Scarred

Chapter 66

Eva's POV
A few days of healing and resting pass before I'm up and about again. Though, I'm forced to move around more carefully as one wrong move can lead to an excessive amount of cursing and a lot of pain too. The morning of the thirtieth soon arrives with no sign of any of the others except from Flynn and Cas. According to them, mum's gone back home but they don't even reference Cassie, Hunter and Lucky. I haven't seen them since before we went to fight the queen, I guess it feels a little weird.

"So, what's today's plan Eva?" Flynn asks as I stretch out. "We've gotta get you back home, I know that, but anything else?"
"I wanna say goodbye to dad and Teddy and Phillip," I reply. "Oh, and I keep forgetting to ask, do you guys know what happened to my wand? I can't find it anywhere."
"I... about that..." Cas mumbles, grabbing something from his bag. "At some point during all the commotion, someone must've stepped on it or something. Here."

My wand sits in his hands, splintered in half with its crystal core cracked and chipped. "My wand... my poor, poor wand," I mutter, taking the two halves from his hands. "I guess expecting it to last almost eight years was pretty unrealistic of me. But even so..."
"Jeez, how attached to that thing are you?" Flynn sighs. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to get a new one. Plus, we have people for you to go find, so let's focus on that for now."
"Fine... whoever broke it owes me a new one."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's go."

I manage to sneak my way into the palace kitchens to steal us some snacks to eat before we go on our search. It's around five o'clock in e afternoon now, if things go according to plan we'll be back home with plenty of time to spare. The lack of the curse is already proving itself to be odd, so much so that Cas and I can't help but muck about with how far apart we walk from each other. "You two seem to be having fun."
"Teddy!" I grin, rushing over and pulling her into a hug.
"You're heading home today huh? Well, I remembered that it's your birthday tomorrow so here: a gift. Don't open it until tomorrow okay? I... it might be a while until I see you again, huh?"
"Yeah... but hey, now that the news about me is out in the open, I might actually be able to visit."

"That is if father lets you. He's... he's not been handling this the best. He didn't even know about the queen still being around, so y'know, it's a lot for him to take in," she sighs.
"Eh, I should be fine. My dad's king after all. Hey, have you seen Phillip? I wanna say goodbye to him before I leave."
"He should be in his room. I'll hopefully see you soon, bye Eva."
"See you!"

After a bit of thinking, I manage to recall where Phillip's room is. I knock, no response. And again and again and again until I make out a slight sigh on the other side of the door. "Who is it?"
"It's me, Eva," I reply, almost laughing as he scrambles to the door in an instant.
"It's good to see you're up and about again. Teddy said that you're going back home now, is that true?"
"Mhmm. I haven't been there for so long, plus, I made a promise with Maven."
"Maven Ebony, right? Who'd have thought someone like him would have helped to raise you. Oh, I got to speak to your mother the other day - my aunt I suppose - she was really nice. I can see why you think so highly of her."

"You'd think having such a kind mother would rub off on Eva, but no," Flynn smirks. "Eva's a little piece of shit."
"That's rich coming from you Flynn Sutton, you're shittier than me, no doubt about it. Anyways, I should probably go find dad now, I wanna be able to get home at a reasonable time. Bye Phillip."
"Bye Eva."

I search the palace basically head to toe, ask anyone who might even have a slither of a clue, and even try calling him with my communicator, but no matter how much I try I can't find dad. Most people claim they haven't seen him all day, which is odd as just yesterday they all spotted him rushing around the corridors to do his work.

"Is it really all that important that you go say goodbye? It's not like before, you might actually get to see him again after this," Flynn says as I try retracing my steps. "At this rate, we won't even make it back in time. We still have to walk all the way to the train station."
"Right, I know that, but I don't know when I'll next see him. He's busy at the moment, he doesn't have time for me - to put it bluntly."
"Eh, he'll find a way to make time," Cas shrugs, walking ahead slightly. "He said he wanted to make up for the time he missed with you - which is a lot of time, don't get me wrong - so I'm sure he'll figure out some way."

"Yeah but I still wanna say goodbye. Just one more search, then we can begin to head home, alright?"
"Fine, just make the search quick. You've gotta be careful when walking around so you don't get hurt again on the way back to Eros."

