The Spirit Guardians Book 1: Enlightened

Chapter 20

Even if Cherie's conversation had given her some hope, the household was still in disarray. She'd managed to slowly make up with Conny, and Lillian had never been upset with her to begin with; however, that still left Miguel and Irene fuming.

Though Cassie found it easier to roam around the cabin again, she sometimes still kept to her room, not wanting to catch Irene's side-eye or hear Miguel whisper about her. Training had been discontinued since the incident, but she sometimes snuck off in the morning on runs, desperate to get in some form of solo exercise.

In the midst of all this, she still remembered her family was missing. Even if official training was approaching, Cassie was growing more and more impatient to find them. She tried to shift her focus to them now, not necessarily caring what Irene or Miguel thought of her anymore.

Cassie stepped into the kitchen late morning in need of some hot chocolate due to the bit of cooler weather that had descended over the forest. As soon as she stepped in, all eyes were on her, yet no one said a word. She awkwardly rummaged around the cupboards for a mug, though she realized they'd been moved.

"Need help?" Conny wondered as he exited the hallway.

Irene let out a huff, though Cassie ignored her.

Conny shot Irene a look before finding a spare mug for Cassie. She thanked him and made her hot chocolate in silence, trying to ignore Irene's burning glare on her. Cassie knew in her heart that Irene was more frustrated about Cherie's response to the situation than anything else. It took Irene days to believe what Cherie had told Cassie was true. Cherie had even verified it, though neither Irene or Miguel had taken it very well.

"Helping out the burden, are you?" Miguel teased Conny.

Cassie's fingers gripped tighter around her mug. Irene and Miguel were also not pleased that Conny and Lillian had been accepting of her secret.

Conny began to raise his voice at Miguel while Cassie did her best to ignore their chatter and just finish making her simple cup of hot chocolate.

"What's going on?" Marc called as he stepped into the kitchen.

"He's calling me a burden now!" Conny hissed, pointing his finger at Miguel. "He's blaming me for having to be taken care of constantly since I was the youngest."

Marc began snapping at Miguel while the kettle began to scream. Cassie sighed and poured hot water into her mug of chocolate powder, slowly stirring as the argument went on.

"See? She doesn't even care about anything!" Irene complained, clearly speaking about Cassie. "That was the stupidest idea you ever had, Marc! Let's rescue the human-borns! They won't cost our lives or anything."

Cassie continued to ignore Irene and sipped from her mug.

"You can't ignore me forever!" Irene spat at Cassie, making full eye contact with her now.

"That's enough!" Marc shouted, taking a step forward. Irene flinched, as if she were afraid Marc was going to hit her, but Miguel stepped forward to face Marc.

"Fine! I'll leave! I'm going right now!" Cassie shouted.

She marched toward the door with her cocoa in hand and stepped out. Ignoring the others' confusion, Cassie quickly descended down the porch and went deeper into the woods. In all honesty, she didn't care where she went, but she knew she wouldn't be returning to the cabin for a little while. She just needed to distance herself from everyone for a little bit.

As she got deeper into the woods, she found a nearby stump to sit on. She quietly sipped on her cocoa, watching a squirrel scatter over the forest floor in the distance. She waited for the tears to come, but they never did.