The group of twelve gathered around the table in the Pets' Café exuded an air of extreme joviality and energy. Charlie, sitting next to Emma, watched his aunt and uncle chatter with Grandma Jones and Amy Bones. He and Emma glanced at each other, grinning. Cakes and tea were set out on the table, ringed by candles. Candles also sat on every available surface, filling the room with a soft, flickering light. They would likely have continued on through the night with their little party – Paton grinning nonstop the whole night and never letting a pregnant Mrs. Yewbeam, formerly Ingledew, out of his sight. The children – Charlie Bones, Emma Tolly, Lysander Sage, Tancred Torsson, Gabriel Silk, Olivia Vertigo, and Fidelio Gunn – wandered around the café and through the kitchens, trying not to fret or bring down the mood with their latest problems at Bloor's Academy.
After nearly an entire relatively quiet year, Yorath was finally gathering the Yewbeams to plot revenge on Paton for harming the vile Yolanda after she'd tried to kill who was then known as Julia Ingledew. If it hadn't been for Charlie's Welch wand, she wouldn't have been carrying Paton's baby as she was now. And, besides that, Charlie had nearly given up on finding his father. His mother, Amy, seemed to have found a boyfriend at the grocers where she worked. She seemed to have moved on from Lyell Bones, something that discouraged Charlie greatly.
"Don't worry, Charlie. We'll stop whatever your evil aunts have planned somehow." Emma said softly.
"Hm? Oh, right…" Charlie mumbled distractedly. His friends exchanged worried glances and looked back at him.
"Your father?" Fidelio asked. Charlie nodded. Olivia was about to say something when a commotion attracted to the corner where the adults sat.
Paton had stood and was helping Julia up, and everyone else was standing and rapidly gathering their things.
"Go, go!" Mrs. Onimous cried. "I'll clean up. Go!" By this time Paton and Julia were out the door, and the children were rushing over to the nearly empty table.
"What's going on?" Emma and Charlie cried together, looking anxious and excited.
"The baby's coming!" Maisie howled, before turning her plump frame and darting out the door.
"Come on, kids!" Mr. Onimous, an impossibly small and mouse-like man, called bouncing out the door with his brightly-colored cats in tow. For a moment, the seven children stood and stared at each other, but then Olivia grinned and said
"What're we waiting for!" Grabbing Fidelio's hand, she tugged him out the door, and the others, laughing, followed.
They had brought Julia's new van, which she'd bought when she'd married Paton and suddenly become a part of every system and scheme that her niece's friends thought up, and now everyone was piled into it - Paton, Julia, and Amy up front while Maisie and the children piled into the back. Next were the cats – Aries, whose coat was a bright coppery color, Sagittarius, the orange one, and Leo, a large yellow cat. Mr. Onimous hovered outside before Paton hollered for him to find room.
"Are you quite sure?" He asked.
"IN!" Yelled several voices, and he immediately joined the rest, obviously eager to be at the birthing.
Charlie was glad the man and his powerful cats were along for the ride.
At the hospital, most everyone stayed in the waiting room. Leo had been permitted into the delivery room, despite the doctors' odd looks, so he could keep Paton's endowment of exploding light bulbs under control. As it was, the hospital simply glowed very brightly, but the doctor's claimed it helped them do their work.
Everything was going great until a very pretty blonde boy appeared.
Immediately, the children knew there was something wrong with the boy. His eyes kept changing color.
"Yorath," Charlie breathed, and everyone tensed.
"Hello, Charlie, Emma!" A tall woman with black hair and red rain boots said oh-so-sweetly, her three sisters coming up to join her.
"Aunt Venetia," Charlie and Emma muttered. "Grandma Bone, Aunt Eustatia , Aunt Lucretia." They greeted each one in turn.
"What are you doing here?" Charlie asked bluntly.
"My, my, aren't we a rude little boy?" Venetia smiled, tsking. "We're here to see our brother's baby, of course!" The four of them sneered coldly. In seconds, seven children and two cats stood blocking the door to the delivery room in which Julia, Paton, and Leo were.
"Idiots!" Grandma Bone hissed. "He broke the rules! He'll be punished!"
