Page 40

Chapter Forty

‘Eva! You come back here now!’ I didn’t care that I was yelling – I needed to yell. Eva was running away from me and straight towards the village. As she reached the first road, she didn’t even pause before dashing across it between two cars.

‘Eva!’ I screamed in panic. Relief flashed through me as the cars missed her. ‘What are you doing, you stupid dog! Come back!’

She had never run off, not once – and I wasn’t going to lose her.

My legs pounded the ground and my lungs heaved in air as I forced myself to run faster. I saw her take a left turn on the high street past Shady’s and then go right, but I couldn’t catch up with her. She was pulling away from me.

‘Eva, what are you doing?’ I yelled. This time she responded with a loud bark. Blasted dog! She could hear me, but she wasn’t responding. What the hell? This was so unlike her .

As I watched her take another turn to the right, my stomach plummeted. I hadn’t been sure, but now I knew exactly where she was going. She was bolting home. Why?

‘Don’t worry, I’ll get her!’

I hadn’t realised Fraser was running with me; in fact, he was level pegging until he spoke, at which point he pushed his pace faster and overtook me. Damn selkies with their proper fae magic making them stronger and faster.

Still, I could keep going for hours – my stamina was something special. My mum had made sure of that. Once, she’d made me fight for twelve hours straight, not even stopping for food or the toilet. It was supposed to be a simulation of how I might have to act if someone came for the Flame. If only she’d realised the Flame could disappear all on its own. There had been no drill for that particular scenario.

Stamina didn’t equal speed, though, and I had to exert every last shred of energy to catch up with Eva. Finally, I turned the last corner and saw my house.

My girl wasn’t running anymore; instead, she was barking non-stop, not even pausing for breath, and it was easy to see why. Smoke was billowing out of the window – and it wasn’t normal smoke. The pearlescent mist shimmered with a pinkish hue and there wasn’t a hint of grey in it .

‘Maddie!’ I yelled.

‘Stand back! I’ll go in.’ Fraser held out his arm to stop me.

‘Like hell!’ I snapped and shoved him aside. He tumbled back in surprise but I didn’t have the time to apologise, not when he was slowing me down.

Not wanting to waste time looking for my house keys in my bag, I leaned back, raised my leg and slammed my heel straight into the door next to the lock. The wood buckled and the door flew wide open.

‘Wow,’ Fraser breathed behind me, and I felt a wave of awe radiate from him. Any other occasion that might have been nice, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it.

The house was thick with smoke but there were no flames – or heat. Whatever was causing this, it was some sort of magic. ‘I’ll look for the source,’ Fraser said, as if he were reading my mind. ‘You go find Maddie.’

Eva leapt ahead of us both, bounded into the house and through to the back of the building. Fear gripped me; the last thing I needed was for something to happen to her too. ‘Maddie! Maddie, are you in here?’ I screamed, trying not to panic.

I couldn’t imagine being in any kind of magical smoke for long would be good for her – or us – and I covered my mouth with my sleeve. I prayed that Eva and I were wrong about our suspicions and that Maddie was far, far away, but when I followed my dog through the house I saw my best friend lying face down on the floor.

‘Maddie!’ Her name ripped from my lips as I dropped to the floor beside her and pulled her up to a sitting position. A moment later, a hissing sound filled the air. I twisted my head to find Fraser behind me holding a bucket of water and extinguishing the magical flames. The last few drops fell onto the large pink cauldron that Maddie had been using. Immediately, the smoke stopped billowing.

‘Is she okay?’ he asked as he crouched down beside me.

‘She’s not responding,’ I said. ‘She’s breathing, but there’s nothing...’ I was shaking, panicking so hard I could barely see. I couldn’t lose Maddie, not now that I’d found her again.

Eva licked Maddie’s face and for a moment I held my breath. Maybe she could bring Maddie round like she’d done when my friend had fainted in my flat. But as I sat there, cradling her in my arms and Eva kept on frantically licking her, I realised it wasn’t going to happen.

‘She needs help. We need to get her to one of the covens,’ I said. Still holding her like a baby, I moved to stand up but before I was upright, Fraser grabbed my arm.

‘I don’t think you can go to a coven with this.’ His voice was a harsh whisper.

‘What? We have to – she needs help!’

‘I know. But look , Beatrix.’

I followed his eyes down to her hands. The cuticles of Maddie’s nails had started to turn black. There was no denying what it was a sign of: black magic. My stomach lurched. The honey fungus outside hadn’t grown because the Eternal Flame was missing; it had grown because Maddie was dabbling in evil magic.

‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t witches get cast out by their coven if they’re found to be involved in black magic?’ Fraser asked.

‘She wouldn’t... She couldn’t...’ I stammered, but each time my voice trailed off. Maddie would work herself to the bone and do whatever it took to meet her obligations to her customers. With the Eternal Flame gone, she had needed to find another way to ‘give the magic a little bit more’. That’s what she’d told me.

‘Maddie,’ I whispered. A tear ran down my cheek and fell onto her face. ‘What have you done?’

I sat there wishing I could feel something from her – anything, even pain. Pain would have let me know she was still there. But there was nothing but a terrifying emptiness .

‘We need to take her somewhere else. Is there anyone you can trust with this?’ Fraser asked. ‘Would Yanni know someone? Could she protect her?’

There was no way I could take Maddie to Yanni. She didn’t deserve to see her granddaughter like this, and besides it would put her in an awful position between her role as chief of police and her role as Maddie’s grandmother. No, Yanni wasn’t an option.

As for people I trusted, the only other one was Ezra but he couldn’t help. He was a shifter, and I needed a witch. Suddenly a thought struck me. ‘Find Maddie’s car keys.’ I stood up with Maddie in my arms. ‘We need to get her to Old Jacobson,’ I said grimly.

This time, I’d be prepared for the old man and his flip outs, and this time I wasn’t taking no for an answer. He was a powerful witch and he would help Maddie.

Fraser had turned away from me so that all I could see was the back of his leather jacket. I assumed he’d wanted to give me a moment of privacy as my tears were falling, but when I called him again he still didn’t move. ‘Fraser, did you hear me? We need to get her to Old Jacobson.’

‘It’s gone,’ he whispered.

‘Fraser, you need— ’

When I realised what he was looking, the air rushed from my lungs and panic gripped me. Oh this was bad. This was very bad.

‘Fraser—’ I began.

He turned to look at me before I could continue, not that I had the faintest idea what to say. ‘The Eternal Flame has gone,’ he said. ‘And you’ve been hiding it from everyone.’