Page 45 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

ARCHER

I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling as the clock hit two-thirty. The quiet sound of classical music played from my phone on the nightstand in an attempt to work as a lullaby. Since that process was already taking two hours, I guessed sleep wasn’t stealing me away anytime soon.

A knock startled me into a sitting position. Who in their right mind would knock at my door at this time of night? We hadn’t had a meeting in the hideaway in a week, and none of us had suggested holding one any time soon. We had done everything we could. The riddles did not want to be found. They simply waited to reveal themselves to us at the right time. That’s what Mai said.

But our time was running out. It was now exactly thirty days until the ball.

I jumped out of bed, hurrying to the door as the knock sounded again. I was certain that this couldn’t be Kane. He avoided our gazes, and the others who attended his class said he behaved as if nothing had happened, as if he still didn’t understand.

And I was right. When I swung the door open, expecting to yell at Jesse to go back to sleep and not bother me with a game just because Nathaniel didn’t want to play with him, I froze.

On my doorstep stood Doe in her short white pyjamas, where pale blue flowers spread over the entire fabric of her shorts and top.

Her eyes gave me a pleading look, telling me she didn’t want to talk. She just wanted to be with me.

I reached around her and placed my hand in the middle of her back, walking her inside before I closed and locked my door again.

Doe’s long hair was braided into a single thick braid falling down her back. She turned around, tired eyes searching for mine, while the shallow summer breeze from my open window pushed the strands framing her face in front of her eyes.

When she didn’t make a move to brush them away, I moved forwards and gently pushed the soft hairs behind her ears, while she watched me the entire time.

She hadn’t come once to my bedroom since that night. We both had promised we wouldn’t acknowledge it had ever happened. Fighting the agony burning in our core at the denial.

But it was too risky.

If Kane caught us behaving like lovers do, he’d know that everything he needed to do to break the curse was happening the way it should.

Doe looked beyond tired, as if she’d fall asleep standing. I entwined my fingers with hers, which were hanging limp by her side, and guided her to my bed where she lay down on her side, facing the French window. Letting go of her hand, I lay down on the other side of my queen-sized mattress. I grabbed my duvet that I had kicked to the end of my bed before I covered both of us with the thin material. We moved in harmony, searching the other’s vicinity until we found ourselves spooning. Both of us were now facing the perfect view of the moon and the stars through the open window.

And as I held her there in my arms, I slowly felt her breathing growing steady and calm as she fell asleep.

We didn’t need words.

We just needed us.