Page 51 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)

CHAPTER FIFTY

ARCHER

Cold water hit my face and I inhaled sharply. “Fuck.”

I was a coward. A damn pathetic coward that’s unable to speak back to the man who raised him, with rage spilling from his fingertips as his fury rained down on me. Who made a little boy thank him for the way he’s been raised every time his educational methods showed efficiency.

Thank you for shaping me into a man who can’t feel because he once felt too much. And Kingstone men don’t feel. They don’t love or believe in something more powerful than the ways of money in this world.

Thank you for not making me weak.

Thank you, father. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I threw my fist into the stone wall of the school’s public bathroom, my knuckles splitting on impact. No harm was done to the wall. The building was built more than three hundred years ago. The walls were robust enough to shield from the impact of a human fist. And I was aware of that. Blood was what I anticipated.

Burning physical pain had always been better than the blinding agony in my mind, causing me to lose control over my senses. It was physical pain that I could control, so I stuck with it for the past six years of my life.

Watching the white scraped-open skin on my knuckles turn red, I calmed my racing heart. Perhaps this coping mechanism worked for now, but it wouldn’t change anything.

I was promised to marry a girl I did not know, neither loved. It was an arranged marriage to bind the Busch and Kingstone families. The girl I was promised to last summer was the daughter of a banker who owned half of the banks located in America.

Surely, I stated that I did not want to be a part of this. That I’m no man for marriage, nor do I want to marry right after college. But my father didn’t care, he tried to put into my head how important that was for our family. For our business.

We were already rich. This would just be the cherry on top of the iceberg.

I forgot about it, thinking my death would come in one way or another this year, but then I found Dorothee…

The bright star in my darkness.

And suddenly, I knew that I wouldn’t throw my life away just because my father forced me to. There was no way in hell that I’d marry another woman when my heart was all hers.

I built a plan in my mind to take Dorothee and run away with her after school, possibly college, and we’d build a quiet life away from all of this.

Everything would work out. I’d make it work out.

I just had to explain to Doe that I couldn’t let my father know of my plan; otherwise, he’d pull me off the school. I’ve ended up here to hide me until I get a hold of myself. Now that I’ve grown into the man he needs, he wouldn’t shy away from transferring me to another school for my last year if that meant I’d obey.

Taking one last look in the mirror, I straightened my clothes and used the napkin from my breast pocket to wrap it around my hand, hiding the blood beneath it.

I had to find Doe and explain it to her.

Eagerly, I stormed out of the bathroom, hurrying down the corridor toward the ballroom, when suddenly a door flew open and someone dragged me inside it.

“What the—?!” I cursed before I noticed Naomi in the dim light of the room. It was Chadwick’s office. I’d been in here only a few times, but it was almost obvious that it belonged to him by the tidy organisation of his books and the damn happy family portrait of him as a teenager with his parents hanging opposite the door.

I noticed Naomi’s heavy breathing, and concern grew inside me. “What’s going on?”

A struggling sound came from behind us and I spun around to see Asher bloody Kane tied to a chair with duct tape over his mouth.

My eyes widened in shock as I looked from our seized Professor to Mai and Jesse standing on either side of him.

“This was the first thing I came up with,” Jesse defended himself, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

“How did you even manage to do that?” Kane was almost twice the size of him. I could hardly imagine him allowing one of his students to tie him to a chair.

“He hit him over the head with a really heavy book,” Mai answered for Jesse, who simply nodded.

“It was a hardcover of War and Peace . Never thought this novel would happen to save my arse one day, but it surprisingly did.”

Kane let out a furious grunt.

“Someone explain to me what the hell is going on,” I demanded, utterly confused by the scene I was pulled into.

Naomi let out a long breath before she started to explain, “Chadwick lost sight of Kane, so he told Maisie to inform all of us while he searched for Doe, who apparently went outside to get some fresh air—which, by the way, is utterly stupid due to our current situation.” I narrowed my gaze, knowing that I was at fault for her needing to get away. “While we were searching for you, we caught him breaking into Chadwick’s office, and Jesse’s first reaction was to hit him unconscious with that monstrosity of a book. It took all three of us to drag him to that chair and tie him to it with some duct tape we found in one of the desk drawers.”

