Thirty-Seven

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

Almost an entire day passed before Caëlhon returned to Izzy's townhouse.

By the time she heard the knock at her door, the sun had set and she had spent the entirety of her time in inconsolable turmoil. Her sister nor Lou had been able to temper the volatility of her emotions that had swung headily between numbing desolation to sobbing hysterics.

She had been in the throes of the latter when Lou had answered the knock at her door and brought forth four fae males who seemed to take up the entire space of her small, sparsely decorated parlour room.

The first set of eyes to latch onto her miserable form huddled in a corner of a faded settee belonged to the Dravolese she knew as Aëghan Dranora, the very same male who had snatched up the Ravensfield heiress (both of them, though not at once) not too long ago.

"Dear Gods," he drawled, slanting negligently to the side to prop a shoulder against the doorframe of the room he had just entered, "we have wandered into a mausoleum."

"Dranora," Blayne Leowyn huffed in warning, casting the other male a speaking look as he, too, came into the room and surveyed the place with an indifferent expression.

"It's alright," Izzy sniffled, dabbing at her reddened eyes and blowing her nose on the very used handkerchief she had been clutching. Then she stood, as one should when one received guests, and endeavoured to smile in welcome. The effort was pathetic as her lips seemed to tremble uncontrollably. "Please, sit, and we'll have some tea prepared-"

But her words were cut short when Caëlhon came to her side, guiding her back to the chair. "Sit, Miss Hawkins. We'll take care of everything." He offered her a taut smile, his eyes kind and strained, and gratitude welled up inside her for the young Beastkeeper. "Blayne," Kaede's twin said, turning to the other Draëllian and making a gesture to Izzy and her sister who was sitting beside her with wide, intrigued eyes at all that was unfolding about her. "This is Isabella Hawkins, Kaede's heartmate, formally known as Miss Cotton until recently."

Aëghan came off the wall then. "My, my, what a transformation." He narrowed his eyes, seeming to take in her form more astutely. "A clever ruse from a human. Who'd have thought?"

"Don't mind this lizard," Rogane To'ran said, nudging Aëghan none too gently with his elbow. "He's just sore since Lady Lillian rejected his proposal for the thirty-seventh time."

"Thirty-eighth, actually," Aëghan muttered, glaring at the oldest Beastkeeper. He rubbed his arm where the elbow had been jabbed into his flesh. "And who told you, anyway?"

"Women talk." Rogan shrugged with a jaunty grin. He jerked a thumb at Blayne, who merely crossed his arms over his chest and endured the banter between the males with an impatient flick of his tail. "Especially this one's wife. Mouthy as anything since she got her voice back."

"I'd rather she not talk at all," Aëghan remarked. He delved his hands into the pockets of his trousers and considered the parlour room once more. "This place is unbearably inhospitable. I hope you don't mind me taking some liberties, Miss Hawkins..." As he spoke, tendrils of bright, verdant vines seemed to emerge, as if from nowhere, and curl insistently upon the walls, latching onto the aged drapes and pulling them wide over the windows, slanting over the rafters until delicate white blooms emerged intermittently along their leafy stems.

"Aëghan," Blayne warned in a low tone. "You endanger us with such frivolous use of your magic in the confines of the city. You'll have the hounds upon us."

The other male grinned unrepentantly. "What's the use of an alliance with a powerful human family if we aren't able to abuse our power once in a while?" he quipped. "I doubt there would be much protest in such a harmless show of magic when you are tied by marriage to a Ravensfield."

"Yes, but you are not."

"Thank you kindly for the reminder."

"I apologise," Izzy murmured, gaining the attention of all who were present, "for removing you from your spouses at such short notice. I do hope you can return to them soon." Which was true enough- both males, Blayne and Aëghan, had only recently found their heartmates. To leave them so soon after establishing the bond must be taking a toll on both Millie and Lillian, as well as the two males who had joined Caëlhon.

Rogane snorted. "They are quite likely glad for the reprieve from their needy and demanding heartmates," he teased. "Especially Lady Lillian who, no doubt, could go a day without some attempt at a showy marriage proposal."

Even though the jibe was directed at Aëghan, the male seemed to find little offence in it, for he merely smiled. "She'll come 'round eventually."

"Perhaps," Caëlhon interjected, raising his hands placatingly in a gesture meant to stall the back and forth transpiring between the other three males in the room, "we should listen to Miss Hawkins retell the events that have led to Kaede's disappearance so we may determine a way to find our lost brethren."

