Page 46 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
DOROTHEE
Tomorrow night, I would die on the altar of my ancestors’ crimes. Underneath the light of mocking stars, my heart will be sacrificed.
Or perhaps fate was already turning and all that would happen tomorrow was the three hundred-year celebration of this school. I would dress up in the beautiful gown Naomi had designed for me, and I’d dance the night away with my friends before, the morning after, the school year was officially over, and I’d return to my family's mansion for the summer.
“We could run away. My family has another house in Spain by the coast,” Jesse suggested from where he sat on the floor in Archer’s room. His grandfather’s game lay between him and Naomi. He was a nervous wreck, and anger had almost consumed him in the past weeks because he considered himself a failure for not being able to find a solution.
Naomi moved her game piece on the board. It hadn’t been Jesse who asked her to play. It had been Naomi who sat down in front of him and built up the game. And since the first figure made a move on the board, Jesse’s shoulders relaxed subtly.
“Running away won’t solve any of your problems. If it’s not Asher ruining your life, it will be yourself. Six runaway teenagers with pasts of severe psychological problems would ruin your future once and for all. If it wasn’t for Aquila’s existence, I’m sure a mental institution would have been where you’d be tonight instead.” Anwir was right. I would rather fight for my life than spend the rest of my years being told it’s all in my head.
Aquila saved our lives. I felt more alive in the past nine months than in the first seventeen years of my life. I wouldn’t leave all of this behind just to keep myself safe, because the life I had before Aquila wasn’t worth surviving for.
“Kane doesn’t have the Book of Shadows yet,” Maisie said confidently, squeezing Nathaniel’s hand, who looked from the girl beside him to me and Archer.
“I saw a glimpse of your future.”
Archer’s body stiffened by my side, and my mouth fell open. “I could have a future?”
I could live.
“It’s not sealed yet?” Anwir asked in the same surprise as I did. This changed everything. From the things I had forced Maisie to tell me about what she saw of my future, I was sure there was little to no hope.
Nathaniel cleared his throat. “I believe not. This has happened only once or twice before that our visions overlapped with two different outcomes,” he explained, stroking the back of Maisie’s hand with his thumb. “I saw a glimpse of our graduation next year. All of us were there. You and Archer too.”
My heart started racing in my chest, and for the first time in months, I actually felt like I could breathe. I wasn’t surviving on low oxygen; I was breathing all the air that fit in my lungs. “So it’s only a fifty percent chance that Kane could succeed tomorrow?”
Maisie nodded slowly in answer. “Yes, I believe so. I think something has shifted fate. Nathaniel has seen this outcome only a few hours ago, and if his vision grows more potent over the next while, it could be that the outcome I saw won’t happen at all.”
Anwir made a thoughtful sound from where he leaned against the door of Archer's room. He had joined us only a few minutes ago and informed us that he couldn’t stay for long, since he was on call tonight in his office for the children who might struggle the night before their families joined them here. It happens more often than you think that some didn’t want to go home at all. But the school would be closed over the summer.
“From my research on your grandmother and from what you told us, I was assuming that the fate showing itself to you would happen one way or the other,” he told her, rubbing his jaw. He was thrown off by this sudden change of things.
Over the weeks he had spent in the hideaway with us and even before that, I had learned that he despised getting things wrong. It bothered him way deeper than he would probably ever confess.
Maisie shrugged innocently. “It usually did. But the sight is as unpredictable as the weather in April.”
Anwir smiled slowly before he clapped and pushed off the door. “That’s splendid! I guess hope isn’t leaving us at its fullest.” He turned his wrist to look at his watch. “Now, please do get some rest before tomorrow and don’t stay up all night. I need to get back to my office, wish me luck that nobody is already waiting. Good night.”
“Good night,” we all said in unison as he left again.
I turned to look at Archer, whose eyes were already on me. His pretty lips wore a smile, and before I could say anything, he pulled me into a hug, pressing a kiss on my temple. “We’ll spend the summer together, I hope you know that,” he whispered for only me to hear, causing me to laugh. It felt strange; I don’t think I laughed this purely heartedly in forever.
“The question is still if ,” I reminded him. As much as I wanted Nathaniel’s version of my future to be true, I didn’t want to get my hopes up too high. Archer, however, saw that differently as he buried his face in my hair.
“No ifs. Because if there’s one path where you’re destined to be at my side forevermore, all the other paths are simply nonexistent to me, my beautiful fallen star,” he breathed against the skin of my throat, before he lifted his head to rest his forehead against mine. “One last night. Then never again.”
