Page 107 of Heart of the Cursed
Chapter 42
Selene didn’t want to wake up. She didn’t want to face a world without Arun in it, but sleep refused to stay.
She didn’t know if the spell had worked on her and thrown her out of the realm. For all she knew, she could open her eyes and find that she was on a different world. A dying world, if her father was to be believed.
Part of her hoped she had been evicted from the Human realm because she didn’t want to live there without Arun. She didn’t want to live anywhere without him.
She couldn’t join him in his realm because she didn’t know how to get there. It hurt that he hadn’t told her. She knew Taredd and Dain had told both Natalia and Amberly how to get to their realms. But as much as it hurt, she understood why Arun hadn’t told her.
He was doing it to protect her. Or at least, that’s what she told herself, anyway. It didn’t help to ease the pain of her broken heart, but it didn’t make it any worse, either.
She heard a gentle tapping and then the creak of a door opening.
“Has she woken up yet?” a female asked.
“I think she’s stirring,” another female said.
She recognized both of the voices, but she couldn’t remember who they belonged to.
“Can you let him know?” the second female asked.
Selene’s heart leapt. Were they talking about Arun? No, they couldn’t be.
You sent him away, remember?Her mind threw at her.
Her heart sunk at the realisation that her mind was right. The only way he could be there was if the spell hadn’t worked. But if that was the case, she would be dead. There was no other way she could have got out of that situation. There had been too many people trying to get at her, and they wouldn’t have wanted to give her a cuddle or a pat on the back. They were trying to kill her. And they would have succeeded if it hadn’t been for Arun and everyone else.
“Of course,” the first female said. “I’ll be right back.”
The door creaked shut and silence descended. A few minutes later, the door creaked open again as more people rushed in.
One of the newcomers crouched down next to her and took hold of her hand. The feel of strong, calloused hands wrapped around her sent warmth through her. She knew those hands. She had felt them wrapped around hers on more than one occasion.
“Selene?”
Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of Arun’s voice. He was so close, his breath tickled her face as he spoke, but she couldn’t open her eyes to see his beautiful blue eyes or his handsome face framed by stunning, long white hair. No matter what she tried, they refused to open.
She tried to speak, to tell him that she was there, that she could hear him, but her voice wouldn’t work, either. Fear began to creep in the longer she went without being able to open her eyes, speak, or even move. She was awake, so what was stopping her?
Panicking wasn’t going to get her anywhere. So, breathing as deeply as she could, she calmed her racing heart and concentrated on looking inside her. Maybe she could find the answer there.
Selene thought back to everything that had happened. The spell had taken all of her magic, more than ever before. She remembered everything up until the last words left her mouth, then nothing. After that, everything went black.
But it didn’t stay that way,she thought.
Then she suddenly remembered the dream. Her mother had been there, looking as young and beautiful as the day she had died.
“I’m sorry, my sweet girl,”her mother had said.“I should have told you about your father.”
“What about you?”Selene had asked.“I always thought you were just another Human. Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t?”
“Because I didn’t want you to be in danger,”she said.“I tried to hide your abilities, even from you.”
“But why?”
“Because there are those, like your father, who would use them against you,”she said with a sad smile.“I was trying to protect you from people like him.”
Her mother moved closer and cup Selene’s face in her hands.
