A dragon’s head with opal inlaid eyes was far too ornate and just a little bit disturbing for a reason Ashley couldn’t quite name. But there was something about the gentle look on Jack’s face as he looked back at her that made Ashley want to continue onward. She watched as he reached for the knocker and tried not to flinch as the harsh metal knocker hit the wood. A second passed. Her eyes met Jack’s. She noted the dark shade of them and felt like she was falling down an endless hole whenever she looked in them. Her breath caught.
The door in front of them opened and Ashley turned, her heart racing for a different reason. A woman appeared.
Not an old woman, as Ashley had expected lived in the cottage. She was nothing like the fairy tale witches of old. No, she was very young and quite beautiful, with beautiful red hair and the sort of green eyes that would make just about anyone stop and stare at her. Ashley couldn’t help the way that she gasped.
Nor could she help the way that she recoiled. The witch let out a happy laugh, diving forward to pull Jack Tracey into her arms with a subtle smooch on his cheek that had Ashley averting her eyes and wishing she hadn’t come to begin with. But, in seconds, the witch’s hands were off of Jack Tracey, and they were on Ashley.
“She’s here,” the witch proclaimed, looking at Ashley with a wonder that made Ashley feel far too shy.
“You promised me that you would bring her, and you actually did it. It’s a miracle, Jack,” the witch proclaimed, emphasizing a little bit too harshly just how unreliable she found Jack to be. Though that emphasis made Ashley feel like she could look the woman in the eye. She was now lost in those startling green eyes.
The moment the woman pulled away from her, Ashley couldn’t help but feel a little dazed. Something about this woman was different, far different than any other woman than Ashley had met before. Ashley thought she was far more beautiful than any witch from the fairy tales she grew up with. Her bright red lips reminded Ashley of the jazz age, and something about the way that her light green eyes shone through the darkness made Ashley feel captivated by her, like the woman had cast a spell on her, and she was already bewitched.
Far worse was the fact that, when she smiled, Ashley found herself wanting to smile as well, her whole spirit seeming to lift up with the woman.
“Ashley,” the woman said, but Ashley was too dazed to ask how the woman knew her name, or who she was at all, for that matter.
Instead, Ashley smiled at her, feeling more at peace as she acknowledged the woman.
“You must come in,” the woman said, and Ashley could only nod, her feet moving of their own accord into the cottage, her eyes still following the woman. But before she could fully enter the cottage, Jack Tracey wedged himself in between the woman and the door, an apologetic smile painted across his features as he did so.
“Afraid we don’t have the time, Jasmine,” Jack said with the slightest of shrugs, playing it off as if it was merely a misfortune of some kind, though there was an insistence in the way that he wedged himself between the two. “In a matter of moments, her brother will realize that she is gone, and he will send the other servants looking for her. I’m trying to avoid that.”
The moment that Ashley’s brother was brought up, whatever spell the witch had cast faded away. Ashley saw something in her features darkened. It made Ashley feel like jerking back from her, pulling her wrist out of her hand and taking the steps necessary to put some distance between her and the witch. There was something very wrong with the way that she reacted at that moment. Ashley felt uncomfortable at that moment, especially when the witch said her brother’s name.
“Valys,” the witch spit out, making little to no effort to hide the scorn in her voice as she said the king’s name, her whole demeanor seeming to become more rigid at the thought of him.
Again, Ashley sensed a darkness in this woman that she tried to hide.
“And how is the king on this day?” The witch asked, her voice cold and unfeeling, almost like she didn’t care how the king was.
Jack cleared up any confusion that Ashley might have had at that moment, making clear exactly what was going on with a laugh as he shrugged the woman’s statement off with a simple move with his shoulders.
“Your ex is doing well,” Jack replied, much to Ashley’s surprise. “He’s recently found himself in love with a new woman, though I suppose you already know that because you’ve been spying on him.”
The woman only sighed, making little effort to deny what he had said. It was clear at that moment that Jack had bested her.
“It is not my fault that I have fallen in love with a callous and cruel king,” Jasmine said, and again, Ashley found herself wincing, a small part of her wanting nothing more than to defend her brother at that moment. The woman must have realized that because she turned towards Ashley with a self-deprecating smile.
“You are kind to your brother,” she said, with an air of joy, almost as if Ashley was doing the world a favor by doing that. At the same time, she used her words like a knife. “You will regret that in time.”
Ashley did not doubt that whatever reason Jasmine had for saying that, it was a good one because she seemed peaceful otherwise. This woman’s opinion of her brother couldn’t be trusted. After all, jilted women didn’t exactly make their exes sound like heroes.
Even if those jilted women looked like an other-worldly Stevie Nicks. One that was decked to the nines in 70s attire, right down to the scarf around her shoulders.
Even though she had made it clear that she wasn’t all that fond of Ashley’s brother, she still wore a serene expression and gave off an almost hippyish vibe. One that had Ashley wishing, though she would never admit it to anyone, that she was more like her. If only because this Jasmine woman seemed tobe beautiful, smart, talented, and far more sophisticated. And Ashley was just Ashley, a dragon shifter who was thrown away simply for having no magic.
Jasmine’s voice once again broke the illusion when she turned to Jack Tracey, her tone flat and unamused as she looked at him, a hint of a scowl pulling down at her lips.
“If you’re in a rush you better tell me why you’ve darkened my door, Jack,” she said, making it sound like Jack came by frequently and demanded things of her just about daily.
Ashley’s eyebrows shot up her forehead at the insinuation behind Jasmine’s tone. She wondered if there was more to their relationship than friendship. Did Jasmine secretly dislike Jack, but used him to get information about Ashley’s brother? Ashley could picture that. She had been the teddy bear type when she was a high school girl, but she had never exactly been romantic.
If she had been the romantic, then she might not be left wondering about Jasmine, or feeling a little bit jealous of her. If she’d been smart, she wouldn’t have any romantic notions about someone like Jack Tracey. Mainly because the man seemed to have his own ambitions in life Jack leaned against the door frame, not even the slightest bit apologetic for the apparent turmoil that he had caused both women.
“And here I was, thinking that you would be thankful for me being kind enough to introduce you to Ashley, only to find myself sorely disappointed,” Jack said, dismissing the other woman’s stare with another beautiful smile. He had a way of talking to people that was far too comfortable. Ashley supposed that it was only natural for Jasmine to feel as pulled into this man as she did. “I just wanted to take advantage of the situation and introduce you to our princess, the one who will soon be married off by your beloved Val.”
Ashley wasn’t sure the way he was taunting Jasmine was necessary. She couldn’t deny that, for a moment, she felt thetiniest bit sorry for the woman. The more Jack talked, though, the more captivated she was by him.
