by A. W. Exley
Jasper caressed her face and drew her to him for a feather-light kiss. “The heart resides in the Ravensblood tree. To an observer it is a simple laying on of hands. Mother and Ava both touched the tree, and then it was done. I cannot tell you what happens for the women involved; my mother referred to it as the mysteries of womankind.”
Dawn snorted and held up her hand. She had laid her hands on the tree, even still had a tiny splinter under her skin, but nothing mysterious had happened – and why not? Perhaps the festering scratch from Ava’s serpent vine was to blame.
“Where did your parents go…did they die?” Although it didn’t sound like they were dead.
His chest heaved as he blew out a deep sigh. “Elementals can retreat to our Creator when they are tired of living in this realm. It is a type of death in that they are gone from this world.”
“Don’t you miss them?” Dawn grieved every day for her parents. She couldn’t imagine them being presented with a choice to just walk away and leave her alone. Only the injustice of sudden death had parted them.
“Yes. But we will always carry them in our hearts, and I see my mother’s touch every day in this estate. After they left, Julian became Earl Seton and Lord Warder.” His hand returned to drawing gentle circles on her skin.
She dropped her head back on his chest. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but they could wait for another day. Right now, she wanted to hear the end to his sad story. “Your parents had gone and Ava made the heart to Julian’s Warder. What happened next?”
His arm tightened around her. “What Lettie and I feared. Ava slowly revealed her true character. Vain, selfish, and cruel. Julian and I argued more and more frequently as she drove a wedge between us. As we emerged from winter into spring, I moved out and went to live at the mill. It was easier to stay away and not have to see them and how she changed him.”
“What of Lettie?” Dawn decided two could play at his drawing game, and she began tracing the lines on his chest that radiated away from where her head rested.
“In that, I failed my sister. She bore the brunt of Ava’s cruelty with no one to protect her. She played tricks on Lettie and abused her. The lake became Lettie’s only escape, as Ava hates the water.”
“Water could be her weakness. We could use that to our advantage,” she said.
He made a sound of agreement in his throat but continued his narration. “Then one day, Ava announced she was going to have the lake drained and turn the land back into forest.”
“No!” Even as Jasper narrated events, ideas were trickling into Dawn’s mind.
“Over the course of that year, the estate changed. Ava didn’t care about the land, and areas fell into neglect. Ava quarrelled with many of the gardeners and terminated their employment until none were left. She kept Julian to herself and begrudged any time he spent in the village or at the mill. The wider area that fell under my parents’ responsibility was likewise ignored.”
“Did Julian say nothing?” The Cor-vitis reappeared between the locked hands and wound around and around their fingers like a manic spider spinning its web.
Jasper’s arm tightened around her. “At length he started to see the rot at her core. Ava was never satisfied with what we had. She wanted power and prestige. She demanded Julian marry her and said they should move to London to be part of a larger ward.”
“But what of the Ravensblood tree? Can a heart travel or leave? I can’t imagine ever wanting to leave, unless it was to seek out new and rare plants.” She shivered in pleasure at the idea of travel to obtain species unseen in England. A whole new world of opportunities could now open up to her.
Jasper kissed the top of her head. “Yes the heart can travel for short periods, long enough for you to make plant expeditions if you so desire. But if the heart failed to return, the Ravensblood would wither and so would she.”
“Isn’t that a bit of a flaw in your construction though? If your clan is so tied to the Ravensblood tree, couldn’t your enemies just cut the tree down or set fire to it and defeat you all?”
“The tree is both our strength and our vulnerability, yes, but it is not without its defences. Over the millennia Soarers have tried to attack various Ravensblood trees, just as we have sought to extinguish their Elemental flames that are born by the phoenix.”
“They have a phoenix?” How was that fair, when the Soarers had a mythical fiery bird as their symbol and Warders had a stationary tree?
“Yes. The poor thing is kept chained to a pedestal in a room with no windows. It can never escape or fly free.” Jasper let her hand go to reposition the pillow behind his head.
“Oh. How horrid. At least the Ravensblood tree can grow as large as it wants.” She thought of the wallpaper in the dining room at Whetstone. She had always thought they were phoenixes, flitting among the trees and setting boughs alight.
“Trying to attack either side at the source is a task that carries a much higher chance of failure than you would suspect, which is why it is rarely attempted.”
Dawn tried to imagine what sort of defences a tree might have, but Jasper pressed kisses to her neck while his hands roamed her body. She wanted to ask him more about the phoenix but was distracted by a different kind of fire. She needed to dash cold water on this, or she would never know how Julian’s story ended. “When did Ava realise she was with child?”
Jasper made a noise in his throat that reverberated along Dawn’s skin. He placed a last kiss on her shoulder and then rolled back to his pillow. “As his obsession waned, Julian started to have doubts and began to visit me more frequently at the mill. He admitted he might have been too hasty and wondered if there was a way to break the bond between Warder and heart. Then, almost as if she knew, Ava announced she was with child.”
“He must have been thrilled. Elijah is a fine young man.” She placed a hand on her stomach. What would it be like to feel life stir inside your body?
