Page 54 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty (The Legacy of Aquila Hall #1)

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

ARCHER

“Why is the bloody maze moving?” Jesse yelled as we rounded the maze for any form of entrance after we had watched the original entrance grow closed by thorny vines.

“It’s Anwir,” Kane answered. “There’s a spell in the Book of Shadows that allows you control over nature. I don’t remember the words for it; otherwise I could reverse the effect of it by speaking the spell backwards.”

“That’s a thing?” Jesse asked, his stamina already faltering as we rounded the maze.

“You have no idea what all is a thing in sorcery, Berkshire.”

“Obviously, I don’t,” Jesse pointed out.

I watched the outside of the maze, praying to the stars to give us a damn entrance to get inside. And perhaps they actually listened for once because the vines shifted open only metres away from us.

“There!” I pointed out, quickening my pace and slipping through the gap, the others behind me.

“We have to hurry,” Mai said in panic, hugging herself in an attempt at protection. She does this every time when she’s scared since we’ve been little kids.

But it didn’t help anyone at the moment.

The maze shifted again, and we ran through every open gap, not even trying to think logically because none of this had any logic behind it.

My mind went wild, not knowing whether my friends were safe or not. If they were alive or not.

Mai hadn’t said a single word after she said that she saw Nathaniel in that vision.

I knew what that meant. But I didn’t want to believe it.

“You’re just making this harder for yourself, Dorothee!” Anwir’s voice called out from somewhere far away, and I tried to turn toward the direction where his voice had come from.

We stood at the beginning of a long path with no gap between the hedges and I contemplated turning back around when suddenly the vines shifted at the end of the path.

My heart jumped a beat at the sight of a girl with fiery hair running towards the new gap.

“Archer?” She called out to me in surprise, her voice raspy and her pace slowing down. As the shadow behind her came closer and closer.

I started to run in her direction, feeling like the gap was becoming further and further away the faster I ran.

While I ran for the girl who was the owner of my heart alone, I started to pray to the stars for them not to take her from my arms, to make her be mine for ever. But it seemed that they had stopped listening to me because the gap started to close again, vines growing thick from the ground, starting to bind a net over the free space.

No.

We were so close. I could see her face clearer, her hands and dress covered in blood. Her reddened throat and fearful expression.

I could see Anwir right behind her.

The vines almost closed the gap and in the last moment we reached for another, our fingertips brushing, but before I could take a hold of her hand and pull her into the safety of my arms, Anwir caught her by the waist and dragged her back as she screamed in terror.

“Find Nathaniel!” Doe called before he covered her mouth with his hand and the vines formed a solid wall.

“Doe!” I screamed for her, not pulling back as the thorns pierced my skin, instead I took my other hand and used all of my strength to push the thick vines aside, trying to push through the separation with my entire body. Even when the thorns scraped open the skin on my neck and face, I didn’t falter.

I needed to get to her.

This pain was nothing in comparison to the never-ending agony my soul would feel if he took her away from me.

But before my body could even fully disappear in the vines to pass them, someone grabbed a hold of my shirt and dragged me back.

“Are you bonkers?! Have you looked at how thick these thorns are, Archer? You won’t help Doe by getting yourself killed in the process,” Jesse shook me in an attempt to make me come to my senses. I pushed him away in anger.

I wanted to shout at him that I would have made it if he’d let me. But there was no time.

“Maisie!” I turned to see Naomi running after Mai who seemed to know exactly which turns to take, slipping through the gaps before they even fully opened.

We ran after her, trusting her blindly that wherever she led us was where we needed to be.

Something slippery covered the ground beneath the soles of my shoes. Blood.

The earth was soaked in blood and when I heard her agitating scream as I turned around the corner, I knew exactly what she had seen.

Mai fell to her knees by his side, pressing her hand instantly to his stomach to where all the blood must be coming from. I was by his side in an instant.

“It’s going to be alright, you’re going to be alright,” Mai sobbed, her free hand cupping his bloody pale cheek. She pressed kisses to his face, not caring about the blood sticking to it.

I squeezed my brother’s shoulder, trying to keep a cool head and not let the panic get the worst of me. I looked around for help because I didn’t know what to do, I hadn’t— I didn’t know what to do.

“We’ll fix this, Brother,” I promised, feeling a sharp sting in the back of my eyes, but I didn’t allow myself the sorrow. He wasn’t dead yet, neither was Doe. We could still fix this.

We will—

Nathaniel coughed up blood, ripping his eyes open, he didn’t look at anything but the girl he loved. He brushed her hair out of her face, drawing blood all over it and soaking her light hair red.

“I love you,” he rasped in utter calmness, despite death holding his life in the palm of its hand.

Mai shook her head, her face hardening as more tears rolled from her eyes. “Don’t you dare say goodbye. I won’t let you leave me, Nathaniel McConnell. You promised me we’ll leave this world together when we’ve lived.”

“I have lived. You turned this nightmare of a life to the sweetest dream. I love you, Maisie,” Nathaniel breathed, his gaze never leaving hers. Even as she cried in torture, he hushed her softly, stroking his thumb up and down her cheek.

“And what will become of me? You can’t leave me here. I won’t survive the loss of you. Please , Nathaniel,” she pleaded. “Don’t leave me in a world without you.”

I stared at my best friend lying in his own blood and saw the contemplation in his eyes as he watched her suffer from the loss of him. The look of acceptance on his face changed to regret and fear, though I wasn’t sure if this fear was for himself or for what would become of Mai if he was gone.

“Kane–” he coughed his name right when the maze started to shift again and Jesse, Naomi and Kane reunited with us.

Naomi and Jesse joined us on the ground by our friends’ side.

I faded Naomi and Jesse’s cries out and stood to where Kane stared down at us, his eyes filled with terror.

“Nathaniel saw you. I don’t know how, and I don’t care, just help him! Please,” I yelled at our professor, not being able to bear burying my friend–my brother.

Kane stared from me to Nathaniel on the ground. To my surprise, he didn’t hesitate.

“Alderidge, you help me get him to my office, no one will see us if we walk around the stables straight towards the north wing, the guests aren’t allowed to enter the dorms. The rest of you find Dorothee,” Kane commanded, and I moved to help him get Nathaniel on his feet. He groaned in pain and was about to collapse again if it weren’t for me and Kane holding him on his feet. I let Mai take over my part and gave Nathaniel a hard look. “Don’t die.”

He gave me a weak nod before our path split.