Page 24 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

ARCHER

It’s always a pleasure to be greeted by your friends—especially when they act all friendly and unbothered, as though they haven’t just broken into my room while I was with Dorothee at the graveyard all afternoon.

“Oh, darling, you’re home,” Jesse grinned sweetly at me from my bed, lying on his stomach with his feet kicking in the air like a teenage girl. His beloved notebook was laid open in front of him, and a pencil was tucked behind his ear, tangled in his brunette curls.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, irritation sharpening my voice at their blatant invasion of my privacy. It’s not as though I had any great secrets hidden in my room, but I still appreciated my personal space.

My gaze shifted to Nathaniel, who was seated in my armchair, surrounded by a dozen tarot decks spread across the coffee table. A few were even scattered on the floor and in his lap. He didn’t acknowledge my arrival, absorbed in the cards as though I were invisible.

Not bothering to wait for an explanation, I went to my wardrobe, searching for more comfortable clothes to change into after my much-needed shower, which I had been hoping to enjoy in peace. Alone.

“I’ve found information on the Book of Shadows,” Jesse said innocently, as if my life didn’t hang in the balance of locating that damn book.

Nathaniel’s head snapped up, a frown furrowing his brow. “You didn’t tell me that.”

Jesse shrugged. “I wanted to make a dramatic entrance with the news when Archer got back.”

“Stop acting as if this is just another one of our stupid, unimportant study meetings,” I hissed. “Dorothee’s life depends on this—hell, my life depends on this. Frankly, I’ve no intention of dying before I’m legally allowed to drink.”

Silence hung in the room as they stared at me, caught off guard by my outburst.

I rubbed my face with a sigh. “Sorry, Jesse. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just... a lot. Please, tell me what you’ve found.”

Jesse swung his legs over the side of my bed, sitting upright with his leather-bound notebook in his lap. “It’s fine, mate. I should apologise for—”

I waved him off. “No, that’s who you are, and I like who you are. I overreacted. Just tell me what you’ve got.”

He nodded, adjusting his golden glasses before looking down at his notes. Pushing his curls aside, he began reading aloud. “A Book of Shadows is a book containing the beliefs of its owner, such as instructions for magical rituals. It’s associated with Wicca and witches. While there are countless Books of Shadows written by numerous authors, two traditional types exist. The first is a coven book, containing core rituals and practices passed down unchanged over generations. The second is personal and far more common, written by individual witches even to this day. It varies from person to person but generally includes rituals, runes, astrology, crystals, and other knowledge significant to the writer.”

He glanced up with a hesitant expression, as though reluctant to share the rest. “The good news is, we now understand what a Book of Shadows is.”

“And the bad news is there are thousands of them filled with pseudo-witchcraft, and we’re searching for one specific book written by someone we don’t even know the name of,” I finished for him.

He nodded, swallowing hard at the grim truth in my summary.

Turning the page of his notebook, Jesse stood and handed it to me. I set my clean clothes on my desk and took it from him.

“That is rather unfortunate, but I’m betting Mairead senior wasn’t stupid. She’s likely leading us to the right book with the riddles she’s left behind,” he said as I scanned the page of his messy cursive notes.

“I’ve listed everything we know so far.”

– History is meant to repeat itself with Archer and Dorothee. (Unclear which history, as their great uncle and aunt’s deaths were ruled accidental.)

– The Kingstone heir (Archer) is meant to kill the last De Loughrey dynasty (Doe) when Aquila is at its peak. (Best guess: the night of July 7th during the Aquila Ball, held to celebrate the constellation that gave the school its name, and the founding day. Needs further research.)

– Something mysterious happened to James Kingstone and Dorothee De Loughrey the first. (Possibly James killed her, but why? And how did it kill him as well?)

– We need to locate a specific Book of Shadows.

– We need to decipher Mairead’s riddles. (We have two so far.)

– Spirits are attempting to kill Doe. (Unknown reason — possibly to prevent history from repeating.)

“You think James killed Dorothee?” I asked, looking up from the notebook.

Jesse nodded, his enthusiasm unsettling, though we’d grown used to his excitement over puzzles and quests.

“I’m nearly certain. Consider the prophecy we found, you know, the one about the Kingstone heir taking the life of the last De Loughrey dynasty. It might not have been about you but rather about them. It was written on the back of their picture, after all. It also mentioned history repeating itself, so...” He faltered, catching sight of my darkening glare. “I’m not saying you’ll kill her, Archer. But understanding why James might have done it could move us forward.”

I considered his words, the possibility circling in my mind. It wasn’t a new thought, but it never quite made sense. I recalled a letter I’d found as a boy in the attic at my grandfather’s house. It had been hidden in a wooden box with James K. carved on the bottom, addressed to his lover.

