The Vampire & Her Witch

Chapter 1637: Sleepover Stories (Part Two)

To her credit, despite all of the shocks the evening contained, Jocelynn didn’t faint dead away when she learned that her sister intended to marry the powerful vampire that the human world called the ’Demon Lady of the Vale.’

It was a close thing, however, and if Ashlynn hadn’t extended a hand for Jocelynn to steady herself, she might have fallen over.

"Jocey?" Ashlynn asked gently as she met her sister’s wide-eyed gaze. "Are you all right?"

"Huh?" Jocelynn said, looking as if her mind was somewhere far away. "Oh, I, I’m fine," she said, shaking her head and returning to the present. "It’s just, for a moment, I thought you said that you were going to marry..."

"I did," Ashlynn said in a tone that was both gentle and unyielding. "I found love, Jocey, real love, and someone who makes me happy in a way I never dreamed was possible. We were betrothed a month ago in the Vale of Mists," she explained.

"I’ve hoped to find a way to bring Mother and Father to our wedding," Ashlynn continued as Jocelynn stared at her in open-mouthed shock. "I wanted to go visit them this winter, but with everything that happened in the march, it just wasn’t possible to sneak across the kingdom to see them."

Nyrielle had promised to take her if she wanted to visit. In the depths of winter, with long nights and short days, they could have made the trip there and back in the span of two months. But if they’d done that, Owain would have married Jocelynn after he killed Bors, and she would have lost her sister forever...

"You really love her?" Jocelynn asked, raising a brow at her sister. "If it’s just because of the blood bond thing between you or if it’s politics again," she said as a righteous anger began to stir in her heart.

"No, it isn’t that," Ashlynn said quickly, shaking her head at her sister. "The bond helped us to know each other," Ashlynn added, placing her fingers lightly on her chest where she could feel the echo of Nyrielle’s heartbeat next to her own.

"We can share dreams with each other," Ashlynn explained. "Some nights, she shows me places on the far side of the mountains that I may not get to visit for years... Sometimes, I share memories of home with her, like the Festival of Light in Blackwell," she said softly as she met her sister’s gaze.

"The last time that you and I went to the festival alone together," Ashlynn added softly. "I shared that with her because it was my most precious memory of home. I, I hope you don’t mind," she said, stumbling slightly as she considered how her sister would feel about sharing such an important night with a woman that Jocelynn didn’t know. "But things like that are how we’ve grown so close in so little time..."

"Mmm, I don’t mind," Jocelynn said, though she wasn’t entirely sure what it was like to ’share dreams’ with someone. But knowing that the night the two of them had spent at the festival was one of her most precious memories of home, even if it had ended on the news that Ashlynn had been betrothed to Owain...

The knowledge wrapped around Jocelynn’s heart like a warm and comforting blanket, and she found herself smiling for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

"Poor Father," Jocelynn said, imagining how their father would react to the news. "He’ll be so happy that you’re alive, and I know he’ll come to your wedding, no matter who it is, but..."

"I know," Ashlynn said softly. "No grandchildren. We can find other ways to handle the succession in Blackwell," Ashlynn said as though it wasn’t very important. "Maybe you could rule as Countess Blackwell or something for the next hundred or two hundred years. If Father is willing, I intend to bring Blackwell into our new kingdom, along with Uncle Dylan and DuCoumont County, if he’ll join us."

"New kingdom?" Jocelynn said as Ashlynn casually dropped even more shocking news. She was still trying to process the fact that her sister found love with a woman, an ancient vampire at that, when Ashlynn presented the idea of folding two whole counties into the territory she’d just conquered in Lothian March and, presumably, the Vale of Mists as well.

"You, you’re going to rebel against the Church and the King," Jocelynn whispered, pressing her fingers to her lips as she imagined the scale of conflict that Ashlynn was about to kick off. "The Holy War..."

"We have no choice, Jocey," Ashlynn said, standing up from the chair to embrace her little sister. She could feel Jocelynn trembling on her feet, and she was certain that the thought of facing off against the Inquisition again, especially after she’d accepted the idea of becoming a witch in her own right, loomed large in Jocelynn’s mind.

"The war will come whether we want it to or not," Ashlynn said as she stroked her sister’s hair. "But it isn’t hopeless. Nyri has been holding back against the Lothians for decades in the hopes that she wouldn’t frighten the Church into launching another Crusade against her. Now that the war will come anyway, there’s no reason to hide the strength of the Vale anymore."

"And now she has me," Ashlynn added, pulling back to look her sister in the eyes. "And soon, you as well. We’ve already pulled in the High Pass, the lands ruled by Frostwalkers in the mountains past the Vale, and Lord Jalal’s people on Airgead Mountain, too. Add the march, DuCoumont County, Blackwell County, and, if we’re lucky, the Southern Steppe as well and..."

"And you’ll have a kingdom that rivals Gaal," Jocelynn said as she imagined the size of the empire her sister was talking about building. "You’ll stretch from the eastern shores all the way to the western peaks, plus the Blackwell Isles... But the Church won’t stand for it, and neither will the King."

Ashlynn hadn’t said anything about Keating, but Jocelynn didn’t have to think too hard to realize that the southernmost Duchy would become a flashpoint between Ashlynn’s new empire and the Kingdom. As the maps currently stood, even if DuCoumont and Blackwell joined them, there would be a break in the empire between the southern edge of DuCoumont and the northern edge of Blackwell.

Jocelynn could see an attempt to close that gap taking shape, but if they did, it would completely cut Keating off from the Kingdom of Gaal... The Duke in Keating wouldn’t stand for that any more than the King would, even if he could stomach giving up an entire county to Ashlynn’s empire.

No one wanted to let go of territory they thought belonged to them, and what Ashlynn would be asking the kingdom to swallow, the loss of a whole march and two counties, plus the isolation of a duchy... No king could stomach such a loss easily.

"It doesn’t matter," Ashlynn said firmly. "I don’t want to fight them, and I’ll try to find a way to do things without a war if we can. There might still be a way to negotiate for our future. But either way, if we want to have a home where witches don’t need to live in fear, we can’t bow down to the Church and their puppet-King."

"It’s a lot," Jocelynn whispered as her mind reeled at the immensity of what Ashlynn was describing. Next to establishing a new kingdom on the continent, suddenly the idea that her sister wanted to marry another woman didn’t seem quite so overwhelming.

Jocelynn was still worried about her sister’s lover. It had only been nine months, less than half the time that Ashlynn had spent courting Owain, and yet... When she heard the way her sister said her lover’s name, she heard a warmth and affection she’d never heard before.

If Ashlynn had really found love, after what they’d endured at Owain’s hands, then Jocelynn was determined to support her, no matter what their family had to say about it. Whether their father was disappointed at the loss of grandchildren or their mother’s piety took hold at the notion of Ashlynn marrying a vampire, Jocelynn would defend her sister’s decision.

But a war against the Church and the Kingdom...

"It’s too much for tonight, Jocey," Ashlynn said softly as she took her sister’s hands in her own. "Tonight, we should rest," she said, glancing around for a towel to dry herself off. "Tomorrow, I’ll face the lords and ladies of the march, and we’ll set things in motion. But for the rest of the night, it’s just about you and me," she said.

"All right," Jocelynn said, letting go of Ashlynn’s hands so she could fetch the towel that had been warming next to the hearth. "Will you, will you still share a bed with me tonight?" Jocelynn asked hesitantly. "We can stay up and talk until you fall asleep, or I do, just like... Just like we used to..."

"I’d love nothing more," Ashlynn said, looking at her sister with a smile that lit up her face. "Just like old times..."