Page 129 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

“I’ll take the responsibility for this, but Dorothee is right. We don’t have time for this right now. I informed Mairead to fetch the others and tell them what’s the situation. She saw a glimpse of him.” Anwir looked from me to the maze.

I gaped in horror. “He knows.”

Nathaniel must have understood what that meant and shook his head. But Anwir interrupted him before he could speak a single word, “Listen to me, Nathaniel. The Book of Shadows isn’t in our possession. If he gets a hold of it before we do, it’s not your vision that’ll become reality tonight.”

“But how could he know?” I asked, fear trickling down my back in a chill, my hands growing sweaty.

Anwir shook his head, swallowing painfully. “I underestimated him.”

Of course, we had, it seemed too easy. It was one hour till midnight. One pathetic hour until we were free of this fear we carried on our shoulders for the past year.

My eyes met Nathaniel’s and silently, we both knew that this was it. There was no way around going into this maze and claiming the book as ours before he does.

“We should have gotten it yesterday, perhaps—”

“It wouldn’t have changed a thing. Kane has access to powers you can’t even imagine. I just— I hoped that we could mislead him. Make him believe that your knowledge doesn’t go beyond the spirits. That the curse hasn’t manifested itself in you and Archer. I was a fool,” Anwir assured me, claiming himself to be at fault when he wasn’t.

It was Asher Kane we should hate.

The classes I had to sit through knowing the man who spoke upfront of the blackboard would fantasise about my death by the hand of the man I loved, knowing I couldn’t do anything to stop him.

I couldn’t go to the police.

I couldn’t run.

All I clung to was the seed of hope sprouting in my chest. We did everything we could to find out the truth and rewrite our fate.

Yet, we were on the losing side.

I cleared my throat, swallowing my fear. “None of this matters right now. We’re just wasting time.”

Taking hold of the fabric of the end of my dress, I pulled it up to my knees so it would be easier to run. Turning, I jogged down the last of the steps, stalking towards the entrance of the place where my ancestors, one after another, took their last breath.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Anwir asked, frowning in concern at me. “It would be safer if you waited inside, Nathaniel and I—”

“I can’t just sit around and expect my fate to rewrite itself by having others sort out the far parts of it. This is my life, and I’ll be the one to force the stars to give me the destiny I deserve,” I swore, turning around without another word, stepping into the entrance of the maze.

I was sick of begging on my knees for the stars to change the damn prophecy. If they weren’t doing a thing about it, I’d have to do it myself.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

DOROTHEE

“Areyou sure we’re going the right way?” Nathaniel asked, grabbing my arm to slow my jog into a walk. I looked up at him and nodded confidently.

“The maze is a replica of Jesse’s game. I’ve played it a thousand times with him, so I know where the centre is.” I suddenly missed the nights when it seemed like Jesse and I had no other issues but the stomach aches after we stuffed ourselves with biscuits and cookies, playing games and dancing to old music playing from his vinyls.

Nathaniel squeezed my arm before letting go. “I trust you, Doe.”

I smiled cheekily at him. “Imagine Nathaniel from nine months ago could hear you now.”

“He’d be baffled for sure,” he agreed, his mouth twitching as he almost smiled.

I looked around, grateful for the bright night we had. Our phones were inside the school, and the light from the fairy lights didn’t quite reach us here in the middle of the high maze.

Closing my eyes, I reminded myself of the turns we’d already taken and tried to envision the board in my mind.

“Left, two rights, past three junctions, and then right again,” I spoke aloud, already moving again.

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