Page 32 of Heart of the Cursed
Selene did her best to ignore her body’s reaction as she rolled her eyes at him, but it wasn’t easy.
“Honestly, there’s not much to it,” he said. “I track their footprints back to their dens and then I use magic to pull them out.”
“Sounds easy enough.”
Selene’s magic wasn’t the same as Arun’s, but she was positive she could find a spell that would do the job.
“It is. If you’d like, I can show you how,” he offered.
Selene frowned. “Why are you doing all of this?”
Thankfully, Arun didn’t play dumb and ask her what she was talking about.
“I’ve told you; I don’t know.”
Selene wasn’t buying it. Nobody helped another person for no reason. Maybe before the war, but not since them. Every single person she had ever come across was out for themselves in one form or another, so why would Arun be any different?
“I don’t believe you.”
Arun shrugged. “Well, it’s the truth.”
She threw her hands up in frustration. “You must have some idea, or some reason, for helping me.”
“Why is it so hard for you to believe that I don’t have an ulterior motive?” he asked.
“Nobody in this world does anything for another without getting something out of it,” she said. “So, what are you getting out of helping me?”
Arun sighed and shrugged a shoulder. “Peace of mind.”
“Excuse me?”
“I will have peace of mind knowing you’re not in danger,” he told her. “If I don’t help you, it will continuously play on my mind. I won’t be able to concentrate on anything else because I’ll be too worried about whether or not you were still alive. So, I will get peace of mind from helping you.”
In a weird sort of way, that kind of made sense to her. But why would he care if she lived or died? No doubt he’d killed his fair share of her kind, so what was different about her? Why didn’t he want her dead like the rest of them?
Selene didn’t know the answer, and there was no point in asking him because wasn’t going to tell her.
Before she could think of a reply, Arun placed a finger to his lips. He tilted his head to the side, listening for something.
Selene listened intently, but she couldn’t hear anything over the crackling of the fire and the gently bubbling of the food inside the cook pot.
“What is it?”she mouthed.
“Not sure,”he mouthed back.
As the seconds ticked by, the hairs along her arms and at the back of her neck stood up. They were being watched, and from different directions, she was sure of it.
“They’re close,”she mouthed.“And more than one.”
Arun nodded in agreement.
“You take one, I’ll take the other.”
Arun shook his head.“You stay here.”
“Not a chance.”
They were after her, not him. There was no way she was going to stay behind.
