Scarred

Chapter 12

Eva's POV
"Wait-!"

When I wake up, it's still dark. But I'm glad to see Cas is fast asleep in his dragon form on his bed. That's always the best way to tell if he's in a deep sleep or not, because his human form takes up a good portion of his energy. Despite all that though, cold tears stick to my cheek.

My dream is already fading away, my memory of it is foggy at best, but I seem to remember Sebastian being in it. It's hard to talk to Cas about what I feel about him.

He used to be a friend, the only person I could rely on, but then everything changed. But somehow, no matter how cold we both acted towards each other, we still cared. And part of me hates the fact that I cared, that I still do care, because he was so horrible. The burns were from him. The Silence was his doing. Using normal logic I should be glad he's dead.

So why am I not?

It's like he's broken me. I don't understand, I don't want to understand, what I'm feeling and why. Because I feel like if I did, it would just confuse me more.

Shaking my head, I sit up and glance at the bedside table where there's a stack of paper. No, not paper, newspapers. They certainly weren't there when I fell asleep, who put them there?

I use my magic to produce a small pink flame at my fingertip and glance over at the papers.

"Impure rebel Eva Kim escapes from royal guard and is now on the run," I whisper. "What on earth...?"

Impure. Escaped from the guard. On the run.

None of those apply to me, so why is my name there? When I glance at the date, things begin to slot together in my mind as the missing pieces reveal themselves. The paper is from years, around six or seven years, before I was born. And now that I think about it, I recall how I was named after my great grandmother, Eva Kim. I never knew she was a rebel.

The next one comes as a shock as well. Once again, it's from before I was born, but this one is from the beginning of the war. It talks about a town by the name of Syrin. I've overheard people - specifically Maven - describe it as the mining town, the worst place for an Impure to live.

The paper mentions bombings that had been happening in the mines for the past few weeks, but it focuses on the (at the time) most recent one. It's clear they were all done by Impure rebels, people who care about the safety of Impures. So it understandably throws me off when I read that an Impure girl was killed in the final bombing.

But that's not the worst part.

"In her last moment, she called out for a Pure by the name of Maven Ebony," I breathe. "And he tried to save her."

Anxiously, I grab the communicator and call up Maven, crossing my fingers in hope he responds.
"Eva? What are you doing calling at this time?" Charlie asks.
"I need to speak to Maven about something," I reply, trying to make sure I don't wake Cas.
"Gimme a moment," he yawns. "Maven, it's Eva."

"Is something wrong?" He asks.
"I found these newspapers, I don't know who put them there, and I've only read two so far, but one was about Eva Kim," I say.
"You?"
"No, my-"
"Oh right, of course, I remember reading about that myself. And what was the other one?"

"It's about a girl named..." I glance over the paper to find her name. "Named Samantha Harris," the name sounds somewhat familiar, "and it mentions you. It says that she called out to you before she died."

He sighs, then lets out a soft laugh.

"I'm shocked Alice never told you about her," he replies.
"Who is she?"