The Vampire & Her Witch Chapter 1991: Ashlynn’s Letters (Part One)

Jocelynn was alone.

For the first time in several days, she was well and truly alone. Even Anne and Mary couldn’t reach her side here, in the tower that Ashlynn had claimed for the witches of her coven.

One day, Jocelynn might have her own room in this tower. One day, it might become her home in the Vale of Mists.

At the moment, however, she was sitting in her sister’s chambers, in the warm, cozy sitting room, next to a hearth with a warm, crackling fire that couldn’t quite push back the chill that had settled over her heart.

Ashlynn had taken the witches of her coven, and another witch as well, to a place she called the Enchanted Grove in order to heal Hauke’s father, Ritchel. Ashlynn expected that they’d be gone for at least an hour or two, or even longer if Ritchel’s wounds proved to be more difficult to heal than expected.

Now, Jocelynn sat in Ashlynn’s chambers in the coven’s tower because she’d wanted privacy to read the letters that Ashlynn had written during her time in exile.

The bundle of them sat next to her on a small end table. There were more than a dozen of them, and Jocelynn had yet to work up the strength to do more than lift the lid of the simple wooden box they lay in.

Jocelynn had asked her sister for somewhere private that she could read them, not because she wanted to avoid her mother or her sister intruding and reading over her shoulder but because she wanted to cut herself off from the comfort they might offer. Ashlynn had poured her heart into those letters, and Jocelynn intended to face the pain and hurt in them directly. She couldn’t do that if her family came to her with soft words of comfort.

Ashlynn seemed to understand, or if she didn’t, she had no problem granting Jocelynn’s request. No one, not even a castle chambermaid, would dare to set foot in Ashlynn’s chambers uninvited. Here, she could have all the time she needed to face her sister’s words.

Just sitting in Ashlynn’s chambers, however, pressed upon her how much her sister had changed in the time she’d been away. From the broken sword on the mantle to the incomplete suit of armor by the doorway, it didn’t look like the sitting room of a young lady. It looked like the sitting room of a hero... A bold knight who had faced danger and returned victorious. One who had likely paid a high price to claim that victory.

"You changed so much, Ash," Jocelynn said, looking around the sitting room. "And you’re still the same. You’ve done so much for me and even after everything, you still... You still dote on me."

Jocelynn didn’t know how Ashlynn could do it. She tried to put herself in Ashlynn’s place, imagining what she would have done if it had been Ashlynn’s fault that she’d been handed over to Percivus, or if someone else dear to her had caused that tragedy... And she couldn’t. Or, rather, she couldn’t imagine showing such a person the smallest shred of kindness.

But Ashlynn could. Despite everything that happened. Last night, they’d stayed up into the small hours of the night, plying their mother with wine for stories of her whirlwind romance with their father, listening to gossip from the Royal Court from Micheline and even teasing a few stories from Nyrielle about Mist City in the days before the Lothians burned it down.

It had been a happy, joyful evening and it shouldn’t have been possible.

She needed to understand how her sister could ever forgive her. She had to understand if there was any hope that she could forgive herself. And somewhere in those letters, she hoped to find the answer.

She was stalling. In a few hours, Ashlynn and her coven would return. If she wanted to find those answers... Jocelynn took a deep breath and pulled the first, most worn letter off the top of the stack.

~Jocey,~

~It’s Ashlynn, and I’m alive. I don’t know if this letter will reach you before you learn that, or after, but just in case I find a way to deliver it to you safely, you need to know that I’m alive. And, if you’re near Owain when you read this, you need to know that you’re in danger. I sent a warning to Isabell. If you can find your way to her, she’ll help to keep you safe and to escape from him, if you can...~

"You wanted to warn me," Jocelynn whispered as her eyes scanned the letter. "From the very beginning, you were trying to find ways to protect me, even when you were so far away."

It wasn’t a surprise. Isabell had already told her about the letter she’d received from Ashlynn and the warning it carried. But seeing a reminder of it felt painful in the way a tight shoe felt painful on a stubbed toe. An old, dull hurt made sharp again.

The first letter told her nothing that Ashlynn hadn’t already. She described the beating she’d suffered at Owain’s hands, the grave she was buried in, and her escape to the Vale of Mists. One thing, however, tore a fresh wound in her heart.

~I know someone told Owain about the mark on my hip. I pray that it wasn’t someone truly close to me. If one of the Lothian servants saw it while I was changing, or even one of our own household staff, that would be for the best. I can’t blame a stranger for doing what they thought was right. But I’m afraid it wasn’t. Jocey... what if it was Mother who told Owain? If she shared the secret with the Church and they told him...~

~Mother always said that I needed to be twice as good in order to make up for the burden of bearing this mark. If the Church convinced her that I can’t be redeemed... If she chose the Church over me, I don’t know what I would do. I’m afraid, Jocey. Because if Mother betrayed me, that means I can never come home...~

"But it wasn’t Mother," Jocelynn said, blinking back the tears that welled in her eyes. "Mother would never hurt you. She called you her little miracle. But I... And you never imagined I could have. You’d sooner doubt Mother than me..."

It was a painful realization and one that Jocelynn had little defense against. Ashlynn could have written these letters to their mother, or their father... But she’d written them to her sister because Jocelynn was the person she thought she could trust most.

Reaching for the next letter, Jocelynn took a deep breath and forced herself to keep reading, but the opening of the next letter made her heart stop cold.

~The nightmares came again last night. The dead won’t leave me alone...~