Cursed

Chapter 32

Eva's POV
"I can't believe you're back. I can't... and even Cassie too. Though I don't recognise the rest of you," the girl says. "Where were you?"
"Sephie..." Hunter just manages to force out. "I'm sorry, I-"
"Please don't get angry at him," Cassie interrupts. "He was chasing after me... I didn't mean to get him involved in so much."
"What are you talking about? I'm not angry, I'm just... happy thing one and thing three are back. Not Ada though, doubt I'll ever see her again."

Cassie bites down on her lip, and I recall how upset she appeared at even the mention of her. I silently hold her hand from behind, and whilst Cas clearly notices the gesture, he keeps his mouth shut, it's probably for the best.

"Yeah... I might as well introduce you to this bunch. Sephie, this is Eva, Cas and Flynn, guys, this is my sister, Sephie."
"So what? Is Eva antisocial or something, what's with the hood?" She whispers to Hunter.
"It's nothing like that, I-" I cut myself off before I can expose myself. She may be Hunter's sister, but anyone could turn on me if I revealed my true identity.

"You what?"

Before I can go to answer, Cassie's hand slips out of mine and she begins to walk off. I look over and see her approaching a man of around forty. He shares some of Cassie's features, her blue eyes and although his hair is somewhat brown, it's slightly grey.

"Dad..." she forces out.

"I think we should leave Cassie and Hunter to their families for now, come on you two, let's go explore," Flynn says, pulling me aside.
"We don't really fit in here, do we?" I laugh, following him down the streets.
"Eh, we might, but right now those two need to see their families. God, I should've ate before leaving, I'm starving," he groans.

Cas glances at me with a giggle and I immediately know what he's implying. Running ahead, I search the streets for shops and stalls, and soon I find something appropriate. A bakery with some bread and pastries in the window. I don't know how good they'd taste, but food is food.

"You're good at small talk, right Flynn?"

"God I can't believe you two," he sighs, walking into the bakery. I follow silently. One other person stands in the shop, his cap covering his eyes. He looks like a cop. Better be careful then.

Turning around, I glance at the display of food, and as I reach for a baguette, I hear the baker say:

"Hey kid, if you wanna buy something, then no hoods. That's the rules, don't want a little thief to get away with stealing."

Reluctantly, I remove the hood from my head, but continue to look away,

"One of us is gonna have to distract the officer," I whisper as quietly as possible.
"Well you certainly can't. Let me," Cas grins, fluttering off of my shoulder. He flies over to the officer and steals the hat from his head, flying out of the shop with it. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him turn into his human form, and shove it in his pocket, all without the cop seeing.

"Stupid dragon," he mutters, walking out. As he walks by, I feel like I recognise him, but he keeps his head low, so I can't really make it out.
"Gimme a sec kid, I should really go help out, that guy's my biggest customer," the baker says, exiting the shop. That's when I take the opportunity to stuff a few pastries into a paper bag, which I then place in my own.

Putting my hood back up, I beckon Flynn outside, where we find the two interrogating Cas.

"I told you officer, I haven't seen a dragon anywhere," he says. "It probably flew off already, dragons are typically super fast."
"You go back inside, don't want anyone stealing from the shop," the officer chuckles darkly, almost glancing at me.

"Fess up already kid," he continues once the baker leaves. "If you do, I won't do anything about it. No punishment, no nothing. Not for you at least."

As I begin to walk past, he grabs my wrist, and I almost wince at the sudden pain it causes me. Flynn obviously picks up on this and pulls my hand out of his grasp. The officer still looks away, holding out his hand until Cas sighs, handing him the hat. He places it back on his hat, positioning it so it covers most of his face, like how my hood covers mine.

"Show me what's in the bag and I'll let you go with a warning."
"And what if I don't, officer," I spit as Cas flutters to my shoulder as a dragon.
"Then I'll have to take some more extreme measures," he replies, pulling some handcuffs out of his bag. "They're made of Silence, we have some magic users around here after all."

I almost freeze up at the sight of them, and instead of doing the smart thing and just handing him the stolen pastries, I run, my fear of the Silence fuelling me. Both Flynn and the cop chase after me and soon Flynn catches up.

He's always been faster than me, I don't know if I was expecting to be able to outrun him but I know for certain that it shouldn't surprise me as much as it does.

He grabs onto my wrist, this time it's more than a little wince, it's a yelp, and it stops me dead in my tracks.

"Eva..." he mutters, confused by my reaction.
"S-sorry," I force out, turning away as the cop catches up.

"You should really avoid hanging around criminals, Flynn," he says.
"How, how do you know my name?!"
"I'm surprised, your usually quite observant. Thought you would've recognised me by now. And now that I think about it, you seem to gravitate towards those kinds of people, in some twisted sense, Eva was a criminal."
"What do you know about her?" He snaps, grabbing my hand tightly.

He lets out a laugh, then Flynn gasps, his grip around my hand tightening even more.

"James...? But you... Eva it's..." Flynn breathes.

James?

James Ebony?

But he's dead. He died in the fire. He's dead.

"Eva? Eva who?"

Turning around, I begin to remove my hood, with shaking hands.

"Eva Kim," I force out when I see his face. His chocolate eyes widen and before I know it, I'm being pulled into a tight hug. "I thought you died..."
"I thought the same about you," he chuckles slightly. "Can't believe I almost arrested you. Come with me, we can continue talking at my place."

I put my hood up and he leads the way, the three of us lingering behind slightly.

"Eva, is there something wrong with your wrists?" Flynn asks.
"Nope, they're fine," I answer almost immediately.
"You can't lie to me, y'know." He grabs my wrist again, only very lightly, and despite mostly avoiding a reaction, it still makes me flinch. And that's his cue to remove the glove from my hand.

Bruises. Burns.

Not things you would want to see your friend have on their body.

"Goddammit Eva," he sighs, handing the glove back to me.
"Sorry..."
"Quit apologising. Who have you kept this from?"
"Everyone except you, Cassie and Cas. And I didn't necessarily want you or Cassie to know."
"Not even your mum."

Looking down, I shake my head and catch up with James, trying to ignore the look Flynn is giving me.

Sorry Flynn.

I guess all I can do is keep secrets from the people I care about.

Sorry.