The Prince Of Curses h.s.

Thirty three

I woke up to a soft knock on the bedroom door.

"Nuray, can we talk?" Harry's voice came muffled through the door.

I blinked away the sleep that still glossed over my eyes, rubbing them slightly. I looked down, the black book laying over my chest. I must've fallen asleep reading it. I glanced to the window, seeing early morning light just beginning to seep through.

Another knock followed, "Nuray." I groaned, rolling over and tossing a pillow over my head. I shut my eyes, flashbacks of last night rolling through me so heavily that it made me nauseous. The blood, the way the knife drove into his skin, the crunch of his bones, it was all too much.

We need to leave, his voice traveled down the bond and swirled in my head. My skin tingled from the vibration of him.

Okay, was all I sent back, hoping that would be enough to satisfy him.

It seemed to work because moments later I heard his feet thump down the stairs.

I could still barely process what happened last night. I went to bed fueled with so much anger and hurt that I nearly finished reading the book. Even though I woke up a lot less upset than I was when I went to bed, I still wanted to hold true to my word. I wanted revenge, I wanted power, and I wanted to be feared.

As I got up and started making the bed, I couldn't help but think about how excited I was to get back to the castle. I slightly missed Olesia and the small chats we had here and there. But the thing that excited me the most was that I knew things would go back to normal. Harry would be too busy to keep an eye on me and I would be able to hide in the quietness of the library.

After I changed and packed my bag, I decided to peek out the window. Harry was tightening down bags to the horses. I wasn't looking forward to our journey back, knowing he would probably try to speak to me. That wasn't something I was entirely sure I was ready for.

With a huff I grabbed my things, throwing the black book in my bag, and descended the stairs.

I approached the bookshelves, scanning through them to figure out which ones I wanted to bring back with me. I wish I was able to bring them all. There was just so much knowledge here that it saddened me to leave them.

I pulled out books that I thought would be the most valuable. In particular— I was looking for more books about black magic. I had nearly finished reading the only book I had on it.

I looked through every shelf, carefully analyzing each title. Once I reached the end, I furrowed my brows, not seeing another book like it.

I scanned through the collection again. Surely there couldn't be just one book on this topic. But after scanning a second time, I determined that I had the only book that contained that information. There were no other black title-less books like the one I had mindlessly pulled off the shelf nights before.

I couldn't even fathom the amount of information I'd be leaving here.

I was glad I was able to read through a few books. I learned so much about my magic, more than I ever thought I would. There were just so many of them here, so much information and history that it would've been nearly impossible to read every single one of them in a few days' time.

I was content leaving the cabin with whatever happened here. I was thankful for the experience, for the knowledge, and the new insight it gave me. Whatever happened between Harry and I last night, I was happy to leave that here too. The only thing that bothered me was the fact that I had failed again on figuring out how to break his curse.

It was almost defeating that I had exhausted all resources and I still had unanswered questions. It made me wonder if I would ever be able to break it and be free of this experience.