Page 92 of Heart of the Cursed
Chapter 37
There were no words to describe the relief Arun felt when he’d found Selene alive and well in the Ogres cave. He had tried to stay optimistic, but a small part of him had feared the worst when they hadn’t found any sign of her among either of the other two groups they had come across.
He had to give it to her, she knew how to hide her tracks well so nobody could follow her. It had been easy for the first hour or so. They had followed her tracks right up until they came across a river. They knew where to horse entered the river, but no matter which direction they took, they couldn’t find where it had come out.
It was only by sheer luck that they had found her at all. If the Ogres hadn’t been arguing about how best to eat her, they wouldn’t have known where she was.
The plan he and the others had come up with as they searched for her, went out the window the moment he’d spotted her in the cage. Seeing one of the Ogres dangling it between his fingers had been his undoing. As soon as he’d seen that, he lost control and stormed into the cave.
He hadn’t cared at the time if Taredd and Dain had followed him in. He wasn’t waiting around for them. Thankfully, they had been right on his heels and ready to fight at a moment’s notice because that’s where everything went wrong.
Instead of dropping the cage on the floor like he hoped, the Ogre had thrown her at the cave wall in retaliation for killing his friend. If Arun had known he would do that, he wouldn’t have killed the first Ogre until Selene was safely on the floor.
His heart had leapt into his throat as he could only watch in horror as she hit the wall and bounced off before rolling down a pile of rubbish. He’d lost sight of her after that.
Arun had wanted to run straight to her, but the Ogres had blocked his path. So, without knowing if she was dead or alive, he had to put her to the back of his mind and fight the remaining Ogres. With help from Taredd and Dain, they were dead within minutes.
The elation he felt at seeing her alive was quickly washed away by concern when he realised how badly injured she was. Her injuries weren’t as life threating as before, or as difficult to heal, but she had still been in a lot of pain.
Using his magic once again, he healed her wounds and mended her bones. By the time he was finished, not a single mark remained on her body. He had made sure of it.
“Sorry, I ran off,” Selene said when they met up with the others. “I thought I could do it on my own. I was wrong.”
“It’s okay,” Natalia said. “We understand.”
“Really?” Selene asked in surprise. “I wouldn’t have.”
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Taredd asked.
Selene was silent for a moment. Arun could see she was debating on whether or not she could tell them.
He placed a reassuring hand on her back. “It’s okay if you have. We’re here to help you, remember?”
She slowly smiled at him before holding up a book for everyone to see. “I found it, and it doesn’t just mention the spell. It contains it. The search is finally over.”
Arun was both happy she had found it and disappointed they wouldn’t get to spend more time together. No doubt Selene would want to perform the spell as soon as possible, and he couldn’t blame her. There was no reason not to. Except, he wasn’t ready.
He doubted he would ever be ready to leave her. He had spent his entire life searching for his mate, now that he’d found her, he didn’t want to spend another second of his life without her. But once she performed the spell, everything would change. He would no longer be in the Human realm. Since she wasn’t fully Human, he wasn’t sure if she would be, either.
The same went for Amberly. Both of them were halflings, but with Amberly being half Shapeshifter, she might end up in the same realm as Dain. But Selene? Where would she end up?
It wasn’t so bad for Taredd and Natalia, either. As long as Taredd tells Natalia where to find the portal in the Human realm that would take her to his Demon realm, they would be able to reunite and live happily ever after.
If only it was that simple for him and Selene. There was no point in telling her where the portal to his realm was because she might be sent to a different one, anyway. They still hadn’t figured out what she was, so he couldn’t begin to guess where she would end up.
From the look on everyone else’s face, they were feeling the same way as him.
“That’s great,” Natalia said, trying not to show her disappointment.
Selene blew out a breath. “This is why I left. I know none of you want me to do the spell because you don’t want to lose each other, and I don’t blame you. I wish there was another way, so you could all to stay together, but I honestly don’t know if there is one.”
“Don’t apologise, Selene, we understand,” Amberly said. “We knew what we were getting into when we offered to help.”
“We could have left you to do it on your own, and gone to their realms with them,” Natalia added. “But we want to help you. We want to help our people.”
Amberly nodded in agreement. “We couldn’t have left without knowing the rest of our kind was safe. It just wouldn’t be right.”
“Thank you,” Selene smiled softly. “I know it’s not going to be easy to say goodbye, for any of us. I don’t have to do the spell right away. I can do it in a day or two. Just let me know when you’re ready.”
