By the time Ashlynn had finished explaining her visit with Samira, she felt steadier. Soaking in the warmth of the bath, she no longer clung to Nyrielle but instead rested up against her, feeling the softness of her loverâs skin in the water and allowing Nyrielleâs slow, steady heartbeat to anchor her in the midst of the emotions that swirled within her heart.
"I stayed there for an hour after she gave me an answer," Ashlynn added, pulling back from Nyrielle and turning to the silver tray of soaps and oils to fetch one of the lavender-scented soaps. "We talked about Joceyâs time at the Summer Villa..."
"You need to be careful when you do that, my darling," Nyrielle cautioned, turning her back toward Ashlynn and pulling her hair forward over her shoulder to reveal the narrow, sculpted expanse of her shoulders while Ashlynn started working up a soapy, sudsy lather.
"I told you there would be time to consider your sisterâs matter once youâve dealt with Owain," she added, even though she knew it was some of the hardest advice sheâd ever given Ashlynn. "Youâre very close to claiming your vengeance. Now is not the time to lose your focus."
"I know, but..." Ashlynn started as her fingers began to glide across Nyrielleâs flawless, alabaster skin, leaving a faint sheen of soap and a handful of bubbles in their wake. "I canât deny that Jocey is tangled up in this. Whatever she and I need to do to make things right," Ashlynn continued, biting her lower lip as she tried to find the words to express herself.
"Whatever comes next for the two of us, I canât let her suffer at Owainâs hands," Ashlynn said firmly. "Even if Iâm going to, I donât know, lock her up in one of the castleâs towers for the next twenty years so she can learn that some secrets have to be kept," Ashlynn said, tossing out a wild and senseless idea as her hands slid from Nyrielleâs shoulder to her left arm and began working her way toward her loverâs slender, delicate fingers.
"Even if she needs to be punished for what she did," Ashlynn said in a softer tone. "I still need to keep her safe from Owain. Iâm still worried about her, and I always will be."
"Sheâs your little sister," Nyrielle said with a slight smile, turning in the water to face Ashlynn and pulling her into a close embrace. "You know that if you need the time to figure out how to live together with her, Iâm willing to take her as one of my progeny for you. It took many years for me to forgive Ignatious, and time needed to wear away the hurt of what heâd done."
"Jocelynn doesnât need to suffer the way he did," Nyrielle added as she saw a look of concern flickering across Ashlynnâs face. "You may just need time apart to heal, and I can give you all the time in the world."
"Thank you," Ashlynn said, pausing with the soap in her hand to pull Nyrielle into a tight embrace.
Nyrielleâs offer wasnât casual. It took as much out of her to make someone into one of her progeny as it did out of Ashlynn to turn someone into a witch, if not more. And if Nyrielle formed a bond with Jocelynn while the two sisters were still steeped in ... in whatever they felt for each other, then Nyrielle would become caught directly in the middle of it.
But if it gave her darling a better chance of finding happiness in the end, then she was willing to do whatever it took, even if that meant binding herself to a treacherous, jealous little sister for the next hundred years while time wore away at the wounds Jocelunn had inflicted on Ashlynnâs heart.
"I still havenât decided," Ashlynn said, pulling back slightly from the embrace to look into Nyrielleâs worried, midnight eyes. "I know that I need to talk to her. And... If I can face her, and if sheâs willing to face what happened," Ashlynn said softly. "Then I think I have my own way to bring us back together," she said, tracing her fingers lightly over the scar nestled between her breasts, where sheâd grown seeds of witchcraft for each member of her coven.
"But even if I can grow a seed for her, and even if she takes it, thereâs no guarantee that sheâll come out the other side of the trials to become a witch," Ashlynn said. "Especially when my feelings toward her are so... so tangled. So, I wonât know if I should make the offer at all until we meet. The things that Samira had to say, and the things Isabell told me about her time with Jocelynn, they give me hope."
"But none of it matters until Owain is dead," Ashlynn concluded. "That much, nothing has changed. So I havenât lost my focus. If anything, Iâm sharper than ever."
"Youâre more determined," Nyrielle acknowledged, reaching out with her delicate hand to caress Ashlynnâs cheek. The two things werenât the same, but Nyrielle didnât press the point. Ashlynn had selected her path forward, and she was prepared to walk it to the end, despite the dangers, and Nyrielle had no intention of forcing her loverâs hand as she walked that path.
At the same time, she was keenly aware of how delicate the balance was between Ashlynnâs determination to see Owain dead and her desire to rescue her sister from his clutches. The former didnât concern Nyrielle very much, but the latter was fraught with peril.
So, while Nyrielle had promised to let Ashlynn claim her own vengeance against and that she wouldnât interfere unless Ashlynnâs life was in danger, she very carefully made no promises about whether or not she would interfere with matters relating to Jocelynn. If need be, she was willing to whisk the young woman away herself, taking her as one of her progeny in order to give Ashlynn the time she needed to heal from her wounds.
Ashlynn might hate her for it for a time, but she knew her lover well. If Jocelynn died in the attempt to become a witch, Ashlynn would never forgive herself. It was better, Nyrielle thought, to provoke her loverâs resentment for a few decades or a century than to see Ashlynn hating herself for the rest of her life.
She hoped it wouldnât be necessary. That everything would work out the way Ashlynn wanted it to. But if it didnât, if the young witch stumbled and fell while she was trying to piece back together the fragments of the life sheâd lost when Owain nearly murdered her, then Nyrielle would be there to catch her, one way or another...