The Vampire & Her Witch

”I can’t wait to taste what you’ve made...”

Ollie’s face heated beneath the stubble at Jocelynn’s obvious enthusiasm for the breakfast he’d prepared.

”It’s nothing special,” Ollie said as he collected his plate and cup of cider before taking a seat in the armchair facing Jocelynn. ”More of a knight’s breakfast than the sort of thing you’re probably used to, my lady.”

”You can call me Jocelynn, you know,” Jocelynn said. ”Since Ashlynn says her coven are as close as family, and that you were like a little brother to her, we don’t need to be formal over breakfast, do we, Ollie?”

”I guess not,” Ollie said a bit sheepishly. ”Then, um, please, dig in,” he said as he picked up his own knife and fork. Silently, he reminded himself that it would be considered bad manners to pick up the sausages with his hands the way he would have when he’d been nothing but a kitchen boy. Virve might still pick things up with her claws to eat them, but he was trying to make fewer such mistakes now that he’d become not only a member of Ashlynn’s coven, but a knight to the Evergreen Empress as well.

”Tell me if you like it,” Ollie encouraged when he saw Jocelynn hesitating over where to start. ”Georg made the sausages, so if you’re unsure,” he suggested. ”They’re a good place to begin.”

”You’re not going to tell my mother if I start with the sweet things, are you?” Jocelynn asked as she eyed the pieces of toast with honey-butter, walnuts, and cranberries. ”Because I’ve been curious about this since you made it.”

”I won’t tell her that you started with sweets if you promise not to tell her that I bothered you while you were still in your dressing gown and robe,” Ollie said with a warm chuckle. ”Deal?”

”Cad!” Jocelynn said before grabbing a nearby pillow and hurling it across the room at Ollie. The Cypress Knight deflected it with ease while Jocelynn fought to suppress the blush creeping across her cheeks. ”Now I see why Ash called you a little brother.”

”You don’t mind though, do you?” Ollie asked.

”No, no, I don’t,” Jocelynn said, finding once again that she felt safe in Ollie’s presence in a way that went beyond trusting him after he’d protected her from Owain.

Jocelynn hid her embarrassment by reaching for one of the triangles of toast, taking a delicate bite of the breakfast confection and savoring the complexity of flavors and textures that exploded on her tongue.

The bread itself had just the right level of buttery crispness from toasting in a pan by the fire, and the slices were thick enough to soak up the butter and soften in the middle, even though it was yesterday’s bread. The honey-butter added a rich, creamy sweetness that blended with the tartness of the cranberries and contrasted with the earthy crunch of the crushed walnuts.

It was simple. She’d watched him make it. There weren’t any expensive spices in it, and he’d only sweetened it with common honey. And yet...

”This is witchcraft,” Jocelynn declared, smiling in delight at how well Ollie had brought together all of the flavors. ”Forget whatever you did with the fire and the healing,” she said as she eagerly took another bite. ”This is the real witchcraft of the Cypress Witch,” she teased.

”Half the cooks in Lothian Manor could have done the same,” Ollie protested. ”What do you think happens to all the broken bits of walnut that get crushed coming out of their shells? The whole, pretty pieces make their way to the lord’s tables, but the smashed bits can still be good for the rest of the common folk.”

”Maybe,” Jocelynn said, savoring the last bite of her first wedge of toast before setting the other one aside to be a treat at the end of the meal. ”But how many of them would have been willing to serve it to the sister of the Evergreen Empress?”

”None,” Ollie said definitively after swallowing a large bite of succulent, peppery sausage. ”Not a single one of them would have dared. Owain had a nasty reaction to being served food fit for a commoner, even when he was hunting. Bors didn’t mind so much, but by the time I was old enough to do more than scrub pots and carry sacks of potatoes, everyone knew not to offend Owain’s sensibilities.”

”The kitchen staff I grew up with would probably have a fit if Ashlynn wandered in and asked to borrow an oven and a chopping board,” Ollie said with a hearty laugh. ”I almost wandered in there myself while we were at the manor but...”

”Do you regret not going?” Jocelynn asked between bites of the light, fluffy eggs that tasted of fresh herbs and slightly nutty cheese. ”Do you plan to go back to visit?”

”There’s no one left there who’s important to me,” Ollie said, shaking his head. ”I’m bringing my parents back to the village soon. I want to help build them a house this summer, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to. They can stay in my home there for as long as they want.”

”Otis is here in the Vale too,” Ollie added. ”He’s working under Master Georg now and very happy to do so. So there’s really no one for me to go back to.”

”I see,” Jocelynn said. ”So you’re not looking backward at all then. You’re focused on the future that you’re building here, in the Vale.”

”Aren’t you the same?” Ollie said, cocking his head at Jocelynn. ”You’re getting ready to become a witch. It’s a big change. No one who goes through it comes out quite the same after. Heila is fiercer than she was, braver and kinder too. Virve is bolder, Isabell looks younger,” he said, his voice trailing off as he realized that he didn’t know Isabell well enough to speak to how she might have changed in other ways since becoming the Hemlock Witch.

”And you?” Jocelynn said, raising a brow at the young witch. ”How did you change?”

”I get hurt more,” Ollie said with a laugh while he finished cutting his eggs into small, bite-sized pieces, turning the wedge of fluffy, cheesy eggs into a pile of small morsels. ”Physically, mostly. I try to be a good knight and a good witch. I try to protect people in ways I never would have before.”

”I always liked helping people,” Ollie said with a shrug between bites of his breakfast. ”Now that I can, I do that... even if I get hurt in the process. I think that’s part of what it means to be a knight, and I made that part of what it means to be a witch.”

”And now it’s your turn,” Ollie added with a smile. ”Your turn to figure out what kind of witch you’re going to be, and what kind of future you want to make.”

”Those seem like awfully big questions to figure out in just three days,” Jocelynn said, feeling suddenly overwhelmed. ”I... I don’t know where to begin.”

”Begin with breakfast,” Ollie said, standing up from his seat to fetch the pot of eggs. ”Whenever possible, a knight rides to battle on a full stomach. It’s the same thing here,” he said as he used his spatula to serve up another slice of the fluffy eggs for himself, and then another slice for Jocelynn, even though she hadn’t finished her sausage and mushrooms yet.

”Today, we eat hearty, and then we start preparing for your trial,” he said confidently. ”I treated my trial like a knight’s vigil. There are all sorts of rituals that go with the vigil, and they helped me to face the challenges of the trial.”

”I’m not going to become a knight...” Jocelynn said, frowning slightly as the words left her lips. She’d seen Ashlynn cutting a stunning figure in armor, fighting back against Owain. Could she do the same? Did she want to?

”You don’t have to do a knight’s vigil,” Ollie said gently. ”That’s not really the point. The point is to do the things that will help to put your heart at ease and focus your mind to face the challenges of the trial. We started by taking care of the body’s needs, and I’ll keep cooking for you until the night of your trial,” Ollie promised.

”But the rest,” Ollie said, meeting her gaze directly. ”The rest we can figure out together, so that when the trial begins, you’re as ready as you can be. I’ll be here to help,” he promised. ”Every step of the way...”