Page 11 of Heart of the Cursed
Chapter 5
Selene groaned as the sweet, golden nectar slid down her throat. There was nothing better than honey for breakfast. Well, at any time of the day, really.
Humans used to rave on about chocolate, but the few pieces she’d managed to get her hands on hadn’t come close to the sweet, deliciousness of honey. Admittedly, it could have been because the chocolate was well past its best before date.
Even so, she couldn’t imagine it tasted much better before that date, either. Selene would much rather stick with honey. The best thing about honey was it never went out of date. Whether in a hive or in a jar, honey was always good to eat. And even if it did go out of date, it would probably still taste better than chocolate.
The only downside to honey was how sticky it was. By the time she was finished separating the honey from the wax, she was covered in it. How the hell she always managed to get it in her hair was beyond her. It wasn’t like she was throwing it around or anything. It just always seemed to get everywhere.
Not wanting to waste any, Selene licked as much off her hands and arms as she could before stripping off her clothes and climbing into a nice, hot bath.
She had learnt early on to have a bath ready for when she was finished sorting the honey. It saved sitting around in a sticky mess while waiting for enough water to boil to draw a bath.
God, how she wished hot water on-tap was still a thing. She’d give her left arm for just one bath where she didn’t have to boil several pots of water and lug them through the maze of corridors in the bunker. But that wasn’t to be.
It could be worse. At least she had cold water on tap in the bunker. Nowhere else she’d lived had that luxury.
When she was growing up, she used to carry bucket loads of water home from a nearby river or well with her mother. After her mother died, she gave up carrying water home to bathe in. Instead, she bathed in rivers and streams.
Once, she tried washing herself in the ocean, but that didn’t work out too well. The dirt she had washed off, was replaced with salt and sand. Lots of sand. It took weeks to get rid of it all.
After that experience, she stayed well away from the ocean. If she wanted to bathe or swim, she would find the nearest freshwater river or stream. Occasionally, she would stumble across a lake while searching further afield. Unfortunately, there weren’t any close enough to the bunker that she could use regularly, but she enjoyed using them when she could.
What Selene really wanted to find was a hot spring. She’d read about them in books, but so far, she hadn’t found any. From what she’d read, they were just like taking a warm bath, but without the effort.
“Maybe one day I’ll find one.”
It may be wishful thinking, but she wasn’t going to give up hope of finding a hot spring. The same as she wasn’t going to give up hope of finding the spell she was looking for.
Selene dragged her mind away from thoughts of the mysterious hot springs and back onto the task at hand. She could daydream about hot springs later. Right now, she had more important things to be thinking about, like why the locating spell wasn’t working.
If it didn’t work soon, then she would have to admit defeat and go back to searching the old-fashioned way. The only downside to that was it would take a hell of a lot longer. But there was only so many times she could try the spell without any sign of success, and she was close to that limit already.
“Hopefully, doing the spell outside will work.”
If it didn’t, Selene didn’t know what to do next. She couldn’t keep trying the same thing repeatedly, hoping to get a different result. She could try altering the spell, but she really didn’t want to do that. Partly because she didn’t have a clue how to alter it, but mostly because none of the spells she had come up with on her own had worked.
So, even if she did alter it, there was still no guarantee that it would work. If anything, she could end up making it worse.
“God, what if I mess up and it backfires on me?”
The thought chilled her bones. She had been lucky so far. None of the spells that backfired on her had done much damage. To the furniture? Yes. To her? Not really. A couple of broken bones, and quite a few cuts and bruises. Nothing that her body and magic couldn’t heal with time.
The question was, would it be worth the risk? Yes, yes, it was. For the lives it could save, it was worth the risk to her own. After all, she was already risking her life just by searching for the spell.
Selene had let her mind wander for long enough. Her hands were all crinkly, and the bath water was turning cold, she’d been in there for so long.
“Well, if I don’t try, then nothingwillwork.”
With her mind made up, Selene quickly washed her hair and body. When she was finished rinsing the soap off, she climbed out of the bath and wrapped a towel around her body.
She quickly darted to her sleeping quarters. The bunker was a hell of a lot warmer than sleeping outside, but it was still cold, especially in winter.
By the time she reached her sleeping quarters, her teeth were chattering uncontrollably, and her hands and legs were shaking.
She pulled out the warmest clean clothes she could find and quickly put them on. As soon as she was fully dressed, the shaking and chattering slowed down as she started to warm up.
Dressed and ready to go, Selene decided it was time to make the candles. So, she headed back to the kitchen, stopping off to grab her honey covered clothes from the bathroom as she passed it.