“Never again,” I agreed, closing my eyes as the smile tugging on my mouth grew.
“A summer with you sounds like countless nights beneath the stars.” Archer snorted softly at what I said.
“You can count on that. However, I’ll prefer the star sent to walk with me on the earth side over any shining beauty in the sky.” I opened my eyes when he pulled back. As my gaze roamed over his painfully pretty face, it felt like I was looking at him for the first time. Where I first saw an arrogant arsehole, then a friend, a boy I could never call mine, I now saw a future.
“Jesper, it’s your turn. Finally, move the figure, you can repair it later, or I’m out,” Naomi muttered in annoyance. I looked over to them sitting on the round carpet near Archer’s closet. Naomi rubbed her eyes waiting, while Jesse stared at the board in… terror. His thumb softly brushed over one of the game figures, looking like the stature of a fallen angel.
“Are you okay, Jesper?” The girl across from him asked worriedly a moment before I could ask him myself.
“I—I—oh my—” Jesse stuttered.
“Are you having a stroke or something? Jesper?” Her concern turned to panic, and suddenly all of us were on our feet moving toward our friend, who jumped up and threw open the French window, hurrying to the balcony.
I shared a look with Maisie as we ran after him. Jesse was clinging to the railing, staring down at the maze that lay behind the school.
“It’s there.”
Archer placed a hand at the centre of his friend’s back. “What’s there, Jesse?”
Jesse began to smile, pushing past us to hurry back inside. I frowned after him.
“I swear to God, Jesper Berkshire, if you run away one more time without telling us what’s going on with you, I’ll kick your arse!” Naomi warned him when all of us were back inside, and Archer placed himself in front of the big French window to prevent our friend from running back outside once more.
Jesse came to a halt in front of his grandfather’s game, splayed out on the ground. He opened his fist where the game’s figure lay. “Ante oculos tuos,” he said, looking at the broken figure. I stepped closer, noticing that he had read those words off the broken-off bottom from the square foot the angel was standing on. At first glance, it looked like the foot was broken, but it was just the bottom that had come off, revealing the Latin words written on the inside.
Before your eyes.
“Spellbound isn’t just a game to me, my son. It’s my legacy, and it’s your destiny,” he said, looking from the game up to us. “That’s what my grandfather always told me when I was a kid. And it took me so long, so damn long to connect the dots.” He cursed, pulling at his hair in frustration.
He knelt on the floor, pointing at the centre of the maze. “The—There is a dagger. An artefact that decides who’s meant to rule, who’s meant to be on the winning side of the war.”
The realisation hit me hard, and my eyes moved from the board outside the window, where in dim light a replica of the game's board lay. “The maze and the board of Spellbound are identical when it’s in its original formation,” I said out loud, looking back at Jesse, who straightened with the biggest grin growing on his face. “We just discovered our artefact. The Book of Shadows is in the centre of the maze. That’s crazy, the answer was in front of my nose the entire time and at the last moment, the bottom suddenly came off. I should have thought about this sooner,” Jesse started to curse himself, but I quickly shook my head, embracing him.
“That’s all we needed. Thank you, Jesse, for being the smartest person I know.”
Jesse hugged me back. “You really think so?”
“Of course I do, you brilliant mastermind,” I laughed, pulling back to look at the others.
We had two options right now.
Either, we go into that maze right now to find the book and keep it hidden somewhere, but possibly risk anyone catching us like the last time we sneaked out. Or we leave it there, and keep an eye on Kane for the entirety of tomorrow until it’s over, and we’re out of risk.
Everyone was silent as we shared looks.
No one was making an attempt to leave.
Option two it is, I see.
Archer stepped forward. “We won’t talk about what we just discovered, ever. This secret stays in this room and between us six. It’s a dangerous artefact, and I don’t want to know it near me or any of us tomorrow. And if it stays hidden, with only us knowing the path to it, thanks to Antony, then we’re the safest we can be. All of us will keep an eye on Kane the entire day and night tomorrow. We won’t let him leave the building. We’ll end this torture tomorrow.”
We moved into a circle, and it was Maisie who held out her hand first into the heart of our group. “Dum spiro spero,” she breathed, and one after another, we joined our hands with hers until we formed a perfect wheel of hope.
“Dum spiro spero,” we all spoke together.
While I breathe, I hope.