Wherever the waves would take her

That little fluttery feeling in her chest

A series of questions had started forming in her head as the group made their way to the underwater city, Evie trailing behind.

Why did she say those things to hurt Cas?

And what about T.E?

She liked her arrangement with T.E. They both weren't interested in a relationship, Evie made that clear that she wasn't planning to be in Venice that long to do so either way.

This saved her from future heartbreak and effort to maintain any expectations. They could avoid the mushy intimate topics and Evie could forgo dining etiquette in front of T.E when it was just the both of them.

Caspian on the other hand..

He was the first boy who taught her how to fight with dual stick weapons and never held back like the others during their sparring session because they both believed in pushing each other beyond their limits. The only boy that caused that little fluttery feeling in her chest that she grew to suppress over the years.

He was also first person that she wanted to see other than her family when she was caught in that lightning storm. She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands as she drifted along.

Her arrangement with T.E was good, even though it had stopped on account of feeling some level of guilt towards Selene after witnessing that look in her eyes. They were better off as friends.

Cas was the crown prince, and she was only his royal advisor, and they could be nothing more than that even if Dana or Destiny weren't in the picture. The royal family could not approve of such relations with her family because of their past history to ensure that the advisors to the King and Queen of Oceania stayed impartial.

She needed to tell Cas that. He had to choose a Queen that could make him happy in the future and rule by his side as equals. Or at least until Ula made her decision to chose a successor. She might come second-in-command to him as the prince, but she was still beneath the royal family.

Evie had to remind him of that. Especially with expectations held for the both of them as the future advisor to the throne.

Goddess knows that they know much less of the mysterious Guardians that they referred to. Morrigan had messaged her right after they started on their dive towards the underwater city to let Evie know that she was on her way back from the borders and would start to search the libraries both on land and in water of anything that mentioned these Guardians.

Making a quick pit stop at the Beck estate she had ducked into the caves to say a quick hello to Hebo, giving him a quick kiss and rub under his chin to reassure him that she would be back in the afternoon once she was had finished giving her updates to everyone.

Hebo had already started to grow quite rapidly, already slightly bigger than Evieand had knocked her over in his rush to greet her. Clarion had alreadyproclaimed that he would be bigger than his daddy, Strabo as he was already bigger than him when he first came out of his shell.

***

Evie's quick detour done, she gave Hebo a final hug before rushing over to the mayor's work chambers where she found everyone seated. Rowena and Irma were seated the closest to the door with Dana and Finn across the table from them, Cas was next to Mayor Fontus at the head of the table with their heads together deep in discussion.

Only Morrigan was missing, having gone to the library once she returned from the surrounding territories from her last assignment. Everyone stopped what they were doing as she cleared her throat.

"Mayor Fontus, thank you for taking the time out of your day to be a part of this meeting." Evie began. "The King and Queen sends their apologies along with their generals that they have been called away to deal with other issues."

"No matter." Fontus quickly waved her formalities aside to grab his notebook to jot down some notes. "What are the updates from Reefine?"

"Nothing much, but we've had some concerning updates that we were hoping to share with everyone that I hope would come to nothing." Flicking on their hologram projector, she brought up the scanned copies of her note before holding up her original copy. "I was given this message last night by an unidentified individual." She pointed at an enlarged version of the logo with the red ship.

"We've run that through our databases too." Irma piped up from where she was seated next to Evie's sister, typing away furiously on her laptop. "So far, nothing is coming up. Either they are someone who is relatively new to this scene-"

"-or they have taken a lot of effort to always fly under the radar." Rowena finished for the Crown Princess as she turned the hologram model of the red logo thoughfully with her hands. "We can't rule out the possibility that they might be connected to Reefine."

The odds of Fontus experiencing a embolism seemed to have increased over the last five minutes the more he scanned Evie's note. "Evie why is Eli's signature at the bottom of the letter?"

"Papa?" Dana tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

Fontus only response was to silently hand Evie the parchment for her to have a look.

There it was at the bottom of the parchment, Eli Anderson's signature scrawled at the bottom of the page in red ink. It was something that Evie didn't see when she first opened the letter, checking it against the holographic image in front of them confirmed it.

A challenge that he knows exactly what he was doing.

"This must have only appeared when it came into contact with water." Rowena's question cut through her thoughts, bringing Evie back to the present. "How do you know that the letter was intended for you?"

"I don't." She answered truthfully. "I think this was slipped into my bag after I came back to the surface after seeing Naga and Hebo."

Finn raised his eyebrows at her as Fontus handed the letter back to Rowena. "I recognise the logo. Belongs to the Blackburn family coat of arms."

"Blackburn?" Evie questioned.

Fontus could only nod, his eyes never leaving the logo. "The Blackburns were one of the few families that opposed the Great Relocation." He dropped his head in his hands. "Adrian Blackburn is. Was. My best friend. We disagreed on many things and one of the many things he refused to compromise on was leaving the humans to fend for themselves. Especially his human mother."

Evie rubbing at the sight tingles that had started at the back of her neck. "What happened to her?"

"She was already sick when the King and Queen called for the relocation. I don't remember much but I think she was his only family left." Fontus exhaled, his eyes lowered with sadness as he continued to stare at the logo in front of them. "I had offered to take his case up to my parents, my father was Mayor before me and I was sure we could make an exception with Oceanus' approval."

"And?" Cas' eyes were now flickering between Fontus and Evie.

"Adrian refused of course, I remember our last interaction was of us arguing." Fontus sank back into his seat where Dana placed a sympathetic arm on her father's shoulder. "He disappeared right after, along with his father's possessions and wealth. Nothing, not even their coat of arms were left behind."

Evie could only reach out to hold the letter in between her fingers. "Until now I suppose."

The sensation on her skin was getting more frantic, travelling down to her arms they felt more like slight electric shocks now. It was all she could do to bite back a scream as she lifted her gaze to her arms to see electric blue currents flickering around her hands. That elicited a collective gasp from the room as the room spun before her in that sickening familiar way once again.

Oh no.