They leave Ronan downstairs in the basement after making sure the worst of his injuries are fine. Eve warns the man against moving around, and the wolf reminds her that he can barely move. Isla locks the door to the basement, going as far as to place a silencing spell as well in case Ronan has any ideas about causing a stir. 

"I have to run by the Apothecary before it gets too late in the day. It's already past opening time, and with how it looked last night people will wonder where I am." Isla toes off her house shoes and slips on her sneakers. "Where are you going?" 

Eve already has her shoes on and purse over her shoulder. "I'm going to the library. If what Ronan said is true, the council willingly exiled an innocent cursed man." She reaches out and grabs Isla's arm. "I'll check the archives for the written reports of that day. See what I can bring back here." 

Isla nods, face grim. "I didn't feel a hint of a lie when he told us." She pats the hand on her arm. "If the council knew about the curse and that Ronan was innocent, why exile him?" She pauses, "The council, Eve." Isla blinks in shock, "My mom and your grandmother are on it." 

"I know, I can't begin to understand their thought process on this." Eve shakes her head, dropping her hand from Isla's arm. 

Isla shakes her head at the woman. "It's awful." She grabs her backpack with everything she needs for the day for the shop and opens the front door. She waves a hand and the door locks behind her. 

"Hopefully we can solve this before the hunters come for him." Eve walks toward her car, a little Toyota Prius. 

______________________________

Immediately when Isla turns onto the main street she knows something is wrong. Other than receiving no phone calls at all this morning with no neighbors knocking on the door to inform her about the shop being utterly trashed, she had a sneaking suspicion that something greater was happening. Her car pulls to a stop at its regular spot right outside of the store. She eyes the fixed glass of the windows. 

During Isla's dark magic fiasco, the overwhelming force of her magic had blown the glass out, causing it all to shatter. The shelves were all upheaved and Ronan's blood covered the walls like in a horror film. Now, that's all gone. Walks inside the Apothecary, dropping her bag to the floor at her feet. There's no blood on the walls. The shelves are all perfectly aligned, and all the potions and ingredients Isla would need to restock are already stocked. She walks behind the counter to see if the register was counted out. It is. Which Isla remembers not doing last night. 

She glances to the left where the door to the workshop is. Isla steels herself with a breath, gripping her phone. The inside of the workshop looks normal. Everything is in order. Even the heavy bleach smell is gone, which should be impossible. Isla knew from experience that the heavy smell would linger for days. 

What catches her off guard is the fixed terrarium on the workshop table. The destroyed succulent is on full display. Her lips turn down into a frown at the sight of the evil plant. She lifts a hand, intent on using a burning spell to get rid of it like she should have done last night, but the sound of the front doorbell chiming alerts her to someone entering the shop. 

Whipping around with a racing heart, Isla pokes her head out into the shop. "We're closed!" Her throat siezes at the sight of three council members in her shop. "Oh." 

Council members Trinity Knob of the Faes, James Leer of the Wolves, and Loretta Stain for the Witches and Warlocks. She flinches when Trinity's pale milky white eyes settle on her hunched in the doorframe. 

"Isla Mirwood..." She tilts her head slightly, "We would like a word with you." 

Isla smiles weakly, "Sure, what can I do for you?" 

Before Trinity can speak in that lilting voice of hers, Loretta steps forward. "Isla, darling how are you?" She smiles warmly at the younger witch which makes Isla's shoulders lower. She was tense which already made her look guilty. No doubt James could smell the anxiety coming off her. 

She shrugs, stepping away from the workshop doorway and further into the shop, but not by much. She's still wary, especially since their arrival, and the shop's pristine condition is setting off alarm bells in her head. "As good as I can be." Isla's eyes move to the other two, subtly feeling them out. 

All three of their emotions vary between irritation and suspicion toward Isla. Despite the fake smiles they keep flashing at her, except for James, the man is open in his hostility. His never-ending glare was the first sign that trouble was coming. 

"Can I help you three with anything?" She keeps her hand with her phone behind her back, calling Eve and hoping the other woman doesn't make a sound. "My mother isn't here, but she's due to arrive within the next week." 

Loretta waves her off, still smiling tightly. "No, we came to see you, my dear." She stops a fair distance away, trailing a finger over the rows of potions beside her on the shelf. "Early this morning a concerned citizen brought something to our attention." Here, Loretta takes on a worried expression. "Are you aware that your store was ransacked last night?"

Of course, they knew that Isla knew about it. James could sniff out her lies even without Trinity's eyes seeing right into her soul. It's nerve-wracking and wholly impersonal. "Yes, I apologize about that." Isla laughs lightly scratching at her neck. "There was an explosion with a plant, but I tried to clean up as best I could." 

"An explosion that involved werewolf blood to be spilled?" James snarls out taking a threatening step forward. 

She stands her ground, "Well some people can get caught in the crossfire, unfortunate for customers and bad for business, but what can you do?" Isla shrugs nonchalantly, still smiling like a lunatic to ease the blow of her words. 

"No one arrived at the hospital last night with injuries." Loretta's worried tone wavers. "Who was it that was injured?" 

Her heart lurches and James' posture straightens having heard it. Isla scrambles, "It was, um Ronan." Suddenly a wave of contempt and hatred comes from Trinity. It causes Isla to step back over how raw it is. 

