Page 18 of Heart of the Cursed
“Does it matter?”
“Yes, it does to me,” she said. “I want to know why you’ve been spying on me, and for how long.”
“Rest assured, I haven’t been spying on you.”
“What about last night?”
“I wasn’t spying,” he told her. “I was watching over you. There’s a difference.”
“I don’t see one, but if you say so.” She waved her hand towards him. “Continue.”
Arun couldn’t stop the smile this time. She was amusing. Feisty as hell, but amusing.
“Okay, if you must know, I heard you.”
“Ha, so you were spying on me!”
“No,” Arun shook his head. “I was nowhere near you when I heard you.”
“I know I’m loud, but you couldn’t have heard me,” she said adamantly. “Every time I’ve done the spell, I’ve been inside the bunker.”
So that’s what the underground compound was called. He wondered how many more bunkers were dotted around.
It wouldn’t surprise him if that’s how the Humans had managed to hide for all these years. Arun hadn’t thought to look for them underground, and he knew Taredd and Dain hadn’t thought of that, either. If they had done, they would have mentioned it to him.
“I heard you in my head,” he confessed.
“Bullshit,” she spat.
“Okay, answer me this,” he told her. “How could I have been spying on you when I only found you yesterday? I was miles away from here… the other side of the mountain, in fact… when I heard you. So, how could I have been spying on you from that distance?”
She looked at the spot on his chest where she blasted him the day before. The blast, as powerful as it had been, had only sent him flying along the corridor. It hadn’t been enough to cause any real damage. His head hitting the floor had been the worst of his injuries, and he’d healed from that before leaving the bunker in search of her.
So, if she was looking to see if she’d injured him, she wouldn’t find anything.
“Say I believe you,” she said. “Which I don’t…”
“It’s the truth,” he interjected.
She continued as if he hadn’t interrupted her. “…why come all this way just to tell me?”
This was the bit he’d been dreading to tell her, but she needed to know. If he stood any chance in getting her to stop, she needed to know the truth.
“Because I’m not the only person who heard you,” he told her. “Other people did, as well. People more dangerous than you can imagine.”
One of which, he was related to.
