Kibum stared at the woman in the mirror with an open mouth, not quite understanding.

“I think I just saw your lips move but I couldn’t understand the sounds they made.” He forced out.

Taemin tried to stifle a laugh at his blank expression and Kibum threw him a glance, daring him to make any noise at all. Sekyung rolled her eyes.

“I believe you understood me quite well.” She said, sounding like she was talking to a slow-minded five-year-old.

“You… you want to send me back in there… where he…” Kibum couldn’t even speak properly from the absurdity of her suggestion. “Weren’t you the one who just scolded me for not being careful.”

She nodded and waved her hand nonchalantly. “Yes, but in there I can actually keep an eye on you. You’re stronger at this moment anyway.”

Kibum stared at her disbelievingly, opening and closing his mouth a few times but not able to come up with anything to say.

Suddenly there was a slight change in the air and Jonghyun appeared at Kibum's side. He jumped a little in surprise and pulled closer to Taemin, but Jonghyun didn’t even so much as glance at him. Instead he was glaring at Sekyung who smiled like she was asking a favor.

“Was it really necessary to keep getting in my head when I am doing something important?” he growled.

Kibum blinked and looked to Taemin for an explanation while Sekyung and Jonghyun started to bicker. The boy let out a laugh and shook his head.

“We can talk to each other through our minds.” He clarified kindly.

Kibum nodded slowly. “Like telepathy?”

“If that’s what it’s called.” Taemin shrugged and Kibum shook his head.

“Kibum.” Sekyung said loudly to stop Jonghyun from throwing a comeback at her and get on with what she wanted to do.

He started, turning to her automatically. “Yes?”

“Jonghyun and Taemin will accompany you to the study so you don’t have to be physically alone in the room.”

He nodded obediently and glanced at Jonghyun who was now examining him with an unreadable expression. Their eyes locked and suddenly Kibum completely forgot about everything. They were strangely warm, like they were emitting as well as filling his entire chest and heart with warmth. Kibum felt like fanning himself, feeling a little overheated, but decided against it when he realized what he was about to do. It wouldn’t make sense to start waving his hands at his face when it was still winter outside and below zero degrees Celsius.

Sekyung spoke again and he forced himself to look back at her. “I’ll keep watch from the mirror in there as well, so you don’t have to worry.”

“That’s all very well, but how is this supposed to make me feel safer?” Kibum asked. “Lightwood is the one person who put the curse on you to begin with, which means that he should be stronger than either you or Jonghyun and I don’t think I can do much except curl up on the floor, stronger or not, if we encounter him again. Do you even realize how scared I am?”

Sekyung raised her eyebrows at him. “Well, you don’t have to be at the moment. You have Jonghyun with you. Lightwood treasures him too much to hurt him, so if he is together with you he wont be able to do much since Jonghyun will be in the same room and might get some of the blast if he tries something.”

Kibum bit his lip and his heartbeat increased with nervousness. That wasn’t reassuring in the least.

“Am I a personal shield?” Jonghyun grumbled.

Sekyung narrowed her eyes at him. “You’ll have to be if you want Kibum to survive and break the curse.”

Jonghyun pursed his mouth and narrowed his eyes as well. “Fine.”

Then he grabbed Kibum's arm, sending an electric shock through his body and shutting down his brain from normal functioning. Kibum's subconscious told him that he was going to experience something he knew he didn’t like but he couldn’t remember what it was with the pink clouds surrounding his mind.

“Uh, Jonghyun, I wouldn’t-” Taemin started worriedly.

That was all Kibum heard before he had the familiar, yet unfamiliar, feeling of not existing but being whole at the same time and he was standing in front of the bust in the library. He barely managed to set his eyes on the face made out of stone before the room spun and his knees gave out from under him.

“Hey!” Jonghyun said and caught him, putting an arm around his waist and draping Kibum's right arm around his shoulders to steady him. An extremely pleasant feeling rushed through his body.

Oh. My. God.

Taemin appeared nanoseconds later and looked at Jonghyun exasperatedly. “I was about to say that Kibum doesn’t take very well to space-swapping.”

Jonghyun didn’t answer him. Instead he grumbled something unintelligible while Kibum kept his eyes trained on the floor in an attempt to make the spinning stop as well as ignore the sensation of Jonghyun's arm around his waist.

“How do we get in?” Jonghyun asked instead, looking at Taemin over his and Kibum's connected shoulders. Kibum could feel the warmth of his breath on his ear as he spoke and a small shiver went down his spine. He bit his lip trying to regain his senses from both the ‘space-swapping’ and Jonghyun's closeness. “I only saw the room in Sekyung’s mind, not how to enter it.”

