’ I shook my head, remembering my despair. ‘She—’

I broke off as another sob rose in my throat. This: this moment was the one that haunted me most. ‘She didn’t bind the demon to anyone, she ripped it from the demon dimension and let it loose. Dad tried everything – binding spells, wards – but nothing held it back. All the while, Bleakman was still controlling the vampires, making them attack. If any of them wanted to survive, they had to kill one of us.’

‘Dad yelled at Mum, “We have to contain it. It needs a vessel then it can be killed!” My mum screamed at him, told him no, but he did it anyway. He summoned the demon into his own body and then begged Mum to kill it – and him.’

I had to stop then, had to stop speaking and cry my heart out. God, I’d tried so hard to forget the moment when Mum had used her athame on my dad’s throat.

‘It was quick. He told her to do it and that he loved her. He held the demon in check but the effort to restrain it was visible. And Mum … she killed Dad quickly.’

She’d cried so hard as she’d drawn the blade across his throat – and then fury had consumed her.

I scrubbed at my cheeks and tried to calm down enough to finish the story. ‘Mum faced down my grandmother and used all her rage to slam her into the barrier. Mum poured the Eternal Flame into her but she’d drawn too much of the Flame, way more than she’d ever done before. It consumed her, burning her from the inside out.

‘When she finally lowered her hands, Bleakman had disappeared and the purple vines binding me had gone too. I ran over to Mum as she collapsed and she gripped my hand. She said, “Trust what it takes.” And then she died.’

I took some deep breaths. ‘Chief Inspector Magill, Mrs Siracuse, Jimmy Fells and the three vampires my grandmother had possessed all died. Eight people died to protect me. People who fought for their sects, for me. People who didn’t even know me died for me.’

‘I’m so sorry, Beatrix,’ Ernie said, unashamed of the tears pouring down his cheeks.

I nodded. ‘Me too.’

Silence fell, a silence full of pain and hurt, as we all tried to process the darkest moment of my life.

When I’d found a demon the day I’d met Eva, it had made me panic and I’d flung the strongest potion Maddie had ever made at it. The demon had been in a vessel so it was weaker, and thankfully it had been sent right back to another realm. If only Mum had had a potion like that. The thought haunted me.

‘Just one more question, Beatrix,’ Ernie said. ‘Your grandmother’s body wasn’t found but was there smoke when she disappeared?’

‘Yes, and scorched earth where she’d been standing.’

‘What colour was the smoke?’

‘It was a purpley-grey.’

‘Purpley-grey smoke? You’re sure? You’re sure it wasn’t red?’

‘No, not red,’ I said.

I could feel the tension rolling from Ernie’s body. He sighed. ‘Then your vampire friend was right. Dahlia is still very much alive.’

Chapter Thirty-Four

My legs were trembling so badly I could barely stand up, but I needed to. I couldn’t sit there doing nothing; I needed to act. ‘I have to tell Yanni,’ I said. ‘She can put out an alert, see if there’s any sign of her in the village.’

If my grandmother was alive and she was in the village, we were all in danger – especially with the Flame on the fritz. My God, what if it had disappeared because of her?

I had no idea if Dahlia could get through the enhanced wards, but I would put nothing past her. Urgency gripped me and I moved towards the door, but Ernie was quick on his feet – way quicker than I would have expected.

‘You can’t go. Please, Beatrix, think this through. It’s not safe for you to leave.’

‘What do you expect me to do?’ I stared at him, bewildered. ‘Just sit here and do nothing?’

‘I would like that very much,’ Ernie said. ‘I would like you to sit here where I can protect you. I’ll strengthen all the wards so she can never get to you or me again.’

Even with all my barriers in place, I could feel his fear and the way his heart was breaking as all the possibilities unfolded before him – possibilities that didn’t bear thinking about.

I stepped forward and pressed my hands on his shoulders. ‘There’s no real sign she’s here. A couple of powerful objects could have been taken by anyone. The fact that Dahlia is definitely alive… well, she’s been alive for the last decade and I’m still here. I’m not spending my life hiding from her. Ernie, you know I have to do this.’ I looked at him entreatingly. ‘But I could do with some help. I need to know how we destroy the cup and the Codex.’

‘I’m not sure about the cup – I need to look into it. We could try smashing it but the fact that it’s been around this long probably means it’s not that simple. But the Codex is easier. We’ll need witch fire – strong witch fire.’

Fuck. Today I’d been introduced to a fire witch and I’d royally pissed her off. The chances of her willingly helping me were slim to none.

Ernie continued. ‘I can find the incantations that you need and a potion to act as an accelerant, but you’ll need a fire witch to light the fuse.’

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ I said. ‘Yanni might know someone.’ Hopefully someone other than Farah.

‘I’ll prepare those now,’ he said. Panic was radiating from his body so forcefully that it was making the air tremble.

‘Ernie.’ I squeezed his shoulders again. ‘Ernie, I know you’re scared but, please, think logically. The items were stolen more than a week ago. Don’t you think that if Dahlia had them already she’d have increased her power and come for me?’

He nodded, though he didn’t look convinced. ‘Before you go, can I place a protection spell on you?’

‘What kind of protection spell?’ Between my parents binding me and Fraser’s pelt, I’d had way too much magic done to me, rather than done by me.

‘It links your power to mine,’ he said. ‘It means you can draw on me if you need to.’

‘Ernie, I don’t want to draw on your power! I can barely handle my own.’

‘That’s the point. You are very, very powerful, Beatrix – at least you will be once you have control of your magic. But at the moment you haven’t got that. I have control of my magic and it is more malleable, more predictable than yours. Having access to it will help to control yours. You might not need it but it would be better to have it and not need it than the other way around.’

I had to admit that made sense. ‘Is there a downside for you?’

He hesitated for long enough that I knew there was. ‘Spill it, Grandad!’

He smiled. ‘That’s the first time you’ve ever called me grandad.’

‘It is. Don’t avoid the question, Gramps.’

He winced. ‘Maybe not Gramps? It makes me feel a hundred and I’m not even seventy.’

‘Ernie,’ I growled impatiently. ‘Tell me!’

‘It will drain me if I hold this protection over you for very long. But let me put it on you now and we can reassess things on a week-by-week basis.’

‘It won’t cause you permanent damage?’

‘No – and it’s entirely a one-way street. I won’t be able to access your magic. Please, read me if you need to. You’ll see that I’m not lying to you.’

‘I’m not going to do that.’

‘I need you to, and I think you do too. You need to read me to see that the power is there within you and it’s safe for you to use. You can’t be afraid of your powers or you’ll hesitate when you really need them. Doing that could condemn others, not just you.’

I was torn. Diving into someone’s head was something I’d promised myself I would never do again, but he was right: this could be a life or death not just for me but a heap of other people, too.

‘I’ll do it,’ I whispered.

Ernie nodded and held out his hands. I took them in my own.

I was yanked into Ernie’s mind with a flash and a tug. This wasn’t like with Kaz, who had resisted me and tried to prevent me having access to her thoughts and memory. Ernie wanted me to see it all, to feel it all. It felt the same as when Fraser had showed me his moments with Lorenz: easy, willing, safe.

And then the memories started rolling. A flash of fear when Ernie had first seen my face, when I knocked on his door. Disbelief when we’d been in Sonny’s, and anger at himself after he had thrown Fraser across the café. The flood of relief when I’d brought Maddie to see him – not only because he knew he could save her but because he got to see me again, to tell me the truth. Through it all I felt pure, unconditional love that he’d been harbouring since the day of my birth, waiting for a chance for it to be released. A desire to do nothing but help me and keep me safe.

He wasn’t lying: that was what he wanted this spell for. And now, I needed to get the hell out of his thoughts while his mind was still intact.

I yanked myself away, but my eyes remained closed, terrified of what I would see if I opened them. It was only when I felt his hands squeeze mine that I peeked through my eyelashes.

