Burned (Keeper of the Flame) Read Free

there. Of course, it
didn’t stop me from packing up a wooden stake when I traveled. Just
in case.
    I’m nothing if not prepared.
    I want to read the book from front to back,
but I have no idea how long I’m going to be here, so I decide on a
shower and then a trip to downtown Shadow Hill to find answers.
    My hair is still wet and curled to the middle
of my back when I discover downtown is only a block over. I walk
instead of driving, taking in the sunshine and thinking it would be
really handy right now to have my own Book of Shadows.
    Or a mother who could talk to me about hers.
If she would ever stick around long enough to talk to me.
    After getting over my frustration with Ryan,
I figured he was probably right. My mother didn’t send the note.
I’d known it back in the corner of my mind all along. It was too
cryptic and it made no sense for her to lure me here when she could
flat out ask me.
    So if someone else sent the note, why? Why do
they want me here?
    I’m charmed by the stone entryway to a small
building with stained glass windows. It’s like it’s from a
different era. I don’t see a sign right away until I step closer to
the door, which is propped open with a wagon full of
paperbacks.
    It’s a library. Exactly where I want to
be.
    Inside, books line shelves all the way to the
ceiling. They stretch across counters and lay on round tables by
chairs. I fall in love a little before I notice the librarian
watching me.
    “Morning,” she says, drawing her glasses off
her nose. Her long blonde hair waves away from her face,
highlighted like she’s spent a lot of time in the sun. “Something I
can help you with?”
    I trace a finger along a shelf, thinking.
“Local folklore. Legends, myths, anything supernatural.”
    She lifts her eyebrows.
    “I’m researching,” I tell her. “I freelance
for a magazine‒anything paranormal, out of the ordinary. I hear
there’s a lot of unusual history in Shadow Hill.”
    She smiles and waves her hand vaguely. “Like
most towns.”
    I feel like she’s trying to blow me off. She
looks at her cell phone like I interrupted something.
    “Can you point me in the right direction?” I
ask. Or do I need to find it myself?
    She smiles again, warmer this time, and
points. “Local history is around the corner in the back room.”
    I barely take the time to thank her. She’s
probably already on her phone again, texting some local about how
the out-of-towner thinks there’s real supernatural history
here.
    I know there is. At least where my mom is
concerned. But I have no idea what the rest of the town knows about
her.
    The room is filled to the brim with books
just like the rest of the library. I glance to my right and see
stairs. There’s a sign that says Children and Young Adult
Downstairs.
    Not bad for a small town library.
    The first shelf gets me nowhere. But I find
some legend on the local mines and remember Logan telling me about
the ghost tours. Could be something. I move on, roll my eyes when I
see something about a Loch Ness monster, and pause when I find a
book on the Shadow Hill Hotel. The back cover tells the history,
when it was founded, and the tragic death of two of the owners.
    It also says it’s haunted.
    Looks like the motel I picked was the wrong
place to stay the night.
    I tuck the book under my arm, but freeze when
I hear voices in the front of the library. One is the librarian and
the other is low and male.
    I’m about to sneak closer to eavesdrop when
Ryan appears in the doorway. He props his shoulder on the jamb.
“Still here, huh?”
    “Still a dick, huh?”
    He smiles. The stubble is thicker today,
tracing his jaw and his upper lip. In the light, I can see his eyes
are gray like the sky before a storm and his hair isn’t nearly as
dark as I thought.
    He walks closer to me. When I hold my ground,
he props his hand on the shelf next to my head and looks at the
books in my arms.
    “ The Shadow Hill Hotel ,” he reads,
voice so deep it