Scarred

Chapter 33

Cassie's POV
"This is the other entrance to the half blood prison," the king says, closing the door to the room behind us. "Up the ladder is the place you'll all be staying in. As long as you're all careful, I'll allow you access to the palace. You might need it Eva, the library might have some important information in there for you." She nods, walking over to the ladder and quickly beginning to ascend, Cas following in his dragon form. After a few shoves, she manages to open the trapdoor that leads to the house.
"Woah..." she breathes, pushing herself the rest of the way up. The rest of us follow, all equally as shocked when we emerge from the darkness.
"You said this is a playhouse, right?! This is even bigger than home!" Cas gapes. "It's all clean too."
"Tessa insisted we keep it tidy, for whatever reason. She even made sure the food was in good supply. It's essentially a normal house, the playhouse is just what it ended up being called a lot of the time," he replies.

"So, your majesty," Hunter smirks. "What should we call you? Cause this certainly isn't a regular monarch-citizen kind of relationship, I dunno what this is really."
"Just Caleb will do."
"Doesn't it feel weird though, having Impures so casually call you that?" Flynn asks.
"I think you forgot which side I fought in during the war. In fact, Alice and Sammy used to tease me, they'd call me anything but my name just to get on my nerves."

As he speaks, Eva pulls out her communicator, looking down at it with a sigh.

"I told mum she'd have me back in a few days, I promised Maven I'd be back by my birthday..." she mumbles. "They don't even know where I am..."

"Hey, Eva, Cas, I think I know a room in here that you two might enjoy staying in, c'mon, I'll show it to you," Caleb says, beckoning the two towards him. Putting the communicator back in her bag, Eva follows, Cas settling on her shoulder in his dragon form.

"How long do you think this is gonna take?" Flynn asks as we watch them walk off. "To be honest, I don't really want to spend my birthday here."
"I don't want to spend any more time here than we have to," I sigh. "It's so extravagant and I guess that makes me feel weird. It must be especially hard for Eva and Cas, if they could run from here, I bet they would."
"Thing is though, even if the queen does leave Caleb alone, how do we know the other Pures will accept the changes he makes?" Hunter asks.
"Eh?"
"You know about the war, you lived through nearly all of it Lucky," he continues. "Pures won't accept change in the blink of an eye."

"Then we'll have to make them," Lucky states. "We are rebels after all."

Just as I go to respond, someone steps inside the room, almost shocked to see us all here. A woman with sparkling blue eyes and indigo hair, she's almost familiar in a way.

"Who's that?" Flynn whispers.
"The queen," Lucky answers.
"As in the dead one?!"
"No, Caleb's wife, you idiot," she sighs. "This is Queen Rose, Eva's stepmother."

That would explain it. When I went to Maven's house in Eros after Eva and Cas were captured, we saw her and Caleb visiting. But even then, it feels like I've seen her somewhere else.

"You must be the friends of Eva's," she says. When we all nod, she looks down at fiddling hands. "Do you know where Caleb is? I need to talk to him about something. He said he'd be here."
"He took off with Eva and Cas, I think he's showing them the room that they'll be staying in. Don't know where that is though," I explain with a shrug.
"Well, thank you for telling me what you know... uh..."
"Cassie, that's my name. As for everyone else, that's Flynn, Hunter and Lucky. And of course, you know Eva and Cas."
"I'll keep that in mind. I'll be off now."

Just as she leaves, Eva and Cas rush past almost excitedly. How could they be so happy in a situation like this?

"Okay guys, hear me out, I know literally none of us want to be here but follow me!" Eva chirps, beckoning us out of the room. When none of us follow, Cas encourages us to do the same and eventually the two somehow manage to convince us. They lead us to a bedroom, I assume the room they'll be staying in, and Eva immediately heads for the balcony coming off it. "I mean, just look at this view!" She cheers, jumping up onto the fence.