‘It’s alright,’ Ernie said gently. ‘You did good. I’m fine. You saw the truth?’

‘Yes. You love me.’

He smiled. ‘I love you.’

I threw myself into my grandfather’s arms and let him comfort me. He was my dad’s father, the last connection to him that I hadn’t known I had. Ernie was family.

We hugged for a long minute until I finally pulled back. For the first time that I recall, Ernie looked happy. Truly radiant. ‘Let’s do this,’ he said. ‘You enjoy the tea and biscuits while I mix up the protection potion. It won’t take long.’ He paused and grimaced. ‘It’s a bit horrible, but you have to ingest a bit of me.’

‘What?’ I said, horrified.

‘I know – it sounds gross. We could do a toenail clipping, hair, or saliva? Whichever you choose will melt into the mixture – you won’t even notice it.’

Melted or not, a toenail was still a toenail. ‘Ugh. Go for hair,’ I said.

Eva’s hair got absolutely everywhere, including in my meals, and though I didn’t want to think about it too deeply I must have swallowed plenty since she’d joined me. One more of Ernie’s really wasn’t that much to add to the count.

He went to the kitchen to prepare the potion with Eva trotting nosily behind him, leaving Fraser and I alone. I fell into his arms. ‘I’m sorry that was so heavy.’

‘Don’t ever apologise for sharing anything with me,’ he said firmly. ‘I know more now, and I’m grateful for that.’ He looked at me fiercely. ‘If that bitch even tries to touch a hair on your head, I will drown her in the ocean.’

I smiled. ‘You say the sweetest things.’

‘I mean it, Bea. I won’t let her hurt you. I won’t let her take you.’

Mum and Dad had felt the same, but though they’d prevented my grandmother from taking me the cost had been too high. I didn’t say any of that to Fraser; he had enough to worry about already. Instead, I snuggled in his arms and enjoyed tea and triple-chocolate cookies.

We’d drained the whole teapot and snaffled all the biscuits by the time Ernie reappeared with a steaming mug of potion. As he brought it over to me, there was a waft of something somewhere between mouldy fish and rancid olives.

He grimaced. ‘You should have saved a cookie for afterwards.’ He held the potion out to me. ‘It’s probably best if you down it in one,’ he suggested, visibly stifling a gag.

I swallowed hard, pinched my nose and did exactly that.

Chapter Thirty-Five

The moment it hit my stomach, I got all the feels – not the fun kind of feels I got around Fraser, but the ‘oh my God, this is going to come straight up and go all over my grandfather’s carpet’ kind of feels.

‘Beatrix?’ Ernie crouched beside me as I half-fell onto the sofa. ‘Are you okay? Give yourself a minute or two – there’s some pretty potent stuff in there. Let your body adjust to the magic.’

‘I don’t have time,’ I huffed. ‘I need to contact Yanni. Tell her what’s happening.’

‘She can wait five minutes until you feel better.’

I nodded: he was right. My stomach was still very pissed off with me and if I moved there was a good chance I’d vomit everywhere.

Ernie stood and looked down at me, his wrinkled face even more creased than usual. ‘I was going to make a salad for lunch,’ he said. ‘Would you like some, too?’

My stomach roiled even more at the thought of food. I shook my head. ‘Just water, please. A very big glass of water.’

‘Coming right up.’

I turned to Fraser. ‘You need to go, right? To the restaurant?’

He shook his head. ‘I can do it another day.’

‘No – this is your job! Go on. As I said before, my grandmother has been alive a whole decade and there’s no evidence she’s linked to theft. Plus, I have Ernie’s magic now. You go to your meeting.’

He studied me. ‘You’re sure?’

‘I insist.’

‘Let’s give it a few minutes until you feel better, and then I can drop you somewhere in town. This really is the arse end of nowhere – it’ll save you walking miles.’ He wasn’t wrong.

I nodded. ‘Okay, that would be good.’

Two minutes later, Ernie returned with a pint glass of water, which he placed on the coffee table in front of me. ‘I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me,’ he said. ‘I’ve got the other potion brewing. It won’t be long.’

‘The one to use to destroy the grimoire?’ I asked, impressed. For an old man, he certainly moved fast.

‘That’s it.’

As I forced myself to sit up straight, I noticed the difference in how I was feeling. The change in my magic was surging through me. Just like Ernie had said: somehow I knew that whatever I tried to do, I’d have more control over it. And as much as I hadn’t planned on using it, it was surprisingly tempting.

I looked at the glass, which was slightly out of reach. I could either move to get it or… With a buzz of excitement rippling through me, I opened my hand and focused on the glass. Before I had time to work out whether I was completely out of my mind or not, the glass had bolted through the air and landed in my hand with so much force that most of the water spilled over the top.

‘Holy fuck,’ I said.

Fraser grinned. ‘Nice.’

Ernie stuck his head in the room. ‘I heard swearing. Everyone okay?’

‘Fine,’ I promised. ‘Is that potion ready? If so, we’ll get out of your way.’

‘Just another minute and I’ll decant it.’ He disappeared again and came back moments later with a stoppered vial.

I took it and kissed my grandfather’s cheek. ‘Thanks for everything, Grandad.’ His answering smile was everything.

As Fraser drove me into town, I realised I had a few pressing issues to juggle. I needed to find the objects, and then I needed a fire witch. And I really didn’t want to go to Farah for this, not now that she was pregnant. Hopefully, Nour would know another one.

I pulled out my phone and hit dial. ‘Hey, Bea.’ Nour’s voice sounded far cheerier than when I’d left her in her sister’s hellhole.

‘Hi. How are you doing?’ I asked. ‘Did you and Maddie talk things through?’

‘Yes, thank you. Thank you for everything. I feel much better now.’

‘No problem,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry about earlier – with Farah.’

‘Stop apologising! It wasn’t your fault.’

I disagreed but let it slide. The last thing I wanted to do was put this on Nour after the mess I’d made that morning, but unfortunately I didn’t see what choice I had. ‘I hate to do this again, Nour, but I need another favour. I don’t suppose you have any other fire witches in your coven, do you? Strong fire witches?’

‘Another fire witch? No, sorry. The last one with any power was my grandmother – that was why everyone was so excited when Farah’s powers started to manifest so strongly. The coven thought it would have someone to take over that line of magic, but then it became clear that wasn’t the case. Hopefully her little one might be strong, or maybe Farah’s powers will remain elevated after the birth. What do you need a fire witch for?’

‘I’m looking into destroying the grimoire if I find it,’ I said. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll come up with something else. I’ll speak to you later.’ I paused, ‘And give Ezra my love if you see him.’

‘I will.’ She hung up.

‘No dice on the fire witch?’ Fraser asked.

I sighed ‘Nope. We still have Farah as an option. I need to speak to Gwen, too, and explain the danger of keeping the Codex once we recover it.’

‘She’s spent years guarding it,’ he pointed out. ‘She’s not going to be thrilled at the idea of destroying it.’

I sighed; I knew he was right. ‘I’m hoping that if I explain about the threat my grandmother – or any other sorcerer – presents, she’ll do the right thing. With my magic unbound, it’s more likely that Granny will come for me one day, even if we don’t know when.’

Fraser’s hands tightened on the wheel; he didn’t like that one bit. I hastily changed the subject. ‘Can you drop me off at Gwen’s shop?’

‘Sure.’

While Fraser drove me towards the beach, I called the Watchtower Hotel to speak to Orion. He assured me that no one matching my grandmother’s description had checked in during the last few weeks. There had been a few business delegates but everyone else had checked in as couples. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that Grandmother Dearest had a new beau, but none of the women matched her description.

As was often the case when I was struggling to find a lead, I headed back to the scene of the crime. I wasn’t expecting to find physical evidence, helpful as that would have been. With tourists traipsing in and out of the shop all week, they’d almost certainly have destroyed any remaining clues.