“So is Doe safe?” It was the only thing I cared about. Our professor tied to a chair after we knocked him out could as well be a problem for later.

Naomi shrugged, “I assume she is. I mean, we got him here,” she said, pointing over her shoulder at Kane with her thumb, who fought against the tape binding him to the wooden chair.

“And I believe Nathaniel is with her. Something his mother said seemed to have upset him,” Mai informed me, looking as if she were going to be sick.

I nodded in her direction. “Are you alright?”

“Mmh, it’s just a lot going through my head tonight.” She meant visions were bothering her but didn’t want to mouth it in front of Kane, but what did it matter now? He obviously knew that we were aware of his intentions.

I took a step forward, taking hold of the tape on his mouth, leaning down to speak right into his face. “How can power be so tempting that you’d kill for it? Cassandra was sixteen years old. She had her whole life ahead of her, as did Amita, but you took everything away from them. You stole them from their families. Why does power hold so much value to you?”

I saw it with my father. Power could change a person, but kill for it?

Kane came from old money himself. He couldn’t possibly want more. Especially because the curse he was trying to break would only give him power over the rituals in the Book of Shadows.

I ripped off the tape.

Kane cursed loudly, “You have no idea what you’re talking about, Archer.”

“Right, I don’t,” I mocked. “It was all in my head, wasn’t it? Everything happened exactly how everyone always told us. All of it is just a trick of our fantasy.”

Kane bared his teeth at me. “I can’t tell you the truth,” he bit out.

I let out a laugh. “We already know. A previous friend of yours told us everything.”

He shook his head, making it look like it took him a terrible lot of effort.

He was a coward for not even admitting his crimes and betrayal while being called out for them. We knew. We knew everything, and he was still pretending.

“I’ve told you something in the graveyard. All that glitters is not gold. There’s someone—He—He— fuck .”

I remember when he had caught Jesse and me spying on him visiting Amita’s grave and randomly quoted Shakespeare. The meaning behind the phrase was well known, but what I couldn’t figure out was what he tried to tell me with it.

“It’s pathetic that you can’t even word your disgusting deeds,” I muttered in utter disgust.

Kane seemed to grow more and more furious with each word I spoke. Good. Have him get frustrated with us. My plan was to poke the bear until he broke and spilled his truth.

I wanted to hear it.

Break him until he confesses to the murder of Cassandra and Amita so he can rot in prison for the rest of his life. May the bloodthirsty spirits in prison eat him alive for making us suffer for so long.

“Archer, you do not understand. Have you noticed how all the spirits’ minds grow blurry as soon as they try to talk about what they saw, what happened fifty years ago? I can’t either,” Kane spoke, taking effort in calming himself while doing so.

I scoffed, “You want us to free you so you can make me take her life for you to gain all of this dense power.”

Kane frowned at me. “What? I— no .” He looked past me to Chadwick’s desk. “All I want from you is to break open the lock on the last drawer. I can’t s—speak or write it down. But this will show you.”

He was good at acting as if trying to speak these words physically hurt him.

Ridiculous.

“I’d prefer not to disturb our friends’ privacy,” Jesse mumbled, still standing beside Kane, his hand on top of War and Peace that lay on a side table.

I pursed my lips. “Chadwick’s not our friend. He helps us and we tolerate him.”

“Doe might disagree with that. Anwir is so nice to her,” Naomi teased, earning a look from me that told her to never say that again.

Perhaps Doe liked Anwir a little too much. Yes, he helps us. Yes, he cares for her.

Yes, it’s creepy how much interest he found in her.

“Stop wasting time and break open that drawer!” Kane suddenly commanded sternly, pulling on the bindings wrapped around his wrists.

“Calm your horses,” Jesse side-eyed him and then smiled sideways. “It’s fun to be able to speak to you like that.”