"The little welp can stay lost-" but Aëghan's words were curbed by another glare from Blayne. "Fine, fine. Very well, Miss Hawkins, you have my rapt attention."

It took a moment for everyone to settle within the small room, and it required a few more chairs being pulled from the adjoining dining room so that every tailed behind was accommodated for, but when they had all found a seat, Izzy did tell them all that had transpired since she had left Ravensfield.

Her retelling was as precise as her memory and perhaps weighed with details that weren't pertinent to Kaede's disappearance, but she was reluctant to leave anything out. She spoke of Kaede discovering her true identity within a private study at the estate and his intention to have her incarcerated, then of their tentative understanding until the mark was revealed. She spoke of all that had occurred with her sister and the Grant men, of the peculiar visit from Lady Beauchamp- of her history with the widower's husband, too- until the moment Kaede left the townhouse. She told them of his intention to visit the tailor and procure for them supplies since the larder had all but been diminished, and when she finally had nothing left to say, Izzy added:

"I am truly sorry for deceiving you all. I know that I do not deserve your forgiveness or your trust, but my only intent is to see Kaede safely returned, whole and alive and well. I know that perhaps it may not mean much at all coming from me... but he is very important to me. I... I can't imagine a life without him, nor recall how I felt without him." Beside her, Cassie linked her fingers with her sister's and gave a gentle squeeze. Lou, to her other side, slid an arm about Izzy's waist in comfort.

Truly, right then, she felt she was surrounded with the best society had to offer. And her feelings were exemplified by the responses of the males in the chamber that day.

"You have nothing to apologise for," Blayne Leowyn told her with a gentle smile. "Most of us in this room have done things in our past we need to atone for." He slid a wry look at Aëghan who returned it blankly. "Caëlhon explained the situation regarding your... sister. There is not much we wouldn't do to protect the wellbeing of those closest to us. But, Miss Cot- Hawkins," at his brief error, Blayne hesitated, a strained expression crossing his face. "It would be in your best interest to consider my wife's offer to return to Ravensfield. After the events of the last few days, it is clear that Kaede's safety is at risk, as is yours, and without the jurisdiction of Ravensfield to protect the both of you, I fear there may be very little any of us could do to help you should something like this continue to occur."

He had a valid point, Izzy knew, but her sister hadn't been allotted a chance to formally make her debut. She opened her mouth to decline the offer, yet again, even though her throat burned and the mark pulsated something fierce, but it was Cassie who spoke that made the words freeze upon the tip of her tongue.

"We should consider it, Izzy," she implored softly. Her large, guilelessly brown eyes stared up at her sister in earnest appeal. "Ravensfield would be safe- for the both of us. And I could make new friends there just as I could here in the city. If that is what you want, of course."

"I do," Izzy agreed. She gave her younger sister's hand a gentle squeeze. "But what of your peers in the city? You must know, Cassie... if I were to go to Ravensfield as myself and not Miss Cotton, you wouldn't be accepted into the same circles as you have been."

"I'd much rather have you as Izzy Hawkins my sister than Tiffany Cotton my peculiar chaperone," Cassie said firmly.

"Hear, hear," Lou agreed from Izzy's other side. "If I have to bear witness to you covering this marvellous hair and figure of yours with drab wigs and dusty drapings I will bury my head under the earth until you see sense."

With eyes that pricked and burned with the threat of new tears to shed, Izzy considered both her sister and Lou, and then the others in the room as well. "Then I suppose we had better find Kaede so that we can all return to Ravensfield."

"Wonderful," Aëghan drawled, beginning to rise from his chair. "I'll be stepping out then, since I'm the most useful of us all-"

"Not so fast, Dranora," Blayne told him, issuing a firm grip upon the other male's shoulder to inhibit his leaving. Aëghan shrugged the hand away, but settled nonetheless. "You cannot change forms within the confines of the city. You'll be shot out the sky... worse, suspicion will be cast our way at your unprecedented use of magic."

A look of affront came over Aëghan's face. "Pray tell, how is that worse than my being shot from the sky?"

"Because you'll likely be in the same jail cell as all of us," Rogane muttered dryly.

"Perish the thought."

"Bickering aside for a minute, I implore you both," Blayne appealed, a tad impatiently. His tail flicked with a motion of agitation against the wooden floor while he ran a hand through the mottled hues of his hair at his temple. "Rogane, follow Kaede's trail. See if you can find a scent, a mark, a shadow- anything- that hints at what happened. Use the hound-"

"Hound?" Izzy asked, unaware that the males had brought a dog with them into the city.

