The Vampire & Her Witch

Ashlynn crossed back to her chair and sat down. The wood creaked beneath her, familiar and solid, and she rested her forearms on her knees and clasped her hands together while she took a moment to gather herself.

She’d said more than she’d intended to. The words about Jocelynn had come out of her the way blood came out of a wound, not because she’d chosen to let them but because the pressure behind them had become too great to hold, and now they were out in the room, hanging in the candlelight alongside Cerys’s tears and the fading echo of Cian’s sobs, and she couldn’t take them back.

She didn’t want to take them back. But she needed to move forward.

”We don’t have much time,” Ashlynn said, and her voice carried the first traces of the steadiness she would need for the conversation waiting below. Not the cold composure she’d worn when she first entered the room, but something warmer and more honest that had been forged in the crucible of what happened in this room.

”What I came here to offer you hasn’t changed, even after...” Ashlynn let her voice trail off, gesturing at the door that Cian had been carried through several minutes ago.

She looked at Cerys, then at Cynwrig, who had returned to his wife’s side and sat with one hand resting on the bed beside hers, close enough to touch but not quite touching.

”The young man who healed you,” Ashlynn said, focusing on the most important thing and the reason she had come here in the first place. ”Ollie. He was born right here in Lothian City. His father works as a stable hand at Lothian Manor, and his mother is a chambermaid there. They’re good, simple people who have no idea what their son has become, and they have no idea what’s about to happen in the place where they live and work.”

Cynwrig’s eyes sharpened. Ashlynn could see him fitting the pieces together before she’d even finished speaking, the same practical mind that managed the dye production of Stormbrook Village now working on a different kind of problem entirely.

”When I move against Owain Lothian,” Ashlynn continued, ”Lothian Manor will become a dangerous place for anyone caught between the two sides. Ollie’s parents are innocent people who had no part in starting any of this, and they deserve better than to suffer because of it.”

”Tomorrow evening, you’ll arrive in Lothian City as part of Baron Loghlan’s retinue,” Ashlynn explained as she turned to Cynwrig. ”Cerys’ injuries will give you a reason to excuse yourself from the festivities while other knights are eating and drinking at Owain’s stag feast. That gives you the freedom to move through the Manor without drawing too much attention to yourself.”

”You want me to find Ollie’s parents,” Cynwrig said. It wasn’t a question, and there was something in the way he said it that went beyond simple understanding. A trace of relief, almost.

After an evening of lies and violence and watching his brother-in-law try to murder his wife, here was something clean. Something decent. A mission that didn’t require him to choose between his conscience and his family’s survival. And, most importantly, a chance to repay a portion of the debt he owed to the young man who had saved his wife’s life.

”Find them and bring them to your chambers,” Ashlynn said. ”Quietly. A chambermaid to help tend to your injured wife should be easy enough to explain away. A stable hand might need a bit more creativity, but whatever you have to do or say, I believe that you can figure it out.”

”Just keep them safe until I’ve dealt with Owain,” Ashlynn said. ”And when this is over, I’ll see to it that they’re reunited with their son.”

Cynwrig glanced at Cerys. The look that passed between them was brief and private, the kind of conversation that only a long marriage could conduct in silence, and whatever it contained was enough to bring a trace of steadiness back into Cerys’s expression.

”The witch who, no,” she corrected herself. ”The young knight who healed me,” Cerys said, and her voice was hoarse but no longer fragile. The rawness of her grief over Cian was still carved into the lines around her mouth and the redness of her eyes, but beneath it, something else had taken root. Something that looked like the first green shoot pushing through scorched earth.

”You want us to protect his family,” she said. ”Is... is that really all that you’re asking of us?” Cerys asked. Protecting a pair of servants... it hardly felt like anything at all.

”It’s enough for a beginning,” Ashlynn said. ”I can’t keep score. There are too many hurts on all sides, and too many wounds. I, I don’t want to nurture a grudge, but I need to see you make amends to him after what happened. I owe him that.”

”I’ve met no shortage of wicked people since I arrived in Lothian March,” Ashlynn said with a faint, fragile smile. ”I don’t think the two of you are among them. So, start with this, and afterward, if you still feel like the scales aren’t balanced, then I’ll leave it to your own sense of honor to find a way to make up for the rest.”

Cerys looked down at the pendant resting beneath her fingers. Then at Cynwrig, who met her gaze with the steady, quiet certainty that had carried their marriage through storms worse than this one. Then back at Ashlynn.

”We’ll do it,” Cerys said. ”His parents. We’ll keep them safe.”

”Thank you,” Ashlynn said. She let the word settle before continuing.

”One more thing,” Ashlynn added. ”Lady Eira will remain with you and Dalwyn in your chambers at the Manor. She’ll tend to your comfort and help with anything you need.”

Cerys glanced toward the empty stool by the door. The girl who had sat there all evening, watching and listening and, when it mattered most, reaching out to grab the wrist of a woman who could have killed her with barely a thought.

”She’s also there to watch you,” Ashlynn said. After everything that had passed between them tonight, Cerys had earned at least that much honesty. ”If you or your son choose to interfere with what’s coming, she’ll stop you. I want to trust you, Lady Cerys. I’m giving you the chance to earn that trust, but I won’t be careless about it.”

”I understand,” Cerys said, nodding slowly and accepting the restriction. Truthfully, after what Lady Eira had done tonight, she owed the young woman almost as much as she owed Sir Ollie. Perhaps, if she spent some more time with the young lady, she could find a way to repay that debt as well.

Cynwrig rose and offered his hand. Not as a knight to his queen or a vassal to his ruler. As a man sealing a bargain with someone he was choosing to believe in, even after watching her nearly lose herself to fury, even after seeing the emerald light swirl in her eyes and the killing blow poised to fall.

He had watched all of that, and he was offering his hand anyway, because the mission was worthy and the cause was just, and sometimes that was all you had to build on.

Ashlynn took it. His grip was firm and warm, and it lasted exactly as long as it needed to.

She stood, and the weariness she’d been holding at bay settled onto her shoulders with a weight she couldn’t quite disguise. There was a baron and his wife waiting for her downstairs, and the conversation ahead would require a different kind of strength than this one had demanded.

Thankfully, she’d asked Isabell and Ignatious to entertain them while she met with Lady Cerys. If there were two people in her retinue who could give her the support she needed to face something difficult, she couldn’t ask for better than them.