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CHAPTER THIRTY TWO:

the night after

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               The night of Hestia's party, Aurora found herself asleep in bed in the early hours of the morning.

That was until she felt droplets of water dripping on her nose and she instantly woke in a fright. She lit her bedside candle and looked up to the ceiling where a piece of enchanted parchment hung above her head. She knew it was from Pierre as he had done this before.

Meet me in the library, make sure no one follows you.

It's time.

P

For a moment she lay in her bed, tempting to close her eyes and pretend she never received the letter. Pretending she didn't have to go through this painful action of placing all the curses in her body. However, her mind travelled down the hall where Luke slept and then her eyes cast a glance outside towards the waves. Harry was probably sleeping as well in some luxurious hotel room. She couldn't let anything else happen to them. She had to do this. She didn't have a choice. Although everyone would argue otherwise, failing to see that if she didn't do this then Sirius would be hurt or Luke or Harry would be.

Her mind travelled back to when she saw the aftermath of both Harry and Luke of being cursed. Their bloodshot eyes. The blood smearing down their cheeks and jaws. The way they could barely move their joints.

She could tell that being cursed was effecting both Harry and Luke with every passing day. They both seemed to growing sicker and weaker, she couldn't bare to see them get worse.

She had to do this.

With determination, she rose up from her bed, tiredly rubbing her eyes. She got dressed. When she left her room, she flinched when Louis stood outside her door.

"Why are you awake?" He raised a brow.

She replicated his confused expression. "Why are you awake?"

"I'm on night guard," Louis stated slowly, gesturing to the metal armor he was wearing. Just the chest plate as she convinced them when she first arrived to ditch the ridiculous boots and headgear.

"Makes sense. Keep working." She winks before disappearing down the hall ignoring him shouting that she was supposed to have someone accompany her if she left her room.

She entered the Library once Louis was out of sight and she was sure no one had seen her enter. She walked down the steps of the cold library, looking for the man but she saw no one. She stopped at the steps of the bottom stairs with furrowed eyebrows at the fact the man was not there. From the corner of her eye, she saw something moved and Pierre stepped out from behind one of the bookshelves.

Aurora looks at him. "Why tonight?"

"That party drank more than enough to be asleep for the rest of the night, no ones waking up." Pierre replied giving her a small shrug. "Plus the fact your boyfriend isn't back is a positive thing. Attached to you at the hip."

Pierre was right. If Harry was here, he would have woken up in the bed beside her and seen the note. He also wouldn't have let her leave the bedroom and would have come with her.

"I wouldn't say positive, but I understand what you mean." says Aurora, crossing her arms over her chest. "How does this work? The whole . . . .transferring curses from one body to another."

"It's a spell, took me a long time to find it in all these books. It's in this one," He held up an oddly thin book, it was a grey booked. Thick cover but didn't look to have more than twenty or so spells. It seemed to be covered in dust, with his fingertips standing out. He held it tightly in his hands before stepping over and handing her the book to read. When she touched it, she felt cold and almost dropped it.

"It won't open." She said.

"Place your full palm on the front of the book."

Aurora did as he said, and the book flicked open. "Remind me again how you know all of this," she mumbled.

"I've been around a long time." Pierre mumbles underneath his breath. Aurora remains quiet as she opens the book but she does not let Pierre's words past her ears, instead she remains quiet.

"Aurora, you realize that this is dark magic. You already have a lot of that running through your veins, now you will have an almost your entire body filled with dark magic. You're not used to dark magic, this is going to eat you up alive – you'll get hallucinations, your emotions will be insanely strong, this will eat you alive. It's like taking on a parasite."

She listens to his words, trying to focus on the good of what she was doing and less on the effects she was going to feel. "When you say hallucinations. . .like seeing stuff?"

"You've experienced them before, shouldn't be anything new." Pierre said quickly, not realizing how the girls face dropped. "Maybe these might feel more realistic. As it is, I have noted your panic attacks are frequent. . ."

"I haven't had a panic attack in weeks," She said, sounding just a little bit proud of herself. The last panic attack she had was a few days after she found out that Harry and Luke were cursed, she was sitting up in her bed and her mind dwelled on it too much. She ended up on the floor of the bathroom for almost four hours trying to calm herself down. "I'm doing better than I was. I know I am."

"Yeah and this will probably set you back so far you wont be able to come back."

