The Beastkeeper's Redemption

Forty-One

Forty-One

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

The room was the largest Izzy had seen of the estate so far.

It expanded the length of what she guessed must have been fifty metres with high, rib-vaulted ceilings. Against one length, what seemed to be enclosures- cages - complete with thick iron bars and locks. There was very little light, dim orbs illuminating an occasional area of the chamber with the flicker of an intermittent sconce lining the opposite wall.

She thought that the room would serve well as an art gallery.

And perhaps, once, it was.

But now, the insidious conversion was complete because she immediately noticed what each enclosure contained.

Fae.

Other.

Beings who seemed to harbour abject solemnity, who cast nary a glance in her direction when both her and Lou stepped over the threshold.

Her breath caught; her heart splintering.

The silence that hung over the space was ominous and foreboding, her skin prickling with an intensity, a warning, that made every fibre in her body scream and holler for her to leave this place.

So much wrongness contained in such a vast vicinity was bound to cause an innate sense of harrowing discontent to choke the air in a cloying, invisible mist.

Simultaneously, however, she knew that Kaede was within this room.

Her body thrummed with that knowledge alone and pressed her to move forward even if, instinctually, she was urged to turn on her heel and flee. The mark alone burned with a fierceness about her wrist, seeming to come alive the moment she entered the place.

Before she could stop herself, she stumbled further into the room, Lou's hand grasping her wrist as if wanting to stall her. A gentle squeeze from her companion coaxed her onwards, a shared look of worry quickly exchanged between them. Her fingers curled into her skirts, hitching them high, as she marched past the line of enclosures. Her eyes scanned each cage, searching for an occupant she knew had to be there.

There were fae with massive curling horns, each resplendent and graceful, yet their shoulders curled and bowed inwards within their small prison, and fae with glistening wings tucked against their backs, unable to spread them comfortably in the small span of their enclosure. Yet more fae lined the room- sylphs and satyrs, creatures she didn't recognise with scaling skin that shimmered in the shadows. All of these she passed hurriedly, knowing that she longed with all that she was to unlock each cell and set each being free. She vowed silently that, somehow, she would, if there was a way- she would.

But presently, she needed to find Kaede.

And when her eyes landed on him, about halfway down the length of the line of enclosures, a horrified cry escaped her lips.

His lambent gaze flew to her immediately and at once he was moving from the deplorable cot pressed against one end of the cage. His movements alone belied the nature of the injuries she spied coating his skin- deep lacerations that slashed across his beautiful flesh leaked crimson blood, his ribs darkening with welts that sickened her stomach. Numerous bruises blackened his cheeks and jaw, his lip cut and swollen and yet more blood oozed from a wound at his temple.

Izzy ran then, her skirts rustling loudly with her exaggerated movements, and she threw herself at the bars of his enclosure. Her heart hammered against her sternum in both parts despair and relief- despair at the state she had found him in and relief that she had found him. A potent ache rooted within her soul, her throat constricting to the extent that she was unable to formulate words, her eyes burning with the need to shed yet more tears.