Page 142 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

I watched as his face twisted in terror, and then I felt the sensation of agony ripping through my chest, tearing my heart open. A gasp of pain escaped me, but I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t breathe or feel anything but this burning torture in my chest.

The world became a blur of screams and movement, but all I could do was look up at the stars and cry.

Cry for the life I could have had.

Cry for my friends and family.

Cry for myself.

My mouth started to fill with thick, iron liquid. My body was making me suffocate on my own blood.

Suddenly, there were arms pulling me in, and I let out a cry of pain at the movement, barely managing to look up at the person holding me.

It was my Archer.

My Archer.

He stared at me with fear not for himself but for me. Because I was dying in his arms.

I was dying in the arms of the boy I loved.

We wasted so much time, and we would never get any of it back.

I would never watch the stars with him again. Feel his touch on my skin making me want to melt into it.

Our time together would slowly turn into a memory with no promise for a future.

We were doomed from the start, and we’d known that, but feeling death now tugging at my soul felt unreal.

All we ever wanted was love instead of the ever-torturing longing.

We did everything to reweave the strings of fate. Yet, death didn’t spare us. I felt him waiting for my heart to give out and steal me away beyond the veil.

“Stay with me, Doe, please, stay,” he pleaded and for the first time that I have known Archer Kingstone, I saw him cry.

I wanted to tell him that it was okay, that he shouldn’t cry, but when I tried, I couldn’t speak.

That was okay.

As long as he was the last thing I saw.

I didn’t want to leave, just yet. But as the world started to fade into nothingness, I could think of worse fates than dying in the arms of my true love.

I hope you see me every time you look at the stars, my starboy.

I’m sorry I couldn’t stay.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

ARCHER

A scream rippedout of my throat as I felt the bond tying our souls together snap in two.

She was gone.

My fallen star was on its way to return to where it had lived a thousand years before destiny decided to form the light into the smallest piece of a soul. And I might be selfish, but I wouldn’t let her leave. I wouldn’t let her journey end here without me.

I would raise hell on earth to convince heaven and the universe to let her take another breath. To let her heart beat another beat.

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