Page 38 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

DOROTHEE

“Have I told you about how Nathaniel’s aunt made sure I had enough to eat, although their traditional Christmas Day foods are rather meat-based, and I’m vegetarian?”

“No, tell me,” I encouraged her to tell me more, despite the fact that she had actually told me that and all the other stories about how her Christmas with Nathaniel’s family went. But I didn’t mind. I loved her chatty nature, and I knew how happy it made her that I listened.

Maisie grinned and hugged her books tighter to her chest as a breeze of wind brushed through our hair. It was the first week back after the holidays, and we were still avoiding the big question of what we would do next now that we had no more diary entries because we didn’t know how to make them readable. No new riddles that could lead us to the Book of Shadows… It felt like we were at zero again, and the only things we could do were over-analysing and keeping an eye on Kane, which Archer was very serious about.

“She made dishes out of a mushroom that kind of had a similar consistency as meat for me to eat. It was delicious, Doe,” she groaned at tasting the memory on her tongue, and I laughed.

“I’m glad you had a great time.”

“I really did, even though his grandmother didn’t really like me,” she said, and I frowned.

“How come she didn’t?”

Maisie shrugged. “She wasn’t as welcoming as his aunts, and I know Nathaniel believes I can’t speak Italian, but I actually learned it to surprise him. However, I kept it a secret after his grandmother called me an annoying brat in Italian right in front of us. He got angry, and I played stupid and asked him what she said, but he avoided answering, telling me it was simply an insult towards his haircut.”

I lay my hand on her arm as she narrowed her gaze and looked at the snow angels the younger ones had made earlier today, disappearing as more flakes continued to cover them. “I’m sorry, Maisie. It’s a shame she didn’t give you a chance to show her what a wonderful girl you are.”

Maisie looked back up at me with a sweet smile, a soft blush covering her cheeks and nose from the cold. She hooked her arm around mine and lay her head on my shoulder as we continued to make our way towards the girls’ dorms. Since snow started falling, we preferred to walk the long way around the campus to get some air instead of taking the short route through the warm corridors inside. Naomi hated the cold weather, so she declined coming with us and went down with Jesse and Archer to the hideaway to spend some time in an area free of any darkness.

“Thank you, Doe. But it’s alright. I know that there are people who don’t like the way I am, and that’s fine as long as I have my friends and family who aren’t bothered by the way I act. But I’ve seen so much darkness and terror in my life that being afraid or pessimistic for the rest of it seems pathetic because there’s nothing worse than these nightmares. So I decided to cherish the bright side of life and shed light on the demons that haunt me instead of allowing them to eat me up from the inside out.”

I rested my head on hers and hugged her with my free arm. “You’re the sweetest soul, I hope you know that, Maisie.” And I hoped she knew how much our friendship meant to me. I always used to watch these cheesy romcom movies with my first nanny, Leslie. And I always hoped to have an honest girl friendship when I’m as old as the girls in those movies. And now I could proudly say that the tiny blonde seer beside me came very close to the term sister .

She giggled softly, “I have to tell you a secret.”

“I thought there were no more secrets between us…?” I asked slowly, a little struck by that. After Archer and I had told the others that I knew, I promised I wasn’t angry at them because they let Archer handle the situation, and he was afraid to tell me. But in the same breath, they promised that there wasn’t more I didn’t know.

Maisie unhooked our arms and swung around to face me, narrowing her eyes in sadness. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you, Doe. A good friend wouldn’t have kept a secret of such importance. It was your right to know–” I interrupted her by taking her hand in mine, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“I told you I’m not angry.”

“But how could you not be? I’m not a resentful person, and I’d still be furious at anyone who would keep quiet about such a thing.”

I exhaled slowly before I spoke again, “Maisie, which future do you see for me? How many paths are there–”

“It’s not that easy. I don’t see paths , I see only one. It’s like our future has been manifested centuries before our souls even wandered on this place. Fate is destiny. Everything I see will happen eventually, and whatever I do I can’t change–I–I can’t–” her breathing turned rapidly, and she started shaking, her eyes clouding. A sign that the sight took hold of her, and I hooked my arm around her waist, steadying her as she leaned fully into me.

