Scarred

Chapter 58

Hunter's POV
"She's ignoring us," Cassie mutters the moment Eva leaves the dining area. Not a word was said to us by her or Cas when they came in, they didn't even eat at the table. They grabbed their breakfast, plus some additional snacks, and just left. "And she only ignores us when she's hiding something from us."
"Like what?" Lucky asks.
"I dunno, the effects of the Silence, the letter she got from her dad about becoming a wanted criminal, even things like her jealousy towards Apollo," Flynn sighs. "She's not good at talking about her problems, she even tried to hide what her uncle did to her when she lived with him when she was younger."

"Her uncle? Like Jake Kim?"

"You know him?"
"Yeah. When we were trying to help Eva find Alice, her and Cas stayed at your house whilst we stayed at Jake's, remember?" I reply. "I knew Eva didn't like him, but based on what you just said, I assume there's a much bigger reason behind it than I first thought."
"You're right there. I won't go into much detail, but he hurt her because of her blood... I had my suspicions for years, but I only got confirmation recently. But what could she be hiding now?"
"Isn't it obvious? Her and Caleb had a fight," Lucky says. "Who knows what it was about, but both of the times he's gone to Eva's room to talk since he got back, he's seemed stressed. And that first time, Eva tried to hide it but she was clearly upset."

Cassie hinted at that being the case the other day, though she didn't mention what was said between the two and I'm not even sure how she came to that conclusion. But no matter what, we have to sort this out.

"I can try talking to her, maybe that will work," Flynn shrugs. "I dunno if it will though."
"Well it's worth a shot. But first... should we ask Cas? He might be more willing to talk," Cassie suggests. "I'll go now, wish me luck."

Within mere minutes, Cassie returns with a sigh. "He wouldn't say a thing. It's all up to you now Flynn. I'll see if I can... I dunno, if Caleb shows up then I'll try and talk to him. We can't just leave them like this." Without saying anything, Lucky sighs as she leaves the room, leaving the rest of us confused for a moment.
"Well then," Flynn says, "You're coming with me Hunter. I'm gonna need some backup."
"Backup? You're kidding." No response. "Fine, I'll come."

Reluctantly, I follow him up to Eva and Cas' room, keeping an eye out for Lucky as we walk along. She seemed annoyed, I wonder what's bothering her, it's already bad enough that Eva's in a bad mood, it'll be inconvenient if Lucky is too. When we arrive at their room, he knocks on the door, asking if he can come in. Though I don't quite make out what they say, Eva and Cas whisper between each other until I hear her say, "Yeah, you can come in." He does as she says, leaving the door only slightly ajar so I can peer inside.

"What do you want?" She asks, sitting at the desk with a stack of books either side of her.
"Do I need a reason to come here? I just wanted to check up on you, that's all. You were both avoiding any conversation with us earlier," he replies, sitting down next to Cas on his bed.
"About that... we had an encounter with the queen yesterday," Cas mumbles. "She mentioned Elizabeth and it got us worried that she might try and drag you guys into this more."
"So you're just going to deal with her by yourselves, sounds like a bad idea to me. Plus, there's a chance she'll just hurt Cas instead of you stick to this plan."

"You may think it's a bad idea, but in the end, less people will get hurt," Eva replies, not even looking up from her book.

"Well then Eva, are you going to tell me what happened between you and your dad or not?" Flynn suddenly asks as Eva immediately darts around at his question.
"Nothing," she replies in an instant. "I don't know what makes you think something did."
"You can't hide it from me, not only have you been acting odd but he told us to keep an eye on you. You had a fight, didn't you?" He continues.
"Bastard. Why can't he just leave me alone?" She hisses under her breath before turning back to her book. "I don't want to talk about it, okay? If all you're planning to do is pester me then you can leave me alone."
"Tch, when you're in a state like this I don't think I want to. Who's to say you won't have an outburst or something?" He walks over to her, leaning on her chair as he talks.

"With how pissed you're making me I might just have one now. Flynn, I'm serious, I just want to be alone to focus on this," she softens slightly when she speaks, staring right at Flynn as she does. "Just for half an hour or so, okay?"
"Fine, Cas, keep an eye on her for me," he sighs, walking over to the door. As Cas nods, he closes the door behind him and glances over at me, a tired look on his face. "Well that didn't go according to plan."
"What did you think was going to happen?" I laugh slightly. "She was obviously not going to tell anyone about it, but... I know someone who might just be able to tell us a thing or two. If both Eva and Cas are refusing to talk then we'll have to do what Cassie was thinking of and ask Caleb himself."

"And why are you two doing this?" Lucky sighs, walking over. "It's Eva's business, not yours. So what if they're not on good terms, she's still working to break the curse."
"She's distracted, that's the problem. She's struggling to get things done," I explain.
"She's been reading the same spell book for ages now," Flynn adds. "She'd usually be on her third by now. Plus... aren't you worried about her? She is angry at Caleb, when we saw her after whatever fight they had she had clearly been crying. I don't know what they said, but they need to talk it out."

"Well... if you wanna talk to him that badly, he's downstairs talking to Cassie. She too was curious about their argument," she says.
"I'll go talk to him," I reply, rushing off before either can respond. I find him and Cassie talking outside the dining room, though Caleb hardly does any of the talking. "There you are."
"If you're going to ask me what happened with Eva too, then I'm sorry to tell you that I'm not saying anything. It's not like she'd want me to," he sighs, crossing his arms.
"But you two need to talk things out, Eva's not acting like her usual self and it's clear it has something to do with whatever you two said to each other," I argue. "You don't have to tell us anything but Eva deserves some sort of... I don't know if apology is the right term because I don't know what was said, but you get the idea."

"I do... I do deserve her an apology. But the last time I tried to speak to her my mother took over and both Eva and Cas ended up getting hurt before I could regain control, and by that point Eva was even more angry at me; I can only assume my mother said something awful about me to her."
"Well find a way to stop her from taking control. Eva's your daughter... there has to be something you can do that'll allow you to apologise," Cassie says.
"If this keeps up, she will believe the lies your mother has been telling her even more than she did before," I add. "Just find a way to sort things out, please, Eva being all down like this seems to leave a similar impact on all of us, she's usually so bubbly after all."

"Fine, I'll do my best. Just promise me you'll keep an eye on her for me."

"You can count on us, your majesty," I smirk as Cassie nods beside me.
"Thank you. She may think otherwise, but I do care about her... I wish things didn't turn out this way."

Nova note:
Owa owa