Page 30 of Secrets of the Eternal Flame

Like the others, I was struggling to walk in a straight line, partly because Maddie had draped her arm over myshoulders 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’tlookevil 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 couldbe 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 reallyhadseen 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 nowdoubt 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 samesmooth 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.

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