Page 78 of Heart of the Cursed
Chapter 31
Selene groaned as she rolled onto her side, pulling the covers with her. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying her hardest to stay asleep, but it wasn’t working.
With wakefulness, came the memories that she would rather forget, and pain. So much pain. She tried to block out the memories, but they assaulted her, anyway. The headache from hell that she woke up to didn’t help. After the hit she had taken, she was just glad to be alive.
A shadow moved across her closed eyes, letting her know that she wasn’t along. Selene knew it wasn’t Agnarr because she had seen him die, but it could quite easily be one of his henchmen or someone just as bad.
Selene wished she knew what had happened after Agnarr had died. The last thing she could remember was seeing the shock and horror on Arun’s face as she sailed through the air and then… nothing.
“Selene?” Arun whispered.
There were no words to describe the relief she felt at hearing his voice. When the ball of magic hit her, she feared she would never hear his voice again.
She opened her eyes and smiled when she saw him looking back at her. He still had a worried look on his face, but he looked relieved to see her, as well.
“Hey, handsome,” she said groggily.
“Thank fuck for that,” he breathed. “I was worried you would never wake up.”
She covered a yawn with the back of her hand and then did a mini stretch under the covers. “How long have I been out?”
“Nearly two days,”
Selene bolted upright in bed and instantly regretted it when her body screamed in pain. The room spun uncontrollably, making her feel nauseous. She closed her eyes and held her head between her hands and waited for the feeling to go away.
“Are you joking?” she asked when the room finally stopped spinning.
She looked up at him and realised she was back in her own bedroom, in her bunker. She didn’t know how he had known it was her room, but she was glad to be back there. It seemed like years had passed since she’d been there, when in fact it had only been a matter of days.
Arun sat in a chair next to her bed. She could tell that he’d barely slept. The dark circles under his eyes and the five o’clock shadow let her know that he hadn’t left her side the entire time she’d been out cold.
When she tapped the bed beside her, Arun instant moved from the chair to the bed. He leaned back against the headboard and pulled her into his arms.
“I’m not joking,” he said. “I was really worried about you. You took quite a hit on your head. I was able to heal your wounds, but I didn’t know if there would be any lasting damage to your brain.”
Her heart melted at his words and the emotion she heard behind them.
“Well, you don’t need to worry now,” she said. “Because I’m awake and my brain is working just fine.”
The smile he gave her lit up his face. “I’m glad you are.”
Arun wrapped his arms tightly around her, holding her close. She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heart beating and just enjoying the feel of him against her. They sat in silence for a while, both content to be with the other.
“What happened?” she asked, finally breaking the silence.
“One of Agnarr’s guards were hiding in the trees,” he told her.
“Yeah, I remember seeing him jump down and throw a ball of magic at me,” she said. “I remember feeling intense pain in my chest as I flew through the air, and crashing through the door, then nothing.”
“You hit a marble pillar and then collapsed on the floor,” he said. “I thought you were dead. You weren’t moving, and I couldn’t tell if you were breathing.”
She could hear the worry in his voice again, so she stroked his chest, trying to soothe him.
“But I didn’t die,” she reminded him. “I’m here and I’m fine.”
“But you weren’t fine,” he said. “Your skull cracked when you hit the pillar, and that wasn’t the only injuries you had sustained.” He closed his eyes for a moment and squeezed her tighter in his arms. “I nearly lost you.”
“I take it you killed the guard?” she said, trying to take his mind off of her.