Aurora let out a frustrated groan and a few of the books on the shelves fell to the ground, making a loud thump. "Are you really trying to talk me out of this? I want to do this. I need to do this, I can't spent another restless night worrying about the fact that the two boys I love the most in the world might die because I opened a stupid fucking box. I was put on this earth to help people and that is what I am going to do. I need to learn dark magic and how to control it. You're the only person that I trust enough to teach me."

Pierre looks into her eyes for a long moment before giving a short nod. Aurora nods, taking a quick glance around the library. She has a sinking feeling in her stomach, one that she couldn't shake. It was nervousness, anxiousness. Something she found herself relating with a lot lately.

"Before we begin, you have one more important thing to know." Pierre mentioned, as she sat down in the wooden chair, she folded her arms and legs as she looks at him. He kneeled down slightly so he was looking at her in her eyes and she knew whatever he was about to say was going to be serious. She was reminded of the dozens of times she found Pierre kneeling down to speak to her in a hushed whispered low tone. She followed his advice, she followed him. "The spell, the transferring spell, it goes against the nature of your families magic. It essentially tricks it in a sense. In response to that trickery, the magic will take something from you. It will demand something from you."

Aurora hesitates, "What do you mean it'll demand something from me?"

"It's a sacrificial type of spell. It demands something in return," replies Pierre.

"Will the sacrifice mean hurting someone?"

"No, not that type of sacrifice." Pierre quickly tells her. "It tends to be a sacrifice that will hurt you, oppose to hurting someone else. You could loose an emotion . . . like empathy. Or you could loose your ability to bring back the dead, Aurora, you could loose something important to you. There was an Aleksander before who lost her sight," Pierre told Aurora who instantly winced at the thought. "Sometimes, you gain back what it is that you lost, but most of the time, it is a permanent loss."

She almost wished he hadn't told her that because now she was conflicted. Although despite everything he had just told her, she felt as though it was too late to back out now. Her mind focused on Harry and Luke for a long moment. They took priority over everything, and always would.

"It will hurt." He says and she scoffs in response at that. She was aware it hurt and she also had a high pain tolerance. Maybe he had forgotten that. She had spent months being tortured by Runskin and years by her grandparents, she was sure that this would be alright. He looks at her expression and shakes his head, "I am aware you've gone through pain before but this will be different. This will be the same as when you were dying in Hogwarts. The bone cracking . . ."

"I don't have a choice." She says.

"You do have a choice," Pierre replied in a sharp tone. "You are choosing to take these curses for your friends."

"What would you have me do? Let them all die." Aurora whispers, not believing that is truly what he wants. "What is the point in fighting this war if everyone I care about dies?"

"Death is an inevitable part of war. You really believe you will get through this fight with Runskin without death?"

Aurora tilted her head, "Do I look naive to you?"

"Sometimes you are." Pierre replied.

Aurora looked at him. "Or maybe I'm smarter than you think."

Pierre knew the argument was no longer up for discussion when her eyes got the same Aleksander look that Magnolia and many other witches before them did. It was a look that said nothing mattered in the world but what she wanted to do. Whether or not she had his support did not matter, she would be taking this curse regardless. She remained looking at him and he had no other option but to nod, confirming he would support this. He did support this.

Aurora did not have to navigate the page she was searching for because the book flicked about thirty pages in and landed on a page. The page was black in color like it had been burnt by someone, and was hanging on by a crisp. If Aurora pulled on it too hard, she was sure it would fall off and into thousands of little pieces.

"Exponential transfert." She reads.

"That's the one." Pierre confirmed in monotone.

The first thing Pierre got her to do was cast a silencing charm, the most quieting one, over the library and castle grounds. The next thing was reading the spell. The language was rather difficult, even though Aurora understood most of the language from the Aleksanders, this one was exceedingly difficult. It took her a good forty minutes to properly be able to pronounce the words. After that, he request she found belongings of Harry and Luke's. Something that was connected or fully theirs.

She used Luke's comb, and the only thing remotely sufficient she had here was one of Harry's converse.

(She would have to say Otis chewed the other one).

Pierre got her to sit in a circle and he lit three candles all placed in front of her. Infront of the first candle, she placed the comb, in front of the second candle she placed the shoe. The candle flame grew stronger as she placed each item down.

"What does the third candle want?"

"Requires something belonging to the one who placed the curse on you." Pierre told her in a quick voice. She gives him a weird look before realizing that it wanted something belonging to Runskin. She went to intervene that she had nothing belonging to him. Much to her horror, she watched as Pierre took a small knife out of his pocket, and without hesitation sliced his palm open, deeply. He walked over, dropping the blood over the candle.

