Page 79 of Heart of the Cursed
“Yes.”
“Good,” she said, her voice just as hard and unforgiving as his before softening his to add; “I’m sorry about your brother.”
“I’m not,” he said. “He shouldn’t have hurt you.”
“Still,” she said. “It must have been hard fighting your brother, knowing it would end with one of you dying.”
Selene couldn’t imagine what he was going through. She didn’t have any siblings, so she didn’t know what it was like to have one. But if she did, she couldn’t imagine fighting with them, especially to the death like Arun and Agnarr. Not that she was sorry to see the back of Agnarr. He was an evil, sadistic bastard that needed to die.
“How are you feeling?” Arun asked, turning the subject back to her.
Selene let him. She didn’t want to push him into talking about what happened with his brother. She knew it must be a hard subject.
“I hurt like hell,” she admitted. “But I’ll be fine. When are we leaving to search for the spell?”
“In a day or two,” he said. “You need to rest some more before you go anywhere.”
“I’ve rested enough.”
To prove her point, Selene threw the blankets off and swung her legs off the side of the bed. That’s as far as she made it before the room began to spin again. Selene closed her eyes and willed the nausea to leave, but it wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was she.
Arun pulled her back onto the bed and wrapped the blanket back around her.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Arun told her. “I’ll tie you to the bed if I have to.”
“Promises, promises,” she said jokingly when the worst of the nausea had passed.
Warmth spread through her at the concern and worry she saw in his eyes.
“Okay, I’ll rest,” she agreed. “But on one condition.”
Arun looked at her questioningly. “It depends on what the condition is.”
“You don’t leave without me,” she said.
Selene didn’t know why, but she needed to be there when they found the spell. It was a compulsion she didn’t know or understand, but it was also one she couldn’t deny. Shehadto be the one to not only find the spell, but to perform it as well.
“I promise, we won’t leave without you,” he assured her.
“We?” she asked. “Who else is coming?”
“Taredd, Dain, and both of their mates.”
That surprised her. He’d mentioned his friends before, but he didn’t mention that they had mates.
As if reading her mind, he said, “I didn’t know about their mates until after you were taken. Natalia is Taredd’s mate, and she’s Human. Amberly is Dain’s. You’ll get to meet both females when you’re feeling up to it. Amberly is a halfling, as well, but before you ask, she’s not like you. She’s half Shapeshifter.”
Her eyebrows shot up at the news. She knew there had to be more halflings out there, but she hadn’t expected to find any so soon after talking to Arun about them.
“Really?” she asked. “So, there are definitely more halflings out there.”
“Yes, but we don’t know how many,” he said. “She doesn’t know of any other halflings, and neither does Natalia.”
“That’s a shame,” she said. “It would be nice to meet others like me.”
“I don’t think there is another halfling like you,” he told her.
Selene wasn’t sure if she was supposed to take that as a compliment or not, but she was going to take it as one.