What I was hoping was that Gwen might offer something she’d not previously thought of – maybe some repeat customers who had suddenly stopped showing up, or a customer who had asked questions specifically about the cup and the grimoire. Her memory clearly wasn’t as bad as we’d all thought because the items that she’d sworn were going missing really were being stolen by Archer.

And I also needed to speak to her about destroying the grimoire when we recovered it. I refused to think in terms of ‘if’.

Fraser dropped me off and I waved him away. When he disappeared from view, I ducked into Grimoires and Goblets. As always, the bell jangled above me, but to my surprise nobody came to greet me.

‘Hello,’ I called. ‘Gwen, are you here?’ There wasn’t a note on the door saying she was out to lunch and she would have locked up the shop if that were the case. I knew she was slower at greeting customers than Scarlett, but this was ridiculous even for Gwen.

I went to the counter and called into the back. ‘Gwen? It’s Beatrix. I want to ask you a couple more questions.’

Still nothing, and the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end. Something wasn’t right – and I wasn’t the only one who felt it. Eva was sniffing the air, and the second she stopped, she gave a high-pitched whine. Before I could ask her what was wrong, she squeezed her way through the piles of grimoires and papers that led to the back room.

I followed. It only took me a moment to find what she wanted me to see.

Lying on the floor, her eyes rolled back into her head, was Gwen. She was obviously dead and, judging by the awkward angle of her neck it hadn’t been an accident.

She had been murdered.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Yanni’s gaze rested on Gwen. ‘Poor woman. It looks horrible. Obviously we’ll wait for the coroner’s report but I’m pretty confident her neck was snapped. Why would anyone want to kill Gwen?’

Although I didn’t say it out loud, the miserable old goblin was hugely judgemental and seemed to hold all sorts of prejudices so no doubt she’d made plenty of enemies; any one of them could have had their fill of her bullshit. That made me think of Scarlett. Gwen had treated her like shit – but lots of employers treat their staff like shit and their employees don’t go around murdering them. I moved Scarlett down the suspect pile, though not off it.

Whoever had stolen the Codex and the goblet was my main suspect. They had obviously gotten away with the theft, so why return and kill Gwen – and possibly leave more evidence that could lead back to them?

I went cold. To open the Codex.

‘The thief,’ I whispered. ‘They needed a death to unlock the Codex.’

Yanni swore. ‘That’s not good.’

‘It’s really not.’

I tried to quash my panic and think. Gwen’s body was still warm and I couldn’t shake the thought that if only I’d got there sooner I could have prevented her death. Or joined her in it.

I examined the body, trying to spot clues, but there was nothing to be seen: no signs of a struggle, no signs that Gwen had put up a fight. One moment she’d been alive and then she was dead, just like that.

This was getting me nowhere. After Dove had taken my statement, I decided to leave her and Yanni to get on with their work and see if I could dig up any leads of my own. ‘I’m going to scoot home,’ I announced.

‘Before you go, do you have any other ideas about the thieves that I need to know about?’ Yanni asked. ‘Archer’s out on bail, but he didn’t give us anything useful about the cup or the grimoire.’

This didn’t feel like the time to tell Yanni about my concerns about my grandmother. She had enough on her plate – and, unlike Ernie, she would totally lock me up somewhere if she thought it was necessary to keep me safe.

‘No,’ I lied. ‘Sorry. But I’m still on it. I’ll let you know if I find anything.’

The bell jangled behind me as I left. While I thought about my next steps, I scanned the beach in front of me. Like every other day I’d been down here, it was packed with people enjoying the sunshine, swimming or reading a book as they lay on the soft sand. One of them had to have seen something, but where the hell did I start?

I had decided to start by questioning the neighbouring shopkeepers when my phone vibrated in my pocket and an unfamiliar number flashed on the screen. ‘Hello?’ I said as I answered.

‘Is this Beatrix?’

‘Scarlett?’ I recognised the voice immediately.

‘Thank God, I was worried you weren’t going to answer.’

‘Scarlett…’ I paused. ‘Have you heard about Gwen?’

‘Gwen? Why? What’s happened to her? I was ringing about Archer,’ she explained nervously. She sounded like she didn’t have a clue about Gwen’s death and I didn’t want to be the one to tell her. Yanni might want to ambush her with that information later to see how she reacted.

I focused on her comment about Archer. ‘What about Archer?’ I asked. ‘He’s in police custody, right?’ I lied.

‘No, he’s not. He’s out on bail until his hearing and he rang me.’ Her words stumbled out so quickly she barely paused for breath. ‘He said he’s got those things – the mug and the grimoire. He said he took them one day when Gwen was in the back of the shop. He knew they were worth something so he hid them properly.’

‘Hid them properly?’

‘At a friend’s house.’

I frowned. ‘Why would he tell you that?’

‘He said he wants us to get back together – that the money from the sale would save my mum.’ Her voice was trembling with emotion. ‘He’s already lined up a buyer. He said it’s going to change his life – our lives.’

‘Did you get any details about the buyer? Male? Female?’

‘A woman,’ she said. And my stomach clenched.

‘An old woman?’

‘I don’t know. He said some woman was going to buy them from him this evening and he’s meeting her down at the industrial estate. I thought you needed to know because you said they were important.’

Relief surged through me so strongly it almost knocked the breath from my lungs. We could still stop my grandmother from getting hold of the cup and the grimoire. ‘Do you know what time he’s meeting her?’

‘Yeah. He asked me if I wanted to go too since I’d “helped” him. I didn’t help, Bea, I really didn’t – I didn’t even know he’d taken them. But I thought I should tell you. The meeting is at the industrial estate at 11.30pm.’

I spoke as calmly as I could. ‘Thank you for letting me know.’

‘What do I do?’ she asked, her voice quivering. ‘If I don’t go, then—’

‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘You stay home. I’ll handle this. I promise, it’ll be fine.’ Scarlett hung up, and I took a deep, steadying breath. I abandoned my plans for questioning the neighbouring shopkeepers and headed home instead. I’d need time to prepare and recce the area before the meeting went ahead.

Sometimes, when you really need it, the universe comes through. Unfortunately it meant I was going to have to cancel my own plans for the night, which I really didn’t want to do. But hey, once the issue of my grandmother and the relics were put to rest, Fraser and I could have all the evenings together that we wanted. I just needed to stop her first.

I hated that I needed to cancel my date with Fraser, but needs must. I pulled out my phone and rang him. I took a deep breath and prepared to lie. ‘I’m really sorry,’ I said when he answered. ‘Something’s come up tonight. Can we take a rain check until tomorrow?’

‘Is that both you and Eva taking a rain check, or just you?’ he asked.

I chuckled as I glanced at my dog. ‘I think I’m going to take Eva with me for this one,’ I said, glancing down at her. From the way she was looking back at me, I guessed that while she was happy to be included she was also disappointed to be missing out on Fraser’s cooking. She wasn’t the only one.

‘You want backup?’ he asked lightly.

‘No, we’re good. We’re only doing some surveillance.’

‘Dinner tomorrow instead?’

‘Yes, perfect. Eva was looking forward to tonight so she’ll be furious if it doesn’t happen soon.’

‘Eva will be?’ I could hear him smiling down the line.

‘Absolutely. I mean I’ll bring her because I have to but—’

‘Oh, you have to, do you? Well, in that case, she can always come by herself. She knows the way. Then you can pick her up after dessert.’

‘Fine,’ I said, unable to stop myself from laughing. ‘I want to see you and I want to bring Eva. Is it weird that I miss you already?’

‘I hope not, because I miss you too.’

Once again there was the awkward pause that came with both of us wanting to finish the phone call differently and neither of us being brave enough. Why wasn’t there a way to say goodbye that was more than the standard cheerio but didn’t involve the L word? Before I worked myself into a tizz trying to work out what that might be, I said the first words that came into my head.

