Scarred

Chapter 16

Cassie's POV
"They're not back yet?" Flynn asks, walking into the room.
"Nope," I reply, shaking my head. "Nowhere to be seen."
"Damn, hope they're alright. They set out over twenty four hours a-"

"We're back!" Cas grins, kicking the door open.
"You took your time," Hunter says.
"We missed our stop for the train," Eva yawns, "so we stayed at Sammy's friend's house."
"Who?"

"Oh right, I'm Sammy," a woman maybe a little younger than Alice waves. "I'm an old friend of Maven and Alice. You know where she is?"

Much like how Eva and Cas burst into the room just as we were talking about them, Alice walks in right after Sammy asks about her. She takes a moment to notice her, but when she does, she throws herself at Sammy.

"I can't believe it, it's been so long!" Alice smiles, almost sobbing. "Eva, this is my friend Sammy, she-"
"I know who she is mum," Eva replies. "She's the one who found me and Cas and took us to Maven."

"Really? Oh, and Cas, congratulations on meeting your family at last. What were they like?"
"Well you can meet one of them right now," he laughs slightly, gesturing towards Apollo. "This is my older brother, Apollo. And Apollo, this is Alice Kim: Eva's mother."

"It's nice to meet you," he nods with a smile.
"Same here. But Sammy, we seem to have a lot of catching up to do."
"Mhmm, we'll be back later," Sammy grins, following Alice out of the room.

Stretching out, Eva sits down next to me and kicks her boots off her feet.
"You alright?" I chuckle.
"I'm so exhausted and achy, we did so much walking," she groans. "So... wake me up if I drift off."
"I think you're already there," Flynn smirks. "Oh wait, Eva, Cas, come with me!"

The two glance at him, both confused and reluctant to follow.

"Come on!"

"Too sleepy," Eva grunts.
"Then what he wants to show you will certainly interest you," I say, grabbing Eva's hand and pulling her to her feet. "Now let's go."

Flynn, Hunter and I lead the two of them down the corridor a little to their new bedroom.

"There's bunk beds!" Cas exclaims. "Dibs on top!"
"I don't think so!"

Suddenly, the two are fighting to see who can get onto the top bunk first, and after a lot of effort (and some cheating as Flynn helps immobilise Eva) Cas gets onto the bunk, grinning triumphantly.

"Cheater," Eva grunts, pushing out of Flynn's grasp.

"You can complain all you want, but look," Hunter laughs, pointing out at the passed out Cas on the top bunk. "He isn't going to hear a word of it."

Eva seems to pout as she looks up at him, before sighing and taking a seat on her bunk. I wonder if everything is okay. Well if something is wrong, the boys certainly don't seem to notice as they're out of the room almost immediately.

"Is something wrong Eva?" I ask, sitting down next to her.
"It's Cas... he's just been acting a little odd. I'm worried."
"How come?"

"He usually sleeps in his dragon form. It helps him get better sleep, his human form takes up a fair bit of energy to retain. But look," she says, pointing at the bunk above. "Asleep, and human. I'm worried it might end up in him getting ill or something."
"Anything else wrong?"
"Eh? No, w-why would you th-"

"It's Apollo, isn't it?"

"What? No, you're just making up nonsense, I don't have a grudge against Apollo or anything. It's not like I'm jealous of him or-" she cuts herself off, going bright red as she looks down at her feet. "Okay... maybe I am a little jealous of him. But I don't see why."
"I do. You're so used to being the most important person in Cas' life that it feels odd for things to change. Ada got jealous when we first befriended Hunter, though I've never liked boys so I don't know why."