“He loved her,” I said aloud. “Why would James kill the girl he loved?”

“If he truly loved her, then your theory’s rubbish, Jesse. Love makes you protect your person,” Nathaniel said. “If anyone even so much as touched a single hair on my girl’s head without her permission, I wouldn’t hesitate to push them off a cliff.”

We both turned to him. Nathaniel didn’t bother to meet our gazes, sorting through his tarot deck with a casual air.

“That was almost attractive, Nate,” Naomi quipped, entering the room. She caught my glare and shut the door behind her. “You forgot to lock it.”

“Don’t call me Nate,” he replied without looking up.

She smirked, tossing her black hair over her shoulder. “Would ‘psycho’ suit you better?”

“Sure.”

Naomi sat on the foot of my bed, leaning back on her elbows. “What are we discussing, other than his psychotic obsession with his girlfriend?”

Nathaniel ignored her, unbothered by the jab.

“I was filling them in on the Book of Shadows and our theory about Archer’s great uncle possibly killing Doe’s great aunt,” Jesse explained, his attention shifting to Naomi.

She nodded towards Nathaniel, eyeing the tarot cards. “Why the sudden interest in Maisie’s hobby?”

“I can read the cards too,” he muttered, shuffling the Alderidge blood deck.

“You hate tarot as much as I hate how you lot treat my bedroom like a common room,” I grumbled, desperate for a quiet evening.

Nathaniel picked up a card, twirling it between his fingers like a magician. Holding it up, he revealed The Star .

“Cradled in the palms of the stars’ blood,” Nathaniel quoted the last part of the riddle. “We’ve got no clue about the jewellery part, but Maisie and I guessed that maybe an answer was hidden in one of the many tarot decks she inherited from her grandmother.”

“And?” I pressed.

“Nothing so far.”

“Stars’ blood could imply a bloodline,” Naomi suggested. “But as far as I know, we don't have any children of stars attending this school, only boring politician children.”

“Summary: we have nothing so far,” Jesse said, letting himself fall into the place beside Naomi.

I watched as Nathaniel finished searching for the star cards and stacked all of the decks carefully back in their boxes. Mai would be furious if one of her beloved decks was missing a card, and I was pretty sure if she had seen how he had thrown them all around, she would have yelled at him.

He cursed when one of the cards fell out of the stack he was creating. The card fell on the floor and landed in front of my boots. I bent down and picked it up.

The Lovers.

“Thank the cards, I almost forgot to ask how your whole idea of staying away from Doe is going when you’re riding out with her?” For a moment I froze, questioning how he could have known, but then I remembered the whole sight thing. Nathaniel just usually didn’t talk about what he saw because, in this shitty life, we didn’t get to be happy. “Shit, Archer, I haven’t seen you that happy in years, and that’s fucking bad, mate.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I brushed it off, grabbing my clothes and walking towards the bathroom. Nathaniel stepped in front of me before I could reach the door. The hard edges of his face softened a bit.

When I first met him, I thought he was a sociopath, incapable of expressing or feeling emotions at all. Over time, I realised that life had simply broken him at a young age.

“You know exactly what I mean, brother. We dragged her into this mess, and we cannot risk any more than we already have. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Who is we?” I hissed. “I was the one who showed her Umbra. I am the one who can’t risk it, and God knows I’m trying.” As the realisation hit, I let out a sigh and straightened up. "When I didn’t know her, it was so easy, but the closer we got, the more I felt this desire to be near her. It’s fucked up. I've never loved anyone in my life. I've never even been close to someone in that way before because I just don’t want it. But now, when I’m supposed to stay away and act like a total arsehole, I start spiralling.”

I swallowed my pride, admitting that. Frankly, I wasn’t the sort to typically spiral. I always had complete control over everything, so that everything turned out exactly as I wanted it to.

I’ve known this girl for one month, and there’s this connection I can’t explain. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt, and I hate it. I hate it because I can’t stop myself from feeling this way when I’m around her.

When I’m around her, I feel whole, as if she were the one thing I’ve been missing my entire life.

No.

Just no.

“I know you feel this way. I’ve seen it. But you can’t dive into those desires. It will be the death of you. Yours and hers .” My heart skipped a beat at the way he mentioned her. “Maisie has seen where this will lead, and it starts with you falling in love.”

I shrugged off Nathaniel’s hand on my arm, not wanting comfort or anything like that right now. This was pointless and stupid. How can me being fated to end her life begin with us falling in love?

“Maybe what Mai saw won’t happen.”

“You don’t understand. Since Samhain, she’s woken up every night hyperventilating because she’s seeing it play out. It’s destroying her, and we’re doing everything to help you, but you’re being a stubborn idiot. She’s never wrong.” Nathaniel mirrored my rage.