"What the fuck? Why did you just do that?"

"The spell requires something belonging to Runskin."

Her brows furrow, "But . . why did you give your blood?"

Pierre gives her a look of actual disbelief, "Aurora, how about we focus on one spell at a time. I do not have the time to explain things of unimportance to you. We haven't got long before the others wake up, so please begin the spell."

On the ground, Aurora kept her legs overlapped and her arms extended as she read from the book. She looked at the instructions, three times she had to chant the spells, just three simple times.

She looked at the first candle. "Avec. . . cette bougie. . . maledicat me."

Before she can even beginning to say it again, a bubbling pit of pain brews in her stomach, like she is stabbed by someone. She breathes in and faces a sharp pain. Her eyes zone in on her legs where she watches several tiny cuts appear like small slices into her skin, it doesn't hurt her necessarily, they just sting.

"Say it again. Two more times." Pierre says and his voice sounds fuzzy.

"Avec cette bougie, maledicat me."

Aurora felt cold. It was an invisible frost had been cast over her entire body and bones, working its way into her mind. It relieved her of all thoughts and she truly felt like she was dying. She had to remind herself why she was doing this, and who she was doing this for. She felt water, or maybe blood she couldn't tell begin to form in her eyes as it slowly made its way down her face.

She knew there was no going back now. "Avec cette bougie, maledicat me."

That was the last thing she recalled before the candles all blew out and she found herself falling backwards. She felt her body hit the ground with a loud thud.

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When Aurora woke up, something was different.

She must have only been out minutes because she awoke in the same position on ground except Pierre was hovering over her and helping her up. She remembered what happened but for a moment, she truly believed herself to be locked in the cellar of Runskin's Mansion with Pierre helping her. Aurora brought her sleeve up to wipe her stinging eyes, and was greeted by a sleeve full of blood. She looked to the ground to see a very large amount of blood on the ground.

"You've been unconscious for an hour, it's almost sunrise. You were bleeding from your mouth and eyes. I had to turn you on your side because you begun chocking."

Aurora remained quiet.

"How do you feel?" Pierre asked, but it sounded like he was underwater.

She blinked a few more times to regain her vision, but it didn't fully come back. "Did it work?"

"Can you answer how you feel first?"

Aurora narrows her eyes, ever so lightly, before turning away from him and raising her hand to her head. "I feel . . . like I'm dying."

"It worked."

Aurora opened her mouth to speak but it was as though she had suddenly consumed a glass of water and was drowning. She tried to breathe in but she physically couldn't, she turned to her left and without a second thought found herself coughing up the unknown substance. She realized after a second it wasn't water but it was blood. It felt like acid was coming up her throat, and just when she thought she was done, another dose of it came upon her. She physically couldn't breathe and was clasping her throat, trying internal spells to make it stop but it wouldn't. Time passed, maybe three minutes, maybe three hours, maybe a century? But she eventually stopped vomiting blood and found herself sitting in the corner of the room with her back pressed against the bookshelf and her knees brought up to her chest.

She could feel her veins, pumping in her body. Her head was loud and she could hear everything in her body, her own heart beat being the loudest.

"I feel like I'm dying." She whispers.

"Welcome to being cursed."

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As soon as Aurora snuck back upstairs, it felt like she was being awoken. She woke up to feeling like she was after swimming in a lake, and she wiped the water from her eyes only to find Louis, Hestia, and Ted all standing there. Her eyes went to the vase in Louis' hand, empty of water. It was not the first time he had done this.

"I'm sorry Aurora." Ted said straight away when her eyes narrowed at the three of them. "I told him not to."

Aurora flicked her hands, flicking the water off. Hestia's smile dropped when she saw her. "Oh my. . . are you ill?"

"What?" She croaked in response. She flinched at the sound of her voice, and realized her throat burned when she spoke.

Hestia forced a smile. "You just. . . you don't look well this morning. Not that you don't look beautiful, maybe you didn't get enough sleep?"

"Just tell her she looks horrible?" Louis replied and to this, Aurora grabbed her pillow and threw it at him. He caught it and flung it right back at her but she flung her arm up and dropped the pillow to the ground. In response, she groaned and fell back down. "She is not wrong. You look a bit sick."

Aurora rose back up, a hand placed on her heart. "Is that concern I hear?"

Louis rolled his eyes, folding his arms over his chest, "Shut up. What is actually wrong with you. . . . your arms?"

