Scarred

Chapter 27

Eva's POV
"This should be it," Flynn says as we stand outside the house of Daphne Quinn. Or at least, I hope that's the case. Taking a deep breath, I knock on the door a couple times, and immediately take a step back. Soon, a woman, maybe in her late forties, stands at the door, glancing between us.

"Are you Daphne Quinn? We found this letter from a Ryder Quinn but it seems like it was never sent," Flynn explains, handing the letter to the woman.
"He's alive...?" She breathes. "How did you kids find this?"
"It's a bit of a story," I explain. "And well, we need to find him."

Though she looks like she's about to burst with all these questions building up inside her, she invites us inside first, handing the letter back as she goes to make us some tea. We sit in silence at the table until she returns.

"I suppose before anything else, we should introduce ourselves," I say. "I'm Eva Kim."
"Cas Carmen."
"Flynn Sutton."
"And I'm Daphne Quinn, as you already know. Ryder is my husband, though I thought he died around three years ago after being found out as a rebel, left me to raise our son alone. But I did my best, until..." tears begin to well in her eyes, and though she tries to wipe them away, they don't stop. "Sorry, he died a few weeks ago, I'm not quite recovered yet. Now, let me ask, what is it you want with Ryder?"

"He mentioned this in the letter, but he was cursed by the queen. His soul chained to a Pure's. And well... Cas and I have that curse on us, we were hoping to find them to see if they have any information we don't about it," I explain, giving her the letter once again. "The reason he hasn't made it home is because of what the Pure is like."
"A curse... how horrific... and you two have it one you?"
"It doesn't affect us too badly," Cas replies. "We get along well."

"We wanted to know if you had any clue as to where he may be, but based on what you said, I assume not," I mumble.

She stares at the letter, scanning both front and back as if she's looking for some secret hint or note. Though that wouldn't make much sense, seeing he never sent it. "Do you have the envelope?" She asks. Glancing at her, confused, Flynn hands over the envelope and she begins searching it too.

"What are you doing?" Cas finally asks, breaking the slightly awkward silence.
"Ryder liked his secrets, he always left hidden notes for me in letters like this. I can only assume he did the same here," she replies. "If only I still had my wand, then I'd be able to find it with ease."
"You can use mine," I say immediately. I hold out the wand, slightly worn down from it's age but beautiful nonetheless. The crystal core inside  that amplifies its - and by extension my own - magic is still as powerful as ever, despite being over five years old. Now that I think about it, it's almost been seven years. I got it for my eighth birthday and now I'm almost fifteen. Just a few weeks now.

"Amazing... I don't see that many Impure magic users these days. Well certainly not ones passionate enough to have a wand," she grins, carefully taking it from my hand, treating it with more delicacy than I ever have before.
"Heh, yeah... my stepmother gave it to me," I laugh a little, wanting to keep the topic of my blood out of this conversation.

"Well she's got incredible taste, it reminds me of my old wand. Now, let's see," she traces the wand over the paper, and after a few moments, words appear at the bottom.

P.S. I'm on the run now, if you really want to see me one more time, go to the place we first met. We plan to hide out there.

"It worked?!" We all collectively gasp, looking down at the words. I don't believe it, we might actually find them after all!

"You're lucky that's not far from here. Give me some time, and I'll prepare a map for you," she says, returning my wand as she stands up, a wide grin on her face.
"You're not coming with us?" I ask, as she freezes. "Don't you want to see him again? Don't you want to tell him about... about Michael...?"