Page 105 of Unbound By Shadows
“Selene, what’s happened to you?” a voice replied. “Did you hit your head? Should I call 911?”
The voice was familiar, but she couldn’t place it—like a forgotten word hovering on the tip of her tongue. She rolled to her back and saw a woman’s face loom over her. She had crystal blue eyes, a messy bob haircut, and was dressed in black. It took Selene a moment to realize it was her sister. What was she doing in Aurelia?
“Where’s Sam? I have to help him, Cass.” Selene tried to sit up, but Cass pushed her shoulders back.
“Oh no, you need to stay put. I think you have a concussion.”
“He’s hurt,” Selene tried to explain to her sister while squirming out of her grip. “He could die. We have to find him.”
“Who’s Sam?” The worried look on Cass’s face deepened. “Just rest for a sec.”
The image of Sam alone in the cave, bloodied and beaten, came to Selene’s mind. How would she find him again in that maze of cave tunnels? Fear for him made tears fill her eyes.
“Let me up! We have to get to him! I can’t just leave him there,” Selene pleaded. She tried to push Cass’s hands away and noticed how she was clutching something in her hand. A shiny white stone, wrapped in odd-colored wire and hung from a leather cord, filled her palm.
A memory tugged at her mind, reminding her that stone was important and needed to be protected. She shoved it into her pocket, then sat up. Something was buzzing through the air, miles above her head. Was that a Harpy? Maybe it was Brunie, coming to help her or even Pydiana swooping overhead. Selene looked up at the figure in the sky. Then she realized it wasn’t a Harpy at all.
It was an airplane.
She went dizzy for a moment, and then looked from side to side. The trees surrounding them were smaller, nothing like the grand forestry of Aurelia. A robin perched on a nearby rock took flight when a squirrel startled it away. Selene looked at her sister, down at the puddle she was sitting in, then up at the sky.
“Where am I?”
“You don’t remember?” Cass asked. “We’re in Rugby.”
It was as if a boulder of ice dropped into her stomach. All at once the events of the past 24 hours came to her in rush, like images of a movie on fast forward. The Underworld, Zaybris, Lilith/Lamia, the stone. How her thoughts had gone to Rugby and Cass just before the stone began to buzz…
“The stone took me home,” Selene whispered.
“No, honey, you're not home. We’re in Rugby, remember?” Cass said. “We hiked down here to watch the sunrise.”
Selene blinked, realizing Cass was wearing the same striped leggings and black Lycra jacket she had last seen her in. Her camera was on the ground nearby. “What day is it?” Selene asked.
“Sunday.”
“When did we drive here? Is it the same day?”
“Same as what? We got here yesterday. What happened to you?” Cass said. She gestured at the trail down to the water. “I was only gone a few minutes. Did you slip on these rocks or something?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“Where’s your stuff? And what happened to your shoes?”
Selene extended one leg to see that she was barefoot. The soles of her feet were caked with dust from her time with Sam in the cave. The sulfuric scent of the Underworld clung to her T-shirt, and now she was covered in mud from Rugby, Tennessee. She rose to her knees.
“Hey, I said don’t move—” Cass said.
“I’m fine,” Selene lied. “I just need to get my bearings.”
“Drink some water,” Cass said. Selene’s hands shook as she took the bottle. After a long drink, Cass reached out to tuck a lock of her older sister’s hair behind one ear. It was a gesture that Selene had done to Cass countless times when she was younger, especially when she was upset. Tenderness made the tears that had gathered in Selene’s eyes for Sam spill freely down her cheeks now. All the worry, confusion, fear, and pain she had just been through came to the surface in a torrent of emotion.
I’m really home.
She pulled Cass into a tight hug and began sobbing into her shoulder.
But what about Sam?
“Now you’re really scaring me. What’s going on?” Cass said.
