you're incredibly wicked

16: waxing gibbous in pisces

Just like magic, everything seemed to be back to normal. 

Serena was in the library, nose deep in a novel called "A Secret Affair". It was super raunchy and not what you would expect Serena to read. That's why she went to the back of the library, so nobody would notice her and her guilty pleasure.

Except for Nikolai.

He had develeped a hunch for knowing where Serena is at any given moment, since he kissed her lips. With kissing your soulmate comes the ability to detect where they are by their scent. Serena smelt like vanilla with a hint of lavender and a touch of sugar.

Nikolai walked into the corner where there were bookshelves surrounding the table where Serena was at. By then, Serena peaked over her book and saw Nikolai's back to her, browsing through the books. She went into a shock, shut her book, and threw it into a bookshelf where it fell with a large thud.

He turned around and saw Serena, all frazzled.

"Are you ok?"

"You saw nothing. I mean, yeah. Everythings fine. Hehe."

Nikolai went to pick the book that Serena threw off the ground and Serena beat him to it.

Serena got defensive and walked away.

"Hey, hey. Where are you going?"

Nikolai followed her.

Serena didn't answer.

"I swear, you book girls are usually so secretive. Like, it's not that big of a deal if Hannah makes the move first."

She turned around.

"How did you know what book I was reading?"

"You threw it against the shelf and I saw the cover page."

She clutched the book to her, tighter.

"Don't tell anybody I like these kinds of novels."

"I know a lot about you already. Your secret is safe with me."

"Good. Keep it." She exchanged a smile that seemed fake.

She walked away and put the book away in another bookshelf and was about to walk out of the library when Nikolai blocked her way.

"Going somewhere?" He asked.

"Yes. What do you want?"

"I think we both know the answer to that."

Serena sighed.

"We are probably thinking 2 different things right now."

"Nope, you want answers and I do too."

"For the curse?"

Nikolai nodded.

"If there's anywhere to start, the library seems like the place to begin."

"But, there's so many books! And sectors! Not to mention, I only go to my corner and nowhere else."

The library in the academy was humongous. 3 floors worth of bookshelves loaded to the brim with books from all across the galaxies. How they ended up in Grozine is a mystery to all. However, not many people stopped by the library which was oddly strange. While neat and cozy, the library had a haunted feel to it, scaring certain students away.

"How did you even find that corner?"

"Funny story about that...." Serena scratched her head.

"You like the secrecy of the location. So, you can read without having somebody judge you."

"Exactly."

Nikolai started to walk and Serena followed. He took her to a section of the library where all of the shelves had a small etching that showed what letter was where on the bookshelf.

"Now, where do we start?" Serena asked and looked up.

Nikolai saw one etching that caught him fancy.

"Q-T?" He looked up.

Serena secretly smiled amd almost couldn't contain her laughter.

"What? It's true."

"What do you mean it's true?"

"It says Q-T but I have to admit, you're a cutie at times."

"I am?"

"Yes. But, we must get back to business. This curse isn't going to break itself."

"I guess we can start at A and work our way there. I trust your judgement."

"We'll see."

Serena and Nikolai walked down the first shelf and started skimming through all of the books. Many of the books seem to have no information on what a curse is let alone how to cure a curse.

Just as Serena was about to open a book, Nikolai stopped her and he took out his wand. He used his brain to compute the word "curse" to see if there were any matches. Any book that had the worse "curse" suddenly emitted an amber glow. 

The selection dimished to about 500 books instead of at least 100000 books. 

Nikolai took one section of the shelves and Serena took another. 

In the books, there were sketches of certain items such as a quill pen or a nightmare pendent. Yet, the items were only for individuals who are cursed, not cursed soulmates.

Serena grabbed a book from the top of a bookshelf by using magic, but her magic fell short. SHe was levitating in the air. Nikolai caught her in his arms.

"Goodness." Serena muttered.

She leaned against the bookshelf and started to skim through the book. This book sparked a certain interest to her, being titled "Curses of Love and Death, Until Soulmates do us part."

"This might be it." She signaled to Nikolai to come over.

The two of them read over the book together and Nikolai was nearly grazing Serena's left shoulder. She had to use all of her might to not stare at him and be face to face like that.

Her heart was pounding and her face was red.

And yet, he was immerzed in her and loved the way that she would fidget with the pages. Being close to her and bathing in the sweet scent of her was making him wild on the inside. 

"A soulmate may be the key to breaking a curse that is bestowed among their significant other. This can be by learning to trust the soulmate, defeating an evil awakening inside the soulmate, or by battling with the forces of dark magic."

Serena read the page.

"That might be it." Nikolai said.

"Evil awakening? Battling with dark magic? Aren't we doing that now?"

"Well, we are battling with dark magic. I don't think we have an evil awakening yet."

Serena closed the book.

"We should keep this book for reference. This will come in handy for both of us. I'll check it out under my name and I'll keep it in my place."

"You can check it out, but I don't think that's a good idea. I'll take it."

Nikolai slyly grabbed the book from Serena's hands.

"And why is that?"

"Remember our promise? You have roommates, and I don't. They will find out about us if you have that book."

The two of them walked to the check out librarian.

"When this curse gets settled, when the time is right, and once we feel comfortable, everything will be ready to be revealed to the world." Nikolai whispered.