Another search still proves useless so I begrudgingly force myself away from the palace without getting to say goodbye. Where could he even be? He wouldn't just vanish like that, would he? The walk to the train station is slower than what it would usually be as we are forced to take breaks and walk slower due to my injuries. But once we're on the train, we finally get a chance to relax and I once again examine my broken wand.

"What time is it?" Cas asks as I pout at the thought of how careless whoever broke it must have been. "It looks really dark outside."
"It's like... woah, eleven pm, how'd we allow it to get so late," Flynn blinks as he glances down at his watch.
"You're kidding?! Eleven? Did I really spend that long looking for dad?"
"Well the walk here also took a while, we had to stop for dinner and then we had to wait for a train. Maven's gonna kill us for being out so late," Cas mumbles. "But as long as we get back before midnight, you won't have to worry about your promise with him."
"Well this train better go faster then, I'm getting impatient."

When we finally arrive at Eros, it's cutting it so close that I'm worried that I'm about to break my promise.

"Eva, quit running ahead, you're gonna hurt yourself!" Cas calls as I race to Maven's house.
"But we're gonna be late if we don't. I promised him I'd be back the day before my birthday at the latest, and I'm not breaking that promise," I reply, turning around to look back at him and Flynn.
"We know, you've told us like twenty times, but it won't be a very interesting birthday if you're hurt," Flynn smirks.
"I'll be fine- ow! Fuck!" I stumble to the floor as I hold a hand to my stomach, the scar there so prominent I can almost feel it.
"And of course, I was right," Flynn keeps the smug grin on his face as Cas helps me to my feet, but in the end, I struggle to continue to stand as I grunt in pain. "Oh, I've got an idea."

And before I know it, I'm reluctantly receiving a piggyback ride from Flynn as he laughs slightly. "You okay up there?"
"I'm fine," I grumble. "I don't see why this is what we had to resort to. I can walk just fine."
"As if that's the truth. If it makes you feel any less embarrassed, let me remind you of the time you did the same for me when we were kids."
"Wait what? But Eva's tiny compared to you," Cas replies as I stick my tongue out at him.
"It was when I was like seven, so she was probably six, I sprained my ankle whilst we were playing. I was in tears and she didn't know what to do at first, there were no adults around or anything. So somehow Eva, the scrawny little half blood, managed to give me a piggyback ride all the way back to my house. I was humiliated."
"Yeah, you kept asking if anyone saw," I laugh slightly, remembering just how red faced he was after that. "That was your seventh birthday, if I remember correctly. So in fact, I would've been five at the time."
"That's an unfortunate seventh birthday," Cas laughs. "I've sprained my ankle before, hurts like hell."

"That was when we were playing tag, right? Maven didn't know whether he should be angry at us for being reckless or worrying about you," I snicker. "Though I did get told off pretty bad."
"Well you were the one climbing up everything to get away from me, are you really that surprised?"
"Guess not. Hey, I think I can walk the rest of the way now, we're almost home after all," I say to Flynn.
"You sure?"
"I'm sure."

He lowers me down to the ground and I walk the rest of the way just fine. I guess the running managed to strain me a bit. When we arrive at the house, I frantically ring the doorbell until Maven comes to open the front door.

"You're cutting it fine here, aren't you?" He smirks. "It's good to see you're okay though."
"Yeah, we planned to get here earlier, but I wanted to say goodbye to people and I just couldn't find dad anywhere," I groan. "So I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, it sucks."
"I bet it does. Oh... the curse is broken huh?"
"Did no one tell you?"
"I don't think so. I was told a lot of the situation, but Sammy explained most of it in a rush so I hardly had a chance to process most of it. Hold on there Eva, you can't come in quite yet."
"What? Why not?"
"Just wait and see."

At some point whilst we were talking, Flynn and Cas managed to sneak past into the house, leaving just Maven and I waiting as he occasionally checks his watch.

"Okay. In you come, close your eyes. Open them on the count of three."

I do as he says, closing my eyes and letting him lead me into the living room.

"One, two, three-"

"Surprise!"

Nova Note:
Teehee