Page 104 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

I narrowed my eyes on him in pure hatred. This was the man we had to outrun to find the Book of Shadows. For some reason, he’d be at fault for Doe’s death if he found the book before us. I wish we could go to the police, get him fired or some shit. But how do you explain that your arsehole professor will murder you if he finds some magical book that has gotten lost decades ago?

We were already the misfits. The crazy children of important people who couldn’t bear our existence, so they got rid of us.No one would believe a single word coming out of our mouths.

“I’ll give you honest advice, Kingstone. All that glitters is not gold. Things might look tempting in our world, but are they really worth the sacrifice? Stay away from me, or I’ll make sure you will.” Kane turned without giving me any time to answerand walked towards his car. Leaving us standing all alone in the graveyard.

I thought about the words he had said, and something told me that he did know who we were and what we were capable of. But the more we confuse his assumptions, the better. Let him be clueless and think he’d be the one to discover the place where the Book of Shadows was hidden first.

If he didn’t feel threatened, he might work slower and give us a little more time.

“All that glitters is not gold,” I repeated the words he had said to me. “I’m sure that’s Shakespeare.”

“Yeah, and you know what I’m sure of?” I turned to look at my friend, who had sat up again, looking a little pale.

“What?”

“That I broke my bloody ankle and Kane stepped on my phone!” He yelled angrily, pointing at his phone that must have slipped out of his hand as he fell. The screen was cracked, and it bent like a flip phone.

Perfect.Fucking perfect.

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 everpretendedto 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.

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