‘Well, bye then, buddy,’ I blurted and hung up the phone.

Buddy. I had called the man I was dating, magically bonded to and very probably falling for, ‘buddy’. What the hell was I thinking? Buddy was what weird sports coaches called the boys on their teams. Or how that annoying male manager who believed his staff actually liked him referred to people in meetings. As far as I was aware, ‘buddy’ had zero positive connotations in a romantic manner. I groaned aloud while Eva laughed at me, her tongue lolling out.

I stared at my phone, tempted to ring him back and say that my mind had suddenly been taken control of by some dark entity but, given my powers and what I was capable of, that didn’t seem appropriate.

Before I had a chance to think of another option, my phone buzzed again with a message from him. My stomach clenched as I opened it up.

Have a good night, mate, X

or should that have been chum? X

Buster? X

The knot in my stomach eased. I was about to write him a rude reply but I had already arrived home, and something felt off. With a frown, I put the key in the lock and opened my front door. The second I stepped in, I stilled. Something definitely felt different. ‘Hello?’ I called. ‘Maddie?’

I was still in the hallway when I realised what was different. A faint sound echoed around me, the faintest crackle, like someone scrunching a piece of paper ... or a fresh log was burning on a fire.

With Eva on my heels, I rushed into the living room, only for the disappointment to blow from my lungs in a sigh. Like always, the fireplace was empty. Yet…

Despite the darkness, something made me reach out and pressed my hand against the tiles. ‘It’s warm,’ I whispered. I whirled around to look at Eva. ‘It’s warm!’

‘Maddie?’ I yelled again. ‘Are you home?’ No answer. I picked up my phone and called Maddie. ‘Are you at the house?’ I asked the second she answered.

‘No, I’m at the station. With what happened to Gwen... I thought it was best if—’

‘So, you’re not at the house?’ I didn’t give her a chance to finish. I knew about Gwen. What I needed were answers about the Flame. ‘Have you been at the house today?’

‘No, no, not since we left this morning. Why? What is it? What’s wrong?’

‘I think the Flame came back,’ I said in a rush. ‘I came in and I heard something and now the fireplace is still warm. I think the Flame came back when neither of us was here.’

‘What does that mean?’ she asked.

I sighed. ‘Damned if I know,’ I admitted. ‘But it has to mean something and we need to figure out what.’

‘Do you want me to come back?’ she asked. ‘Nana reckons it’s going to be a pretty busy here today, but if you need me...’

‘No, no, it’s fine,’ I promised. ‘I’ll be fine.’

‘But you’ll keep me in the loop?’

‘Yes, yes,’ I said, still staring at the empty hearth. ‘Of course I will.’

As I hung up, I finally found the words that I was looking for and spoke them directly into the fireplace.

‘Please,’ I begged. ‘Please. I need you.’

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I touched the warm stones and begged but still the Flame hid itself. I sighed. ‘I feel like you’re trying to give me clues, but I’m not getting them. Can’t you give me something a little more direct to help me understand what you need?’

Not a flicker.

I let my hand fall and sat cross-legged in front of the fireplace. ‘Okay, well, I’m going to sit here and wait.’

Given that I was the only one of us that was on a time limit my plan wasn’t the best, but I figured the Flame didn’t know that. Still, it was soon apparent which one of us would win this war of wills when Eva barked from the kitchen; she wanted her dinner. That made me realise that I’d been sitting there for hours and nothing had happened. Not even a flicker.

It was already seven o’clock; I still had four hours until Archer’s supposed rendezvous with his buyer but I needed to go there beforehand to do a recce and stake out the place for any sign of him and the sorceress coming to buy the cup and the grimoire from him.

In an ideal world, I’d get the items off Archer without the need for a ruckus. If my grandmother was the buyer, and she needed these objects to heal her or increase her power, then I should be okay – especially with the advantage of having access to Ernie’s magic.

Maybe I could knock her out without her seeing me coming; brute strength was one of my favourite weapons in my arsenal. Until recently I hadn’t been able to move so much as a feather magically but now I could roundhouse kick someone into next week, and I was betting that grandma wasn’t the fittest of fiddles in her dotage.

I fed Eva and choked down a sandwich. Feeling antsy, we headed out with plenty of time to spare.

I gave my girl a look. ‘If there is any sign of danger, you go and fetch Yanni. You got that?’ If things went sideways, I wanted Eva safe; the only way she’d leave my side was if she thought she was helping me.

She gave a bark and a tail wag. She would fetch Yanni for me.

The industrial estate was not far from the edge of the village and the barrier that protected it. It made sense to have a space that was easily accessible for wagons when goods came into Witchlight, but it was annoyingly far to walk. Not for the first time that day, I found myself thinking of my car, Rosie.

As I walked towards the industrial estate, I thought about my grandmother. In some weird way I was actually relieved to know she was alive. Her corpse had never been found and I’d always wondered, but now … I knew she was out there. And it was better to know that for certain than to be haunted by an intangible fear. Dahlia might not be the sorceress coming to buy the cup and the Codex, but my gut said she was likely to be involved even though I had zero evidence that she was.

By the time I approached the outskirts of the industrial estate, the light was fading and the sky had turned that dusky pale blue that only comes with the summer months. I hoped Archer was getting a good look at it because after I caught him tonight it would be the last time he saw the sky for a very long time. There would be no bail after this; the sect council took a dim view of dark artefacts and possessing them led to an immediate jail sentence. Even Gwen could have found herself in hot water for having them.

I looked down at Eva. ‘Which way should we go, girl?’ I could spend half an hour carefully tiptoeing around the place, peeking around corners and straining to hear if anyone was there, or I could rely on her heightened senses to guide me. Straight away she pointed her nose towards the back of the estate where the buildings were more densely packed and darker than elsewhere. Naturally.

Bizarre as it might seem, I have a strange affection for industrial estates. Many of my cases had ended in them but one in particular always stuck in my mind and always would because that was the day I’d found Eva. Or rather, Eva had found me.

I slipped into a narrow alleyway between two warehouses and headed towards the door at the end. There were a couple of smashed security lights, clearly broken by someone who felt more comfortable doing their deeds in the shadows. This was definitely a location for nefarious actions, and a shiver of foreboding ran down my spine.

For a moment, I wanted to call Yanni, or Fraser, or even Ezra. But I didn’t because if she was in there, I wasn’t risking any of them. I glanced down at Eva, and wished I’d left her at home too. Still, knowing her, she would have leapt out of a window and followed me anyway. She was my ride or die.

‘Do we go in, girl?’ I asked my four-legged bestie.

Eva cocked her head to the side but made no movement forward or backward. Typical: she had brought me this far but she wasn’t going to commit to this next part. That decision was all mine.

Narrow alleys were generally good for pinning my opponents down – unless Archer had brought backup, in which case they could block me at either end and leave me unable to get out. Open space was better, I decided, especially with my type of fighting.

Removing my lock pick set from my back pocket, I readied myself to unlock the door and head into the warehouse – only to twist the handle and find it wasn’t necessary. It was already unlocked.

Unlocked doors are a mixed blessing because it’s difficult to anticipate what you are going to encounter. Sometimes it’s a case of careless thieves not thinking through what they are doing but other times it is a trap – the spider letting in the fly.

To give myself the best chance of knowing what I was walking into, I let my barriers down to feel the emotions behind the door. In less than a heartbeat, I had a very clear reading.

In fact, I had two. There were two people waiting for me behind that door and I could feel two very distinct sets of emotions. One was radiating excitement – Archer, perhaps, excited to be getting his pay day? The other was more mixed: there was happiness, so much happiness, but also fear, apprehension and guilt – a feeling I knew well. Archer’s henchman?

They certainly weren’t the emotions I expected to feel from Granny, but what did I know?