Taemin frowned and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Well, he did.

Kibum took a deep breath and wriggled himself free from Jonghyun's hold. The other seemed slightly reluctant to let him go but once he saw that Kibum was steady enough he withdrew his arm and Kibum staggered forward to the bust that was silently and coldly staring at them.

“I think I just touched the nameplate.” He said uncertainly and reached out to it, hesitating for a fraction of a second before he let his fingers brush the name just as he had done before.

Once again a click could be heard and the bookshelf to the right disappeared to leave a hole in the wall. However, this time the room was completely black and a lot more intimidating since the sun had already set. The three of them hovered outside the opening and peered inside to try and discern if it was safe enough to enter or not.

“I would be thankful if you could at least light this place up a little.” Sekyung’s voice floated out to them.

Kibum and Taemin glanced at Jonghyun who rolled his eyes before they slightly narrowed as if they were trying to find something. Then the room brightened as small bubbles of light appeared, floating in mid-air almost like miniatures of the sun. Kibum's jaw dropped and he stared at the tiny suns in wonder. Suddenly Lightwood’s study didn’t seem as hostile and Kibum took a small step inside, followed by the other two. The bubbles of lights were extremely comforting and he approached one examining it before reaching out, glancing at Jonghyun for permission to touch it. Jonghyun examined his face for a second, and then nodded.

It was warm but not so warm that he burned his hand. It was a comforting warmth, like the one under your cover in bed when you wake up on a cold winter morning.

Or the one earlier in Jonghyun's eyes.

“Thank you.” Sekyung said and Kibum looked at her trying to distract his mind from the path it was taking. She was glancing around the place anxiously and her hands were clutched tightly together.

“What are we here for then?” Jonghyun asked, silently making his way around the room and examining the bookshelves with curiosity. “What is this place?”

“Lightwood’s secret study.” Sekyung answered shortly and turned to Kibum. “Let’s do this quickly.”

He nodded and strode over to the desk, still with the little light cradled in his hand for comfort and courage. Taemin didn’t leave his position in the door opening. Jonghyun however was slowly walking along the shelves examining each book with great interest and puling out a few, not seeming to care about the broken pieces of the oil lamp crunching under his feet, the only sound in the room when no one was speaking.

Sekyung watched him cautiously the entire time, as did Kibum. He wasn’t sure why, but he got an unsettled feeling seeing Jonghyun so immersed in Lightwood’s books. It wasn’t that Kibum doubted his intentions; he had seen the pain and exhaustion in Jonghyun caused by Lightwood, but somehow he got the feeling that it was Jonghyun's interest in Lightwood’s works that partly kept him tethered to the mansion and the curse.

Kibum found the book lying where he had left it on the desk open to the same page. He avoided looking at the words written and quickly closed the book to pick it up between his index finger and thumb, holding it at arms length in front of him as if it was covered in dirt and smelled badly.

There was a small cold breeze and Kibum thought he saw a black shadow move out of the corner in his eye. He shivered and Sekyung’s breath picked up. Taemin shrank back a little as well.

“Okay, let’s get out of here.” Kibum announced, his voice cracking slightly with nervousness and fright.

Taemin nodded at him and turned around to get out. Kibum wasn’t slow to follow but stopped in the opening, looking back at Jonghyun who hadn’t seemed to hear him. He opened his mouth to repeat himself but Sekyung beat him to it.

“Jonghyun.” Her voice held a dangerous warning and Jonghyun's head snapped in her direction. They looked at each other for a while before something changed in his eyes and he turned to Kibum with a nod.

“You’re done?”

Kibum bobbed his head for an answer and suddenly Jonghyun was right beside him, grabbing his arm tightly for the second time.

“Wait-” Kibum said in panic, knowing what was to come, but didn’t get much farther in his protest before he was standing in front of Sekyung’s other mirror again.

This time Jonghyun didn’t help keep him up and Kibum collapsed onto the sofa. Jin, who had stayed in the room, left his place on the other side of the furniture and climbed into Kibum's lap as soon as he had straightened himself up.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” He exclaimed angrily and glared up at Jonghyun.

He shrugged. “It’s faster.”

“Does it look like I care?” Kibum snarled with narrowed eyes. Taemin appeared beside him on the sofa and Sekyung took form in the mirror.

Jonghyun sighed. “The normal way takes too much time and I don’t like it.”

