Page 30 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
DOROTHEE
“Professor Kane is one of us?!” Jesse screeched in shock after Archer just walked in here and dropped the bomb like it was nothing.
The same way, he just said so casually that the goddess Hecate was apparently the creator of our abilities until our anchors angered her, and she turned our gift into our very own curse.
“We don’t know for certain. It jumps generations,” I stated, looking at the still-closed diary in my lap. I was so keen to open it, but after Archer had run late and stormed in here like a madman, I tried to hold my curiosity back and listen to what had been so important to be almost twenty minutes late.
“However, a Kane with his abilities fully awake has to walk on earth at this very moment, and it’s damn suspicious that Professor Kane despises me that much,” Archer said, pacing up and down beside the long wooden table.
He was wearing sweatpants and a black shirt, and even though I only ever saw him in smart clothes, those suited him just as well.
Naomi remarked, “to his defence, plenty of teachers despise you.” And though I wanted to tell her to shut up—wherever that might have come from—she was right.
Archer was very rude in most classes we had together. The teacher asked him a question and he simply ignored it. He submitted his assignments at the last minute, and he allowed himself to do whatever he pleased during class. But he usually scored between ninety and one hundred percent on his tests.
He shrugged, visibly not caring the tiniest bit about what Naomi said being the truth. “I was forced to attend this school, you expect me to be overly enthusiastic in classes I didn’t want to attend in the first place? Besides, you’re not any better.” He continued to pace, and I followed his steps with my eyes, growing dizzy by how fast he was going.
“Sit down, you restless mutt,” Jesse said, almost amused as he rested his legs on the table with his notebook in his lap.
Archer stopped, and his eyes darkened a little when his gaze focused on Jesse.
I wasn’t in the mood to waste my time having to hear them argue, so I broke the tension. “Maisie and Jesse are in on the Hecate research, the rest of us keep a close eye on Professor Kane. More we can’t do right now if there wasn’t a diary with essential information we need to decipher…” I grabbed the diary that lay on my lap and let it fall on the table with a bang before I adjusted my position. “Oh look, there it is! Now sit down and hand me something sharp.”
Archer looked coolly at me for a second before his mouth peeled back into the hint of a grin. “So bossy today,” he whispered in my ear when he leaned down to place a pocket knife on the diary.
His hot breath on my skin caused blood to shoot into my cheeks, assuring me that I greatly enjoyed that feeling.
The younger version of me would have been embarrassed, but what is embarrassment when you stop caring about what other people think about you? Simple, it’s non-existent, and frankly, I enjoyed that state of uncaringness my mind was presently in.
Archer placed himself in the chair beside mine. “Go on then,” he encouraged, his full attention on me now.
I turned away from him and picked up the pocket knife that had the initials C.M. engraved into one side, and I guessed it was old from the looks of it. Someone must have hidden it in here, since we hadn’t been allowed to carry any form of weapons in school. My bags had been searched the day I came here, which resolved the loss of my curling iron. I’ll get a new one during winter break.
Maisie had been allowed to own matches since she needed to light her candles for her ‘religious ritual’ . She was witty, I had to admit.
The diary was still empty when I opened it. Something inside me had hoped otherwise, but apparently I was out of luck today.
I opened it to the first page without content and clipped the knife open before I brought it to my fingers, looking at the blade a little too long which caused hesitation in me.
Get it together, Dorothee, this pain is nothing in comparison to what awaits you if you hesitate.
I sliced the tips of my ring, middle, and index fingers open in one go to assure the diary was fed enough blood to reveal its secrets to us. Blood started to pour out of the cuts and I held it over the page, squeezing my finger until crimson covered the page.
The drops of blood travelled over the papers until they started to form letters. I stared at the diary in awe at what was happening.
“Someone damn pinch me, that’s witchcraft,” Jesse laughed from across the table. “Ouch—I didn’t mean literally, Nao!” he shrieked a second later.
My eyes were glued to the words that were slowly forming in red ink and only in the back of my mind did I feel that someone took my hand and wrapped something around my stinging fingers.
