Page 40 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

DOROTHEE

“Boo!” I let out a scream as I pushed into the dark hideaway, only to find Jesse already lingering behind the door, with his face lit by a torch. I slapped his arm. “You scared the living crap out of me, you idiot.”

But Jesse continued his little play, with the hood of his jumper hiding half of his face. “Behold, my dear Dorothee Odette, I am the phantom of forgotten teenage experiences, here to haunt you with a well-known game of truth or dare.”

I blinked at him, and he swung the torch to the centre of the room where our table was located. “Would you be a darling and light the candles, Nao?” he asked sweetly, and Naomi, who sat at the end of the oval table, rolled her eyes before she lit a match and ignited the candles we usually used to have better lighting, since the electricity light down here was rubbish.

“What’s going on here?” I asked suspiciously, taking a seat next to Archer, who snacked from a bowl of peanuts. “Jesse thinks we deserve a break and a peek into the normal high school experiences,” he muttered unenthusiastically.

I leaned over to whisper into his ear, “aren’t we kind of in a life and death situation?”

Archer snorted before he brushed my hair over my shoulders with his hand, which lay on the back of my chair. We’d grown so casual with being around each other that his touch felt natural in the same way breathing did. “In Jesse’s eyes, it’s the perfect timing to take a day off our search.”

“I can very well hear you two, and for the record, I know our situation, but I do believe I remember that since discovering that Kane is truly one of us and that James went batshit crazy and killed his one true love, we’ve continued to fail in finding any new information for the past month and a half. We’re young and desperately need some distraction to stop our minds from worrying, for at least a few hours,” Jesse said, planting his arse down onto the chair between me and Nathaniel, opposite Naomi. Despite his snapped ankle apparently being completely healed, he still limped a bit here and there.

I sighed, knowing that we should really try finding new hints and information we could add to our wall and connect with the red strings to the information we had already discovered. But to be honest, Jesse’s idea of acting like normal teenagers without a worry in the world other than passing the upcoming exams sounded tempting.

I gave Archer a look as I felt his eyes already on me, most likely trying to see if I wanted this or rather to bury my nose in one of the old books for the night. And as fun as the thought of inhaling dust and sneaking through the sectors of the library sounded, I preferred to forget all my worries right now.

Archer leaned forward and knocked twice on the table. “Alright, acting oblivious to our future it is.”

Jesse drummed his hands on the table, and a big fat grin appeared on his lips. “I knew you’d say that if sweet Dollie wanted to play. You’re so obviously fancying her that you would agree to anything she wants.”

My heart jumped a beat at his words, and Nathaniel gave him a warning look, to which Jesse replied by lifting his hands in defence. “My apologies, I forgot that little debacle. But let the games begin! Whoever the bottle lands on, you have to ask a truth or dare question. Then this person spins, and it goes on and on.” He explained the rules and placed an empty glass bottle of lemonade in the middle of the table, spinning it eagerly. “I’ll start.”

We all watched the bottle slow down until it stopped on Nathaniel, who groaned quietly.

Jesse leaned back in his chair again. “Truth or dare, Nate?”

“Truth, and don’t call me Nate,” he answered without hesitation, clearly not trusting Jesse to give him a dare.

“Boring, but uhm… Have you ever pretended to like something just to make Maisie happy?”

Maisie leaned forward, laying her hand on her boyfriend’s arm, cocking an eyebrow at him with a challenging grin. “Yeah, my love, have you ever pretended to like something just to make me happy?”

“No. I like everything she likes or does, and if not, I’m being honest about it,” he answered, and I would have bought it if it weren’t for my friend rolling her eyes as she patted his arm.

“What?” he questioned her.

“I thought this was finally your time to shine and admit you can’t stand Lady Amalthea, and that she can’t stand you either.” Maisie smiled at him as Nathaniel’s jaw dropped.

“You knew and still handed her to me?”

She started to laugh and nodded swiftly. “Only because I adored how hard you were trying to convince me you loved her as much as I do.” She cupped his cheeks and pulled him down to her to place a light kiss on the corner of his mouth.

“Who’s Lady Amalthea?” I asked.

“She’s my dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. My parents surprised me on my eleventh birthday with her.” She covered Nathaniel’s ears. “Amalthea has a deep hatred towards men. Especially towards a man who means a lot to me. My sister Val guesses she’s jealous since she only sees me during the holidays, and she doesn’t want to share me with anyone.”

