Page 116 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

I was aware that I looked heavily sleep-deprived. My eyes were burning and bloodshot, I had developed dark circles underneath, and I looked paler than ever, my skin almost translucent for my veins to shine through. When I looked in the mirror, I found an ugly looking girl who tried to hide behind a mask of makeup. And even though Naomi did her best to help me with my makeup each morning, it didn’t last the whole day. I just couldn’t keep my hands out of my face, rubbing my eyes in an attempt to stop them from stinging.

Anwir kept talking about techniques I could try and use as an alternative to cope, leading my body on another path, a path that wasn’t hurting me mentally. But I didn’t want to hear any of it. I wanted it to stop, everything that caused me to be the ghost of the girl I found in this school should just stop. I wanted to laugh and dance and spend all my spare time with my friends when we didn’t take all of this as seriously as it has gotten now.

I wanted to go back to my night withhimwhen time had stopped moving as long as our skin touched.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

ARCHER

I layin 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 sincethatnight. 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 ofus 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.

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.

---