Page 134 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

I pursed my lips. “Chadwick’s not our friend. He helps us and we tolerate him.”

“Doe might disagree with that. Anwir issonice to her,” Naomi teased, earning a look from me that told her to never say that again.

Perhaps Doe liked Anwir a little too much. Yes, he helps us. Yes, he cares for her.

Yes, it’s creepy how much interest he found in her.

“Stop wasting time and break open that drawer!” Kane suddenly commanded sternly, pulling on the bindings wrapped around his wrists.

“Calm your horses,” Jesse side-eyed him and then smiled sideways. “It’s fun to be able to speak to you like that.”

Kane didn’t turn his head as he answered him, “only because when I’m not tied to a chair, you’d be pissing yourself, Berkshire.”

Jesse scratched his nose, not replying to anything. Everyone knew that he was afraid of Kane since he’d been a twelve-year-old boy.

“Open the drawer,” Kane pressed again. “I’ve been searching everywhere for anything that could tell you the truth. You don’t even know half of the things I’ve done for you. That arsehole is too tidy and won’t risk leaving any evidence to reveal—reveal—open the drawer!”

Mai’s face suddenly cringed in pain, and she moved a hand up to press it against her head. Jesse moved around Kane, laying an arm around her in concern. “You alright, Maisie?”

She opened her eyes again and exhaled shakily, focusing on me. “Open the drawer, Archer.”

“What did you see?” I questioned before I did anything.

Mai shook her head softly, hurrying over to the desk herself.

“Mai,” I warned, following her to move around the desk where she pulled at the drawer as if she had the strength to break a lock with her hand alone.

“I just saw that we opened the drawer and—and gaped. I don’t know, okay. My visions have been weird lately. But I do know that Professor Kane is somewhat right and this is important,” she explained, searching for anything on top of the desk to help her break the lock.

“Move aside, you can’t break the lock with strength, you have to pick it,” I spoke softly, grabbing a letter opener from Chadwick’s desk and kneeled on the floor, taking out the drawer above this one and placing it on the floor. The locked drawer beneath it was parted by a thick wooden division, but I had better access to it. I slipped the letter opener in right abovewhere the lock was and fidgeted it until I hit the latch and pushed it down, pulling the drawer open at the same time.

“Where did you learn this?” Naomi asked, glancing down at me from where she stood in front of the desk with Jesse by her side.

I pulled out the drawer and laid it in the middle of the desk. “I was a bored kid, and my cousin is a kleptomaniac who liked to show me his tricks.”

“Sounds fun,” Jesse said, taking out the stack of papers that had been stored inside the locked drawer.

We let our friend inspect the first couple of sheets, and I glanced over at Kane to make sure he wasn’t using our shifted attention to his advantage. To my surprise, he just sat there, waiting.

“What in the name of heaven is this,” Jesse frowned at the papers and I turned my attention back to him where he sorted them into different stacks. One growing bigger and bigger while the others remained thin.

Mai pulled out an open letter and emptied it on the desk. Several Polaroid photos fell out, and I gaped at them in confusion.

These were photos that went years back and captured the same girl over and over again from angles that made it clear that she must have had no idea they were taken at that time.

Mai picked up one and brushed her fingertips over the captured scene. “Why would he take photos of Doe? She can’t be older than eight in this picture,” she pointed out, showing the picture of a girl dressed in a white dress, her hair in two braids, picking flowers in a garden behind a house.

What—

I started looking through the other pictures.

Doe walking with her lavender backpack towards a car outside a school. Turning the picture over, I read the inscription written on the back.

Dorothee De Loughrey “The Star” age twelve.

More and more pictures were taken of her over the years until she joined Aquila Hall.

The latest was capturing her through a window. The room lit up in a dim glow of candles while she sat in front of a mirror, brushing out her long hair. Clearly unknowing of someone stalking her.

---