Nathaniel placed his hands over those of his girlfriend’s and peeled them off his ears. “I can hear you, and I’m very aware that she hates me. Last time, when I woke in the morning, she was sitting in between us on your bed, just glaring at me.”

I had to hold my amusement back at the image my mind was creating of a cute dog giving a boy like Nathaniel the death glare.

Maisie softly brushed her knuckles over his jaw to tease him. “Don’t worry, my knight. You don’t have to be jealous of my precious dog. You and Amalthea are both my number one. I promise.”

Nathaniel didn’t reply, he just gave her a look that clearly showed his disapproval of her mocking. But instead of being pissed, he just let her go through with it, head-locking her gently to press a kiss to the crown of her head, whispering something I couldn’t, and surely wasn’t supposed to, hear.

“Thanks for starting this game with a corny parents’ evening, lovebirds. Not that I know how loving parents talk to each other, but you get the message. Now spin the bottle, Nate,” Jesse pressed, his feet now resting on the table.

“Nathaniel,” he corrected.

Jesse waved him off. “That’s what I said, Nate. Now spin.”

Nathaniel didn’t bother to argue and just did what his friend asked of him.

The bottle landed on Naomi. “Truth,” she breathed before he could even ask, and Jesse groaned dramatically. “I should have known we’d all pick truth. We’re some boring lads. Let’s play truth or truth, then.”

Naomi clicked her tongue at him, with a smile. “Dare’s only entertaining when you’re in public. So I say we’ll stick to just questions tonight. I mean, when will we have another chance to force a bunch of liars to tell their truths?”

She looked at Nathaniel, waiting for him to ask her something.

“What’s the truth behind trying to look perfect on every occasion? We’re having this ridiculous game night at two in the morning and everyone is sitting here in their pyjamas except for you, who made an effort to not have one strand of hair out of place.”

Naomi licked her teeth and stared at Nathaniel with a look I would assume was almost challenging, before she grinned at him and flicked her silky hair over her shoulder. “It’s foolish of you to assume my beauty demands effort, Nathaniel.” She sighed, pressing her full lips to a thin line. “When I was a child, my father used to take me with him on his business trips to discuss the expansion of our newspaper and things like that. My father was my role model; whenever he stepped into a room, the entire atmosphere lightened up with his confidence. I desired to be like him when I grew older. And after he passed and my mother faded away in her grief, I changed everything about me. Something inside of me believed that if I stepped into the footsteps my father had left on this earth, he would never disappear and nothing would change. Daishin Minoru always dressed like the businessman he was, in a way that showed people that he was the one in control, and I adapted to it. My closet changed from dresses designed for children to clothes that were sewn just for me according to my measurements. My piggy tails turned into tight buns and my diamond candy pop into silver jewellery that’s worth a little fortune. So, your answer, Nathaniel, is that the truth behind me trying to always look perfect is that I feel in control when I do so.”

I looked at Naomi, who sat diagonally across from me, and my mind immediately pictured her as a little girl who stepped into the shoes of adulthood overnight. It explained a lot about her. Why she needed everything tidy and neat. Order equals control. We didn’t have a lot in common, but this was something I understood on a deeper level. Her need for a polished life and my fondness for structure were both coping mechanisms for the life we were given and had to deal with on our own.

“Oh, do not look at me with pity. All of us in this room carry a sob story on our shoulders. This is simply a game of truth, and that’s mine. Now hand me the bottle, Maisie.” Naomi took the bottle from Maisie’s hand and spun it. Slowly, the mouth of the glass bottle stopped on me.

Naomi leaned back in her seat and smiled at me. “You were the only one who’s able to see the spirits off school grounds, so I wonder, did you talk to them as a child, believing they were imaginary friends?”

I guess this was now, truth or truth, then.

I shrugged, trying to remember the first time I ever saw a spirit wander through the halls of my home.

