The Curse ✔️

Chapter 19: Decisions

"What am I looking at?" Thar squinted at my hand and the paper, making me point at the words written under the sign. He opened his mouth to read-

"Don't say it out loud!" I stopped him. "The spell is immediately triggered."

"It's a word spell? Those are very rare." Thar examined the paper while I examined his face. There was a small scar above his lip on the right side. The five o'clock shade peaked through his skin, making me wonder what he looked like with a beard. His lips pursed and his forehead wrinkled as he read the two small words on the paper. I wanted to run my fingers through his hair, at mere thought I imagined how soft it must be.

"What's a word spell?" I asked once I realised I was day-dreaming about him in front of him.

"It's a spell engraved into words. Usually, magic belongs to certain people, elements, plants, rarely animals. But this spell belongs to these words, they own the magic." He explained, his dark eyes finding mine.

My heart skipped a beat when our eyes connected and I realised how close we were. Instinctively, I pulled back, creating a situation even more awkward.

"Why are they rare? The word spells?" I asked, trying to occupy my mind with an actual problem, not ogling my teacher.

"They are extremely inconvenient." Thar said. "Every time you say the words out loud, the spell comes to life."

"Oh, good to know." I murmured, remembering the horrible mistake of reading those words out loud. "How do you recognise a word spell?"

"If you open up your magic, you should be able to feel it." Thar said and I decided to try it out. Slowly, carefully I opened up my shields and let my third eye wander around. And truly, the words emitted power. Like an energy field opened within those words, whereas all other objects in the room emitted nothing.

And this was certainly magic, black magic.

"It's black." I whispered.

"Yes." Thar took the notebook.

"What-"

"Unbind the evil." Thar answered my silent question, deep seriousness appearing on his face as he looked at me. "Did you say these words out loud?" Underneath the serious, teacher tone, something else stirred. The twitch of his lips was a sign of worry, even fear.

"I might have." I mumbled, not in the mood to get scowled. "But I burnt the original page and sprinkled it with salt, so it stopped."

"Okay," Thar nodded, "quick thinking. What does the spell do?" I wanted to smile at the compliment, but next piece of information was going to darken the mood.

"I don't know what it does, Thar," I tasted the words on my tongue, "but the feeling I got was the same as the one in the main hall. The same slimy, oozy touch crawled up my magic."

Thar leaned towards me, his eyes widening. He skipped a breath as he took the notebook from my hands and gave it another look. He flipped the pages like a maniac, taking in everything written inside. I prayed to Goddess he would know what any of this meant.

"Whose notebook is this?" He pointed his fingers towards the small book, which was actually mine and the spells were neatly copied from my father's. I caught Thar's gaze, afraid of his reaction.

Some part of me feared he was in on the entire thing and that he would hand me in to my father.

"I stole it from my father." I held Thar's gaze as firmly as I could, hoping he could see my honesty. He blinked a couple of times and his gaze escaped to the book, then back to me.