Page 1 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)
PROLOGUE
ONE MONTH BEFORE…
Time, they say, is relative. In our universe, shaped by the theory of relativity, it’s a fluid concept–proven by the infamous twin paradox. A strange, almost impossible notion. And yet, I find it undeniable facing my mirror twin.
The unsettling part? I do not have a twin. And if I did, she wouldn’t oddly appear only when no one else was watching.
“You don’t speak,” I murmured, my fingers brushing the scar on my jaw, the skin beneath them tingling with sensitivity. The wound she must have had on her own had left behind a similar pink scar, or was it the same instead of similar?
Blinking, I touched the tip of my nose, expecting her to mirror my movement. She didn’t.
“You’re me,” I whispered, “but if that were true, you wouldn’t be a mirror image. I’d see you as everyone else sees me.”
But she didn’t respond. She only stood there, looking dazed at me– through me. The wind slipped through the open window, sending the curtains into a slow dance, and the light from the full moon cast her face in an otherworldly glow. Her blue hollow eyes gazed out at the world beyond.
Maybe she couldn’t hear me. Maybe she couldn’t even see me.
Was this a glimpse of my future? If so, she wouldn’t know I existed. Not yet. She was lost in a world that hadn’t reached me yet. Perhaps this was what I had wished for so many nights ago, when I pleaded to the stars to show me something, anything about the future I was fated for.
But as I watched her, this version of myself, shrouded in the same sorrow I’d carried for so long, doubt crept inside my heart.
Did I really want to walk on the same path she had taken?
Her expression was so familiar and yet darker, burdened by something heavier than the weight I had carried. Was this all I’m destined for? To be trapped in an endless circle of grief?
I reached out, my hand trembling as I tried to touch her– me. But the moment my fingers grazed her skin, she dissolved, her frame unraveling into wisps of mist. Suddenly, pain thundered like lightning through my veins. I gasped, jerking back as her head snapped towards me, and for the first time, I knew… she wasn’t looking through me. She was looking right at me. Seeing me.
Her eyes widened in fear. Fear of me, or fear for me. I couldn’t tell.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice barely audible, my heart racing in my chest.
But she was already fading, the mist swirling around her, dragging her away. Her mouth formed a single word as she disappeared. Liar.