Page 39

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Fraser was still shirtless and I couldn’t help but feel like he was using his abs to his advantage. Ab-warfare. ‘I didn’t grow up in Witchlight Cove,’ he said finally. ‘But you already know that.’

‘I do, but it sounds like there’s more of a story there.’

‘There is,’ he admitted. ‘It’s quite a long one.’ He glanced at Eva who was pacing impatiently in the sand. ‘Why don’t we take her for a walk? We can talk as we go.’

‘Sure.’

It was a crying shame when he pulled on his shirt and buttoned it. When he pulled on his leather jacket, I found myself focusing on how well it fit him. It really worked on him; then again, I doubted there was much he could wear that I wouldn’t like the look of.

He snagged his shoes but didn’t put them on, preferring to stroll barefoot in the sand.

‘Fatima?’ I asked impatiently as we started walking .

‘I didn’t grow up here,’ he repeated, picking up where he’d left off. ‘I grew up in a small village off the northern coast of Scotland.’

‘You’re Scottish? Your accent isn’t very strong.’

‘Well, you tend to mix a lot in magical communities – and I’ve worked hard to lose it. There are too many memories associated with that time of my life that I’d rather forget.’

‘What happened?’

‘The plan was to leave with my mum,’ he said quietly. ‘She was the reason I stayed as long as I did – I’d wanted out for years. My dad… He wasn’t a nice man. He was a walrus shifter, a big, ugly brute in both his human and animal forms. He caused us a lot of pain, especially my mum.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, and I meant it with every fibre of my being. I was lucky to have grown up in a warm, loving home and my heart ached that he hadn’t experienced the same.

He pressed his lips together as he tried to maintain his composure, but I could feel his agony. Grief and anger were intertwining until you could hardly separate the two. ‘So you got out?’ I prompted softly after several long minutes.

He shook himself. ‘I did, but not soon enough. My mum … she was a planner. She wouldn’t leave until ev erything was in place. If we’d gone a day earlier, Dad wouldn’t have found out and she’d have been okay.’

There were so many things I wanted to say, but none of them felt like enough.

‘She was in the hospital for months, but in the end there was nothing they could do. God, I looked for any type of magic to heal her – and that was how I learned about the Eternal Flames. The day I found out there was one here, I went to the hospital – I was going to kidnap her and bring her here. But that was the day she finally lost the battle.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said helplessly.

He nodded. After another minute, he cleared his throat. ‘In answer to your question, Fatima runs a retreat for women like her – like us . She found us at the hospital and promised there’d be a place for Mum when she got out. But Mum never did get out.’

He drew in a long breath. ‘I came here for a fresh start. I’d already saved enough money for both of us to start over, but I was on my own. Working helped me to avoid thinking about Mum, so I focused on earning all the money I could and giving it to the community.’

As I watched him, a faint smile touched his lips. I couldn’t reciprocate it. I’d suspected him of being something dark and nefarious and here he was – a philanthropist giving money to a shelter to save countless women from the fate his mother had suffered. In my own way, I did a similar thing by empowering women with self-defence training. I’d met women like the ones that used Fatima’s shelter; I’d seen them coming into my class shaking with nerves and with fear rattling their teeth.

I always felt proud when I knew I’d replaced an anxious, fear-filled mindset with confidence and self-belief because no one should feel scared all the time. I saw it as a privilege to empower my women, especially the ones like Fraser’s mum.

Maddie and I had been so mistaken about him and Yanni had been right – as always. I’d let my emotions cloud my judgement. ‘Fraser,’ I said softly, ‘I’m so sorry you had to go through that.’

He stopped walking and turned to face me. ‘Everything I did was so focused on forgetting my past and making the world a better place for other people – people like my mum – that I never stopped to think about what kind of future I wanted.’ He paused. ‘Not until I saw you.’

Oh fuck. I hadn’t expected that.

My heart was so far up my throat, I could barely breathe. Was I meant to say something? I had to – but what?

Had I imagined what Fraser looked like beneath that highly tailored suit of his? Hell yes. But as far as the future went, I never thought further ahead than the next weekend, not with jobs and certainly not with men. He wanted something I couldn’t give him.

The silence was threatening to swallow me whole when Fraser spoke again. ‘So, Beatrix Stonehaven, I held up my part of the deal.’ His voice was falsely jovial. ‘I told you my story. Now it’s time for you to share yours.’

As my eyes met his, I knew that I could refuse and tell him I didn’t feel comfortable sharing with him. He would drop the subject because he was a good man. But the truth was, I did feel comfortable sharing it with him; more than that, I wanted him to know the truth. My truth, not the rumours whipping through Witchlight Cove.

Besides, I needed to balance the scales.

I looked down at Eva, who had found a long stick and was struggling to decide which end to pick it up from. Only when she’d found the point in the centre, her balance point, did I take a deep breath in and look back at Fraser. ‘You’ve heard about the sorceress that attacked the village ten years ago?’ I began. ‘That started when she tried to kidnap a girl?’