“If you read this, I’ve done everything I will ever do in my life. My soul has long left this version of me and my body has started to dissolve by nature’s hand. This story started with hope and ended in ruin. Tomorrow, I’m nothing more than a lore that once was. Read my story carefully to understand the gravity of what happened,” I read the words on the first page out loud. “My name is Dorothee ‘Dottie’ Odette De Loughrey, and this isn’t the story of how my life ended. This is the story of a star that outshone the moon, revealing that only the sun’s light is the reason why he shines when his heart is born out of nothing more than darkness.” I leaned back in my chair and looked at my hand that was wrapped in a bandage. Archer was holding me by my wrist, and to my surprise, he wasn’t looking at the diary, he was looking at me.
“Don’t fall for the ways of the moon. That was what Dottie had told me in my dream,” I told my friends, pulling my hand out of his grip and holding it to my chest.
I didn’t want to feel his touch.
“We know that you’re the star. Maybe Kane symbolises the moon,” Maisie broke the silence. Her eyes twitched from side to side as if she were deep in thought. But as Nathaniel leaned her gently against his shoulder, I guessed that she wasn’t in thought, but having a vision.
This was the first time I saw her like this. Her face was losing all its colour to the point where she looked sick, her natural rosy cheeks gone. Her onyx eyes turned watery but not in the sad way, it looked like fog was placing itself subtly over her iris.
Nathaniel took her hand in his free one, and she squeezed tightly while she blinked free of whatever took hold of her during these episodes. All eyes were on Maisie as we waited for her to tell us what she saw.
“Kane will be there that night. I saw a glimpse of him in a grey suit. His hands were covered in blood, and he held a shovel, digging a hole.”
“What night?” I asked. Her dark eyes met mine, and she pulled the cuffs of her clean jumper down before she answered in a small voice, “The night of the ball. The Ball of Aquila.”
“Isn’t that the day before the school year ends?”
Maisie nodded. “Most parents come to join the ball, and each class gets one hour more to their timetable once a week, two months before, to memorise the traditional dances for the night. The most important day of the year.”
When I had done my research about the school, I came across an article that described the importance of the Ball of Aquila. The ball represents the structure of the school and how spiralling children learn to adapt to society. Some even said, rumour has it that the ghosts of the founders of the school return to haunt the halls of Aquila if the festival activities get slandered. At this point, I didn’t even doubt that.
“That’s July the seventh, right? That’s almost eight months from today.” Eight months was more than enough to change fate.
“You said that James told you that everything began with the stars,” Naomi, who sat up straight in her chair, said in Archer’s direction. He nodded, and she scratched her nose, her expression hinting that she was buried in her own thoughts.
“On the seventh day of the seventh month, we celebrate Tanabata in Japan. It’s a celebration of the reunion of the two star-crossed lovers, Orihime and Hikoboshi, who are represented by the stars Altair and Vega. A tragic tale, but the star festival is a day to celebrate their love and our own. It could be a coincidence that these two fall on the same day, but… I can’t shake the feeling off that in some way the stories could be connected. When I first came here, I believed the ball was a form to show our happiness for Orihime and Hikoboshi, since Altair is also the brightest star in the Aquila constellation.”
Naomi took her gloves by the loose material on her fingers and smoothly pulled them off her hands, placing them in front of her on the table, since she didn’t need to wear them in here.
“What are star-crossed lovers?” I questioned, feeling captivated by the summary of the story. I’ve never heard of Tanabata, or any story that evolved around the stars in the form of lovers.
Naomi’s eyes lit up, and I guessed that she loved this story, or at least found so much interest in the two lovers’ lore that she’d love to tell me the details. Seeing people getting excited over telling someone about something they enjoy or are passionate about was always something I adored.