“For the longest time, I believed they were real people, like you and me. It was funny, honestly. Since I know about the veil, I remember more and more encounters I had with spirits before the age of twelve, where I truly thought everything started. When I was six, I used to play outside behind our manor in the garden. There was a girl my age, but she wore very outdated clothes and her hair was styled in a really odd and old way. She didn’t speak. All she did was show me a fairy house built into the roots of an old willow tree. She showed me how to lay out little rocks to form a gateway for the fairies to find the way to the house. My grandmother had sent me Dottie’s diaries she wrote at home when she was a child, nothing that could help us with anything, but she wrote about the little fairy girl and how she found out that her name was Anastasia De Loughrey. She died of pneumonia in the eighteen thirties. I made plenty of friends around our manor who simply didn’t talk. It didn’t bother me because I was never much of a talker myself, but I never thought they were imaginary.”

I danced with a ballerina in the ballroom and played catch with a boy dressed like a sailor. My childhood was so colourful until I was reminded that it was all in my head. And as my own mind turned darker, the spirits did too. It wasn't the souls of children who came to play with me. The excited little faces turned to bloodied clothes and hate-filled expressions. Maybe if they had let me be a child longer, I wouldn’t have been afraid of it all.

“I wish my childhood would have been this fancy. All I ever felt was pain and grief out of nowhere. How unfortunate for me,” Naomi replied with a hint of jealousy, tossing the bottle over the desk to me.

I caught the bottle before it could fall off the table and frowned at her. “Waking up to a girl in bloodied clothes standing at the end of your bed is lovely, isn’t it?”

Naomi didn’t reply, she simply gave me a smirk, which I returned before I spun the bottle. Our arrow landed on Jesse, who grinned excitedly. “Finally–hey!”

Naomi moved the bottle so it pointed at the boy next to me instead.

“What a surprise, you have to ask Archer a question, Doe.”

“That’s not how the game works,” he told her.

Naomi shrugged. “Jesse is already the most honest person in the whole of England. You, however, are a book closed by unbreakable locks.”

“I disagree, I do have secrets,” Jesse argued. However, I doubt he was telling the truth. Not that I was complaining, but he couldn’t stop talking for the life of him. Too much information did not exist in the world of Jesper Antony Berkshire.

“But you have to agree that Archer has far more interesting secrets than you hold.”

“Well… perhaps, but still, rude.” Jesse crossed his arms and turned his head to me. “Go on, Dollie, ask your fated lover.”

“Stop the teasing, would you?” I shot back with a quiet chuckle.

“Never,” Jesse mouthed at me.

I rolled my eyes, turning to Archer, who was already looking at me, almost keenly waiting for whatever I was going to ask him. But truthfully, I did not want to ask him anything. I wanted to know nothing about him. No deep secrets. Nothing. All I wished for was to get to know him in various ways, such as lying beside him all night beneath the stars on his balcony while we just talked. A game of truth or dare where I could force him to tell me anything wasn’t appealing enough for my liking.

But there was one thing I was genuinely interested in knowing.

“When did you decide you wanted to become an astronomer?”

His eyes softened slightly, and I wasn’t sure if anyone who wasn’t familiar with him would have noticed.

“I never told you…”

I smiled knowingly, “you didn’t, but it’s written all over your soul. You shine when you mention anything happening off earth grounds. Whether it’s stars, constellations, galaxies, or the structure of the universe. Precisely, when I first met you, I wouldn’t have guessed you for being such a geek when it comes to the questions of the universe,” I chuckled teasingly. “I’m sure everyone in this room can confirm that your dream is quite obvious.”

But when I looked around, I spiralled on my statement. Nathaniel eyed his friend with a questioning look, while the girl next to him had her head tilted a little as she frowned softly.

Did I imagine the desire crossing his features when he looked into the night sky, or was I the only one who noticed?

“Archer is more of a business–” Jesse started, but Archer interrupted him.

“I was seven when I first discovered my love for astronomy and thirteen when I expressed my wish to my father to become an astronomer, but he wasn’t delighted by my decision.”

Archer and I spent a lot of time together, despite the more sane action would have been to stay away from each other. While I tend to be the talker between the two of us, I got to know him to the depths of his heart easily. But one thing he never talked about was his father.

“You never told me,” Maisie mumbled, surprise crossing her face. But how could she not know when the two of them grew up together?

Archer’s fingers brushed against my hand, which rested on my thigh underneath the table. Fire rushed through my veins, and I looked up at him. His eyes didn’t lay on me, which told me the gesture wasn’t meant to gain my attention. It was a simple touch of our skin to feel the ribbon that bound our hearts together. I knew as he spoke the next words.

“Neither did I tell Doe.”

I knew you loved the stars nevertheless.