“I’m right here, Mai,” I reassured her with the nickname Archer had given her, knowing it gave her some familiar comfort.

Snow had stopped falling, but dark clouds were still covering the afternoon sky. Cold air gushed through my open hair, and Maisie shivered in my arms. I was almost sure that most students were either in their dorms or in the common room, so I gently dragged my friend inside with me, where the air was thicker and warmth hugged my cheeks in an instant.

Not a single soul wandered through the corridors. I sat down with Maisie on the old bench where some students had carved their initials in the wood decades ago.

I took her beanie off and stroked her white-blonde hair. “You’re fine, Mai. I’m not leaving you,” I whispered against her hair, pressing a soft kiss to it.

This wasn’t the first time I was with her during one of her visions. The last time was right before Christmas break. I had found her cowered on the floor in our room after archery. She didn’t want to talk to me afterwards and just asked me to call Nathaniel, who stayed with her the night while I slept over at Jesse’s room.

She whimpered softly and blinked the vision away.

“Are you okay?” I asked, even though the answer was more than obvious.

“No.”

“Should I get Nathaniel?”

Maisie shook her head slightly, and a tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly brushed it away, not giving it any form of acknowledgment. “Please don’t. That’s not what he’s made for. I’m the one who’s supposed to be there for him, not the other way around. I want to be his anchor, I’m supposed to be… I’m grand. Really.”

I shook my head at her, shifting so that I was kneeling on the ground before her. “Nathaniel loves you, Maisie. I have never witnessed love like yours before, and frankly, all you have is what anyone could ever wish for. You’re his anchor and he’s yours. Caring is the epitome of love, and you two care. I couldn’t imagine either of you existing in a world without the other.”

Maisie cringed her face as if she were in some kind of pain.

“I–I– can’t speak about it, I just don’t want him to know about this, okay?” Not sure what she was afraid of, I nodded. If she didn’t want him to know about her vision today, then I wasn’t telling him anything.

Maisie brushed her hands over her skirt, picking up the papers I had peeled out of her hands and laid on the bench beside her. She stood up and swallowed tiredly. “I’m sorry, sometimes talking about the sight triggers me to see .”

I straightened and brushed my hand over her arm. “No need to be sorry, Maisie.”

The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives started playing quietly, and Maisie reached for her cell phone in her cardigan pocket.

“Hello,” she answered, and the exhaustion in her voice worried me. “I’m fine, Mum, just a little stressed with school. What’s going on?... really?” Her face lit up at whatever her mother had just told her. “Yes, of course, I’ll be careful. Thank you, Mum.” She smiled softly and hurried to say, “I love you.” But by the way, she lowered the phone, I guessed that her mother had already ended the call.

“I’m allowed to visit my grandmother,” she announced, her happiness returning to her face, but it didn’t take away her tired eyes.

“She’s in a nursing home, and my mother wouldn’t let me visit her because she’s always getting confused when she sees me. She has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t remember me, most of the time, she thinks I’m my mother,” she explained in her usual fast voice, and this time I actually had trouble understanding the words. My guess was that she was overwhelmed by everything. That was also why she fidgeted the phone in her hands without a care it could fall down.

I opened my mouth to tell her how sorry I am that she has to go through this because I couldn’t imagine my Nan forgetting my existence, and I could only imagine how much that must hurt, but Maisie continued, “It’s sad, I know. But I have this theory that she might remember what happened on the seventh of July all those years ago when she sees you…”

“Because I look exactly like Dottie,” I finished, and she nodded eagerly.

“Before she got sick, she taught me everything about the sight, so she knows. She just needs something to remind her. And that is you.”

This could actually work.

Her grandmother was the one writing the riddles. She saw mine and Archer’s future.

Her memories could be the key to everything we’ve been missing.

The nursing home where Maisie’s grandmother lived was located three hours away from Owley by tube.

