The Beastkeeper's Redemption

Thirty-Seven

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."