37. Dani

The sun illuminated the sky in a colorful array of twilight blues, lavender pinks and honeycomb yellows as it slowly sank below the horizon. A warm breeze whispered through the leafy canopy as I stare out across the lake, watching as the wind rippled the still waters with its gentle caress. A small family of birds fly overhead, cawing out to the setting sun as they seek shelter for the coming night, and a lone fish jumps out of the water to kiss away the day.

Silence had never seemed so peaceful.

With a tired smile, I lean my back against a tree and let loose a contented sigh. With sights such as these, this place must certainly be heaven. And yet there was a strange familiarity to it all, like I've been here in another life. Or perhaps I've dreamt of it once before.

“There you are!” My smile widens as the newcomer lowers herself beside me. “I've been searching the entire woods for you.”

“Aye, and you are late,” I reply with a laugh, stretching my arms high above me as I sneak a sidelong glance at the redhead. “It is nearly sundown. Father will worry if I'm out any longer.”

Wait, father? My dad passed away when I was eleven, so why did I say that? And we had been in Nadia's townhouse only hours ago, in the middle of the city and nowhere near the woods. How did we get here? And why was I wearing a bonnet while Ashe donned . . . a dress? No, this was all too wrong to be anything more than a dream.

But as I stare into the depths of her hazel eyes, watching as they glistened like molten gold under the fading light, it all felt so right.

“I truly am sorry.” She flashes me a lopsided grin and my heart skips a beat. “Our sow had a difficult time with the birthing this morn, so my daily chores were delayed as I helped tend to her litter. Ten strong healthy piglets, can you believe our luck?”

“Oh, they'll fetch a fine price at the market this winter!” I'm not sure how I know this, but money had been tight for them lately and so this was good news—then again, this was my dream. Why should I not dream of good news?

“That they will, if we can fatten them up before then. This summer has not seen a bountiful harvest yet and our crop yield has been low.”

I cup her cheek. “It is truly admirable how you help your aunt with so much, Ashe, and with it being just the two of you on that farm.”

Ashe lived on a farm? Oh, I was definitely dreaming now.

She lifts my hand to her lips and a heat as pink as the sunset flushes my cheeks. “Aye, love, but I fear that I am selfish. I could not get here soon enough and may have neglected a few chores in my haste to see you.”

“Give thanks that you are someone worth waiting for.” I entwine my fingers in hers, relishing in the warmth of her hand against my skin. “God has seen fit to bless me with the affections of such a beautiful creature. It would be foolish of me to refuse such a gift.”

“You are as patient as a saint and as bewitching as a vixen.”

“And you are a cheeky little liar!” I reach over to smack her shoulder but Ashe leans back and we tumble to the ground instead, our laughter echoing in the quiet as she wraps a strong arm around my waist.

She slips off my bonnet and runs a hand through my hair, her eyes burning as they cut through my soul. “I would rather die a thousand deaths than lie to you, farm girl. But I will happily lay here with you.”

Whatever clever retort I had dies on my tongue in the heat between us. Instead, I capture her lips with my own in a kiss that would set fire to the sky. Only when my lungs are screaming for oxygen do I finally pull away.

“You are as radiant as the sun,” I tease, my eyes tracing the veins of blue fire that simmered beneath her unmarked skin. Where were her tattoos?

I take a closer look at the redhead and, although she looks relatively unchanged from the moment she waltzed through Café Roasted's door and enchanted me, I notice for the first time how innocent she seems now. Like the shadows of the world haven't swallowed her whole just yet. Did this version of Ashe ever exist, or am I dreaming of the person I so desperately want her to be?

“Aye,” she chuckles, her tone so carefree it melts my heart. “You have a power over me, farm girl. You set my soul aflame.”

I rest my head under her chin, pressing an ear to her chest as I soak up her warmth. “I wonder if your heart burns just as brightly.”

Ashe's smile is unwavering as she whispers, “Always, for you.”

We lay like that awhile, the dull chirping of crickets in the surrounding woods serenading us as Ashe continues to stroke my hair, and I find myself wishing that this moment would never end. But a heaviness swirled in my gut the longer we stayed, something that had been weighing on my mind but that I'd been too afraid to say. It was something that would shatter this peace that I've grown so fond of over the last few years.

“God spoke to me yesternight.” I can feel her breath hitch in her throat and her fingers falter as Ashe cranes her neck to look at me. I let a sigh whistle from my nose and prop myself up on my elbows. “In a dream. He wants me to fight for France, to liberate our people and reinstate our rightful king to the throne.”

That wasn't what I expected. But nothing about this dream had been normal so far, and it was so rare that I didn't dream up a nightmare. I wanted to enjoy this moment while it lasted.

Ashe groans and tilts her head back. “Then let Him fight in this war. The battlefield is no place for a woman, Jeanne!”

Jeanne? Oh my God, am I dreaming that I'm Joan of Arc? What the hell did Catalina have me smoke earlier!