It was Friday, and we’d gotten permission from Maisie’s mother to leave campus to visit her grandmother.

“What was the secret you tried to tell me yesterday?” I asked as we crossed the street towards the nursing home. The main reason why I was asking now was because I saw the nervousness eating at my friend the closer we got to the home. The last time she had been allowed to visit her grandma was when she was fifteen.

That was almost three years ago.

Maisie played with one of the three golden necklaces she was wearing. “I knew you would be dear to me way before we even met, I just didn’t know who you were. The only thing Nathaniel saw was a bond bounding me to a girl with fiery hair. And when I first met you, I just knew. I believe in another lifetime we might have been sisters. Of course, you don’t have to believe in this–which is why I didn’t tell you sooner, I thought I’d scare you off–I do that a lot–and then it seemed inappropriate because we were trying to beat fate… but I want you to know that you mean a lot to me, Doe.”

I hugged her from the side. “You mean a whole lot to me too, Maisie.”

Trust wasn’t something I had easily, so we had our ups and downs at the beginning. But now, I couldn’t imagine a life without her as my friend.

She squeezed my hand and gave me a tight smile as we stopped in front of the big building where her grandmother was cared for.

“Are you okay?” I asked, brushing my thumb over hers to let her know I was here with her.

“I am. I’ve missed my grandmother. I’m just a little scared about the things we will find out,” she confessed, exhaling a little at unease.

“Me too, but whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“Of course we will, we’re blessed by a goddess. I mean, who can say that...” She jokingly attempted to ease the tension, and I chuckled while pushing the door open.

The nursing home was lovely, with flowers drawn by hand on the walls and big windows giving a marvellous view of the gardens outside the building.

“How can I help you two?” A woman behind us asked kindly, and we turned around, our hands still interlinked. From the tightness she squeezed my hand, I assumed that Maisie wasn’t letting go of me any time soon.

A young woman dressed in white scrubs and a warm smile looked at us, waiting for an answer. I looked at her name on her name tag: Rina Golding .

“We’re here to visit Mairead Alderidge. I’m Maisie, her granddaughter,” Maisie explained, a little hesitant, which she normally never was.

Rina nodded with a soft smile. “I believe your mother called earlier today and informed us about your visit. You look just like her. I’ll take you to her, she’s in her room.”

She took us upstairs to a room with the tag Alderidge next to the door.

“Hello, Mairead, I’ve got some visitors for you,” the nurse greeted the white-haired woman who sat in a rocking chair next to a window, watching a bird hop on the tree near the glass, snow falling from the branch.

Maisie stepped forward, and I remained behind in the shadows so that she had time to talk to her before she saw me.

“Amelia, sweetheart, you should be at school,” Mairead gaped with a low chuckle, taking Maisie’s hands in hers as she took a seat next to her. Since Maisie had told me that her grandmother confused her with her mother, I assumed that Amelia was her mum’s name.

“Take it easy, I’m downstairs in the common room if you need anything.” Nurse Rina left, leaving us to it.

“Amelia is my mother, I’m Mairead, your granddaughter.”

Her grandma laughed, “but silly, that’s my name.”

Maisie managed a smile, but it was clearly laced with sadness. “I know, Amelia named me after you and Alessandra.”

Mairead’s face twisted in confusion before she gasped and softly smiled, frowning at her granddaughter. “Alessandra, my sweet sister. She’s an angel now. Protecting me from the gates of heaven. Does she protect you too?”

Maisie nodded. “Yes, Nana, Alessandra is always by my side.”

The elderly woman touched the younger girl’s face, stroking her cheek with her fingers, before her face lit up. “Oh my pretty sun. I’ve missed you so much.”

Maisie squealed with delight and surprise, cupping her grandmother’s hand, which was still on her cheek. “You remember me!”

“Of course I do, there is only one girl who resembles the sun like you do. But why is your hair so short, my baby? It used to be so long, and I remember you running around in two braids every time you came to visit me.” Her old hands brushed through her chin-length hair, taking in the change.

