Scarred

Chapter 19

Eva's POV
"Now this is certainly an interesting group," Maven laughs as he opens the door. He looks between Sammy and mum before glancing down at me, tilting his head slightly.
"Apparently I'm a wanted criminal now. Lucky thought it would be a good idea to change up my appearance," I explain.
"Wanted criminal? God, what do you two kids get up to?" Charlie laughs as Cas and I walk inside. "Well, it's good to see you two, the house just doesn't have the same energy without you."
"We missed you too Charlie," I smile as Cas pulls him into a hug.

"Sammy," I hear Maven say, "it's been sometime, hasn't it?"
"Don't give me that look," she snorts, "come here!"

When I glance over, I see that he's been pulled into a tight hug. After a moment, Sammy pulls away and with a smile, reveals a necklace with a glimmering moon shaped charm attached to it.
"You still have it," Maven smiles.
"Of course dummy. But... I have something to tell you."
"What is it?"

When Sammy sees the three of us looking over, she turns a shade of deep red and dismisses the topic for now, keeping her eyes on Charlie in particular.

"And this is?" Charlie asks, gesturing towards Sammy.
"My friend Sammy, I've known her even longer than I've known Alice. Her life was almost as crazy as another certain someone's," Maven replies, looking down at me.
"Well damn, it must be crazy then."

Cas and I are soon settled down on the sofa reading together as the adults catch up and talk.
"Do you know what's weird Eva?"
"Hmm?"
"This book has nothing to do with Pures or Impures, all the characters have red blood. And all the magic is fantastical nonsense, it's nothing like actual magic. Why is that?"
"Well I think some of these are incredibly old, and I suppose Pures and Impures didn't exist back then. For example, there's this play I read once, and it's about forbidden love, so you'd expect it to be a Pure and an Impure, but no, it was just two opposing families," I reply.
"I thought you weren't the biggest fan of romances."
"I never said it was my favourite play or anything. But it did have a few dark twists, like-"
"Don't tell me! What if I end up reading it one day?"
"Oh right, sorry," I laugh.

We go back to reading, pillows and blankets piled up on top of and around us, almost like a fort. Maven walks in, noticing us with a laugh as he sits down on one of the armchairs.
"Who would've thought that just yesterday, the two of you were fighting," Maven laughs. "Then again, you recovered quite quickly last time."
"We didn't have much of a choice. That woman wouldn't hurt Eva."
"Yeah... lucky for me you and Charlie were there to save the day."

The first fight Cas and I got into was on a business trip Maven went on. He had to take the two of us with him, we were only eleven and weren't trusted to look after ourselves. We spent about three days in a town called Orchida at a nice hotel near the edge of town. On the second day, Cas and I got into the fight, and on the third, we managed to make up. But as Cas said, we didn't have much of a choice. That was also when Cas and I first met Charlie, but it wasn't until about a week later when Maven met him.

"So, are these your kids?" One of Maven's colleagues asked.
"Sorta. I guess I'm the closest thing they both have to a dad. This is Eva, and this is Cas."
"It's nice to meet you," I smiled, trying to recall all of my lessons on manners and etiquette from when I was in the palace. It hadn't been too long since I had escaped, but I threw almost everything I learned there out of the window in the first few weeks with Maven.
"Mhmm," Cas nodded, clearly somewhat nervous around these new people.

Cas had opened up around me and Maven fairly quickly, but around others it was clear he was uncomfortable. It's understandable, how was he supposed to know none of them would be like Edith Harris.

"Good to know they're polite. Well Orchida has a handful of interesting places, I'm sure they won't be bored here."

I'm not quite sure what thing in particular Cas was looking forward to, for me it was the idea of bookstores and libraries, but that got us both very excited.