Page 7 of Secrets of the Eternal Flame

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 thatall 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 yoursoulwith 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 mysoulwith 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 ofhersoul 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 meeverythingabout 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.

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