The only way I would find out what was waiting for me was by stepping inside. ‘Stay by my side,’ I whispered to Eva. ‘We go in together, okay?’

Readying my powers, I opened the door and stepped through only for it to immediately slam closed behind me.

Trap it was, then.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

There was only a single light lit the cavernous warehouse, making it hard to see. I dropped instantly to a crouch; Archer would expect me on my feet, so at least if he made a move towards me I’d catch him off guard.

As my eyes adjusted, a figure stepped into the light. ‘Scarlett?’ I said, genuinely confused. ‘What are you doing here?’

Looking regretfully in my direction, she shook her head. ‘It was Archer who stole most of the things from the shop, though I genuinely didn’t know who’d stolen the cup and the grimoire until you reintroduced us… I’m so grateful you did. What serendipity that was – no, not serendipity. It was fate.’

I was totally baffled. While Scarlett may have been confident that I could work out what the hell was going on, it was taking me far longer than I’d have liked. What did she mean, she didn’t know who the thief was until I had reintroduced them? I couldn’t remember introducing her to anyone. With my mind grappling to put the pieces together, I looked at the person lurking in the shadows beside her – because it wasn’t Archer.

I struggled to place the woman for a moment. Fran looked so different with her long blonde hair loose rather than tied up behind her head in the austere way it had been every time I’d seen her on the beach. And she wasn’t in her usual uniform – no blue-and-white pinstripe apron like the one she wore day in and day out at her ice-cream cart.

‘Fran?’ I said. ‘What’s going on?’

‘We were in prison at the same time,’ Scarlett admitted. ‘Fran got done for theft.’ That would have been a helpful fact to have known earlier.

‘Jail birds together,’ Fran sneered at me. ‘Some people get all the bloodline but none of the sense. As if you were born of the great Grand Sorceress Dahlia and you’re a descendent of the oldest magical line in Witchlight Cove? What a damned waste.’

Eva was at my side, growling at her.

‘You’re a sorceress too?’

She looked at me impassively. ‘Not yet. Do you have any idea how hard you have to work to earn that title? To what depravities you must sink?’

‘And you don’t want to sink that low?’ I asked.

‘Oh, no, I want to. And if I bring the cup and the grimoire to your grandmother, she’ll help me on my path.’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t think Granny is the helping-hand type. She’ll take the goods and then she’ll kill you and collect your soul to use in black-Flame magic.’

‘No! She’ll be grateful.’

I laughed. ‘Do you really think so?’

Fran drew herself up. ‘Yes. And I’ll bring you with me as a hostage, just in case.’

I turned to the other woman. ‘Scarlett,’ I said, hoping there was still a hint of sense or humanity in her that I could reach. ‘You need to think this through. The woman she’s talking about – my grandmother – she’s dangerous. She’s a mass murderer. You need to stay away from her. Please, if nothing else, think about your mother.’ It was a low blow to what I knew was her most tender spot, yet it didn’t have the reaction I expected.

‘Oh, but I am,’ Scarlett said, as a smile broke across her face. ‘That’s all I’m thinking about. I owe you, but I owe Fran so much more. Fran saved my mother.’

I turned my eyes back to the ice-cream seller and I finally connected the dots. ‘You used the goblet on Scarlett’s mother?’ I asked, knowing the answer.

Fran’s sly smile widened. ‘It seemed like the least I could do. Scarlett wasn’t there when I stole the relics. I would have missed her entirely if you hadn’t so kindly given her money so she could buy an ice cream for her mum.’

I swallowed hard, suddenly remembering the shocked look on Scarlett’s face. Oh bugger. Fran was right, this whole mess was my fault.

‘Fran made me an offer,’ Scarlett admitted. ‘If I brought you to her, she would heal my mother.’

‘And because I’m a good person, I healed her mother first,’ Fran said smugly. ‘You know, to build trust. And now Scarlett is here making good on her promise.’

The puzzle pieces were clicking into place. Scarlett would do anything for her mother – and that included handing over a PI witch who meant next to nothing to her. ‘Did you kill Gwen, Scarlett?’ I asked. ‘Did you kill your boss?’

Something flickered across her face. ‘No,’ she said quickly. ‘I didn’t.’

‘Tying up loose ends.’ Fran winked. ‘In case she remembered me popping in too many times.’

Did that mean she still hadn’t used the death to unlock the Codex? Maybe she didn’t know what was required. If she hadn’t broken the ward, at least she wouldn’t have a shit tonne of extra dark magic at her fingertips. I might still have a chance of getting out of this mess alive.

‘And you’re okay with that?’ I asked Scarlett. ‘Her killing Gwen?’

Scarlett looked at me with unhappy eyes; no, she wasn’t okay with it. ‘Gwen was a total bitch,’ she said finally.

‘Where are the Codex and the cup now?’ I asked, focusing on Fran. ‘What have you done with them?’

‘They’re safe.’ Her voice was syrupy sweet.

‘And what? You’re bringing them as a present to my grandmother?’ I scoffed. ‘Whatever she’s promised you, you can’t trust her. She killed her own daughter-in-law – you can’t possibly think she cares about you.’

Fran’s smile broadened and she gave a long sigh, as if she were some high-school kid thinking about the person she had a crush on. ‘You’re only saying that because you don’t know her. The Dahlia I met is exceptional, gifted. She saw the potential in me right away. And I’ve proved her right. I tracked down the cup and Codex in mere weeks when others have walked past them for years!’

‘How did you recognise them?’ I asked.

She was eager to talk about her own cleverness so I let her while I looked around me for something I could use as a weapon. Yes, Fran was a dark magic practitioner but she wasn’t a sorcerer, not by a long way. A crack over the head with something heavy would do it.

‘I knew both items had been left under the guardianship of goblins so they were likely to be in the care of an old goblin family,’ Fran said proudly. ‘The oldest goblins in the UK are all in the south of England. I started in Witchlight in honour of her glorious massacre here.’

Scarlett looked a little pale at that. Perhaps the rose-tinted glasses about Fran’s kindness in healing her mum were being torn away.

Fran went on. ‘The cup was obvious if you knew what you were looking for. As for the grimoire, the stones embedded in the cover gave it away – that and the human-skin binding.’ She gave another of those long, dreamy sighs. ‘And when I find Dahlia, she will have all the power she needs to acquire a strength greater than she’s ever dreamed of – and she will praise me forever.’ She lifted her hands into the air, as though worshipping some great deity, not talking about a murderous psycho.

But it didn’t matter because she’d made a slip of the tongue. A tiny one but big enough for me to know I could distract her and make my move.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

I laughed. Fran narrowed her eyes at me as her face twisted in fury. ‘Frannie, Fran, Fran, Fran,’ I taunted. ‘You don’t know where she is, do you?’ I said, smirking. ‘She didn’t see any potential in you, did she? And I’d be willing to bet my dog’s left ear that she doesn’t have a fucking clue who you are.’

Eva barked an objection. I glanced down at her and grimaced. ‘Sorry, girl. I’m pretty sure your ear is safe.’

I looked back at Fran. ‘You met her, that’s all you did. You met her. Where was it, at some psycho-sorceress convention? And now you think you’re going to take these items to her and gain her favour? Even though she probably has no idea who you are? Ha!’ I laughed again.

For a fraction of a second Fran’s jaw locked, but then she grinned viciously at me. ‘It doesn’t matter because now I have a way to track her. You. Your blood.’

‘Hmm. Nice thinking,’ I said, feigning calmness. ‘But if you knew anything about my grandmother, you’d know she’s very good at covering her tracks. Very good. She did it with my dad to stop my grandfather from finding him, and they were father and son! You don’t get a stronger blood connection than that. My grandfather spent years trying to find Dad but my grandmother hid him so well that even one of the greatest witches in the northern hemisphere couldn’t find him. But you think you can find her?’ I took a step forward.