Kane didn’t turn his head as he answered him, “only because when I’m not tied to a chair, you’d be pissing yourself, Berkshire.”

Jesse scratched his nose, not replying to anything. Everyone knew that he was afraid of Kane since he’d been a twelve-year-old boy.

“Open the drawer,” Kane pressed again. “I’ve been searching everywhere for anything that could tell you the truth. You don’t even know half of the things I’ve done for you. That arsehole is too tidy and won’t risk leaving any evidence to reveal—reveal— open the drawer !”

Mai’s face suddenly cringed in pain, and she moved a hand up to press it against her head. Jesse moved around Kane, laying an arm around her in concern. “You alright, Maisie?”

She opened her eyes again and exhaled shakily, focusing on me. “Open the drawer, Archer.”

“What did you see?” I questioned before I did anything.

Mai shook her head softly, hurrying over to the desk herself.

“Mai,” I warned, following her to move around the desk where she pulled at the drawer as if she had the strength to break a lock with her hand alone.

“I just saw that we opened the drawer and—and gaped. I don’t know, okay. My visions have been weird lately. But I do know that Professor Kane is somewhat right and this is important,” she explained, searching for anything on top of the desk to help her break the lock.

“Move aside, you can’t break the lock with strength, you have to pick it,” I spoke softly, grabbing a letter opener from Chadwick’s desk and kneeled on the floor, taking out the drawer above this one and placing it on the floor. The locked drawer beneath it was parted by a thick wooden division, but I had better access to it. I slipped the letter opener in right above where the lock was and fidgeted it until I hit the latch and pushed it down, pulling the drawer open at the same time.

“Where did you learn this?” Naomi asked, glancing down at me from where she stood in front of the desk with Jesse by her side.

I pulled out the drawer and laid it in the middle of the desk. “I was a bored kid, and my cousin is a kleptomaniac who liked to show me his tricks.”

“Sounds fun,” Jesse said, taking out the stack of papers that had been stored inside the locked drawer.

We let our friend inspect the first couple of sheets, and I glanced over at Kane to make sure he wasn’t using our shifted attention to his advantage. To my surprise, he just sat there, waiting.

“What in the name of heaven is this,” Jesse frowned at the papers and I turned my attention back to him where he sorted them into different stacks. One growing bigger and bigger while the others remained thin.

Mai pulled out an open letter and emptied it on the desk. Several Polaroid photos fell out, and I gaped at them in confusion.

These were photos that went years back and captured the same girl over and over again from angles that made it clear that she must have had no idea they were taken at that time.

Mai picked up one and brushed her fingertips over the captured scene. “Why would he take photos of Doe? She can’t be older than eight in this picture,” she pointed out, showing the picture of a girl dressed in a white dress, her hair in two braids, picking flowers in a garden behind a house.

What—

I started looking through the other pictures.

Doe walking with her lavender backpack towards a car outside a school. Turning the picture over, I read the inscription written on the back.

Dorothee De Loughrey “The Star” age twelve.

More and more pictures were taken of her over the years until she joined Aquila Hall.

The latest was capturing her through a window. The room lit up in a dim glow of candles while she sat in front of a mirror, brushing out her long hair. Clearly unknowing of someone stalking her.

“That’s insane,” I muttered in shock.

Certainly, I’ve always thought Chadwick’s relationship with Doe was inappropriate on many levels. He wasn’t supposed to be this close to the students—his patients, at this school. And while he always treated everyone with kindness, he was so much different with her.

But it was obvious that Doe didn’t mind that. She was starving for some kind of loving solace her entire life. Chadwick caught her in the warmth of his arms when she was at her lowest, expecting more and more pain to eat away at her heart. Starving people would eat anything, and he used that to his advantage.

“These are notes about how he found Doe. How he made sure she was the right De Loughrey and not her cousin,” Jesse whispered, shock lacing his voice as he stared at the notes we uncovered. “There are some about you too, but he wrote them differently in contrast to Doe’s.”