Maisie giggled nervously, “well, last year we did experiments in science class and I accidentally burned the ends of my hair with the bunsen burner, so I had to cut it off. But I grew to really like it this way.”

I smiled to myself at the memory of the candid picture that hung in Jesse’s room from that day. He told me how furious she had been with him when his first thought was to shoot a picture as he saw her pout over the fact that one side of her hair was burned off to her shoulders. I would have told him how mean that was of him if it wasn’t their thing to bottle these embarrassing moments for them to laugh at in the future. Maisie had a picture of Jesse covered in mud with his glasses hanging half of his face, pinned to our wall as well.

“You were always a little clumsy,” her grandmother chuckled softly. Maisie sighed and stood up, glancing over to me, giving me a sign that I could come out of the shadows.

“Nana, there is someone–”

Mairead’s eyes met mine and she gasped. “Dottie.” She stood up in a hurry, caressing my face with trembling hands. Even in her old age, she looked so much like her granddaughter.

“I saw you die,” she gasped. “We buried you.”

I placed my hand on her arm and she sighed sadly before I could answer. “But you’re not my best friend. You’re the Doe.”

The blood in my veins froze, but I nodded. “Dottie was my great-aunt. I’m the girl you saw in your vision. I’m The Star .”

“The Star,” Mairead breathed, still in a state of shock. “I never thought I’d ever meet you. Not before he takes you.”

My eyebrows creased in confusion and I looked at Maisie before I gently led Mairead back to her chair where she could sit down.

My friend and I joined her and took the seats opposite her on the couch.

“Nana, can you tell us what happened to Dottie and James on the seventh of July in nineteen seventy?” she asked, taking her grandmother’s hand in her own, brushing her thumb soothingly over the back of it.

Mairead sighed and looked outside the window, where the snow had started falling again, covering nature in a blanket of ice.

“We were children, raised in asylums we called our home. Each one of us dreamed of being someone because being nobody was difficult to grasp when you’re born to be heirs to important families. Being sent to Aquila Hall was our blessing. We discovered the secrets hidden within the walls of the school. The Umbra Society. A legacy built by our ancestors in the hopes that someday a generation would come that would fulfil the prophecy and break the curse that lies upon all of us.”

“The Hecate curse?” I asked, but Mairead rolled her eyes with a sigh. “That’s a tale the boys clung to, but we never found any evidence that proved any of it to be the truth. Do not get me wrong, I dearly believe in the Triple Moon Goddess, and frankly, I know she must have been the one to give us our abilities. But history loves to paint women as the villain.”

I brushed my hair behind my ears and frowned. “So you don’t believe she’s the one to curse the Kingstone’s and De Loughrey’s to fall in love only to end in doom?”

Her eyes softened as she took me in. “Oh, my dear child, you’re already falling, aren’t you?”

Her question caught me off guard and I swallowed the truth, feeling blood rush into my cheeks as Maisie’s eyes met mine, sadness written in her gaze.

I cleared my throat. “No, he and I are friends, and we know the possibilities… we’re just trying to find answers to what happened that night because you kept writing that history will repeat itself if we don’t find the Book of Shadows.”

My heart suddenly felt terribly heavy, but I tried to ignore that feeling and focus on the importance of talking to someone who was there all those years ago.

Mairead looked confused for several seconds before she continued to speak without needing us to ask another question. “We weren’t aware of the consequences of bending the theory of nature to our will. The Book of Shadows condemned vague warnings that challenging the laws of humanity could lead to insanity and sickness. But we were stupid and naive… we were just children who were handed something so powerful, it flew over our heads. One thing you have to always remember, my child. Sorcery demands sacrifices. The power to do so runs in our blood, so we earned the control over nature by letting it taste the power that pumps through our veins.” Mairead went silent and narrowed her eyes at the window, her mind most likely buried in memories. “Some of us were far more responsible than others when we first started noticing the night terrors and drained feelings. Henry and James were the ones who couldn’t stop. We grew angry and concerned for them, but deep down we could understand their desire for more. All our lives, we’ve been the misfits and then suddenly, we could play God.”

