Refuge In The Shadows

18.

In his last letter, William wrote to his uncle, announcing his 'return' to the city next week and a request to show him around a new factory of under construction in the Isle of Dogs. As William handed over the sealed envelope, James's face was solemn when he asked him the question everyone had on their mind. "Do you know what you are going to do at the factory?"

William glared at James and crossed his arms. "Kill John Carraway," he said simply. James gave William an encouraging nod, "For Alice." William's eyes gleamed when he heard his beloved's name. "Believe what you want," he said instead, albeit cryptically.

James frowned, but placed a reassuring hand on William's shoulder. "We have told you before and we will reiterate this again. When you kill John Carraway, we will make sure you and Alice will be able to live comfortably together for the rest of your lives. No societal pressures for you to marry someone of high status, no worries about money. Do you understand?" He nodded his head and James took it as his cue to leave with Cadeyrn and Jonathan by his side.

Bryn and Rhys were off doing whatever inseparable friends did. Carys had declined to visit William saying that the three of them had it well under control.

James recalled the events following his confession on that early spring day. She had not come back to base until later that afternoon looking as if a weight she never knew she was holding was lifted from her chest. Carys had only given him a slight curve of her lips before she vanished, seeking out her brother. From then on, whatever Carys was feeling was hidden very well, although James could have sworn he was always the last person she looked at before leaving a room. Cadeyrn remained the first person she sought whenever she entered. However small, James took that as a good sign. He never once pushed her to make up her mind; he would go at her pace no matter how slow.

Cadeyrn and Jonathan made small talk as the three of them headed for the common room. Upon entering, the boys saw Carys curled up in an armchair scribbling down musical notes on a sheet of pre-lined paper. At the sound of the opening door, Carys jerked her head up and grinned at her brother before nodding at the other two. Cadeyrn crossed the room and made himself comfortable in a chair next to hers, tugging at her hair affectionately as he did so. Carys made a face at him before diving back into her work.

"How did everything go?" she asked, not once taking her eyes off the pages. James settled into a seat across from the twins and told her of William's agreement to kill Carraway but also his unnerving calmness about it all. Carys frowned into her notes, "Perhaps we should not have threatened Alice's life so many times. Only a couple of mentions would have sufficed; maybe he is due to break down at any moment." Cadeyrn shook his head, "We needed to make certain that he would do anything we asked of him. Rest assured, we have been keeping an eye on him and will continue to do so."

Carys remained unconvinced but she let it go. Jonathan had come back from the kitchen with a biscuit and collapsed onto a chair on James's left. The four of them were covered in a comfortable silence when Cadeyrn playfully nudged his sister's arm, "I feel as if our stay if coming to an end soon, are you relieved to be going back home?" Carys abandoned her work for a moment to meet Cadeyrn's excited face with one of her own. The midnight blue of their eyes threatening to push against the boundaries of their irises, reflecting their own bodies' desire for the freedom of the wild.

The twins' shared longing for the hills and mountains of northern Wales had increased significantly when their stay in London reached the seventh month mark. The claustrophobic crowded streets, the heavy, suffocating tainted air, the constant noise of traffic and industry–such were aspects of city life the twins could never get accustomed to.

They belonged to the wild. A territory they knew on the back of their hands. A place where they could breathe a sigh a relief knowing that the other would be much safer with the stars and the mountains to always lead him and her home. Cadeyrn took note of Carys's paling skin and sleep deprived eyes with immense worry. With days spent more so indoors than out, and nights violated with the constant sounds of city life, Cadeyrn needed to bring them back home so they could regain their strength and resolve.