Aurora looked at her arm which was exposed due to the loose fighting shirt string top she wore and saw several new purple splotches across her arm. Presumably another side effect from last night. She was quick to reply with, "Oh, it was from my training with Damien."

"Merlin, and I thought he went easy on you." Ted grimaces, leaving down his basket of muffins next to her.

"Well he doesn't." Aurora replied back, everyone had seemed to think Damien had some sort of gentle spot towards her. She didn't see it. She also thought if anything he was harder on her than anyone. Louis, Hestia, and Ted all sent each other a look as if to say that was definitely not the truth. "Damien does not go easy on me!"

"Sure." Hestia hummed, leaning forward and tapping her head. "Remember who was the one that had to try calm him down when you disappeared."

Aurora rolled her eyes. "Because he was angry I disrespected his "rules". You know what Hestia, I am feeling a little bit under the weather, I might just take a shower, I can get ready myself later?" Aurora mentions, "Could you let Damien know that I'll be down to train in an hour."

Ted threw her a muffin which she caught, before the three of them left the room. She ignored the inquisitive look that Louis sent her. The second they had left Aurora jumped from her bed, ran into the bathroom and splashed water on her face. She was unbelievably warm. She closed her eyes, letting the coldness soak into her skin but it still didn't feel like it was working. She opened her eyes and looked into the mirror.

They had been right. She looked. . . .different. Not noticeable sick but just tired looking. She could definitely fix this. She would be fine. This would ware off soon, she was sure it would ware off soon.

It took roughly Aurora a good forty five minutes of prepping her face before she looked tolerable enough to leave her bedroom. Slipping on a loose fitting black dress, she looked at herself in the mirror.

When her eyes opened, a scream left her lips when she saw a figure standing behind her in the mirror. A figure who shouldn't have been standing there, alive and plastered with a disappointed look. The same one she wore all the years she was alive. Rotandia was standing there, and Aurora felt her cold hand fall upon her shoulder. All within a second.

She whirled around and was greeted with nothing. Her bottom lip fell down as she stepped forward looking around. She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment and when she opened them, nothing was there. Just her imagination. It was all just her imagination. She shakes her head, trying to push the anxious, terrified feeling off chest.

Side effect.

She was fine. She could handle this.

She needed to handle this.

She shook the feeling off and left the bathroom, she put on her shoes. She walked out of her bedroom, greeting the two guards outside it and as she turned to go down the hallway, Sirius and Magnolia were also leaving their rooms. She paused quickly when Sirius opened his mouth to speak.

Instead of doing the normal thing which would have been acknowledging their existence or even walking towards the stairs, she instead did a sort of scotting motion towards Beckham's bedroom door and entered the room.

Much to her horror, Beckham was not alone in his bedroom and instead the company of one of the handmaidens was currently sitting on him in the room. A serious of awkward yells came out of the girls mouth as she scrambled off the boy and Aurora closed her eyes.

"You know Aurora there's a door for a reason, you're supposed to knock?" She heard Beckham say in his usual laid back tone, not feeling embarrassed in the least.

An awkward sigh left her lips, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry—"

"NO, NO, I'm sorry, Miss Aleksander, I am so sorry, I was just . .. helping Mr Hampton with something."

"Oh okay I guess something was stuck down his throat. . . ." Aurora mumbled to herself.

The girl hurriedly grabbed her clothes while Aurora kept her eyes closed. She opened them when she heard the door open.

"She's cute." Aurora acknowledged, watching the girls figure as she walked out the door. "Didn't think blondes were your type."

"Well I used to like black haired girls but y'know this one girl ruined that for me." He mentioned, throwing his t-shirt on as he stood up.

"You know Beckham you keep finding new romantic partners every night and you're going to end up with a little Beckham around here." Aurora smirks lightly.

In response he tutted, "Wouldn't be a bad thing. I'm not getting any younger around here. Why did you run in here?"

"I sort of ran into Sirius and Magnolia in the hall."

"I thought you sorted things out with them?" Beckham asked and when she turned to him with a raised brow, he adds. "Alright, well not sorted but I thought you were being . . . civil with them? I saw you and Sirius talking outside last night."

"Yeah and we were talking about the fact that he and James basically plan on dying for me and Harry." She told him and when he made a face, she adds. "Yeah they are basically planning on transferring the curses into them – my curse would go to Sirius and Harry to James."

Beckham became very quickly concerned when Luke wasn't mentioned. "And Luke?"