Jasper smiled and his chest swelled. She could imagine his pride at the man maturing under his watch. Elijah would be a remarkable addition to the Warder ranks.
“Julian was conflicted. Under English law, if the child were male then he would have to wed Ava to make their child his heir. But I think in his heart he knew it wasn’t a love match, and perhaps he wondered if in yielding to obsession, he gave up the opportunity to ever find his true mate.”
Dawn laid her hand flat over the steady thud of his heart. The air seemed laden with unspoken words and promises. She didn’t doubt that a deep and enduring love would grow from the seedling they had sown. But would Jasper also offer her a distinctly English commitment, one sealed with a small circle of gold?
“Do not think you will be escaping my clutches, Miss Uxbridge. Now that I have you, I have no intention of ever letting you go.” He kissed her again and chased away a few of her many questions.
“Did Julian live to see his son born?” Her voice was a mere whisper.
The serious expression dropped over Jasper’s face. “No. Ava was about six months along when she summoned Julian to the maze. I don’t know what happened except that somehow she tore his essence from him. He tried to stagger back to the house but only made it as far as the maze entrance. Lettie discovered him early in the morning, and Hector helped her to put him on a horse.” He paused for a moment and swallowed, his next words were a quiet whisper. “They were attacked on the road.”
“You seem so invulnerable, I had thought you might be immortal.”
He ground his jaw. “We are difficult to kill, but it is not impossible. In his weakened state, Julian couldn’t fight the Soarers, nor could he protect Lettie. The ravens alerted me. I arrived too late to save Julian, but I dispatched the one who savaged Lettie.”
If one lived for centuries there would be more opportunity to acquire enemies. What dark water passed between the two families that one would seek to kill the other? “Was there any investigation into Julian’s death?”
“We are a small rural area with
no constabulary, and even if there was a policeman here, such crimes are difficult for regular people to comprehend. Officially, Julian’s death was a fall from his horse. Unofficially, I have spent the last forty years chafing against Ava’s command that I cannot pursue justice. Her refusal to do anything confirms she was complicit. The Hamiltons knew she had weakened him and it was their time to strike.”
A tale of tragedy and a babe born with no father. A mother who abandoned that child in her endless pursuit of more…what? Dawn still couldn’t understand what the other woman sought – immortality, power, or wealth?
“What does Ava’s name mean? I assume her name gives some clue as to her Meidh trait.”
Jasper stared at her. “Ava is short for avarice. The Meidh, as a pure essence, do not draw their power from a physical element but rather from the substance of the universe or the very aether that creates a person. Just as the other elements balance one another, so you have your own internal balance. Each trait has its opposite, and you can choose which side you draw upon.”
“Avarice or greed is one side, or she could have been a generous and selfless person.” Ava had the potential to be the perfect heart to care for the community. If each trait had two sides that meant Dawn also had another side that would be the opposite of creation and nurturing.
“But she chose to only wield one side of her power and became consumed by it.”
Jasper’s explanations helped everything to fall into place in her mind. Dawn rolled over onto her stomach. Her hand itched for a pencil to write down her thoughts before she lost track of them all. “Avarice. She seems more like a succubus, stealing the essence of men to use for her own purposes.”
Jasper pushed down the blankets to rest a hand in the small of her back. She hated reminding him of what Ava took from him, but they needed to openly discuss the matter. No more misunderstandings, he had said. Jasper’s hand followed the line of her vertebrae. “Perhaps that is how she twisted her trait. The definition does fit her – an insatiable desire for more, an extreme of greed and covetous. The larger question is how does that help us defeat her and remove her from our sanctuary?”
When Dawn tackled enemies in her garden, she looked at how they thrived and then removed that element. If only they could rid the estate of Ava in the same way. She doubted a spray of hot water and soap would do it, even though it worked on black mould on plants. There was a further clue in Jasper’s words that even a personality trait has an opposite. “The opposite to greed or avarice would be selflessness; perhaps the antidote lies in that?
“My name reflects my trait. In me, Dawn has meant nurturing, for on a fundamental level that is the giving of life, the first blush of a new beginning. What if the opposite of my trait was dusk, the death of day and the ability to extinguish life?” Did she have a black thumb to balance her green one? The idea of taking a life fell cold through her stomach. She couldn’t even comprehend how to do that, let alone whether she could do it, no matter the stakes.
Jasper pulled her closer. “I would prefer we found a way to kill Ava with kindness.”
Dawn’s fingers rapped on Jasper’s chest as she thought. “I think Lettie has a role to play yet. You said Ava targeted her from her first day in the house. I think Lettie threatens her, so Ava has to keep her weakened.”
“Or it could simply have been jealousy. Julian and I both adore Lettie, and Ava couldn’t stand sharing him.” He picked up her hand and examined her arm. “The scratches look less angry on your body, as though the Cor-vitis has soothed them.”
Dawn glanced down. The cuts did seem to have lost some of their heat, and the itch had almost gone. “I hope the heart grape is fighting the python vine for me.” She wanted to live. Please God or Gaia or whoever, let me live. “Water is Ava’s weakness, I am sure of it.”