"Are you going to kill him, Grandma Bone?" Charlie asked, voice angry. "Kill Uncle Paton like you supposedly killed my father?" The cats hissed venomously, making the aunts and the boy step back.
"Your own brother!" Tancred spat.
"Stay out of this, storm boy!" screeched the blonde boy in a voice that was crackly and ancient, and so cold that, in the delivery room, Paton paused and shivered.
A cold draft blew through the hospitals corridors, sending anyone in the halls spinning into rooms, doors slammed shut behind them.
"Ooh, a breeze, how terrifying!" snickered Venetia.
"Tanc, don-" Lysander started, but it was too late. The boy's light hair sparked with lightning, and a few rain drops pattered onto their heads as his temper got the best of him.
"Tancred," Amy Bone started nervously. "Please, control yourself…"
Charlie gestured for his mother, his grandmother, and Mr. Onimous to move out of the way, and the three ran for cover behind a nurses' station.
Tancred let loose.
Thunder and lightning ripped through the building, sending a few aunts flying down the hall with their hands firmly clamped on their singed rear ends. But Grandma Bone and the boy remained.
"It'll take more than some lightning to scare me off!" The boy roared above the wind.
"Oh really?" Cried Lysander, placing a hand on Tancred's shoulder out of habit. They'd often had to work together to save their friends.
As the sound of rain and thunder died, Yorath and Grizelda straightened up.
"That's bett-" Grandma Bone tried to say, but she was cut off by a dark, glimmering spear. She gulped, her neck brushing the wooden shaft in the process.
"What!" Yelled Yorath, who was pinned in by seven other identical spears. The spirits that held the spears had their heads shrouded in clouds, but their strong, black arms were encircled by jangling gold bracelets, and a loud, rhythmic drumming filled the air.
"You!" Screamed Grandma Bone. "You stop this now!" One quivering finger was pointing straight at Lysander.
"Then leave," he replied simply, and, after a moment, the two huffed and stalked away. As soon as they were gone, the seven collapsed wearily on their respective chairs. Tancred pulled in the wind so that the doctors and nurses could get out of their rooms.
"Is it safe?" Maisie asked brusquely.
"Come on out Grandma," Charlie called, and the three adults rejoined the group.
"Nasty, nasty business," Mrs. Bone muttered, her face pale. She was obviously thinking of Charlie's father, and this lifted Charlie's spirits immeasurably.
The rest was short-lived, as just then Paton burst through the door, Leo circling unnoticed at his feet. The yellow cat was glowing fiercely with Paton's power.
"Twins!" The extraordinarily tall man boomed. "Twins!"
He ushered Emma and Charlie in first to see their new cousins, and, while Emma held one and perched on the edge of the bed, Charlie watched the other twin curiously. Gazing into the boy's eyes, he suddenly felt distant and dazed.
"Charlie?" Julia said softly, snapping him out of his trance. "Are you all right?"
"He's a hypnotist, Auntie," Emma murmured, looking to Charlie for support. He nodded.
"Already?" Paton said curiously, moving his arms so the baby was gazing sleepily up at him. He blinked. "Already." Julia looked anxious.
"Don't worry, Julia," Paton said, reaching down to grip his wife's hand.
"Can we come in?" Maisie asked from the door.
"Yes, yes! Everyone in!" Cried Julia, obviously regaining her joyfulness at the prospect of showing off her babies.
"What will you name them?" Mrs. Bone asked the two, wiggling the finger that was being tightly gripped by the little boy's hand. She, of course, didn't recognize his gaze as anything but pretty eyes.
"Well," Julia started, glancing at Paton with a smile. "We were thinking we'd name the little girl Solange. After Paton's mother." Paton smiled.
"Oh, what a pretty name!" Maisie said, looking fondly down at Solange.
"And the boy," Julia faltered, deciding to let Paton handle it.
"With your permission," Paton said, clearing his throat and looking at Mrs. Bones. "We wanted to name him Lyell." Charlie's mother uttered a small noise of surprise and sadness, watching the little boy sleeping in her arms.
"Yes," she whispered, voice barely audible. "Lyell is a very fitting name." When she looked up, there were tears sparkling in her eyes.