"They planned on seeing is there any of Luke's relatives left. But it doesn't matter because I'm not letting them go through with that ridiculous plan—"

"I'm not surprised that they are doing it, there's no reality where James or Sirius let you three die." Beckham instantly says. "You really think Sirius was going to stand back and let that happen?"

Maybe part of her was expecting him to do something like this, but she didn't think it would involve him dying. She didn't want that. There was no version where she wanted him dead. "I can't let him die for me. I cant let any of them die."

Beckham nods understandingly. Sometimes Aurora felt like he was the only one who listened to her and understood her reasoning. "I know."

Aurora sits on the end of his bed for a moment, before rising up and wiping her palms against her training outfit. She bids the boy a goodbye before she heads out of the room.

She is halfway down the steps when someone catches her, "Good morning." Theo greets, not hungover in the slightest.

"You look fine for a boy I recall having shown the handmaidens how to take shoots."

A small laugh escapes the boys mouth, "And I recall someone else taking part in those shot takings."

Aurora rolled her eyes, half amused. "How'd you sleep?"

"Like I always do." Theo replied, sounding as though he hadn't had a good nights sleep in months. She choose not to reply because she knew how bad a lack of proper sleep could affect someone. A small few seconds of silence passed over and she glanced back in his direction, he immediately asked, "How did you sleep?"

"Okay." She said in a soft tone.

He looked at her, his eyes twitched slightly but he nodded softly. "Good."

Aurora walked side by side with the boy, him slowing down his pace to match up with hers. She turned to look up at him as they walked, "Did you . . . enjoy the party last night?"

"Is this your attempt at small talk?"

"No. . .just two friends catching up."

He tilted his head, "Hm. So we are friends?"

Aurora paused in her steps without intended to. Despite the fact her and Theo had history She nods, gently almost unnoticeably. "Yeah, we're friends." She saw his expression flatten just a bit. "But friends also don't push other friends boundaries."

Theo stared at her. "I suppose I'll have to work on that."

She smiled, just slightly. "Suppose you will."

In unison they both turned when a loud bang entered the hallway and Hermione burst out from one of the rooms.

Hermione sent a nod towards Theo, somewhat disapprovingly. "Nott."

"Granger."

An irritated sigh left Aurora's lips. "It is an offence to call people by their last names on this island. . . punishable by death."

Hermione squinted her eyes. "You just made that up and I know because I've read all the laws on this island!"

"Of course you did." Aurora threw her hands up. "Well doesn't matter, it's a new law, put forth into motion today."

Phoebe came stumbling out of one of the bedrooms and Ginny popped her head out behind her shoulder. Phoebe towered over the red haired witch. The two of them appeared half awake, wearing silk pajamas and robes. "What is all the yelling about here? I'm sure if I were back at Hogwarts I could hear you all."

"Oh, sorry to wake you Ginny, it's just me trying to prevent the blood status bullshit behavior that I thought we left behind in Hogwarts." Aurora mentions giving a small shoulder shrug as Theo and Hermione started giving out that it was the others fault. "Apparently not."

Theo raised an eyebrow at the unintended pun.

"Shouldn't even be here anyways." Ginny grumbled, sending a glare towards Theo who seemed to be holding back a laugh.

"My point exactly." Hermione said loudly.

"Doesn't matter," says Aurora even louder. "I want him here."

This seemed to cause a slight stir of emotions in Hermione and Ginny, who although did not seem happy, they said nothing.

When she made it down to the training room, there was a few more people than normal occupying the room today. Usually there was Damien, Louis, and occasionally Hestia. However today there was just Damien.

"Hestia said you weren't feeling good," Is the first thing Damien says when she walks up to him. "Are you feeling better now?"

She had felt ill again moments before he asked her that question, but swallowing her sickness, she nods.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I promise, I'm fine."

Damien remained looking at her. "No, I don't think you are."

"It's a woman problem—"

"Okay that's fine," he interrupted. "Let's begin."

By the time diner came around, Aurora had felt like her head was on fire. Pounding and banging, and the hunger she had only grew less and less. She took a long shower, scrubbing her skin as much as she could. By the time she went to have dinner, it had been dark. She walked into the living room (which had a long table at the end where she preferred to eat) and found everyone was done eating. Instead they were all by the fire talking. Ginny and Phoebe lay with Molly engaging in conversation, and Hermione was reading to Fred and George.

Everyone had their place.

