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. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NovєlFіre.net

"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?"