Chapter 78 78
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
LUCIAN'S P.O.V
"A...Aurora?" I whispered breathlessly, blinking multiple times just to make sure of what I was seeing.
"Are you seeing what...I'm seeing?" Mirabel gasped.
With the stove pieces falling from my hands, I nodded slowly as I stood up. I'm clearly not seeing things. Right in front of me was the real flesh and blood Aurora, but how?
Mirabel pushed a gaping Eli.
"Eli...check if it's her ghost...maybe she came back ro haunt us or something."
"Why should I? You can clearly see she's angry."
Yes. She did look fuming mad. Her face was red, her hair scattered and ruffled and her chest was moving up and down as she panted.
"Aurora, is that you?" I finally made the brave move to ask.
She scoffed and rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hips.
"Of course its me, who else would I be?"
"Then how...who was...?" Mirabel pointed at the broken statue then back at me then back at her, her eyes as round as balls.
"Why on earth did you guys leave me behind?" Aurora suddenly screamed, her fists clenching into balls.
"Behind?" I asked dumbly.
She raked her fingers into her hair and puffed out air. "Yeah, I only stepped away for a few minutes, a few minutes! And only for me to get back and see no sign of you guys, and then I got back there but my..." She stopped, her eyes wide as she focused on something behind me.
"My statue!" She yelled and ran over, staring at the broken pieces with shock.
"Your statue?" We all exclaimed at the same time, then exchanged confused glances.
I took a deep breath. "Okay, first of all."
I turned and immediately pulled her into my arms.
"Hey! What are you...?" She squealed and squirmed as I pressed her close to my chest, feeling the warmth of her body and taking in a deep whiffs of her scent.
"I thought I lost you." Tears pricked my eyes as my voice broke, she slowly relaxed, I felt her hand slowly on my back. "I'm glad you're alive."
"W...what are you talking about? I don't understand." She sounded confused.
I pulled her back to stare at her, her eyes widened as she took in my teary face, she reached out and held my cheeks. "Why are you crying? What happened?"
"We...we thought you had been turned to stone." Mirabel sniffed, Shawn gently wrapped his hand around her.
"Stone? Me? Turned to stone?" Aurora blinked, looking at me with her eyebrows raised, I nodded.
"Yes. You didn't come back for a while, so went to search for you. I didn't see you, but I saw the statue and it...it looked exactly like you. The only that came to my mind was that it had to be you."
"And since then, we were trying to find a way to turn you back." Eli added.
"Which was why we brought a white witch." Jake pointed at Ariel who had been standing to the side with an awkward look on her face. She smiled slightly and waved at her, Aurora waved back, still shocked.
"So, you guys didn't leave me behind?"
I shook my head rapidly.
"No way! Why would I?"
"How could we do that to you?" Mirabel exclaimed still sniffing, her nose now red.
"But what's the story with the statue?" Jake finally asked the question we were all waiting for.
"Well, while looking around, I saw a shop that made sculptures and all that.I wanted one, so I asked the guy to make a statue of me and he did. I took the statue to that spot because I wanted to show you guys. So when I went back and didn't see you guys, I went back to get my statue only to see It's gone. And so I came back...to this."
She waved her hands around.
"I knew I had been right when I didn't feel any life coming from the stone earlier." Ariel suddenly spoke, we looked at her and I nodded, lowering my head in shame.
"Yes, if only we weren't so caught up in our belief that the statue was her, we might have stopped to ask ourselves if it was really her."
"Yeah, but you didn't, and then you made me spend five hundred dollars." Mirabel grumbled.
"Then made me feel bad for Breaking the statue." Jake sniffed.
Eli hesitated and murmured while glancing at Ariel.
"And made me go in search of...a white witch."
A laugh escaped from Aurora, her eyes in squints as she covered her mouth.
"Wait, all these just for me? You really went through all of that?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't we?" Mirabel shrugged as if asking an obvious question.
"We were worried about you." I pulled her close to me again, letting her feel how much I had missed her. "I don't know what I would have done if I had lost you." I whispered into her hair.
"You didn't." She whispered back.
"Yes, I didn't."
"Well..." Ariel clapped her hands, "Since everything is all good and great, I would like to take my leave. I still have a lot to do, if you don't mind."
"Thank you for coming, even if you didn't do anything." I thanked her sincerely, she smiled, her eyes twinkling.
"You're welcome."
"I'll drive you back." Eli offered in a rush as he followed behind her. We watched them leave.
"Foolish Eli." Mirabel suddenly scoffed.
"What is it?" I asked.
She shook her head, a sly smile on her lips as she glanced at us.
"He can't even hide it well. She's his mate."
"What?" Jake gaped.
"Really? That's great news." Aurora clapped.
I nodded slowly, "I suspected as much, he was acting weird around her."
"Ah." Jake nodded as he stroked his chin. "No wonder he was so protective, wouldn't even let me talk to her. Hmmmph! All he just had to do was tell me." He snorted.
"You're still on thin ice, Jake." Mirabel pointed out.
"What did I do?"
"Clear they statue, dummy. If you hadn't been trying to show off, you probably wouldn't have destroyed it." She scolded.
"Jake broke it?" Aurora smiled.
"It was a mistake." He pouted as he headed to the kitchen.
"Where are you going?" Mirabel hollered.
"To eat, then I'll clean it. All these drama has made me hungry."
"To be fair, he's right." Shawn nodded and at that very moment, his stomach growled. "Told you."
We all laughed as we headed to the kitchen too.