ARCANE

036

It isn't often anymore that Cara feels the tug pulling at her stomach. Normally, she ignores it, packs up and moves. If she has learned anything over the last forty years, it's how to slip away unseen.

This time, however, she lets the feeling lead her to a café. There, she sees Hope pouring over sheets of paper. Hope glances up at Cara, offering her a soft smile. She waves delicately.

When Cara approaches her, Hope is surprised. When she sits down across from her, even more so. Though Hope has run into many of the others over the years, for brief moments across the world, never Cara. Some years she'll run into Jamie three times and yet, Cara has remained elusive. As far as she knows (and over the years, she has become so in tune with the others that she knows), no one has seen Cara in decades.

"Is that your newest manuscript?" Cara asks, looking at Hope's notes.

Hope shakes her head back and forth. It is no surprise to her that Cara knows she is a published author. One of the books, one about magic infecting strangers and forcing them to cooperate against every evil thrown their way, couldn't have escaped Cara's notice. It was all too familiar, and it was even made into a Netflix show.

"Letters from Percy," Hope grins, before tucking the letters back in her purse. She grins at Cara. "You don't look a day older than the last time I saw you."

Cara laughs. Hope is thankful that Cara hasn't been in contact with anyone else. After all, she just stole the joke June uses every time she sees Hope.

"How's Percy?" Cara asks, leaning forward.

Hope nods, beginning to catch Cara up to speed. After thirty years in hiding, Percy had enough. She and Erik started travelling the world, hunting down the other branch. Turns out, they've been operating since the Mei dynasty, striking targets every time one would come. Rather than drain the power, Erik and Percy have been strangling them and leaving their bodies behind.

Apparently, the Mei branch is bigger than they had anticipated. Only two were killed before they all separated, which left another dozen. They had killed three more by the time that June had found them and joined them.

"Wait..." Cara cuts Hope off. "Are June and Erik a thing?"

Hope shrugs. "You never know with those two. They keep their secrets wrapped tightly. Percy hasn't even figured it out, and they've been together for the last ten years."

Hope takes the opportunity to continue. As of the most recent letter, the group has just run into Wesley. They invited them along to kill off the last few members of the Mei branch, but he declined. He had to leave to meet up with Jamie in Madrid. They spend three hours together every year because they figured out it takes three hours for one of the Mei branch to come.

"How are people running into each other left and right?" Cara asks but quickly corrects herself. If there is anything that she has learned in the last forty years, it's that the world is a bizarre place, and the power will do anything to pull itself together. Especially tricks of the mind.

"We don't avoid each other," Hope tells her. "We let ourselves collide. You actively resist."

Cara shrugs. There is only one person missing from the letter. Eden, who she doesn't dare ask about. In forty years, so much can happen. During all their time apart, Cara has only gone on a handful of first dates, and never a second. Cara will never be able to give all of herself to anyone else, mostly due to her immortality, but also because of Eden.