But this felt all too real to be a dream. It was like I was picking out fragments of a memory in the middle of a fog, some parts were lucid and others were tinted by an ethereal haze. I felt what Jeanne felt, I knew things that I couldn't possibly know outside of this reality. Was this another vision, like what I had about Rose? Was I seeing Ashe's past—or mine from another life?

No, that's insane. This is just a silly dream! A strange, hookah-induced dream fueled by illegal substances and maybe one too many episodes of Little House on the Prairie. I really need to watch less television.

Ashe shifts uncomfortably in the silence that settled between us. “You know how much I detest violence.”

“As do I, but it is just as wrong to simply stand by while innocent lives are taken. Not while I can do something to change it!”

“Damn your visions!” She inhales sharply as I push myself off of her, but she does not allow the distance between us to linger for long. “Stay here,” she begs, her hands finding mine as she sits herself up. “Please? Stay with me. We can live on the farm, far away from the fighting. Let these men wage their wars but at least we'd be safe! At least we'd be together.”

“You speak of such sweet things while not far from here the English are driving our people from their very homes! How long must we wait before they are on our own doorstep?” I clench my teeth, trying to bite back the words but they spill out of me all the same. “I never would have thought you to be a coward.”

“If it is cowardly to want to keep you from certain death then yes, I am a coward! I am not ashamed of wanting to choose my life!” She places her hands on either side of my face and leans her forehead against mine. “Or yours.”

I trail my fingertips over her lips and around her jawline, breathing in her scent as I wished with every fiber of my being that it was as easy as she made it sound. Instead, I gently guide her hands away and lower my head. “God has called upon me to serve Him, Ashe. I know that means little to you, but I must answer His call. It is my duty.”

“Aye, and it is my duty to protect you!” A defeated sigh escapes her as she tilts my chin to meet her gaze. “But if it is your God that calls you away from me, then let me be your angel.”

My eyes flick between her hazel hues, searching for any hint of sarcasm or deception, but there was nothing less than sincerity mirrored in her stare. “You speak truly? You will come with me?”

She offers me another lopsided grin, though it didn't quite reach her eyes this time. “I would follow you into the very fires of hell, farm girl.”

Her words ignite a fire in my core and my arms snake behind her neck as I pull her in for another heated kiss. When we finally break apart, Ashe reaches her hand up. “I want you to have this.”

I glance down at the familiar silver band dangling from a rope necklace around her throat. “Your ring?”

“My aantee told me once that it was special, that no harm would come to the one who wears it.” She yanks the soul ring free from the plait and holds it between us. “I want you to be that person. You are the first to ever see its like and I want you to be the last. It has always been yours.”

My chest tightens as every breath leaves my body. This ring that she had guarded so closely before was now a symbol for our devotion to each other, a beacon of hope, and an unwavering promise of love that I did not take lightly. At a loss for words, all I can seem to do is nod.

Ashe slips the ring onto my finger, sealing the bond with a kiss. “You are the breath that fills my lungs and the flame that warms my heart. I will keep you safe, Jeanne, that I can promise you.”

“I know, my love.” I look up, but the redhead is no longer standing in front of me.

Thick smoke pollutes the night sky, obscuring my line of sight as arrows fly dangerously close overhead. The stench of blood and death saturates the stale air and I want to gag. What's going on? Where are the woods and the trees? Where was Ashe?

“Retreat!” The scream erupts from my throat as I brandish a sword over my head and I watch, wide-eyed, as soldiers and civilians alike flee for the walled city at my back. “Fall back to Compiègne!”

I want to close my eyes. I want to block out this new nightmare and find myself back in that sweet dream again. I didn't want to see this!

“Jeanne!”

I whirl around, relief washing over me at the sight of Ashe rounding a corner with the last of our troops. She had lost her helmet sometime during the siege and her face was stained with splotches of crimson red, but I was certain that it wasn't her blood. I steal a glance at my own hands and see the same maroon paint coating them. My skin was slick with the stuff.

This was all my fault. Ashe had followed me into the fires of hell just as she said she would, but the price we had paid to carry out God's will was our own innocence. We would never be the same after witnessing the horrors of war firsthand. Was the fight for freedom really worth a baptism in blood?

“This is the last of them!” the redhead calls out from across the field and I nod.

“We must hurry! The Burgundians are—”

A sharp pain pierces my chest, nearly causing me to bite my tongue, and I look down. The shaft of an arrow juts out between the soft chinks in my armor and my blood runs cold. My eyes meet a pair of golden brown through a silvery fog a moment before the world spins and my knees give way. Although she was too late to try and save me, the soul ring pulls Ashe to my side in time to catch me before I fall.

“Jeanne!” Hands wrap themselves around me, knocking my helmet off as they desperately try to cling to the life that ebbed from my wound. Blood seeps between her fingers as fear dances in her eyes. “No, no, no. Stay with me, farm girl! Stay with me!”

