She traced a line on his chest with a fingertip, following the swoops and whirls. Another pattern was more geometric, and it reminded her of something else. Her finger went around and around before the similarity of the design to something else clicked in her mind.
“It’s the maze,” she whispered and then looked down. On both their torsos, the intricate puzzle of turns and dead ends was re-created by the clever Cor-vitis.
“Is it? I wonder what’s on the other side.” He rolled her over onto her stomach and dropped his head, using his tongue to trace a pattern along her spine.
Dawn laughed and tried, none too hard, to evade his tongue. “We need to talk. Or rather you can talk while I catch my breath. It’s time you told me the full story of Ava and Julian so I understand what we face.”
25
Jasper sat up and tugged a pillow behind his back. Dawn nestled against him with her head on his shoulder and one hand flat on his chest. His words rumbled through her fingertips as he spoke.
“It was summer 1839, and Julian and I were riding to the mill, which had only recently been completed. On the way, we encountered a young woman leading a lame horse. She had fiery auburn hair, laughing green eyes, and the sort of curvaceous figure that makes sensible men do very foolish things. One glance and Julian was lost.”
“Ava. Did she wait for you or was it an entirely accidental meeting?” Dawn asked.
He stroked her back. “It was no accident. I believe she came here specifically to ensnare Julian.”
The machinations of women. How long had Ava plotted to find an Elemental who could feed her hunger for power? Or was she driven by something else?
Jasper’s fingers stilled against her skin as he continued. “Julian jumped off his horse, placed Ava on his saddle, and took up both sets of reins. He told me to ride on and that he would take her horse to the blacksmith. One meeting and a few hours was all it took for Ava to convince Julian to move her into the estate. When I returned home later that evening, she was already settled into a guest room.”
Dawn’s thoughts turned to Mouse, who settled on her as his person in an instant. Did the same spontaneous knowing happen for Julian? “Do you think she fooled him, or did he fall in love on first sight?”
“Julian said she was his heart and he wasn’t going to let her slip through his grasp. Lettie and I both thought they moved too fast, but he was deaf to us. Over a period of weeks, his delight in Ava turned into obsession.” Jasper’s hand moved upward to caress Dawn’s shoulder, where a pattern darkened under her skin.
The old saying marry in haste repent in leisure sprang to her mind, and then Dawn considered her own odd courtship. She had been at the estate less than a month and here she was lying naked in Jasper’s arms. Best keep thoughts of regretting hasty actions to herself.
“Did you know she was an Elemental?” Dawn had grown up with no idea that she was the fifth element nor that her mother had also been one. Even Jasper didn’t realise until they touched hands. How did Elementals identify each other? Where had she left the notebook full of her questions waiting to be answered?
He made a noise in the back of his throat as he considered her question. “Usually we simply know. Elementals who have reached maturity give off a type of resonance and they feel different to be around. Gargoyles and undines are often more comfortable around each other but uncomfortable around sylphs or salamanders. Then there are others who can live their lives without anyone ever realising their true nature, like your mother. At other times the reaction is stronger when we touch, like what happened between us.”
Elementals mingled with everyday citizens going about their lives, and no one ever realised a whole different world simmered beneath the surface. “Did you have a reaction to Ava?”
He huffed a quiet laugh. “Oh yes. Lettie and I both disliked her on our first meeting. We thought she reeked like a Soarer. She told us she was a neutral Meidh on the way to family down south.”
Dawn didn’t like the woman either. She had only caught glimpses of Ava’s physical presence but had seen the destruction she left in her wake. Lives and the estate had been ruined, and for what? Did she seek to climb higher in some sort of elemental hierarchy?
She tipped her head and kissed Jasper’s jaw before he became lost in maudlin thoughts. “What happened next?” she asked.
He smiled down at her and kissed the tip of her nose. “After just a few short weeks, Julian announced over dinner that Ava was his mate and had agreed to replace my mother as heart of our sanctuary.”
“What did your parents think of Ava? Did they also think she was not what she seemed?” Uxbridge family dinners were quiet affairs. Her father used to raise the occasional business issue to seek her mother’s opinion, but overall they were free of dramatic declarations. If only her mother had pushed back her chair, stood tall, and announced she was a type of mythical being and so was their daughter. Would events have unfolded differently?
“After living for dozens of centuries, my parents were weary of the world and wished to retreat back to Gaia’s embrace. Our father carried an old battle wound that had flared up and was slowly taking him from us. They had asked Julian to find an Elemental to replace my mother. I think they were delighted he had found someone so quickly, and I believe concerns over father’s deterioration overrode their reservations about her.”
They were approaching the part of the story that intrigued Dawn. How did an Elemental transfer responsibility for the estate? In a normal property sale, a key was passed over. Perhaps they had invisible keys, which wasn’t such a big assumption since they had invisible plants.
She rolled back in his embrace to more easily look at him. “How did your mother pass the sanctuary to Ava? Is it something that I can do in reverse to seize control from her?”
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.