‘Um,’ Scarlett interjected. ‘My mum’s calling. I’m going to have to take this. She might need me.’ She waved her phone and dashed out.

I grinned at Fran. ‘That phone screen was dark. She didn’t take a call; she’s run away from you. Like I’m betting everyone does when they learn what a psychopath you are.’

She glared at me. ‘Scarlett will be back. I saved her mother’s life with the potion she drank from the Cup of Completion. She owes me.’

‘She’s probably taking the grimoire and the cup for herself,’ I suggested.

Fran’s neck snapped around to check on something. The tension in her eased when her eyes landed on a cute pin-striped backpack. Bingo.

I lifted my hands and sent a blast of air in front of me. With a gasp, Fran whirled out of the way and a crate behind her shattered into splinters.

Her eyes glinted. ‘If that’s all you’ve got, it won’t be enough,’ she taunted. With barely a flick of her wrists, a blast of flames erupted from her hands. The yellow-and-gold tongues of fire extended from her palms, longer and brighter than anything I’d seen, even in Farah’s videos. She flicked her wrist again and the flames changed direction, straight towards me and Eva. We leapt out of the way and ducked behind another flammable crate. Great idea that, Bea.

‘I’ll distract her,’ I muttered to Eva. ‘You creep around her and grab that bag.’ For once, Eva didn’t bark in reply; she knew this was a stealth mission. She slunk off.

‘Nice,’ I called to Fran, ‘But you’re still no match for me. I’m the freaking Guardian for goodness’ sake.’

‘Then where’s your Eternal Flame?’ she taunted. ‘I haven’t felt its presence since the moment I arrived in Witchlight Cove. And believe me, I checked.’

I went cold. Was that why the Flame had hidden itself? Was it in cloaking mode, hiding from the dark witch in town? Maybe its disappearance had nothing to do with me at all!

I pushed those thoughts aside as Eva returned to my side, the bag in her mouth. She’d lifted her chin high to prevent her from dragging the bag and making a sound; she was the cleverest dog in all the world.

I opened it and instantly spotted the cup and the grimoire. I opened the vial of Grandad’s potion and poured it on both of them for good measure, then zipped up the bag and set it on the floor next to me. I stepped out from behind the crate, sending a blast of air deliberately wide.

Fran laughed. ‘You are so weak,’ she sneered. ‘I could kill you seventeen different ways before you could ever harm me.’

I laughed right back. ‘Sweetheart, you couldn’t even flambé crème brûlée!’

‘You don’t flambé crème brûlée, you imbecile, you torch it! Like this!’ She threw a wave of crackling fire at me.

I reached down, snagged the bag and chucked it into the flames.

Fran screamed and stopped her flames instantly, but I know fire: all it needs is fuel and oxygen to grow. The book was the fuel and I could give it oxygen. I gently pushed some air towards the remaining flames until they had incinerated the bag and its contents.

‘You fucking bitch!’

She came at me then, an athame in her hand and fury in her eyes.

I pivoted, sidestepping just enough that her blade missed me by inches. I caught her wrist mid-swing, twisted, and drove my elbow into the soft flesh of her bicep. The blade clattered to the floor.

She snarled and lashed out with a knee, which I narrowly blocked with my forearm. Pain jolted up my arm, but I used the momentum to spin into a roundhouse kick that caught her across the jaw. She stumbled but stayed on her feet.

She came in wild now, clawing and punching like a wild animal with no finesse. Her rage made her sloppy. I ducked under a swing, closed the distance, and went low. My arms locked around her thigh and I swept her other leg clean out from under her. She hit the ground with a thud that shook the crate behind me.

Before she could recover, I dropped my weight onto her chest and hooked one leg over hers, pinning her in a textbook mount. She bucked, twisting her hips to throw me, but I shifted with her, kept control. One of her arms flailed upwards – big mistake. I seized it, slid into an armbar, and wrenched her elbow tight.

‘Tap,’ I growled.

She didn’t. Instead, she tried to claw at me with her free hand.

Bad choice. My own ire was rising.

I released the armbar and flowed into a rear mount, legs snaking around her torso. She shrieked as I locked in the choke from behind, my forearm crushing across her windpipe, my bicep blocking off the other side.

‘Night night,’ I whispered as I choked her out.

She struggled for a moment more – then slumped against me. I held the hold for an extra two, just to be sure, then let go and rolled off her, chest heaving. I stood, brushing ash and grime from my jeans.

A slow handclap made me whirl around, heart racing and I scrabbled to pick up the fallen athame. My mum’s words rang in my ears: In a fight, always pick up stray weapons: one, you can use them, and two, your opponent can’t.

I moved into a defensive position, raised the blade and squinted into the shadows.

One of the shadows shifted. ‘Peace, Beatrix Stonehaven.’

Lestat stepped into the light. I blinked at him, but didn’t lower my blade. ‘You were here the whole time?’

‘I was. I was going to help you, but it soon became apparent you didn’t need it.’ His tone was the warmest I’d heard from him, which was still only a little above glacial.

The first time I’d met Lestat in Sonny’s, I’d realised I could sense no emotions from him. Now the same thing was happening. I’d used my powers to sweep the building to detect who was in it, but I hadn’t detected him.

‘Why can’t I feel your emotions?’ I demanded. ‘Are you dead inside?’ I winced as soon as the words left my lips because that was one helluva faux pas to say to a vampire.

His lips twitched in amusement. ‘Oh, I feel them. Maddie can attest to my passion.’

I raised my dagger and narrowed my eyes. ‘If you’re toying with her, I’ll kill you myself and feed your body to the Eternal Flame.’

His smile widened. ‘I like Maddie. She calls to me and, for the first time in centuries I’m going to answer that call.’ He stepped up to Fran’s body, knelt next to her, and snapped her neck in one sharp move.

‘What the fuck!’ I shouted. It was one thing to kill someone in the heat of battle – to kill or be killed – but it was something else to snap their neck when they were already unconscious. Yes, Fran had fully intended to kill me, but did she deserve death? I didn’t know, but that was a question for the sect council, not a goth vampire on a power trip.

Lestat stood in a fluid motion that told me he was a predator. My instincts urged me to run but I ignored them and stood my ground.

‘The goblin Clutch hired me to locate the items and terminate the thief,’ he said lightly. ‘It is my last contract with the Nightshades. After this, I’m officially retired.’

He stepped closer to me, kneeling in the soot and ash that Fran had made with her fire. He dusted something off and stood. There it was, Gwen’s mug, the Cup of Completion. The potion and the Flame had done precisely jackshit to it.

‘I’ll deliver this to the Clutch and then I guess I’ll be seeing you. I bought the cottage next door but one to you, next to Helga and Volga’s.’ He smiled. ‘We’re going to be neighbours. I’ll knock on you for a cup of sugar some time.’

As Lestat started for the exit, I heard the sounds of sirens in the distance. ‘Wait!’ I barked. ‘The cup.’

‘What of it?’

‘I used my powers too strongly and hurt Kaz. She’s in hospital. The cup could heal her. Before you take it to the Clutch, could you use it to heal her?’

‘She was a murderer, Beatrix.’

‘So are you,’ I said desperately. ‘And wouldn’t you want to be saved?’

‘I think it is too late for that,’ he murmured softly. He turned to go through the door.

‘What do I tell Yanni?’ I shouted after him.

He barely paused. ‘Whatever you like, but the truth is probably a good move.’

With that, he slipped out of the warehouse and let the door clang behind him.

Chapter Forty

Yanni and Dove burst inside the warehouse seconds later. I’d found a light switch and thrown it, and now the warehouse was bathed in harsh neon lights. They both faltered at the sight of the dead body.

‘It wasn’t me,’ I said instantly. ‘It was Lestat. He was hired by the goblin Clutch to catch the thief and return the objects to them.’

