Scarred

Chapter 38

Cassie's POV
"It should be right around... here," Hunter says, looking down at the map he packed. The area circled on it should be where we find Elizabeth Amulet, the girl who may be our only hope during all this. Without exposure, without news being spread about our rebellion, there is no way we'll actually get anywhere with it.
"I'll go in by myself," I breathe, staring at the café she should supposedly be in.
"Really? If anyone would pass as Pure, it's me," Tana argues.
"But think about it, this isn't really a Pure café. Elizabeth gets away with coming here because she doesn't look all too Pure herself. I'll be fine, if I really need your help, I'll wave or something."

Stepping inside, I find the place almost entirely empty except from a girl in the corner, one who matches the picture Hunter found of her. To get the information we needed, we asked some of the half bloods that had spent parts of their lives with Pures if they had any ideas that could help us. Turns out, a handful did as some of them even knew Elizabeth.

The girl is one of the few Pures who has a darker skin tone. Because of that, at first glance you might consider her an Impure, considering the fact most Pures are almost paper white. Looking closer, you may notice the somewhat white blush in her cheeks, but in the end the thing that stands out most about the girl is her vibrant pink eyes.

Taking a deep breath, I walk over to the girl and take a seat opposite her. She barely gives me any notice, her head buried in a newspaper.
"Elizabeth Amulet, right?" I say, keeping my voice down.
"Who's asking?" She replies, barely glancing at me. "You look Impure."
"Well, that would make sense, considering my blood is red. The name's Cassie Ellis, and I want your help."
"Eh?" She looks up at me properly, eyes scanning every inch of me. "Why would you want my help?" As I slide a photo onto the table, her eyes widen and she snatches it away immediately. Holding it close to her face, a small grin begins to form on her face. "Eva Kim," she smirks, "An interesting character indeed. You know about her?"
"Of course, and I'd be willing to tell you about her if you agree to help us."

"A girl who perfectly resembles the princess. They say she changed herself to look that way, but if that were the case she would've based it on the girl before she died, so a girl no more than ten years old. But Eva Kim, she looks older than that, maybe twelve or thirteen," she continues, completely ignoring my remark. I never thought about how the lies about Eva would be viewed by an outsider. I'm sure Elizabeth's view on the situation isn't the typical one, she seems quite invested in this narrative. Maybe I can convince her to help us by allowing her to be a part of it.

"I've heard that you secretly write articles for people to publish in your father's paper, is that true?" I ask, hoping I can use the question to direct the conversation elsewhere. Grinning, she hands me the newspaper she was looking at previously, pointing at an article on the front page.
"There were wanted posters for this girl, this child, and I couldn't figure out why. I did so much research on both Eva Kim and Princess Eva and yet no questions were answered, so I thought I'd bring that to the public's attention. Something's going on with the king, I was so certain that he would be different to the queen... yet he's almost as bad as her."

"You don't like her? I thought she was pretty popular with Pures," I reply.
"Of course I don't like her, she... never mind, I got distracted, what exactly is it that you want me to help you with."
"Can we discuss things elsewhere? Don't want anyone to hear me, that's all."

Rolling her eyes, she leads me out of the café down an empty alleyway, the photo of Eva still in her hand. "Go on then, I want to know what you have to say."
"I'm friends with Eva, Eva Kim. As you likely suspected, she really is the princess, her father is the king and her mother is an Impure. But before the queen died, she cursed the king so now she haunts him, takes over when he tries to change things in this country. So, Eva is trying to break said curse so he can finally fix things, but we know not all people are going to accept his changes when they do occur."
"And what does this have to do with me?"
"We plan to show that we won't give into the Pures easily, we plan to rebel. And we need a trustworthy reporter to tell the story of it all. We decided you would be a good option."