“Was it an accident that Dottie died? Did something go wrong, and she assumed that something bad would happen that night?” The questions blurted out of me because I was impatient. And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to hear the story down to the last detail, but I needed to know what happened to Dottie and James that night so we had a chance to stop it.

Her eyes watered as she looked over at me, still pained from losing her friends with no preparation for the grief that awaited her.

“I saw her death, but it was so vague that we could not stop it. If I had known that Dottie knew exactly what would happen to her that night, I would have pressured her more to tell us the truth.” She reached out to stroke her hand through my hair, her gaze full of emotion. “She was always so selfless that she accepted her death, knowing that this was what it took to stop him. He grew power-thirsty, and until this day, I’m sure it wasn’t really him. It was the power that corrupted him. We figured out what he would do to her too late. It was supposed to be a merry night.” Tears rolled down her cheeks and despite the event having happened decades ago, the wound in her heart must still be there, and I felt terrible for ripping it open again. “I remember the scene as if it were yesterday. He held the Dagger of Asteria, piercing it through her heart. The betrayal in her eyes, even when she knew what was coming. Even as Henry tried to stop him at the last second, it was too late–”

“Wait, Henry? I thought he was the one who betrayed you.”

Her eyebrows creased and she shook her head. “No, my love, it was James who took Dottie’s life that night.”

I know there was a possibility that that would be the case, but I believed that Henry must have been the one who was at fault because his part of the picture had been burned and all evidence of him scraped.

“But James loved her, was it only a play?”

“Oh no, James Kingstone loved Dottie more than anything in life. He allowed the dark side of our gifts to consume him, and whatever monster it was that killed our friend that night, it wasn’t the James we once knew. He was a feral creature, he tried to unlock something long forgotten by killing Dottie. Henry and he were fighting on the ground, and when he closed his fist around Henry’s throat, he had no other choice but to reach for the dagger on the ground and fight back. It all happened so fast. The others had tried to pull him off Henry, but he was so much stronger… We should have thought harder, told him more sternly to stop playing with the laws of nature–” Mairead’s voice broke and Maisie kneeled on the floor before her grandmother, embracing her firmly.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she mumbled against her shoulder.

“No, it wasn’t. The Kingstone’s are stubborn men, even if you’d tried harder, I’m sure that James would have fallen for the darkness just the same,” I agreed, fear crawling against the shield I had put up in my mind to keep my sanity.

“The Kingstone’s paid the De Loughrey’s and the police off, the same as my father did when Alessandra passed, so they’d print that my sister’s death was an accident. The world of the rich is undoubtedly built on the dead bodies of lies. From that day on, we swore to never talk about the world of the dead and whatever power runs in our veins ever again. We agreed to go separate ways. The next few days were a blur of grief. And for the last year at Aquila Hall, we acted as if we never knew each other.” Mairead cupped her hands right above her heart and sighed heavily. “I wish we could have grown old together. But as a family, we were too dangerous.”

“But you kept in contact with the Kingstone’s?” Maisie asked. She grew up with Archer, so there must have been a reason why that was.

Her grandmother nodded. “James was like a brother to me. His family had lost little George, his baby brother, he fell through a window as a child and passed from his injuries. His father took his own life shortly after. All that was left from the Kingstone’s were his mother and his twin Matthew. From my own loss, I knew James would have wanted someone to look out for his brother. So I made sure our families stayed close.”

I didn’t dare to say anything after that, fearing to cause her even more pain. But Maisie gently asked, “Where did you hide the Book of Shadows, Nana? And if it caused so much pain, why is it so important for us to find it?”

Mairead looked at Maisie with a frown. “Amelia, you’ve gotten so big.”

My friend’s eyes watered at that, and she hugged her grandmother once more. “My name is Maisie, Nana. I’m your granddaughter.” She tried, but the elderly woman only laughed, patting her granddaughter’s back. “Silly, that is my name, and my children are far too young to be having babies.”

I looked outside the window, where it seemed like a storm was coming our way. From what we’ve learned, I think we’re only at the beginning.