Scarred

Chapter 51

Eva's POV
When I force my eyes open, I find myself slouched between Maven and James, Cas snuggled up tightly in my arms. As I push myself up, I squint at the morning light seeping through a gap in the entrance to the tent. It's completely empty outside, the freezing winter breeze dancing around and leading to shivers. Poking my head back into the tent, I grab a coat from my bag in hope of being able to block out the cold. Today we go into Syrin. Today we do what my great grandmother did all those years ago.

I hope it can capture the attention of Pures because I really don't want to resort to my back up plan. Not only could it put me in further danger, but I'm already dreading dad's reaction and I don't even know if I'll resort to it yet.

"Oh, you're awake," Cassie says, poking her head out of her tent. "Guess it makes sense, anxiety seems to be rolling off you, I'm not surprised that it's made you restless." She walks over as I take a seat by the charred pieces of wood that served as a campfire last night.
"Restless is an understatement. I don't know exactly what it was about, but I had some awful nightmare last night." Staring at the campfire, I pull my knees to my chest, trying to keep in any warmth that I've got. "I'm surprised you're so calm about this." Immediately, she lets out a harsh laugh. "Calm? You really think so? Hunter usually has to worry about my snoring keeping him up at night, but not last night, last night my paranoia is what kept him up."

I can't help but blink at her words. For the most part, Cassie seems quite strong and capable, I wasn't expecting her to fear something like this. But apart from seeing the wreckage that is the mining town, what is there to really fear? That's another thing that keeps bothering me. Why am I so afraid to do this?

"I've wanted to fight for this cause my whole life, I can't help but wonder why this is proving itself to be so terrifying," she breathes.
"Well we hardly have a choice in the matter here. We've got to do this, otherwise Lizzy won't help and who knows where we'd go from there. Part of me wishes Sebastian just let the queen live," I reply. "Then, she would die by herself, and likely wouldn't have the chance to curse dad."
"That would be nice... but there's no going back now. We'll do this, and we'll do this well. No fuck ups, no nothing."
"Right."

Sighing, she pulls me into a gentle hug, one that somewhat takes me by surprise. But in the end, I just settle into it, I just want to rest and relax for as long as I'm capable of.

"It's a shame, I think you and Ada would've gotten along really well. I think you'd have been great friends," she smiles slightly. "If only she had met you before all this..."
"I wish I got a chance to know her."
"Same..."

Soon everyone else is awake and has eaten. We decide it'll be best to split off into two groups when we head into Syrin. The initial goal is to get an idea of where everything is, and from there things get a little messy. Actual bombs would've been difficult to get, and part of me wouldn't be able to do such a thing with a clear conscience even if there was no chance of anyone getting hurt. How James managed to deal with all this when he was just a kid is something I don't know, though I wish I did. If I did, then maybe I'd be able to figure out some way to calm my nerves.

The plan is to set up spells that instead (to quote James) "cause chaos" as unlike the almost entirely Impure rebel group that started the war all those years ago, we have a couple magic users in our group that can set them up with ease. The ones we plan to use come in the form of small pieces of paper with drawings - glyphs - that can be used to cast the spells. "These glyphs should all work," I explain, handing a stack of them to Sammy. "All you need to do is set them up, and when the time comes, I'll activate them with my magic."
"Well that's convenient, because I don't think our three magic users can really get away with infiltrating the mines," James smirks. "The three of you would stick out like a sore thumb surrounded by dirty Impures."
"Which is why, you'll be spreading the news with the help of a certain someone." Sammy turns back to James, now grinning at him. "James can keep an eye on you non Impures, plus Cas, and I'll keep an eye on the rest. Wish us luck."
"Good luck... don't get hurt, okay?" I breathe, feeling myself tense up at the idea of facing the mining town.