Page 126 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

“We talked about this, Griffin. Not tonight,” his wife spoke, her hand clinging to the glass with such a grip that I saw the glass shattering in my head. Or perhaps it was my heart I heard falling into shards on the marble floor.

My eyes stung as I waited for him to say something. Argue with them. Say they can’t decide that for you.

Say. Something. Archer.

“I didn’t intend to do so tonight, but it would have been incredibly cruel to not let thislovelygirl know that the boy she clearly fancies is to marry another girl.” Griffin looked sadistically satisfied by my shocked reaction.

Some little voice inside my head told me that he didn’t need to inform me that he was basically engaged. We weren’t together. If I hadn’t begged him to kiss me that night, perhaps we wouldn’t have ever touched like lovers.

He didn’t owe me anything.

How could I have been so naive to believe he could love me?

“If you’ll excuse me, my parents are waiting for me,” I said, nodding towards his mother in goodbye.

“Doe, wait,” Archer called after me, but I didn’t slow down. The room seemed to carve in on me, and everything was moving so slowly as I tried to hurry outside. Anywhere. Just away from here.

I bit my lip, trying to hold back this bleeding pain that rippled through me, but the tears spilled over, unstoppable.

He was a coward. A pathetic coward.

Finally, I made it to the grand entrance doors of the ballroom, where someone caught me in strong arms. I let out a yelp until I realised it was just Anwir who had caught me.

He eyed my face in concern. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, aware that I looked everything but alright. “I just need to get some air,” I sniffed, freeing myself from his arms and brushing the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand.

“You should stay inside, it’s not safe tonight,” he said, but I shook my head, searching the room for Kane, who was still standing in the corner, where he hadn’t moved for the past hour.

“Please, Kane is still here, and I need…please,” I begged, starting to sob even harder as more and more realisation hit me.

I needed to get out of here before Archer caught up to me. I couldn’t talk to him right now, or perhaps ever again.

Anwir gave me an empathetic look and nodded slowly. “Alright, should I get someone to join you–”

“I want to be alone,” I answered and pushed past him, hurrying outside into the backyard of the school where no other guests lingered.

The summer breeze stroked my skin, almost as if nature were trying to comfort me. I looked up into the clear night sky, where the Altair star shone brighter than I had ever seen it before.

“You cruel arseholes! I hate you! I hate every shining one of you until the end of time!” I screamed at the sky as if they could hear me. As if they were at fault.

Throwing Elsie’s broken shoes to the side, I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes, letting the pain ripple through me as I cried about what could have been but never will be.

I was just a figure in this cruel game the stars played with us. And it seemed that I was their least favourite player on the board.

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

DOROTHEE

The ribbon connectingour hearts was only ever meant to bind our souls together. For one of us to play with the thought if we’d choose power over love.

Would it snap if we broke the curse tonight?

Longing wouldn’t be a problem anymore because it was never natural in the first place, was it?

Our bloodlines were star-crossed three hundred years ago, binding the Kingstone’s to us De Loughrey’s in a special form of torture.

If we broke the curse and chose love, maybe we wouldn’t end up loving another.

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