Rogane's lips curled into a prideful smile. "Dave," he explained, "is an exceptional creature. I rescued him when he was a pup, trained him myself. He's the best Other hound there is when it comes to tracking. He is resting in the stables presently."

"Rogane has a knack for rescuing and rehabilitating the creatures once the humans have no more need for them," Blayne explained to Izzy. "Rather than put them to death, many authorities have allowed him to take the creatures off their hands."

"It has been a long trek into the city, however," Rogane added. "Dave will need to rest and regain his strength. Some water and food first, at least."

"Of course," Izzy agreed quickly, rising to her feet and gesturing to the neighbouring room which would lead to the kitchen and larder. "I'll procure some water in a bowl for him presently." After a brief insistence that she accomplish the task alone, the others settled back into their chairs and allowed Izzy to move off into the kitchen.

It was a small reprieve that she relished, suddenly overwhelmed with the activity and beings surrounding her. As much as she appreciated their presences, it was a monumental effort for her to remain composed. Their kindness threatened to crack the miniscule strength of the porcelain shielding her heart... and their devotion to their brethren, Kaede... it was rare indeed that Izzy had witnessed such steadfast loyalty to one's own in her life.

How she wished she could have believed him sooner because Izzy held every regret in her heart that she had not uttered her love for him prior to his disappearance. It did not sit well that something terrible had happened to Kaede without him ever having known just how deeply she felt for him.

A large wooden bowl filled with water was clutched between her hands when a soft rap from the servant's entrance nearby caught her attention. She hesitated, pondering briefly over opening the door considering the calibre of the visitors frequenting her house of late, but since the Beastkeepers were all nearby, she felt safer than she had in some time.

If anything untoward was to happen, she was sure that all four males present would be upon the fiend before anything were to happen to her.

Besides, it could easily just as well be Kaede- since it was the servant's entrance, after all, and Izzy had taken to barring all her windows and doors after the occurrence with Lady Beauchamp.

Upon opening the door tentatively, she did not see Kaede but rather a tall human man with curling, sandy brown hair peeking out from under a shadowed hood that shrouded his identity. A cloak covered most of his form and face, but his eyes seemed to pierce into hers with an intent that rooted her to the spot and left her speechless. This stranger she knew not and alarm coursed through her veins. It took but a moment for her to suck in a sharp breath, her mouth opening to call out for one of the other males in the other room, but the stranger held up a hand in quiet appeal.

"Please, do not call attention upon us," the man said with a hushed urgency. "This won't take long, and I came to impart one bit of information in hopes that it may bring you comfort."

His strange words compelled her to close her mouth and consider him. His cloak was black and hugged most of his body, but she determined he was broadly built. What was visible of his face was very little, but the curls framing his temples and the slight hook of his long nose was determinable enough. "Who are you?" Izzy demanded.

"No one." She thought she spied his gaze flick behind her, but then he was glancing over his shoulder onto the quiet, dark alley behind the house. "I wish to impart a message regarding the heartmate you so easily sold to another-"

"Sold?" Izzy blinked, absorbing the words with a sense of dumbfounded shock.

"Let me assure you I am here at no behest of my own," the man said, almost bitterly, "but you should know he is alive, at least, and he will continue to be so should he comply with the proprietor's stipulations- that you should know the property you sold is being well taken care of at the establishment, for now."

"What property?" Izzy demanded, frustrated at the absurd things the man was spouting. "I don't have any idea what you are speaking of! What establishment?"

"I must go." With that, the stranger nodded once, eyes flashing against the darkness of the night, and he turned to leave.

"Wait!"

But it was too late, he had slunk into the shadows of the alley.

Izzy bolted, frantic, from the kitchen- knocking over the bowl of water for the Other hound she had deposited atop the table. She stumbled into the parlour room, her breaths leaving her lungs in great, heaving convulsions while she gestured frantically, maniacally, behind her. "You must follow him!" she hollered nonsensically, to all and no one in particular.

"Izzy," Caëlhon said calmly, coming to stand before her.

"There was a man, right now, outside the servant's entrance!" she wailed, clutching onto the lapels of his coat, hating that she had to spend yet more time explaining herself when they could be tracking the man who clearly had some information on her heartmate's whereabouts. Then, inhaling a deep breath, she said as urgently as she could, "He knows where Kaede is!"

As if someone had tossed a basket full of writhing snakes into their midst, the males all jolted to their feet. They thundered through the house, demanded questions of her brief interaction which she answered succinctly, and then everything was happening at once. 

~~~

Author's Note:

I rue the day I decided to give these men names with special characters.

That is all.