Izzy nodded her agreement at not counting on Riley, her shoulders sinking slightly at his wordless response. She had hoped that, since he had accompanied her back to the school, he would at least offer some form of aid, but that was dashed with a couple noncommittal laughs.
	“At least I gave it a shot,” Izzy muttered, disheartened, as Cerasus hopped onto a desk. She followed his lead, leaning on another desk and stretching her legs out in front of her. It scooted a couple inches against the tiles of the floor at her added weight, then stopped. She stared at her shoes, trying to think of something else, then raised her head to look to Cerasus when he spoke again. Her stomach did a flip, and she inhaled sharply at the thought of being tracked, whether they wanted it or not, before her attention turned to Riley.
	Yet again, he had helped them. She glanced to Cerasus, trying to gauge exactly what he thought about the unusual man, but his own glance told her he was just as suspicious of him as she was. Him showing up when he did to save the day more than once was far too much of a coincidence to settle right with Izzy. He had to be here for something more than just to save a damsel and man-child in distress.
	“Why are--” she started asking, but cut herself off before she could finish with “you helping us.” So far, any questions to him had been answered in an irritatingly roundabout way. She doubted this time would be any different, and suspected she already knew the answer that would follow.
	“Thanks for that,” she said instead, caution in her voice. Perhaps if she got him talking, either she or Cerasus could catch him in a Freudian slip. “Since we’re,” she nodded toward Cerasus, even though Riley could not see her, “out of ideas here, what would [i]you[/i] suggest we do in this case?”