Cursed

Chapter 29

Cassie's POV
About half an hour ago we were all called back from staking out the palace. We were getting ready to get Eva and Cas back, I don't understand what could've been so urgent that we all had to come back. Nothing has happened in the past ten or so minutes we've been sitting here. And then suddenly, Lucky barges into the room.

"Lucky, what's going on? Did something happen?" Hunter asks.
"Follow me, try not to be too loud, I don't wanna wake them up."
"Them?" Flynn says.

She simply smiles and beckons us to follow. We arrive at one of the spare bedrooms in the building and there they are, both fast asleep and snoring quietly.

"They made it out by themselves, pretty impressive if you ask me," Lucky whispers. "Let them rest for a little, I'll wake them at dinner and then you can catch up with them all you like."

Even once everyone else has left, I linger by the door, staring into the room as the two snore. Eva's bound to keep secrets about what happened in there, I know it, and Cas very well might do the same.

"Look at their souls," Lucky says from behind, startling me slightly. "Something definitely happened in there."

She's right, both Eva's and Cas' souls are faded slightly. It's like parts have been chipped off.

"Come here, there's even more than just that." Lucky walks over to Eva and carefully pulls up her coat's sleeves. Bruises and burns surround her wrist, and she groans quietly as Lucky's hand brushes them.
"Alice isn't going to be happy about this."
"Of course not, but hopefully her presence will be enough to help Eva feel safe here."

Suddenly, Cas starts groaning slightly in Eva's arms and soon his golden eyes open, going from Eva, to Lucky and then finally settling on me.

"Cassie?" He asks with a yawn. "Where are we?"
"This is the base of some Impure rebels. You're safe here, don't worry."

"Cas, what are you...?" Eva murmurs, her eyes half shut. "What's going on?"
"You're awake," I grin, watching her eyes open, then widen. "About time."

She glances down at her wrists, noticing how the burns and bruises are exposed, and she tugs her sleeves down. Slowly she sits up, rubbing her eyes with one hand, stroking Cas with the other.

"About your friend, Ada I believe," she sighs. "I um... I was there when she died, I didn't know what she wanted to say, but she was thinking of you in her last moments."

Almost immediately, the tears come, and Eva tenses up at the sight of them.

"So you did see her, we weren't sure if she even got to you. It's a relief that she did. I'm Lucky, by the way, I'm a half blood like you. Apparently you guys were on the train I almost got caught on."
"That was you? I'm glad you got away before they could hurt you, i-is my mum here?"

"I'll take you to her," Flynn says, standing in the doorway. Immediately, Eva shoots up and runs towards him, pulling him into a hug. "Woah, the Eva I know would never even consider hugging me like this."
"I missed you, and everyone. And it was so hellish and-"
"And it's over now. Come on, you too Cas, I'll take you to Alice. You guys can tag along too."

And so I follow, the group of us heading down to the area the rebels use as a cafeteria.

"Where'd she go?" Flynn says, glancing over the crowd.
"Who you looking for?" Someone asks.
"Alice Kim, did you see where she went?"

She doesn't even need to announce her presence, Eva is unsurprisingly the first one to notice her, immediately throwing herself into her arms.

"You're safe," Alice smiles, "you're safe and you're here and you're-"
"I missed you." Tears begin to flood Eva's eyes as she buries her face in her mother's chest. "I missed you so, so much..."
"So did I. But you're here now, and I won't let anyone hurt you again. You must be Cas, it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"I- uh... nice to meet you Miss Kim," he stutters awkwardly, now in his human form.
"Please, call me Alice. Thank you for being there for Eva."
"I should be thanking her, really."

"Shut up," Eva laughs slightly, nudging him, "I wouldn't have made it this far if it wasn't for you."

She goes silent for a moment, glancing back at her wrists, then to Alice, "Mum, can I speak to you in private? Cas will have to come too."
"Of course Eva. Come with me."

They walk off leaving Flynn, Lucky and me standing in the cafeteria.

"I wonder where Hunter disappeared off to," I mutter, scanning the room for any sign of him.
"I'm right here Cassie. So, how are they? The weirdos, I mean," Hunter laughs from behind me.
"Certainly different to how you described them, their souls were faded," Lucky says.
"You don't even need to see souls to know they're different. What did they experience there?"

"We found out they saw Ada die."

The words come out before I can stop them and I watch Hunter's mint eyes widen.

"Well then that explains a lot. But whilst I was snooping around, I found this in Eva's bag. Seems to match the description of their curse, right?"

He hands me a piece of wrinkled paper, and I skim through the writing on it.

This curse links two or more souls together. It requires a lot of experience in order to use this curse, therefore it's rare to find anyone with it. There are two main risks associated with the curse:
1) The cursed can't move more than a certain distance apart
2) If one of the cursed dies, so does the other
As of this moment, there is no known way to break the curse.

"Do you think Eva's read it?" I ask.

"Nah, if she did, it would be like all those other books and covered in her scruffy handwriting. She doesn't know, and Cas likely doesn't either. I also found this, and the writing is most definitely not Eva's or Cas'" Hunter says, pulling out a light pink journal.

"Half blood research," Lucky reads off the front of the book. "Let me see that."

The inside cover reads:

Unless he disappears or dies, this is for the eyes of Sebastian Ayres alone. Under undesirable circumstances where I am no longer around, this can only be read by Eva Kim.

"Let's return this for now, if there's any important information Eva will tell us," Flynn says, closing the book. "That Sebastian guy is the one she was going to be forced to marry. Which implies he's dead."

"He is, there are already reports of it, and Eva's disappearance. Whilst they claim Sebastian murdered and Eva likely killed, it's clear that's at least part of it isn't true. I can't say if the first part is or not."

"It isn't," Eva says, appearing again.

"You done talking to your mum?" Flynn asks.

"Yeah, she wanted a moment to process everything I told her. I suppose it was a lot, but anyway, Sebastian committed suicide. He was another half blood, and knew he would be treated like other half bloods if I ran off again. So he killed himself in retaliation," she sighs, Cas on her shoulder.
"Hey, on a separate note, you two should read this," I say, handing them the piece of paper.
"That's the one you grabbed when we were running off, what is it?" Cas asks.
"Well let's see shall we."

She reads it quietly under her breath, her pace slower than I would expect for a bookworm like her. That's when I realise she's reading it out to Cas, but is clearly keeping her voice down in order not to embarrass him.

"If one of the cursed dies, so does the other. As of this moment, there is no known way to break the curse," she reads, her eyes widening as she does.
"We'll carry this curse until we die?"
"We're lucky we like each other," she laughs.
"You really are. If I was chained to Hunter we would both be dead by now. Because I would've killed him," I add.
"Shut it you."

It's weird that they're already beginning to act more normal. They just got back and I would be prepared for them to be all stressed and nervous for at least a few days.

"Oh, by the way, Cas, mum and I will be going back to Maven's tomorrow. Are you guys coming too?"

"Of course, though I at least might be here again soon enough," I reply.

"Well I personally hope you all will visit again. But you aren't leaving quite yet, let's get all of you fed," Lucky grins.

Nova Note:
UwU