‘Thank God,’ Yanni muttered, looking relieved.

‘I totally understand if you have to arrest me,’ I said.

Dove snorted. ‘Beatrix, if you’d murdered her, we would’ve fed her body to the chipper to get rid of it.’

I stared at her. ‘You would?’

‘You’re Yanni’s family.’ She paused. ‘More than some of Yanni’s actual family are.’

‘She’s not wrong,’ the bear shifter said. ‘But to be clear, I would have either asked for Ezra’s help with the chipper, or I would have eaten her myself. When I was in bear form,’ she added hastily.

I crossed the distance between us and hugged my faux-grandmother with all the strength I could muster. Yanni believed in evidence, rules and law and order; that she would have actually helped me hide a body made tears prick behind my eyes. ‘I love you,’ I blurted.

Her eyes softened. ‘And I you.’ She looked at Fran’s body. ‘You’d better get out of here. It’s late and it will take us a while to document the scene.’

I told her about Lestat and what Fran had implied about killing Gwen. I didn’t tell her what Gwen had said about the goblin Clutch hiring someone to kill the Guardian who had failed. Gwen’s neck had been snapped, just like Lestat had snapped Fran’s. With his diplomatic status, it didn’t matter if he’d killed Gwen as well as Fran … but if he was dating Maddie, Yanni wouldn’t let it go.

I told her about Fran’s pseudo-confession and kept my mouth shut about my suspicions that she’d been lying through her teeth. She wasn’t a sorceress yet and I didn’t think she’d got as far as killing others. But did she want the street cred? For sure. Enough to claim a murder that wasn’t hers? Definitely.

Dove made notes as I was speaking. When I was done Yanni asked, ‘Do you want me to call Maddie to pick you up?’

I shook my head. ‘No, she’ll be sleeping.’

Yanni hesitated. ‘Ernie?’

I smiled. ‘No, but thanks. I’ll ring Fraser. He’s still awake.’ I could feel him somehow, tingling at the edges of what was possible like an extra sense. Feeling him was like being able to see music: it was both extraordinary and other. And I was betting that he’d experienced all those jolts of adrenaline I’d been feeling.

I checked my phone. Sure enough, I had three missed calls. I rang him back. ‘I’m okay,’ I said as soon as he answered. ‘But I could use a lift.’

‘Of course. Where are you?’

I told him.

‘I’ll be five minutes.’

He was there in three, driving his fancy car barefoot and wearing joggers and nothing else. ‘You didn’t bother with a T-shirt?’ I asked, amused.

He blinked down at himself, as if suddenly realising he was half-naked, and his cheeks warmed. ‘I ran out to get you.’

‘Thanks.’ I touched his arm; it was warm and solid beneath my hand. He had a quiet kind of strength that I was truly coming to adore.

Then, because I could, because the world hadn’t ended and he was here and I was still breathing, I leaned in and kissed him like my life depended on it, like it was the last chance I’d ever get to memorise the shape of his mouth, the taste of him, and enjoy the dizzying spark that flared whenever our lips met.

His hand slid to the back of my neck, anchoring me, deepening the kiss with a reverence that sent goosebumps skittering down my spine. Time folded in on itself. The chaos, the fear, the noise – they all faded until there was nothing but this. Us. This heartbeat of a moment.

Goddamnit, I loved this man.

‘Where to?’ he asked simply.

Still reeling from the words I’d finally admitted to, albeit within the confines of my own head, I gave a tight smile. ‘Home, please. I’m too tired for a sleepover at yours. And I don’t have Eva’s bunny with me.’

Eva barked agreement. The bunny was a necessity.

Without comment, Fraser put the car in gear and drove us home. He parked outside and turned to me. ‘Can I come in? I’ll make myself useful.’

I smiled. ‘Sure. You can feed Eva for me while I check in with the Flame.’

He looked like he was about to step out of the car, no doubt to come round and open my door like the gentleman he was, but he hesitated. ‘I know this is lousy timing,’ he said, ‘but I’m going to do it anyway because tonight something terrible could have happened to you and that thought terrifies me.’

I opened my mouth to respond and assure him I was okay but he raised his hand. ‘No, please let me say this because I need to. I know that being a PI isn’t just a job to you; it’s part of the very fabric of your soul. You need to help others and I love you for it.’ He licked his lips and met my eyes. ‘I—’

‘I love you!’ I blurted out. The words flew from my mouth before I could stop them.

A slow grin curved across his face. ‘You just couldn’t let me say it first, could you?’ He leaned down and kissed me gently. Against my lips he murmured, ‘I love you, Beatrix Stonehaven.’ He laughed softly. ‘Even if you did steal my thunder.’

I laughed. ‘I know,’ I said. ‘But I’ve been thinking it so much and I’ve been so desperate to say it. Every time we’re on the phone—’

‘I’ve been the same,’ he admitted.

We sat there, staring at each other, our eyes locked. My cheeks were burning and it took me a moment to realise it was because I was smiling so much. ‘So this is what love feels like,’ I said.

‘I guess so,’ he replied.

‘It’s pretty good, isn’t it?’

‘It’s awesome.’ As he leaned forward and kissed me again, a thousand images flooded my mind. Images of the future. A life with him.

And all of the images were my own.

Chapter Forty-One

It took a beat to come back to myself, to the here and now, to smell the leather of his seats and saltwater and vanilla smell that was uniquely him.

He went around the car and held open the door for me. ‘Thanks,’ I beamed, as I fumbled in my pocket for the house keys. I unlocked the front door and the sense of home resonated in my very bones.

Fraser let out a soft gasp. ‘It’s warm,’ he murmured.

I heard the soft crackle, but I knew that by the time I reached the living room any evidence of the Flame would be gone. And I was right: the hearth was empty, but this time when I placed my hand on the fireplace it wasn’t warm – it was hot.

‘Do you mind going to the kitchen and grabbing Eva some food?’ I asked. ‘I need a few moments alone here.’

‘Sure. I’ll make us a cup of tea. We’ll stay out of your hair until you call us.’

‘Thanks.’ I shot him a smile for being so understanding and he disappeared into the kitchen, taking Eva with him.

I sat down in front of the fireplace. The Flame had been alight tonight. A lot. And finally I believed I knew the reason why. It may well have been hiding from Fran, but I was pretty sure it was more than that.

‘I think I’ve got it,’ I said, sinking down in front of the empty grate. ‘I know when you come … and why you come. It happens when I feel at home here, right? It happened when I was talking about the White Wine Coven with the girls, when I was feeling all the love from the sisterhood, feeling like I belonged, and then when I had the courage to call Ernie for help, like any normal granddaughter would do. And tonight, while I was with Fraser, when I realised he was the future I wanted here in Witchlight Cove. That’s why you came back, isn’t it?’

There was no reply, no flicker of light, but instead a rush of cold air as if the chimney were clearing itself ready for what was to come. I needed to keep going; I needed to see this all the way through.

‘I’m not going anywhere,’ I promised the Flame. ‘I will commit to this, commit to you. You are where I belong – you are my birthright – and you can take from me whichever part of my soul you wish.’

My throat was thick with emotion. ‘I get it,’ I said quietly as cathartic tears trickled down my cheeks. ‘I finally understand what Mum meant. I trust what you will take and I welcome it. Take a part of my soul and I will be a better person for it.’

I wasn’t scared now. I wasn’t scared it would take my love for Yanni, Maddie or Ezra, I wasn’t scared it would take my love for Fraser, because all of those things made me stronger. And the Flame needed me strong to face what was coming.

‘I trust you,’ I breathed to the Flame. ‘I am yours and you are mine. Take what you need. It is freely given with all of my heart.’

I felt a wrench deep within me and instantly the Flame burst into life. A gasp flew from my lips at its sheer beauty. It was stunning, and tears flowed down my cheeks in earnest now.