“I like the normal way, thank you very much!” Kibum snapped at him, putting the diary on the sofa beside him.

Jonghyun rolled his eyes before turning to Sekyung. Kibum stuck out his tongue at the other’s back and Taemin bit his lip to hide a smile.

“Are we done?” Jonghyun asked sounding slightly irritated.

She looked him up and down once. “No.”

He sighed and threw himself down in the sofa beside Taemin as well, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand. Sekyung let her eyes wander over the three of them.

“Okay, so this is what’s going to happen next.” She started and turned to Kibum. “Kibum, you’ll have to go through the diary to try and find valuable information about what you have to do. Jonghyun, I want you to come up with something that will protect Kibum from Lightwood for as long as possible. We can’t have him dying just yet.”

Kibum bit his lip and quickly gave the other two on the sofa a look. Apparently feeling his discomfort, Jin started purring as he always did when he wanted to calm Kibum down. Jonghyun crossed his arms, scowling at the floor and Taemin shifted uncertainly.

“Am I supposed to do anything?” He asked.

Sekyung studied him thoughtfully for a moment, before she frowned.

“I… want you to go to the others. Do you understand?” She gave him a pointed look and he nodded before he abruptly disappeared.

Kibum stared at the spot where Taemin had been sitting in bewilderment while Sekyung continued to give out orders. Then he looked up at Jonghyun, who was once again studying him with an unreadable expression. After a few seconds of staring at one another Jonghyun turned his gaze to Sekyung and stood up. Kibum cleared his throat awkwardly.

This is getting ridiculous.

“Okay, I am going to try finding something that will keep Lightwood at bay.” Jonghyun said, cutting Sekyung of in her ramble. He took two steps forward before he suddenly stopped and turned back to face Kibum, retracing his tracks and holding out his hands to him.

Kibum stared up at him in puzzled surprise, not knowing what he wanted. He waved his fingers impatiently at him.

“Kibum, would you give me your hands?” He sighed when the other still didn’t get it.

Kibum's heart skipped a beat. It was the first time Jonghyun had ever said his name and it felt amazing. Somehow it made his whole stomach fill up with butterflies and he immediately forgot what Jonghyun had said since his mind was now fully occupied with the sound of his name falling from the lips of the man in front of him.

Jonghyun raised his eyebrows at him when he still didn’t show any sign of response. “Hands.”

Kibum raised his hands almost unconsciously and blushed as Jonghyun grabbed his wrists firmly. Bewildered he looked at the other as he got a concentrated dent between his eyebrows and slowly let his palms travel over Kibum's. Then he looked into Kibum's eyes again before he disappeared without another word.

“What…?” Kibum said perplexed, staring in front of him, where Jonghyun had been standing seconds ago, without really seeing.

Sekyung chuckled and he blinked up at her. “He healed your blisters.”

“Oh… right.” He looked down at his palms, which previously had been covered in blisters after the burning mirror he had touched but now looked as smooth as they had been before. He opened and closed his hands a few times to make sure they were working properly.

“This is going way faster than I thought.” Sekyung mumbled.

“Hm?” Kibum said absentmindedly, looking back at her.

She smiled at him and tilted her head, looking innocent. “Nothing.”

Although giving her a skeptic look he nodded, gathered Jin and the book in his arms and stood up. “I’m going to go read.”

“This late?” She asked, eyeing him worriedly.

Kibum smiled slightly, grateful for her consideration. “The sooner the better, right?”

She made a small pout but nodded. “Just don’t overdo it, you hear? And it would probably be better if you read in the library. If you need to look something up it will be right there.”

“But can’t I just ask you?” Kibum said, confused.

She bit her lip. “I’m going to be a little busy. Besides, Jonghyun is going to need my help so I’m going to focus on him.”

He nodded. “Alright.”

Then he turned towards the door, on his way to do something he knew he wasn’t going to like.

A/N: Okay, so this chapter took A LOT of time. I know. And I'm sorry, but I had other things that I needed to prioritize so yeah, I just had to let this be for a while :( But don't worry! I will finish it, it's just that there are a few things happening in my life that I didn't plan so if I don't upload for a long period of time it either means that I got other things to worry about or that I'm dead somewhere, haha >_< Cuz I would tell you in advance if I was going to stop writing, yeah...

And also I experienced something I've never done before! I got writers block! It kind of bummed me out but I hope I'm back on track now! ^_^

Okay, let's stop this rambling...

As always, I hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading/subscribing/commenting and see you next chapter! <3

Buh-bye~! :D