"Ronan Keye was here?" Trinity is suddenly in front of Isla, a pale white hand going toward the witch's face while her blonde hair shimmers dully. 

Isla dodges the hand, straying further back into the workshop doorway. Fae magic wasn't something to take lightly, especially from a fae as powerful and old as Trinity. She was there when the town was formed. She shakes her head to get the dizzying effect of whatever hold Trinity tried to do. 

"Ronan is exiled, Isla." Loretta comes to stand beside Trinity, acting as a buffer between them. James lingers in the back, eyes downcast. A feeling of disappointment softly comes from the older werewolf. "We had caught wind of him being in town but didn't know he strayed to your doors." 

"He didn't!" Isla clears her throat. "Just came by the shop to see if my mom was here. Nothing else. I sent him on his way after the plant explosion." She jerks a thumb over her shoulder, "Which reminds me that I'm behind in orders because of that so I must be going back to work." 

James' gruff voice makes her feet skid to a halt. "His car is still outside your shop." 

Well, shit. Isla looks at all three council members coming up blank. "I don't know what to tell you. I saw him out, I don't know where he went after he left." Which isn't a lie, Isla has no idea where he went in the 30 minutes that he disappeared last night before breaking in as a giant wolf and chasing her. But they can't know that. 

"You don't know where he is?" James asks, grey eyes flashing gold. 

Isla stops herself from answering. Knowing that if she does they will know she's lying. Because she does know where Ronan is. He's in her basement. At her house, injured because of her. "Uh." In her tight grip, Isla's phone rings. She almost drops it in her shock. On it is Eve's caller ID. "Hold on, I have to get this." Isla turns around and walks into the workshop. 

"Eve?" She glances over her shoulder to see if they followed her inside. They didn't. 

"You need to go pick up Iyla from school." Eve's voice is full of distress. 

Isla's stomach plummets to the ground. "What? Is she okay?" She quickly walks back out into the front to see all three council members where she left them. She sidesteps them, making for the door. "Did you see anything bad happen to her?" 

"I saw her get injured during PE, but I couldn't see more than that." Eve's words echo in her ears. 

"Oh, Morgana my baby." Isla clutches her chest feeling tears well in her eyes. "Okay, I'm on my way." She turns to the council members, face distraught. "Something's happened to Iyla." Her voice is choked, "I have to-I have to go." 

Loretta nods, "Of course dear." She walks closer placing a hand on Isla's shaking shoulders as the younger witch tries to withhold her tears. "I hope Iyla is okay." 

James comes up next, "She's a strong young girl, your sister will be fine." He awkwardly nods to Isla and then exits the shop, no doubt uncomfortable with the scent of Isla's anguish at the news of her sister being harmed.

Trinity follows with a whispered, "Goodbye, Isla Mirwood." 

Inside her car, Isla speeds off in the direction of the school watching as the three figures fade into the rearview mirror. She takes a sharp right onto the main road, hitting the accelerator. Her mind is buzzing with various things that could have happened to her younger sister. Her sweet Iyla. The only reason she was who she is today. 

Again her phone rings with an incoming call from Eve. She answers, frantic. "What? Is it bad?" 

Eve's voice no longer has the worried tone, "Isla I'm sorry, but I had to lie to get you out of there." 

Her white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel loosens. "Excuse me?" She's still speeding to the school. 

"I didn't have a vision. Iyla is fine." Eve says, sounding sheepish.

Isla's foot slams the brakes causing her tires to leave marks on the road. She swerves, ending up on the median. "What?" She openly cries, "I thought...I thought Iyla was hurt." 

"I know." 

She puts the car in park and sobs, "You scared me. Eve, you can't do that!" 

A sigh, "I needed a reason to get you away from them. If I told you Iyla was hurt then they would believe you." Another sigh. "I really am sorry but it was necessary." 

Isla blows her nose into a spare napkin from the glovebox compartment. She wipes at her face. "So Iyla is fine? She's not hurt?" 

Eve giggles softly into the phone. "She's perfectly fine. I did see her doing great during soccer tryouts, so she definitely makes the team."

"That's amazing news!" Isla laughs wetly, still running on an emotional high. "Did you hear the entire conversation?" She puts the car in drive and starts heading back to the house. They needed to get Ronan out of town. 

"Yeah. It's odd, I didn't see that happening." Eve sounds miffed to admit it. "If you hadn't called, I wouldn't have known what was happening." 

Isla slows down at a stop sign. "You think someone tried to suppress you?" 

"I think it's odd that three council members showed up asking questions when they already knew the answers to them." Isla voices her agreement, going on to explain the state of the shop. "So someone fixed everything to the way it was before?" 

"Yeah, talk about freaky." Isla pulls into the driveway. She opens the garage and parks. "What's worse is that Trinity and James were there. This could have been handled with just Loretta and maybe James because of the werewolf blood, but Trinity? She had no reason to be there." Isla enters the house, heading straight to the basement door. 

The next words out of Eve's mouth don't filter through the white noise going on in Isla's mind. She slows to a halt, seeing the basement door wide open. As in blown off its hinges from the outside. Like someone broke in. "Eve. Eve!" Isla whisper shouts, "Get over here right now, someone broke in."