This was the Flame I had seen my whole life with its rainbow hues dancing in the grate. I would never, ever take it for granted again.

My soul had bonded with the flame. I could feel it in the space between my ribs and my heart. The Flame had taken the part of my soul that it had wanted, and I knew exactly what part that was … my guilt.

For the first time in so long, my heart truly sang.

And then my mother’s voice spoke into my mind: Hello, Bumble Bea.

Are you crying? Because we are totally crying! This is NOT the end of Witchlight. Pre-order the next book, Secrets of the Hidden Heritage here.

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While you are waiting for the next Witchlight Magical Mystery, why not dive into Ella's brand new solo series? Join tenacious reporter, Elodie Evergreen in her search for the truth. Bylines and Bloodsuckers is a thrilling prequel novella for the Raven's Hollow Investigations series. Out 13 Jun. 2025! Delve into it here.

Heather also has another solo series coming soon! Join Connection Inspector Stacy Wise as she tries to solve a murder while High King Krieg tags along for the ride. Curl up with the prequel, Frustrated Justice here, or pre-order book one, Veiled Justice here.At a glitzy magical gala, a murdered ogre, a furious king, and a charmingly rude bird sidekick lead me into a deadly game of high-society secrets and intrigue.

Other Works by Heather

The Witchlight Magical Mysteries Series with Ella Stone

Secrets of the Frostbound Cottage– Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Secrets of the Forgotten Heir – Book 1,

Secrets of the Deadly Nightshades – Book 2; and

Secrets of the Eternal Flame – Book 3.

The Portlock Paranormal Detective Series with Jilleen Dolbeare

The Vampire and the Case of her Dastardly Death - Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

The Vampire and the Case of the Wayward Werewolf – Book 1,

The Vampire and the Case of the Secretive Siren – Book 2,

The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee – Book 3,

The Vampire and the Case of the Cursed Canine – Book 4,

The Vampire and the Case of the Perilous Poltergeist – Book 5,

The Vampire and the Case of the Cozy Christmas – Book 5.5,

The Vampire and the Case of the Hellacious Hag – Book 6; and

The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid – Book 7.

The Other Realm Universe:

The Other Realm series

Glimmer of Dragons- Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Glimmer of The Other- Book 1,

Glimmer of Hope- Book 2,

Glimmer of Christmas – Book 2.5 (a Christmas tale),

Glimmer of Death – Book 3,

Glimmer of Deception – Book 4,

It is recommended that you read The Other Wolf books 1 to 3 before continuing with:

Challenge of the Court– Book 5,

Betrayal of the Court– Book 6; and

Revival of the Court– Book 7.

The Other Wolf Series

Defender of The Pack– Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Protection of the Pack– Book 1,

Guardians of the Pack– Book 2,

Saviour of The Pack– Book 3,

Awakening of the Pack – Book 4,

Resurgence of the Pack – Book 5; and

Ascension of the Pack – Book 6.

The Other Witch Series

Rune of the Witch – Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Hex of the Witch– Book 1,

Coven of the Witch;– Book 2,

Familiar of the Witch– Book 3; and

Destiny of the Witch – Book 4.

The Other Detective Series

Frustrated Justice – Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Veiled Justice – Book 1,

Mystic Justice – Book 2,

Arcane Justice – Book 3; and

Savage Justice – Book 4

About The Author – Heather

About Heather

Heather is an urban fantasy writer and mum. She was born and raised near Windsor, which gave her the misguided impression that she was close to royalty in some way. She is not, though she once got a letter from Queen Elizabeth II's lady-in-waiting.

Heather went to university in Liverpool, where she took up skydiving and met her future husband. When she’s not running around after her children, she’s plotting her next book and daydreaming about vampires, dragons and kick-ass heroines.

Heather is a book lover who grew up reading Brian Jacques and Anne McCaffrey. She loves to travel and once spent a month in Thailand. She vows to return.

Want to learn more about Heather? Subscribe to her newsletter for behind-the-scenes scoops, free bonus material and a cheeky peek into her world. Her subscribers will always get the heads up about the best deals on her books.

Subscribe to her Newsletter at her website www.heathergharris.com/subscribe.

Too impatient to wait for Heather's next book? Join her (ever growing!) army of supportive patrons at Patreon.

Heather's Patreon

Heather has started her very own Patreon page. What is Patreon? It's a subscription service that allows you to support Heather AND read her books way before anyone else! For a small monthly fee you could be reading Heather's next book, on a weekly chapter-by-chapter basis (in its roughest draft form!) in the next week or two. If you hit "Join the community" you can follow Heather along for FREE, though you won't get access to all the good stuff, like early release books, polls, live Q&A's, character art and more! You can even have a video call with Heather or have a character named after you! Heather's current patrons are getting to read a novella called House Bound which isn't available anywhere else, not even to her newsletter subscribers!

If you're too impatient to wait until Heather's next release, then Patreon is made for you!

Heather's Shop and YouTube Channel

Heather now has her very own online shop! There you can buy oodles of glorious merchandise and audiobooks directly from her. Heather's audiobooks will still be on sale elsewhere, of course, but Heather pays her audiobook narrator and her cover designer - she makes the entire product - and then Audible pays her 25%. OUCH. Where possible, Heather would love it if you would buy her audiobooks directly from her, and then she can keep an amazing 90% of the money instead. Which she can reinvest in more books, in every form! But Audiobooks aren't all there is in the shop. You can get hoodies, t-shirts, mugs and more! Go and check her store out at: https://shop.heathergharris.com/

And if you don't have spare money to pay for audiobooks, Heather would still love you to experience Alyse Gibb's expert rendition of the books. You can listen to Heather's audiobooks for free on her YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HeatherGHarrisAuthor

Stay in Touch

Heather has been working hard on a bunch of cool things, including a new and shiny website which you'll love. Check it out at www.heathergharris.com.

If you want to hear about all Heather's latest releases – subscribe to her newsletter for news, fun and freebies. Subscribe at Heather's website www.heathergharris.com/subscribe.

Contact Info: www.heathergharris.com

Email: HeatherGHarrisAuthor@gmail.com

Social Media

Heather can also be found on a host of social medias including her Facebook Page, her Facebook Reader Group, Goodreads, Bookbub and Instagram.

If you get a chance, please do follow Heather on Amazon!

Reviews

Reviews feed Heather's soul. She'd really appreciate it if you could take a few moments to review her books on Amazon, Bookbub, or Goodreads and say hello.

Other Works by Ella Stone

The Witchlight Magical Mysteries Series with Heather G. Harris

Secrets of the Frostbound Cottage – Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Secrets of the Forgotten Heir – Book 1,

Secrets of the Deadly Nightshades – Book 2,

Secrets of the Eternal Flame – Book 3.

The Dark Creatures Saga:

Dark Creatures - Book 1,

Dark Destiny – Book 2,

Dark Deception - Book 3,

Dark Redemption – Book 4, and

Dark Reckoning - Book 5.

The Bloodsucker's Blog Trilogy: 

Life Sucks – Book 1,

Love Bites - Book 2, and

Lost Souls - Book 3.

About the Author - Ella Stone

About Ella

Ella Stone has always been enchanted by the magic of stories. From sneaking late-night reads of The Magic Faraway Tree and The Borrowers to getting completely lost on the staircase with Harry Potter, books have been her doorway to other worlds.

Now, as a writer of urban fantasy and magical mysteries, Ella weaves her own worlds filled with intrigue, humour, and a touch of romance. When she’s not crafting stories, you can usually find her hiding in a quiet corner of her tiny house surrounded by her cats, trying to squeeze in "just one more chapter."

Stay in Touch

Ella has a great website, which also offers you some free books if you join up for her newsletter, so have a rummage around at: https://www.ellastoneauthor.com/

Social Media

If you're a social soul, then track Ella down at her Facebook page, Ella Stone Writes!