Page 53 of Secrets of the Forgotten Heir
Given that I’d been right beside Maddie when she’d learned to harness her powers, I had a pretty good grasp of her methods. I certainly understood more about her magic than the elementals’ magic, or Old Jacobson’s. But everything I’d seen Maddie do had involved the Flame and I couldn’t figure out how she was enchanting her ink without it.
‘I’ve been doing it the same way any alchemist who doesn’t have access to an Eternal Flame,’ she said sassily. ‘Good old hard work. I’ll get the hang of it eventually. It takes practice.’
I wanted to believe she was alright, but I knew how stressed and worried she was about the Flame being missing and keeping it from Yanni. I’d only been doing it for two daysand already I couldn’t imagine doing it for a whole week.
I twisted around on the sofa so that I was looking directly at her. ‘Promise me you’ll tell me if you’re overdoing it, right?’ I said.
‘Says the woman trying to solve a murder, protect her home and deal with a vicious ancient sorcerer.’
I shook my head. ‘Old Jacobson wasn’t vicious. He was … startled. And I’m not even sure that he’s a sorcerer. I still think he might be a really powerful witch.’
Seeing his power had only confirmed that I needed to speak to him again and make him talk. He had power and a lifetime’s worth of experience. He wasn’t associated with a coven so he was the perfect person to talk to about the Eternal Flame – if he’d let me get near enough to actually speak to him.
‘I think I need to close my eyes,’ I said as the film credits started rolling. ‘Can you wake me up in a couple of hours so I’m not late for work?’
Though I’d asked Maddie the question, it was Eva who looked up from the floor. She replied with a bark.
Maddie laughed. ‘That sounds like a yes. Go to bed – we’ll make sure you wake up. Well, one of us will, anyway.’
I didn’t need telling twice. I left Eva chewing at her snack, whatever it was, and headed upstairs to my bedroom
I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Chapter Thirty-Five
As I probably should have expected, Eva woke me up by licking my face thirty seconds before my alarm went off. ‘Alright, alright. I’m up,’ I grumbled.
Slobbery dog kisses were better than an alarm in one way at least: you couldn’t press snooze on them. Particularly not when the dog was standing on your chest as she did the licking.
‘You know you’re not a little puppy any more, right?’ I groused as I gently pushed her aside and clambered out of bed. ‘One of these days you’ll crush my ribs and then who will feed you? Think about that.’
After getting dressed, I gave my teeth an extra clean to banish the sugary hot-chocolate residue and headed downstairs. Despite saying she would make sure I got up for work, Maddie had fallen asleep on the sofa. I briefly contemplated waking her, but it didn’t seem fair to disturb her if she needed rest. Instead I took the blanket fromwhere it lay crumpled by her feet and pulled it up to her shoulders.
For a moment I considered leaving Eva with her. After all, Maddie had been insistent that we guard the house properly to make sure that no-one found out about the Flame, and she didn’t look like she was in much of a state to do any guarding. But my retriever was already waiting by the door; something told me she was enjoying this new job as much as I was – or maybe it was the sofa in Yanni’s office she liked. Either way, I knew she was coming with me.
Strangely, I didn’t mind the split shift. It felt familiar, like balancing PI work and martial arts classes. I was missing my lessons; that physical exertion and the satisfaction of throwing someone to the ground had become a regular fix.
I immediately wondered what it would be like to wrestle Fraser over my shoulder, although a bed might be a better landing spot than a mat. Yes, I could definitely wrestle him on a bed. For purely strategic reasons, absolutely nothing else. Soft landings reduce injury.
Uh-huh. Bad Bea,I thought. It was a crush because I knew he was off limits. He was tasty because he was forbidden fruit, that was all. It would pass. And for now, I needed to focus on my job.
I strolled into the station ready to make myself comfy at my desk, but I hadn’t even reached it when Yanni came out of her office, slipping on her coat. ‘Don’t get comfortable,’ she said. ‘We’re going out.’
Excitement straightened my spine. ‘You’ve got a lead? Angelica’s back?’
She shook her head. ‘Not that the barrier guards have let me know. But one of the barmaids at The Smuggler’s Rest said she saw Toby drinking there last night. I thought we’d check it out.’
She didn’t have to ask me twice; anything to find the real killer and I was in.
Eva, with her weird extra sense, hadn’t even come inside the building but was waiting outside the door as if she knew we were about to leave. When she saw us, she ran straight to the police car.
Yanni shook her head in wonder. ‘She’s no ordinary dog,’ she muttered.
I knew it. When I’d first met Eva, there’d been a small incident with a demon; in my haste to get rid of it, I’d used a magical vial of who-knows-what that Maddie had given me. I’d flung the unstoppered vial across the room and a single drop had landed on Eva’s butt.
Now, no matter how much I scrubbed, her golden fur bore a stubborn purple-black mark that refused to fade. It was purespeculation, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever magic was in that potion hadn’t just stained her fur, it had changedher. Maybe Eva wasn’t an ordinary mutt any more. Maybe she was something far more extraordinary.
‘I can’t believe The Smuggler’s Rest is still standing,’ I said, as we drove down the high street. ‘It was always a total dive. I thought it would have been condemned years ago.’ I certainly didn’t think it was the type of place someone young like Toby would drink, though I didn’t say so.
