“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.”