‘Of course.’

‘The sorceress was my grandmother, my father’s mum.’

His eyes widened then narrowed instantly. ‘But your name’s Stonehaven. The sorceress’s name was something else, wasn’t it? ’

I nodded. ‘Dahlia Bleakman.’ Saying it aloud felt weird after I’d cursed it so many times in my head. ‘Dad took my mum’s name when they married. It was important that their children carried the Stonehaven name because she was an only child like me.’

‘You’re a sorceress, too?’ He obviously assumed he’d figured out what I was about to tell him. He hadn’t.

‘No,’ I said quickly. ‘But if you heard about the attack, you’ll know that a lot of magical people died or were badly injured that night. It really shook the community.’

‘I heard a couple of things, and obviously there’s the memorial in the square, but I didn’t do any digging. I tend to keep my nose out of any place where loss has happened. People don’t need strangers searching for titbits of gossip, not when all they want to do is trade details about someone’s hurt. That’s not a currency that I use.’

Any doubts I’d had about Fraser well and truly faded. Maddie had been so wrong about him.

‘Sorry to sound stupid here,’ he said, interrupting my thoughts. ‘Isn’t a sorceress and a witch the same thing? I always thought they were.’

My eyes widened and I shook my head quickly. ‘No, they’re absolutely not the same thing. And be careful saying things like that – no member of a coven will be happy with the comparison!’

‘Sorry, I didn’ t mean any offence.’ He sounded genuinely apologetic.

‘None taken,’ I gave him a small smile. ‘I’m made of tougher stuff than that.’

‘What’s the difference between them?’ he asked. ‘They both use magic.’

‘It’s how they use it. Witches like me or Maddie use the power that’s gifted to us. Maddie, for example, is an alchemist and a protection witch. She can cast wards for things like safeguarding kids or shielding vampires from the sun. There are fire witches, air witches, water witches – you get the idea.’

‘What about you?’

‘Me?’ I laughed bitterly. ‘I’m a hot mess. I’ve no real magic at all, just a bit of empathy that makes me feel what others feel.’ I glanced up and found him staring at me so intently that my pulse quickened. I could tell that his gaze wasn’t pitying, but it wasn’t an easy expression to read. ‘Dahlia didn’t use her own magic; she took it from others. She was so powerful, she could pretty much steal whatever magic she wanted.’

Fraser’s brow furrowed. ‘And you were the girl she kidnapped?’

He’d joined the dots correctly. ‘Yeah. I think she believed I had the powers she was looking for.’ I shook my head. ‘ But she’d have been sorely disappointed. I’m a magical dud. Anyway, she grabbed me and got as far as the barrier – she didn’t realise there was a ward on it.’

‘A ward?’

‘The border around Witchlight Cove prevents children under eighteen from leaving, unless they’re with an adult whose intentions for them are pure.’

His eyes widened slightly. ‘I didn’t know that.’

There was a reason why I’d stayed in Witchlight until my eighteenth birthday and not a second more. ‘You don’t have kids and you’re an adult, so why would you? Dahlia didn’t know about it, either. The ward set off an alarm and every powerful witch, wizard, elemental – everyone with even a hint of magic – came running. It took everything they had to stop her.’

I swallowed hard. ‘I wasn’t the only one who lost my parents that night. Too many people died.’

Fraser’s eyes were unblinking. ‘And when people see you around, they’re reminded of it.’

‘The guilt. The pain. I can feel it all.’ My voice was almost a whisper.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘It took a lot of courage to come back here.’

I met his gaze and held it. There was something between us, I was sure of it. ‘It did. But I can’t let you have my family home.’

He nodded slowly. ‘I understand what you’re saying, and I understand your reasons for saying it, but the Eternal Flame could do so much good. There are ways to harness its power.’

I felt my stomach twist. ‘That’s the whole point. You can’t harness it because you’re not a guardian. Look, I believe that you have the best intentions and you think you could use the Flame for good, but it’s too dangerous. It’s in my blood. I was trained from birth to deal with it, to handle its strength and make sure I never abused it.’

‘But Maddie has held it for the last ten years. It’s not in her blood,’ he pointed out.

‘No, but she’s been my best friend since before we could walk. She’s not a bloodline guardian but she did a lot of the training with me – she thought it was fun. You don’t have that and it would take you decades to learn.’

‘Then I’ll learn. You can teach me, that way you’d know exactly what I wanted to use its powers for. That would work, wouldn’t it?’

I opened my mouth, not sure whether to agree or list of a dozen reasons why that wasn’t feasible, not least because that would mean me staying in Witchlight Cove for the next decade and a half. I couldn’t commit to that.

But before I could say anything, Eva started barking. ‘Eva, what—?’ I started, but she was already running away from the waves and bolting up the hill towards the village.

Something was wrong.