“What do you mean by that?” I took the stack with his notes about me from the table and skimmed them over.

Jesse held out a sheet from Chadwick’s notes about Doe, pointing at the neat handwriting. “He wrote hers in a soft, elegant style, while everything he wrote about you was written in anger. Look at the letters, you can see the mine of the pencil he used breaking by how intense he pressed the tip on the paper. Besides, it’s all messy. He was writing yours filled with rage or perhaps jealousy…”

He was right. Every paper mentioning my name was messily written, and the papers had dog ears, crumbled as if he didn’t care about them—me, as much as he cared about her.

“He hates me, why?” Sure, plenty of people hated me, but what did I do to him?

Better question, why was he so obsessed with my girl?

“Chadwick told us that he’s been watching us to stop Kane and the prophecy from being fulfilled, but that’s beyond madness. He stalked Doe the moment he graduated from Aquila,” Naomi said, glancing over at Kane.

“Anwir is the epitome of madness,” Kane added in a dangerous tone. “He hated you, Archer, Gods, he hated you.”

“Why?” So, suddenly, he could talk.

“You’re the Kingstone heir.”

Jesse cringed his face in disgust. “What is this pedophile lore? Was he jealous because Archer is Doe’s destined love and he’s not? That’s beyond disturbing.”

Kane mirrored our disgusted expression. “Anwir might be a lot, but certainly not a pedophile. He’s jealous because— because—”

“Because he’s not the heir of the Kingstone house,” Mai finished for him. Her eyes widened in horror as she stared down at the open file in her hand. She slowly lowered the file on the desk, and my heart skipped a beat while the blood in my veins froze.

It was a birth certificate.

“Chadwick was born a Kingstone,” I gaped.

His birth name was Anwir Kingstone.

He’s the son of my deceased aunt and a man named Oliver Dickey.

“By the time he was born, my aunt must have been around sixteen,” I whispered. My aunt died before I was even born. She drowned in her own bathtub after overdosing on sleeping pills. If I remembered right, she must have committed suicide not soon after his birth.

My father always said that Kingstone’s either died young or became successful, it’s our family curse.

I moved the certificate to the side, finding adoption papers underneath it, declaring him Anwir Chadwick.

Legal son of Jenna and Rubin Chadwick.

“Anwir is my cousin. He’s a Kingstone.” The shock almost paralysed me if the realisation of what that meant didn’t dominate.

I spun around to face Kane, who gave me a knowing look.

No. No. No.

Kane couldn’t speak about it. As couldn’t the spirits. Doe had told us how Dottie wasn’t able to speak to her because he made sure she couldn’t.

They were cursed to keep the secrets of the traitor.

My heart shattered.

“The prophecy named a Kingstone to end the De Loughrey Dynasty. It was never me who was destined to end her life, was it?”

Kane gritted his jaw, fighting the urge to keep the truth, but in slow movements, he shook his head. “You were all just muppets, boy. The prophecy has grey zones.”

A chill ran down my spine. “The prophecy always spoke about a Kingstone heir. He was born a Kingstone. He’s technically as much of an heir as I am.”

I looked at my friends and a moment of fear passed between us. “It was Chadwick all along.”

“He—I—I saw Kane in the maze. I saw— oh my God ,” Mai started to breathe heavily, grabbing the edge of the desk. “I saw someone holding the Book of Shadows . I figured it was Kane.” She covered her mouth with her hand. “Chadwick said we’ll meet at the maze. He went to search for Doe and I—I just trusted him. Nathaniel— ah! ” She gasped in pain, falling to her knees. Jesse and I caught her before she hit the ground. Mai clutched her side, cringing in pain.

“What’s the matter?” Naomi asked in panic, taking Mai’s hand in hers.

Tears started running free from Mai’s eyes as she started to push me away. “Go! They’re in the maze. Hurry, Archer!” She cried in agony through the pain that wasn’t hers.

I squeezed her hand one more time before I jumped to my feet and ran.