Jasper placed her hand back on his chest. “How do we use that to our advantage? Lure her out to the lake?”
Dawn sat up as ideas exploded in her head. “First I need to claim the Ravensblood tree from her, before it suffers any more. To do that, I need a moat.”
“A moat?” The frown was back on Jasper’s face.
This time Dawn did reach out and try to iron out the wrinkles. She rubbed her thumb between his eyes and pulled the skin taunt. “Yes. If we surround Ava with water, it may weaken her further. It should mean she would be trapped for whatever we decide to do next.”
He made a noise as he considered the idea. “Let’s discuss where and how you want a moat in the morning. We can’t do anything until it is light. Now, while the estate slumbers, there are other things I would discuss with you.”
“Like what?” Dawn didn’t know what was left to discuss. She thought they had done admirably well at ironing out all the wrinkles in their fledgling romance. Well, all wrinkles except for the one permanently etched in Jasper’s forehead.
“Let us discuss how many times I can make you gasp my name.” Then he rolled her under him and kissed her firmly even as his hands explored her body.
She quite approved of where this particular discussion was heading.
26
Dawn awoke the next morning refreshed, overheated, and somewhat squashed. Jasper clutched her tight to his chest and had partially rolled on top of her. She wondered if this was what every morning would be like from now on. Probably not, as Jasper no doubt had some enormous suite in the manor house. Did he have an equally large bed? Or perhaps he stood out in the garden like a statue at night. She should really ask.
As she squirmed in his tight grip, he rolled to his back and dragged her over with him.
“Does your skin cover your stone construction? You are as heavy as a brick wall,” she muttered as she draped herself on top of him. He seemed to maintain a constant temperature like a sun-heated wall. That would have benefits in winter, particularly if she could warm her cold toes against him.
“I didn’t want to let you go in case it was a dream and you were gone in the morning,” he murmured. Then he slid out from under her and reversed their positions, pressing her beneath him as she lay on her stomach. He trailed a line of kisses up the back of her spine that made her shiver. Then his tongue swooped over her skin and she imagined he followed a pattern laid by the Cor-vitis.
She clutched the pillow and stared at the marks on her arms. Once again the black spidery ones crept forth. “The lines are fading and Ava’s vine returns.”
“I know how to make the Cor-vitis mark come back.” His tongue licked lower to the small of her back and over the curve of her bottom. His teethed nipped her skin on the way down.
“Oh,” was all Dawn managed to gasp before she was fisting the pillow, unable to remember what she had been about to say.
Some time later, as Dawn’s outstretched hand flopped over the side of the bed, a wet nose pressed to her skin. She opened one eye and peered out to find Mouse sitting patiently by the bed. The wolfhound had nudged the bedroom door open and let the couple know he was still in the cottage.
“Mouse wants out,” Dawn said as she sat up.
Jasper laid a hand on her shoulder. “Before you go, you should know that unlike my brother, I have every intention of marrying my heart. I don’t want to overwhelm you. I know events have given you much to come to terms with, and I will not add to that until you have had time to grow used to life with me. But do expect a proposal in the near future, Miss Uxbridge.”
“Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed him. Then she picked up her discarded nightdress from the floor and pulled it back over her head as she walked to the front door.
Mouse took off with some speed, and Dawn suspected he had waited as long as he could before he let his needs be known. When she returned to the bedroom, Jasper had dressed.
“We have much to discuss, and we probably both need a decent breakfast. Will you join us in the manor house?” He reached out and pulled her to his chest.
She breathed him in and took a moment of peace and quiet before they faced the rest of the wider f
amily. “Yes. I am famished for some reason. I just need a chance to wash and dress so I am presentable.”
“I find you entirely presentable with nothing on at all.” He kissed her throat and then let her go.
Dawn touched her fingers to her neck to press his kiss into her skin. She didn’t think she could ever get enough of his touch. And at long last she had found a way to remove the frown from his face.
Cor-vitis – drunk on love. She had an inkling of what that meant now as it fizzed in her veins and made her feel more alive than ever before.
After breakfast, the entire extended family gathered in the library, including Dr Day, who had been summoned.
“You didn’t think I would be left out did you?” The doctor winked at Dawn, and then he scanned the room before fixating on Lettie.
She followed to where his attention lay, sitting beside Elijah. “Lettie seems much calmer this morning. I hope it is the first sign of real progress for her. My scratches have also settled down today.”
The doctor’s attention slid back to Dawn. “That is good news. Perhaps there is something in your theory of a vine scratch affecting Lady Letitia also, although from what I researched over the last few days, there is no way to remove it from her head without inflicting more damage.”
Jasper cleared his throat and waited for the murmur in the room to fall. He placed one hand on the marble mantel. “We are all here to discuss Ava and how to end her reign. Dawn is willing to be the new heart of Ravenswing, if we can supplant Ava.”
Dawn moved to his side and reached for his hand. “I know I have much to learn about your world, but I think I have pieced together something that may work, if you are all willing to help.”
Glances were exchanged between Marjory, Hector, and Elijah. Lettie stared at her hands in her lap. Elijah spoke for them all. “We will do whatever we can.”
