Page 102 of Heart of the Cursed
“I want to talk to you about the spell,” he said.
Selene was instantly on guard. There was only one reason he would want to talk to her about the spell, and that would be to stop her from doing it.
“Say your piece and leave,” she said. “But be warned, I will not be persuaded by you, or anyone else, to stop what I’m doing. So, if that’s what you’ve come to talk about, you might as well save your breath and leave now.”
“Why are you doing this?” he asked. “Don’t you know the spell will work on you, as well?”
Selene lifted her chin defiantly. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really? Even if it means ending up in a dying realm all on your own?”
“Why would I be on my own?” she asked, trying to hide her worry. “I would be in the same realm as you.”
“But, will you?” he asked, tilting his head to one side and then the other. “Or will you end up on your mother’s dead realm?”
“What do you know about my mother?”
“There is much I can tell you about her. But,” Kolvar said, dragging out the word. “I will only tell youifyou stop what you are doing and hand me the book.”
Ah, there it was. The true reason for him being there. He didn’t want to talk to her about her mother, or warn her that the spell might work on her. He was there to stop her.
Well, tough luck bucko, I’m not giving up the spell to anyone for anything.
Even if it meant leaving the only realm she’d ever known, she was not handing over the book to him or anyone else.
“That’s not going to happen,” she told him.
“You will never know the truth about your mother, if you do the spell,” he told her. “Are the Humans really worth the sacrifice? They’re not the same as you. They willneveraccept you as one of them. They will always fear you. So, tell me, are they really worth it?”
“Yes,” she said bluntly.
“Why? They’ve never done anything for you,” Kolvar said. “If anything, they are as much to blame about what you’ve been through as any other creature on this realm.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said defensively.
“I do,” he said. “I know more about you and what you’ve been through, than you probably know yourself.”
Oh, she was definitely calling bullshit on him. There was no way he could possibly know more about her than her.
“Well, why don’t you enlighten me,” she said. When he didn’t reply, she said, “See? You know nothing about me.”
“I know everything,” he said. “I knew the second you were conceived.”
“That means nothing.” She waved away his words, which seemed to piss him off.
Good! I hope he is pissed off because so am I now.
How dare he walk back into her life and try to control her? Who did he think he was? Well, the latter was easy, he thought he was her father. Whether he was or not, she couldn’t care less. But even if he was, he had no right to walk into her life and start demanding things from her.
“You may not have known it,” he said. “But I’ve been with you all these years.”
“What?” she demanded.
“I’ve watched over you,” he confessed. “Since the day you were born. I saw you take your first step, watched you have your first kiss, and witnessed you take your first life. I was there the day your mother died, and I’ve been there every day since. I know everything there is to know about you, Selene. From the way you like to dress, to your favourite type of food.”
Now she was really pissed. If he was speaking the truth, then that meant he’d stood by and watched as she had fought just to stay alive. The realisation that he’d not only witnessed what Agnarr had done to her, but had left her in his hands, made her blood boil with rage.
She would probably regret asking him, but she needed to know.
