Page 70 of Secrets of the Forgotten Heir

Her expression softened. ‘I’m setting you free with one month’s severance pay. I’ll try and get someone else to man the phones. Someone who’ll actually do it.’

I winced. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said piteously. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’

I could feel the pain radiating from her, sharp and raw. She was scared, and no wonder. She’d already lost her daughter and she barely ever saw her son. Maddie was all she had left.

‘I know.’ She reached out and took my hand. ‘But I wish you’d both trusted me with this earlier.’ Silence descended, painful and prickly like my conscience.

‘Well, that has to be a good sign.’ Fraser’s voice drew me from my thoughts.

As I looked up and followed his gaze out of the windscreen, my heart leapt.

Maddie was standing at the window of Jacobson’s house. Even from this distance, I could see how pale she was. Her skin looked almost translucent but she was standing upright, her eyes open, and the ghost of a smile played on her lips when she saw us.

The car had barelystopped when Yanni flung open the door and raced toward the house. As she struggled with the front door, Jacobson appeared and opened it. Eva barrelled out and raced towards me.

‘I’m alright, I’m alright,’ I said as she placed her paws on my chest and nuzzled her head against me. She always sensed when there was danger, like during the fire at the house, so perhaps she could sense what had happened to me, too. Not that I was entirely sure what that was.

‘I should leave you here,’ Fraser said.

I immediately stopped fussing over Eva and looked at him. ‘Are you sure? You could stay … to see if Maddie’s okay. If you wanted to?’ I wasn’t sure why I didn’t want him to leave yet, but I didn’t.

He smiled gently before leaning forward and planting a kiss on my forehead. ‘It’s okay. You need time with your family. But you and I ... I’d like us to talk soon, if that’s okay. Maybe over dinner?’

‘That would be nice,’ I said.

I remembered thinking the same thing when we were at the beach talking about our families. I had wished then that we could sit and talk for hours. I wanted that now, but it felt different. It wasn’t a want but something more – aneed.

‘Message me when you get back to the house,’ he said. ‘Just so I know you’re alright.’

I nodded. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d needed to text a guy to tell him I was home safe, and it wasn’t as if I was going home alone. But it didn’t feel like an unreasonable request given all that we’d been through.

Fraser bent down to ruffle Eva’s ears before turning and heading back down the lane.

Inside the house, I hugged Maddie so tightly I was pretty sure I heard some of her joints pop. ‘You’re gonna have to let go of me or I’ll suffocate,’ she said with a shaky laugh.

I drew back to look at her. ‘You scared the life out of me! Don’t you ever do that again! Old Jacobson said you were dealing with black magic. What the hell, Maddie?’ I prodded her chest with my index finger.

‘I didn’t realise... I mean, I knew it was different from what I’d done before but I thought you had to be – I don’t know – evil or something to use black magic. Everything I was doing was to help people, so I assumed I was tapping into something different. I swear I didn’t know I was doing black magic.’

I couldn’t be mad at her. I wanted to be absolutely furious, but I believed her completely. Maddie didn’t have a bad bone in her body; there was no chance she’d ever tamper knowingly with that side of magic.

‘But you’re okay now?’ I glanced at her fingernails. The black had gone, though they were definitely redder than normal.

Rather than replying immediately, she bit down on her lower lip. For the first time I noticed how much older she looked, and not because of the years we’d spent apart. She was the same age as me and yet there were crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes and thin lines around her lips.

‘Jacobson’s going to help me, but he says there’ll have been effects. Using my life source instead of the Eternal Flame has taken something from me.’

‘It’s taken something? What does that mean?’

She looked away from me. ‘It could be a couple of months ... could be a couple of years.’

Her words hit me with as deep a physical pain as the impact of the gunshot. ‘Are you serious, Maddie?’ I whispered.

She lifted a hand to silence me before I could continue. ‘I know, alright? I know. But like I said, Jacobson will help me. There’s a way to work around this with white magic to put back whatever ... whatever it was I’ve taken away. I don’t know how it will work exactly, but he’s going to help.’

I felt the weariness radiating from her. She was absolutely exhausted; this wasn’t the moment to pushher further, but I needed more answers. ‘Where’s Old Jacobson now?’ I said. I might not be able to question her but I could definitely question him – and hopefully I’d get some answers.

‘I think he’s in the kitchen with Yanni.’

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