I made a rash decision to trust the strange boy from the curse. I felt a certain obligation to help, something that I knew August wouldn't understand. So I made another hasty decision then not to tell him about this. I would help the strange boy with his problem, and then I would return home before anyone could even miss me. Sounded like a good plan to me.

After I agreed to help, we dropped Magnus back off at the convention where we knew he'd be safe for now, and then the boy led me back into the alleyways, heading in the opposite direction of the pub.

The night was eerily still as we trudged along in silence. In a desperate attempt the kill the awkward silence, I tried to make conversation, but the boy wasn't having it.

"I've chosen to help you and I don't even know your name." I prompted with a slight nudge of my shoulder.

I waited for a reply but none came.

"Oh come on, at least tell me your name. Then I won't have to keep calling you 'the boy from the curse', or I'll start making up my own names for you."

The boy didn't respond, but he did turn and raise an eyebrow at me.

I shrugged. "I need to be able to call you something. How about Herman?"

He wrinkled his nose and shook his head. Now I was convinced his silence was simply to annoy me.

"Alright-y then, what about Freddy? I like that name. I had a goldfish named Freddy once. He died three days after I got him."

His look of 'are you kidding me?' eliminated that option.

"Ugh! You are so picky! If you're gonna be that particular about it, why don't you just tell me your real name?"

Nothing.

"You really are gonna refuse to talk to me then." I sighed. "Well fine, whatever. See if I care. But I still need to come up with some sort of a name. Calling you 'the boy from the curse' all the time just takes way too much time."

His smirk had returned. "If I told you my name, I would have to kill you."

"Oh I'm sure."

He scoffed. "If you knew my name, you might not be so willing to help."

"Yeah? And why is that?"

He didn't respond, but his comment made me stop and think. Was this really the best idea? I mean, the guy wouldn't even tell me his name. How was I supposed to trust that? He didn't seem threatening, but then again, neither did many of the other characters I'd met in the curse before they'd tried to kill me. I slowed and fell into pace behind the boy, keeping a weary eye on him. Suddenly, I didn't trust him as much.

After a moment, he rolled his eyes, groaned and turned to face me, walking backwards in front of me. "Look, you don't have to be scared of me. I'm not going to hurt you."

"How should I know? I know absolutely nothing about you. If the curse taught me anything, it was to be careful around people like you."

His eyes flashed with something...something familiar, but I couldn't place it. "It's best if you don't know exactly who I am, for your own good. Friends call me Chord. Though please, feel free to use any name you wish."

"Her-"

"Except for that. Anything, but that."

I scoffed. "Fine then. Chord it is I suppose."

He smiled gratefully.

"I still think you look like a Herman."

Herman (sorry Chord) and I wove our way through the back streets. He said it would be best to avoid any contact with another person. When I asked him why, he just replied with, "Most people don't even know they're doing her bidding. She manipulates people's minds."

He eyed each building that we past with suspicion, like he assumed there was an agent behind every door, ready to attack. I let the subject drop after that. It didn't appear that I would be getting anymore answers out of him, especially not out in the streets.

"Where exactly are we going?"

"To look for a book." Chord said.

I laughed. "A book? Seriously, that's it? I thought it would be at least a little more exciting than that."

"Oh believe me, it will be plenty exciting once we find it." He suddenly looked overly determined and his pace quickened. "We are going to find the book no matter what. Even if we have to turn that place inside out and completely destroy it, we will find it."

It was about an hour later before I started recognizing our surroundings. We were nearing the place Isis once called home. My nerves shot up and my palms started sweating as I noticed we were marching straight for her house. Now, I know the place was abandoned. No one lived there anymore. There was no danger left. I just couldn't suppress the fear that was slowly creeping its way out into the open.

Once we reached the front of the house, Chord didn't hesitate and immediately walked right in. I stayed outside on the curb, watching the house anxiously. What was wrong with me? I had endured the curse and everything it had thrown at me without completely losing my mind, and now I couldn't even enter a stupid house? Shut up. Don't even think about saying anything. I dare you to go through all of that and not come out of it a little jumpy.

"Are you coming?" Chord's head popped out of the open doorway, searching for me.

"I'm not so sure this is such a good idea." I managed to choke out.

Chord rolled his eyes and disappeared back into the house. His voice carried out into the street. "Stop being such a wuss and get your butt in here."

I debated turning around and running back to the safety of my own apartment, but my pride wouldn't let me. These people were counting on me and I wouldn't let them see me as a coward. So I steeled my nerves, shuffled up to the front porch, held my breath, closed my eyes and forced myself across the threshold.

"You can open your eyes now." His voice appeared beside me, sounding most unamused.

"Thanks but no thanks. I think I'll just keep them closed for now. The darkness is so comforting."

"Wow, emo much?"

"Shut up." When I finally opened my eyes, Chord had a satisfied smirk on his face, like he'd been trying to get under my skin all along.

"Come on, the book is in here."

He led me through the kitchen and down the hall to the last door on the left. At one point, the room might have been a study. There was a single desk, a couple filing cabinets and mountains upon mountains of books. Now, the room just looked like a mess. Books were strewn everywhere, the desk had been overturned and the chair was broken. It looked like an eight foot giant had stomped through searching for something. Whether they found it or not was beyond me. You couldn't tell anything in this mess.

Chord groaned when he saw the state of the room.

"It looks like someone's already taken the liberty of tearing the room apart. Think they found whatever it was they were looking for?"

"I can only hope they didn't."

"Well that's a bit rude, don't you think? I mean, you were planning to do the exact same thing to the room."

He shook his head. "They were looking for the same thing we are."

"Mhmm," I rolled my eyes, "and how do you figure that one?"

He turned to me with a solemn stare. "Because we're looking for Isis' book of curses."

All I could manage to do was stare at him in shock.

"Let's just hope for our sake that whoever made this mess, didn't find it."

Sorry this chapter is a bit short, and it's taken me forever to get it up. Hopefully y'all enjoy it though. Writing the first part was incredible and I wanted to continue Taryn's story so here we are lol I only hope that you enjoy it as much as I do :)