I could feel the steely grip of death on my soul as my vision begins to fade to black, and I knew that this was my end. I manage a meek smile as I raise a hand to my angel's cheek. “I'm sorry, my love. I'm so sorry.”

She smoothes my hair back with a bloody hand. “You have nothing to be sorry for! I have failed you, I”—she chokes down a sob—“God be damned, we never should have come here!”

“Someone must take a stand, to fight for those who can-cannot fight for themselves.” I swallow back a mouthful of blood, grimacing at the coppery taste as I let myself sink into her warm embrace. My body was growing colder by the second and there was still so much I wanted to tell her, so much that I needed to say. “There is darkness in this world, Ashe. We have witnessed as much. But there is light, too. People need a hero.”

“And I need you!”

“I swear I will find you again.” I smile through our pain. “Promise me that you will stay true, that you w-will not forget the light that burns within you. The light that I know is there.”

Bloody tears stream down her cheeks like a red river and my heart breaks. “Please, my heart, you cannot leave me.”

With what was left of my strength, I tangle my fingers in her hair and pull her down for one last kiss. “In an-another life we will, we will finally be together,” I murmur against her lips. “Not even death shall keep me from you.”

Before I give in to the siren call of death, I catch a glimpse of Ashe as blue fire engulfs her and her mouth parts in a silent scream. A woman on fire, her rage rivaling the intensity of the sun as her anguished cries rattle the heavens. It was a cry that has haunted my dreams for so long . . .

“Rise and shine, Dani girl!”

A light clicks on and I awake with a jolt. “Ce qui se passe!”

My intruder chuckles as she crosses her arms. “Come again?”

“Rose?” I blink and wipe the sleep from my eyes. “What time is it? What happened?” Oh, God, my body hurts! I spare a quick glance out the window and squeeze my eyes shut against the glaring sun. Did I sleep the whole day away?

The blonde quirks a brow and lowers herself onto the edge of the bed. “It's late, and you were screaming in French. I think.”

Yeah, right. Rose knows that I nearly failed my semester of French Cultural Studies. I couldn't read French to save my life, much less speak it. I hate it when she messes with my head after waking me up like this.

“Don't be ridiculous.” I brush a hand through my knotted hair and sit up a little straighter as I wait for my heart to slow its wild cadence. My mind may have known that my death—Jeanne's death—was only a dream, but my body was still catching up with reality. “Where's Ashe?”

“Red's a little tied up right now.” Rose pats my arm before standing up and stretching. “C'mon, let's go.”

“Where are we going?”

“Home.”

“But we just got here!” And I was nowhere close to getting the soul ring off my finger.

Though, if I was being honest with myself, I wasn't in much of a rush to cross that item off the list just yet. All roads seemed to lead to death as the solution and I wasn't ready to face that reality anytime soon. Besides, Ashe and I still had so much to discuss; last night's kiss would be a great start. Despite her claims that it meant nothing, I knew in my bones that there was something between us, lurking just below the surface. It gnawed at my insides like an itch begging to be scratched. Was it the same for her?

Rose ignores my outburst as she picks up my bag from the floor. “Were you smoking hookah last night?” She was deflecting. She only ever did that when she wanted to avoid talking about something.

I decide to humor her for now. I was still reeling from my dream-turned-nightmare and my brain was too groggy to argue. “First and last time I ever do that. I dreamt that I was Joan of Arc.” I stifle a yawn and stretch out my arms with a groan, watching through slitted lids as she pulls out a pair of jean shorts and a tank top from the pile of clothes I had packed. “Rose, what's going on?”

“Shit's going down,” she murmurs, her ice blue eyes locking with my own. “And I don't think either of us should be here when it finally hits the fan.”

There was something in her tone, something in her gaze, that froze every muscle in my body. “What're you talking about? Did Ashe say something to you?”

“She's a demon with a rap sheet!” the blonde snaps. “You can't fix her kind of damage and you sure as hell shouldn't be falling for it!”

“I'm not—”

Rose cuts me a glare and my jaw clenches shut. “You do this every fucking time. You tried to fix Monica with her issues and all that left you with was more baggage. You keep trying to save people but I'm the one who's always saving you. You can't fix everyone!” She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. “Do you even have any idea what Red really is? The things she's done?”

“She saved you from a freaking vampire, Rose!” What the hell has gotten into her? What was she talking about?

“Oh please,” she snorts. “I could've handled James without her intervening. But let's not forget how she knocked me unconscious during that little display of heroics.” She nods to the bandage wrapped around my arm. “And that was just from a bird attack, right?”

That wasn't a complete lie; the harpies from Goss Hollow Park were at least part bird. I think.

Rose huffs at my silence. “My point is that she's dangerous, Dani. The further we are from here, the better.”

“I'm still soulbound to her, Rose.”

“It doesn't matter. We need to leave and we need to leave now.”

The sound of heels clacking on hardwood resonates in the hallway and a shiver racks my spine as I turn my attention to the devil lurking in the doorway. “Oh, you're not going anywhere, sweetling.”