She looked at the table and her eyes gravitated towards Magnolia and Sirius, who were still eating. Slowly, she made her way over. Eventually, slipping into the seat a few down from them. She took a bread roll and picked at it, while they both looked at her.

Magnolia looks across the table towards Aurora who was particularly quiet tonight. She was always quiet but this was different or at least she believed it was. She kept her eye on the girl for a moment – watching the way she pushed the pieces of rice across her place before picking up a piece of broccoli and aimlessly chewing on it. But she appeared somewhat sick and put the fork down before sinking into her chair and keeping her eyes closed.

"Something wrong with her?" Magnolia muttered to Sirius who was so occupied in eating that he was confused. She discreetly gestured to the girl.

Sirius looks at Magnolia with furrowed brows before he sneaked a glance across the table, "Well she has always been a bit weird when it comes to food. . . wouldn't eat a thing when in fifth year. . ."

Magnolia looked at him. "Wouldn't eat a thing?"

Sirius shrugged. "She definitely just misses Harry." he replied, looking up at the girl again. He examined her for a moment, just a moment before he furrowed his eyebrows. "You're right, something's wrong."

Magnolia scrunched her nose, "I have a really weird feeling—"

"As always." Sirius mumbled.

"Did you finish your painting yet?" Magnolia gently inquired loudly to the girl.

Aurora looked across to her, shaking her head, "Ran out of paint."

"I'll get you more tomorrow." Sirius offered.

Her eyes snapped towards him, "Have you still got this plan to take the curse for me?"

Magnolia's eyes widened at this meaning she must not have know that she knew. He looked at her for a long moment, "You're not getting hurt again or worse."

Aurora looked at him for a long moment, before frowning deeply causing an instant sigh from him as guilt swarmed.

"Aurora, can we please—" Sirius began.

"Lucas!"

Aurora jumped up from her seat when the familiar sight of Luke passed her in the hallways causing just enough attention to go onto her as she rushed out of the room and down the hallway into his arms.

She shouts happily, "Where have you been?!"

"I'm feeling unwell all day."

"Are you okay?"

Luke looked into her grey eyes for a long moment, before a sigh left his lips. "Probably some sort of flu that's going around the island. I woke up feeling really sick last night. Took me like an hour to go back asleep. There's so many children on the island, they're probably passed on some contagious bug to us all. You feeling okay?"

Unfortunately, Aurora did not have a bug. "You're right, that's most likely it."

"If it makes you feel any better, I am feeling a bit better." Luke mentioned, throwing his thumbs up in a very unironic way and grinning gently. Little did he know just how happy she was to hear that, and she felt like the illness she was feeling faded just a tad. She smiled gently, before leaning over and hugging him. He hugged her back straight away, arms wrapping around her waist as he tightly squeezed her. However, something seemed to be wrong because the second she moved in closer to him. She began to feel violently ill. She pulled back almost instantly and stepped away from Luke. "What's wrong? Hey – Aurora?"

She waved him off, "Sorry, just felt a little dizzy there." She wobbled back and upon seeing the concerned look in his eyes, she adds. "I'm still really hungover. . . .I remember taking one too many shots."

"Nothing unusual there." Luke smiled. "You want me to lie down with you for a bit?"

She would have taken him up on his offer in a second, but when he inched just a little bit further to her, she sickness in her body returned and she knew she needed to get away from him as soon as possible. Her mouth opened to speak but she felt the usually metal feeling she associated with blood. As quickly as possible she goes, "No, no, I plan on taking up the whole bed so I'll see you later. . ."

He nods quickly, "I'll see you later."

Luke watches the girl walk down the hall at a quick pace, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

That night, everyone went asleep and throughout the castle it was silent. Except for in Aurora's chambers where she walked out of the bath, in her silk pajamas and her hair dripping freezing cold water onto the floor.

As she entered her room, she sighed.

Aurora turned and faced her grandmother, who sat there on her bed with the same expression on her face as she always did. The same woman she had been seeing ever since she woke up this morning.

"Why are you here?" Aurora whispered,

"You know why." The grey haired woman replied. Although Aurora knew she had been a hallucination, she felt so very real.

Aurora went to blow the candles out but realized, like the scared child she used to be, she did not want to be in the dark.

She got into bed, sinking low, brought the duvet cover over her head, squeezing her eyes, whilst gripping her bracelet between her fingers as if a security blanket.

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Hello! sorry for this very boring chapter but at least i finally updated

please comment support if you liked it

let me know what you wanna see happen!