The Vampire & Her Witch

Ashlynn didn’t have a younger brother, so she had no idea what it was like to grow up with one. But Ollie was close enough to her, both in age and in relationship, that she treated him the way she imagined a big sister should. Right now, after listening to him describe his carriage ride with Liam, Eira, and Morwen, she felt like he was in desperate need of a big sister’s advice.

Slowly, she let go of the last of the power she’d been holding, allowing the shadows that cloaked the Broken Blade Tavern to melt into simple, ordinary darkness now that the risk of the Church noticing them had passed. Instantly, the room felt a little bit warmer, and the light from the candles seemed a little bit brighter, even though they’d burned down nearly half their lengths.

”Ollie,” she said sternly. ”I don’t think you’re being fair to Lady Eira, or to Lady Morwen. You don’t understand what it’s like to be a young lady at their age. It’s a very tender time for them, you know,” she said, giving him a stern look.

”It’s true, though,” Ollie protested. ”Eira spent half of the dinner trying to cozy up to Liam, and most of the carriage ride too. And as soon as she learned that Liam would be training with Virve and what an honor that was, she started looking for a way to get a position of her own. She even wanted to become one of Lady Nyrielle’s progeny!”

”She didn’t try to hide it,” Ollie said, frowning at Ashlynn, who seemed upset that he’d tried to warn her about the pair. ”She wants to find a way to raise her statio,n and she’s very focused on Lord Liam to do that. And she was the one who pulled Morwen into things,” he pointed out.

”Originally, she wasn’t part of the meeting when I, um, when I revealed myself as a witch,” he said, his voice losing confidence as he brought up the blunder that Ashlynn had scolded him for. ”But Eira was the one who insisted on bringing Morwen in and telling her the secrets...”

”Ollie,” Ashlynn sighed, reaching out to put a finger on his lips, silencing him before he could say anything further. He’d already emphasized that Morwen was ’very kind’ to him when they barely knew each other, and he clearly struggled with her attention. Equally clearly, he completely failed to understand where Eira and Morwen were coming from, or why they would act the way they did.

”You said that Morwen is sixteen this year, didn’t you?” Ashlynn asked. ”And that Eira is just a year older?”

”That’s right,” Ollie said, nodding in agreement. ”I think that Eira is just a little bit younger than your sister, Jocelynn,” he said, coming as close as he dared to the reason their behavior bothered him so much.

He’d heard from Isabell that it had been jealousy that originally motivated Jocelynn to betray Ashlynn’s secret. Jealousy and a desire to be the one who got to marry Owain Lothian.

Ollie had watched countless banquets, whether it was from the rafters of the Summer Villa, or the servants’ corridors in Lothian Manor, and he’d seen the way aristocrats vied with each other for favors, lands, wealth, or the affection of a man or woman. He’d heard dozens of rumors over the years about this lord scheming against that one, or one lady shunning another over the most petty of things.

There was a reason that Ollie had always dreamed of being one of the honorable, heroic knights rather than rising higher. The games that the barons of Lothian March played in order to advance their own interests at the expense of their own people, just to push down some other lord and their people, weren’t the kind of thing he ever wanted to become involved in.

But it seemed, after meeting the daughters of Loghlan Dunn’s knights, like even the families of knights weren’t immune to the same kind of scheming and social climbing ambitions that had led Jocelynn to betray Ashlynn in the first place. Ollie knew how badly Jocelynn had hurt Ashlynn, even more now than he had before, and he didn’t want her anywhere near people who behaved the same way.

”Ollie, sixteen is a special age for young noblewomen,” Ashlynn started, only for Ollie to interrupt her as he turned a brilliant shade of crimson.

”If you’re going to tell me about the, um, changes a woman’s body goes through,” Ollie said awkwardly. ”My parents already told me about...”

”Brat!” Ashlynn said, slapping his broad chest with a meaty -THWAK- while her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. ”I meant a noblewoman’s Coming of Age banquet!”

”Huh?” Ollie said, blinking in surprise and rubbing the spot on his chest that Ashlynn had smacked. The small cut she’d made in his chest in order to infuse his body with the power of the Blood Acorn had already healed, but now there was a bright red handprint forming just a few inches from that spot.

”Do you know what ’coming of age’ means for a noblewoman, Ollie?” Ashlynn asked. She shouldn’t be surprised that he didn’t. The Lothians had fathered so few daughters over the past several generations that it had been at least fifty years or more since Lothian Manor had played host to a Coming of Age banquet.

In the great halls of the baronies, where daughters had been more common, the rituals and customs were well understood, but Ollie would never have had anything to do with them.

”Um, no,” Ollie admitted, looking sheepish. ”Doesn’t it mean that you’re old enough to leave your parents’ home and do as you wish with your life?”

For common people, like Ollie, all ’coming of age’ had meant was that his parents were no longer considered responsible for his well-being, but then, he’d already moved into the servant’s quarters of the kitchens by then, so it hadn’t really been anything special for him.

”That isn’t it at all,” Ashlynn said, shaking her head at her adopted little brother. ”A Coming of Age banquet is... It’s like the start of a race,” Ashlynn said. ”And it’s also a little bit like being the prize catch at an angler’s competition,” she said a touch sadly.

”A Coming of Age banquet is the celebration where a noblewoman’s parents announce to the world that she’s eligible for a betrothal arrangement,” Ashlynn said. ”After that announcement, things become... complicated.”