The Vampire & Her Witch

Before Isabell could begin to speak, the door onto Ashlynn’s terrace opened with a loud -BANG- and a flurry of snow as a cold wind swept through the room. The oppressive heat from the hearth retreated before the onslaught of the cold, but not before turning the leading edge of the flurry of snow into a brief shower of fat, cold raindrops that fell across Ashlynn’s sitting room. At the center of that snow flurry, Heila’s diminutive figure emerged, clutching a glowing-white Snow Fang in one hand as she dashed into the room.

”Ashlynn, what’s wrong?” Heila asked, rushing to Ashlynn’s side and reaching out to offer her a gentle, comforting touch. In Heila’s chest, the seed of witchcraft that Ashlynn had planted there pulsed with a ripping, tearing pain that left Heila breathless even before she used the power of her dagger to dash through the sky. The feeling of distress had been so intense that she didn’t dare delay, even for the amount of time it would have taken to rush through the halls.

”Tell me,” Ashlynn said, in a voice that sounded rough and hollow. Her emerald eyes looked dull as she focused all of her attention on Isabell, ignoring both Virve and Heila as she demanded an explanation from Isabell. ”What has Owain done to Jocey? What is he doing to her now?”

As soon as Ashlynn spoke, both Virve and Heila relaxed visibly, and Virve withdrew the hostile look she’d directed at Isabell. She offered no apology to the human engineer for her hostility, but she could at least understand why Ashlynn felt so anguished. If the older woman carried news of a threat to Ashlynn’s sister, it made sense to both of the other witches why Ashlynn would have reacted so strongly.

What Isabell said next, however, shocked them both to the core.

”When Jocelynn betrayed you,” Isabell said slowly, collapsing to sit on the singed rug and leaning her back against the sofa she had sat on previously. ”She had no idea that Owain was as violent of a man as he is. She thought that, if she told him, they could find a way for you to go back to living quietly like you had in Blackwell Manor while she took your place as Owain’s wife.”

”How would that have even worked?” Ashlynn said numbly, stunned at her sister’s naivete. ”Don’t tell me that this business about me ’dying in childbirth’ so she could take my place was just a version of a plan she’d already hatched. Did she really think that Owain and his father Bors would go along with such a risky farce if they weren’t forced to?”

”I don’t know,” Isabell said slowly, wincing slightly as she struggled to calm her breathing.

Jocelynn hadn’t seemed quite that clear on how they were supposed to work things out, only that she’d ’confided’ in Owain in the hopes that they could come together ’as a family’ to solve the problem of Ashlynn’s mark. And of course, she was all too happy to volunteer to take her sister’s place at Owain’s side.

”The important part,” Isabell said as she finally felt her racing heart beginning to slow. ”The important part is what happened after. Jocelynn might have been naive, but she isn’t stupid. The more time she spent around Owain, the more she was able to put pieces together and the more she came to understand the kind of man he really is.”

”More than that, the more things have gone wrong for Owain in Lothian March, the more his veneer of propriety and charm has started to slip,” Isabell said. ”He hasn’t been afraid of letting Jocelynn see his cruelty, his willingness to deliver beatings to his own men, or the ugliness of his temper.”

”He hasn’t harmed Lady Jocelynn, has he?” Heila asked nervously, looking from Ashlynn to Isabell with a pained look on her face as she tried to decide where she should be right now. Ashlynn felt brittle, raw, and almost as drained as she’d felt following her battle against the ghost of High Lord Ansgar. She clearly wasn’t well after hearing the news that Isabell had shared with her, and her own powers had raged out of control.

At the same time, Isabell looked almost physically battered by her encounter with Ashlynn’s fury. Her skin had reddened as if she’d spent all day out in the summer sun, just from being too close to the hearth when the power Ashlynn summoned fanned the flames until they resembled a blacksmith’s furnace. Isabell’s once neat and tidy gray hair looked as if it had been tousled by fierce winds, and even though she was recovering, her breathing was still shallow and labored.

Heila wanted to rush to the older woman’s side, but after hearing that Jocelynn had betrayed her sister, Heila didn’t dare move from Ashlynn’s side. With how raw her closest friend felt, even that little move to prioritize someone else might sting like grinding salt into a fresh wound. Torn between her desire to help someone who was physically hurting and Ashlynn’s raw emotional wounds, Heila ultimately made no move, remaining at Ashlynn’s side to offer what comfort she could.

”Owain hasn’t harmed her, yet,” Isabell said, emphasizing the word ’yet.’ ”But Owain is on thin ice with his father, Bors. The Marquis has already given Owain a deadline of the end of the year to prove himself worthy of becoming the next Marquis, or Bors intends to pass his throne to Loman. And if he gives Loman the throne, he wants Jocelynn to marry Loman instead of Owain.”

Put simply, Jocelynn’s position was incredibly precarious, trapped between the factions contending for the Lothian throne. Worse, as autumn gave way to winter, she was running out of time. The year would end with the winter solstice, and by the time Midwinter’s Day arrived, Bors Lothian intended to present his decision to the march. At that point, Jocelynn’s fate would be sealed.