“Star-crossed lovers are doomed lovers. Plenty of people who believe in astrology also believe that the stars control the humans’ destiny—which now doesn’t seem so far off. Anyway, those lovers won’t be able to be together for some reason, like rivalry, such as Romeo and Juliet, or because they angered the stars themselves, which caused them to work against their relationship,” she explained thoughtfully, meeting Archer’s gaze for half a second. “In this case, Orihime was a celestial princess, daughter of the God of heavens and weaver of beautiful clothes from the heavenly rivers. She grew lonely and sad over the years of weaving, believing love could never find her, so her father introduced her to a cow herder, Hikoboshi. The two fell instantly in love and were so profound that they started neglecting their duties. Orihime stopped weaving and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to wander through the heavens. Her father, the God of heavens, became so angry that he forbade them from being together. Separating them across the starry river, also known as the Milky Way. But Orihime loved Hikoboshi so dearly that she pleaded with her father to let them be together. Despite his wrath, he loved his daughter, so he allowed them to be together once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.”
I listened carefully, taking in every little detail Naomi revealed about their story, and a wave of sadness hit me when she returned to my original question.
“Star-crossed lovers often occur when you feel a deep connection to someone that is unexplainable, but there is this force that’s pushing you apart, making it utterly impossible for the love to be lifelong or even a thing at all.”
“I wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” I breathed, while this ache in my chest didn’t leave me. “From what we know about the stars so far, I’d say they have a cruel image of love in more than one way.”
Archer cleared his throat. “Let’s get back to why we are here, it’s getting late. We can spend the weekend searching the archives of the library regarding Aquila and its history.”
I frowned at the way he changed the subject so suddenly but didn’t bother to talk back. It was getting late, and I was getting tired, he was right.
Forcing myself to dedicate my full concentration on the book in front of me, I flipped the page and began reading.
January 13th, 1970
Dear Diary,
I think that my dear friend James is trying to win my heart for himself.
Who would have thought that noble James Kingstone was capable of loving anything but the image that’s looking back at him in the mirror? Certainly, I did not.
We’ve been friends for forever now. I still remember the tall, clumsy boy who asked me if I wanted to trade my chocolate pudding for his vanilla one. Back then, we were thirteen. Now I’m almost eighteen and still trade my chocolate for his vanilla. We could just ask for the flavour we liked, but this had become our thing. Last Thursday, when we met at the hideaway, he handed me a fancy package filled with vanilla-flavoured sweets and a message that read that he likes it when I wear my hair in its natural structure, with the tiny curls not hidden away.
Mairead swears that James is fancying me from the way his eyes always searched mine as soon as I entered the room.
On a side note, Callahan found a book titled Book of Shadows in the library at the hideaway. Henry swears it hadn’t been there before and that he went through all the books a million times by now, but we know how observant our dear Henry is. It surely just flew over his head.
The book looks fascinating. Bound in brown leather, gold art decorates the cover with stars and the moon cycles. There are symbols engraved on the edges and spine. I’m dying to know what’s written inside, but sadly, only the first page is visible.
Usually, I wouldn’t care about an empty book, but our surnames are written on the title page.
‘De Loughrey, Kingstone, Alderidge, McConnell, Minoru, Berkshire and Kane. Blessed by Hecate under the watch of Stars.’
That sounds so exciting. I want to know what this means. We’ve come so far in finding each other, Umbra and the story of Aquila Hall. Now, we’re about to find the last pieces to finish the puzzle, I can feel it.
Until next time,
Dottie xx
“Henry must have been the boy in the photos, and someone hated him so much they burned his face out,” Maisie said, resting her head tiredly on Nathaniel’s shoulder.
“He was a Kane, and from what Dottie thought about him, I’m betting fifty quid that he had something to do with that night of the— allegedly —accident.” Archer kicked him against the shin, causing Jesse to yelp. “Stop betting on everything.”
February 19th, 1970
Dear Diary,
We figured out how to open the Book of Shadows.
It requires all of us, or rather our blood, likely DNA. It was Henry who spent his nights reading about how to unlock century-old witchy secrets (how he called it).
We tried to help him in his research, but he pushed us away as usual. I guess we won’t ever grow on him in the family kind of way. It’s sad because that’s what we are, and him not wanting to be a part of our family feels wrong. But that’s not a topic for me to discuss.
The book is completely written in Latin, so it will take a while to translate most of it, but we’ve found that the first few pages were divided into five parts.
Ignis, Aer, Aqua, Terra, and Spiritus.