He was my best friend, my brother. But lately, we’ve been stubborn bastards, acting as if we fought on opposite fronts. The only sign that he still cared for me was the fact that he was desperately searching for an answer to my future, even though anyone outside of our inner circle would think we hated each other.

“She’s been wrong before. Otherwise, you wouldn’t stand in front of me today.” I pushed past him, tasting the words like venom on my tongue. Regret burned in my chest, but I was just so damn angry.

“I’ll see you at dinner,” I let them know this was their clue to leave me alone before I shut the bathroom door behind me.

What had I done to the universe to deserve such agony in life?

We sat at our usual place in the dining hall. Everyone knew this was ours, and no one dared to take it, even though the tables weren’t reserved for any of the students. Aquila wasn’t necessarily divided into popular and loser groups. There were around three hundred students here, and most of us had it hard enough at home without causing a riot here too.

Surely, our school had its mean ones, and its geeky types. But Aquila had a strict no-bullying tolerance, and if you crossed the line, you’d be sent straight home to mummy and daddy, where things would look much worse than here.

I looked down at my dinner. Roast beef, roast potatoes and peas with carrots. I separated the overcooked baby carrots from the rest of my vegetables and placed them on the side. There was just something about overcooked carrots that disgusted me. They tasted sweet when I expected something else from my vegetables, and they fell apart on my tongue.

A plate was placed across from me, and I looked up to see Dorothee had taken a seat at the table. She usually sat beside Maisie or Jesse, far away from me.

I looked her over. She had changed into an oversized jumper, and her hair was braided to one side now.

“If you don’t like them, we could trade your carrots for my peas. I don’t like those either,” she suggested kindly and had me swearing in my mind. When she had first arrived here, she’d been so quiet you could barely get a word out of her when you asked her something.

But now, she had become so comfortable around us that she’d gained the confidence to speak. And her voice drove me to insanity.

“Yeah, why not,” I answered coolly, taking her plate and pushing my carrots onto hers before I did the same with her peas onto mine, placing the plate back in front of her when I was finished.

My friends were talking quietly among themselves. They knew better than to talk to me right now. I appreciated it, in the same way it made me feel like a complete arsehole.

“It was nice today,” Doe mumbled, swallowing her food before continuing. “Ebony is a really gentle horse. I think next time I won’t be so afraid.”

Bloody hell.

“There won’t be a next time.”

She looked up at me, surprise flickering across her face, but she quickly masked it. “Right. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant, in general, if I ever ride a horse again, I won’t feel as scared as I did before today.”

I cut a piece of roast beef, stabbing it aggressively with my fork so the metal scraped against the plate. Without looking at her, I gave a curt reply, “good for you.”

Feeling her gaze retreat from me, I swallowed hard. She grew quiet for a moment, and I feared that this was how it had to be.

I had to be the mean, unlikeable arsehole. It was necessary for reasons she couldn’t understand. And I didn’t want her to understand. I just wanted to keep her safe. If that meant acting like this, so be it.

I’d rather she saw me as a violent villain than an innocent lover who had willingly sold her soul to death.

“Did I upset you?” she asked, her voice so quiet it made my stomach turn.

Was she truly sad that we were back on this cold, distant path?

I shrugged, acting as if I didn’t care. “No. Why?”

“I just… today, I thought we had, like, a— Forget it, Arsehole.” Hurt tinged her voice.

“Alright,” was all I said. For the rest of dinner, she didn’t say another word to me or anyone else at the table. That was just how she was. If something upset or hurt her, she’d retreat into silence, disappearing into her own thoughts.

A part of me hated myself for leading her back down that path. Another part was satisfied, knowing I had done what I needed to do.

Dorothee was the first to leave the table after she had finished. While I had planned to do the same, I remained seated, staring into space. If I went to bed early, I’d only end up dreaming again.

“You could tell her the truth,” Mai said from across the table, her head resting on Nathaniel’s shoulder.

She had dark circles under her eyes and looked like she hadn’t slept in days. I thought about what Nathaniel had said about the sight torturing her every night.

“Tell her the truth? So she fears every step I take?” I asked, my own weariness audible in my voice. “No. I can’t do that. She’d crumble under the weight of the truth. I gave her the hope of changing her fate— our destiny.” I listened to her when she told me how much she feared death. If I told her about the prophecy, she’d lose whatever hope is still left in her heart. “And if I speak of it as if it might be true, I fear I’ll start believing it myself. I’ll paint myself as the villain, because fate wanted me to be.”

No. I couldn’t tell her the truth. Not yet.

I’d rather take a knife to the heart and keep my distance from the girl I wasn’t allowed to long for.

We’d figure this out.

I am not a killer. Neither was James.