The five elements are represented in a pentagram, like the one that is engraved on the door of the Hideout.
Mayumi and Anthony will spend the night translating, and we’ll switch each night to translate as fast as possible.
I can’t put into words how exciting all of this is. To be able to learn about our heritage, that’s not money and fame.
Ps: I felt the touch of his lips on mine today.
Until next time,
Dottie xx
My eyes were about to fall shut as Maisie finished reading the thirty-first entry. And from the sound of it, she was about to pass out as well. We had half past two at night and spent the past hours passing the diary from one to the next to read the entries aloud.
So far, this last entry was the first to tell us anything connected to the Book of Shadows at all. Dottie wasn’t writing regularly, only when something important for her happened that day, and a lot of things seemed important to her. Especially if anything with a certain someone called James happened. And after everything I just read and heard, there was no doubt that their souls had been forged to be the missing piece for one another. While Nathaniel had muttered that this was getting ridiculous after the thirteenth entry, where my great aunt had only talked about how James wounded his hands picking roses for her in the school garden because she had mentioned a week before that she adored the white flowers that started to bloom outside the dining hall window, I found their love story adorable.
It might have taken them ages to see past the fact that the feelings they had for each other weren’t how friends felt, but deep love, but their connection sounded so unique and captivating that I felt almost frustrated to hear that she cut their first kiss short like that.
“Your turn, Doe,” Maisie yawned and passed the diary over to me. Jesse groaned as he lifted his head off the table and rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses. “I know it’s just getting more important and all, but if you read one more page then I might as well throw my chair at your head, Doe,” he grumbled tiredly, pointing his index finger at me.
“One more, it’s getting somewhere.”
In reply, Jesse’s forehead kissed the table with a thud.
“Maybe this one’s short.”
“Just read it, so I can get my beauty sleep,” he whined, muffled through the fabric of his jumper that he had used as a pillow.
I flipped the page and there was no entry, but some words in Latin. I exhaled, exhausted, and pushed the diary in front of the boy next to me, who sat lazily in his chair. “You’re better than I am in Latin, and I’m too tired for this stuff,” I gave him a flat explanation.
Archer leaned forward and picked the book up to rest it on his lap. He was the only one who hadn’t rubbed his eyes in an effort to stay awake. The only one who resisted yawning in chorus. It was odd to look so alive at almost three in the morning. And criminal to look so stupidly stunning too.
“It says that the next chapter is hidden until the end of the descent into darkness and the beginning of the return of the light. Meaning we have to wait till Yule, which is on the twenty-first of December and weeks away,” he answered with disappointment echoing in his voice before he closed the book in frustration. “I guess Dottie didn’t know we have a strict schedule here.”
“She must have had her reasons.” If I wasn’t fighting sleep that crawled at my mind like hellhounds, I’d be actually shocked that Nathaniel opened his mouth, except for the forced reading tonight.
“Well… this is utterly disappointing. Good night.” Naomi stood up and pulled her gloves back on before she grabbed Jesse’s arm and dragged him out of his chair. He groaned, “I won’t make it to my room. I’ll just camp here tonight.”
“Stop being dramatic and get up.”
“Dramatic? I’m never dramatic, I’m simply a realist. If I get up now, I’ll fall face first on the floor and stay there till the sun rises.”
All Naomi did was roll her eyes, not bothering to argue with him any more than she already had. She looked at Maisie and me. “Are you two coming, or do I have to make my way back to the girls’ dorm alone?”
Maisie pressed a kiss to Nathaniel’s cheek and stood up. “I’m coming with you.”
“Me too.” I got up and reached for the diary, but Archer took hold of it before I could, snatching it away. “Leaving it in here is the safest option.”
I stared at him, thinking about saying that my trust was still spiralling when it came to him, but as another yawn took hold of me, I just let it be.
“Night,” I said and took the jacket that I had hung over my chair before following Maisie and Naomi. We should have at least three hours of sleep before we have to get up again. Three hours until I started realising how angry it made me that we weren’t able to read the entire diary in one go, but for now, all I wanted was some rest.