Page 19 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

With my clothes draped over one arm, I walked over and picked up the envelope.Doewas written on the front in delicate handwriting.

“Thanks,” I said softly, carrying it with me to the bathroom.

After placing my clothes on the sink, I sat on the edge of the bathtub, holding the envelope in my hands. There was something inside—something solid and weighty.

Carefully, I tore it open and pulled out a necklace with a black stone pendant. The stone was glossy and cold, its smooth surface oddly comforting against my skin.

Reaching back into the envelope, I found a note. Unfolding it quickly, I read the words written in that same delicate handwriting:

I don’t believe you’re mental. In fact, I think you’re far from it.

The stone you’re most likely holding in your hand right now is Black Tourmaline. As a protective stone, it’s said to repeland block negative energies. It’s also said to shield the mind from harmful influences. I’ve picked up a thing or two about crystals because Maisie can’t seem to stop talking about them.

To ensure nothing dangerous like that sleepwalking episode happens again, keep this with you at all times.

P.S. As you can see, I made sure it’s wearable as a necklace.

– ACK

He truly believed me.

Archer may not have realised how much that meant, but to me, it was everything. No one had ever believed me—not about the things I saw or the feelings I couldn’t explain.

Perhaps Archer wasn’t as much of an arsehole as I’d thought him to be.

CHAPTER TEN

DOROTHEE

The villageof Owley had participated in the witch trials between the late sixteenth and late seventeenth centuries. One of the women who had been hanged was Audrey Moore.

It was a farmer who claimed to have heard Audrey speaking to nothingness. Her latest husband’s name, she’d whispered, as she danced through her kitchen. Curtis Moore had died a month before her execution, from pneumonia. Before her trial, others had spoken out, saying Audrey had always been a bit different from the other women in town. They sold her secrets in exchange for promises of safety.

Before her execution, she’d loudly announced that all of them would burn—everyone who had disrespected the mother would suffer when the time came.

Audrey Moore was hanged on the early summer’s day of July seventh.

She left behind a nine-month-old daughter, who remained nameless in the historical records.

My research ended there.

For the past two weeks, I’d searched the entire internet for accounts from people who had seen ghosts, spirits, or visions…anything that might be connected to the strange things I had experienced my entire life. To my surprise, I ended up reading far more about the witch trials than I had intended to. It felt like perfect timing when the first topic we discussed in history was the witch trials of the seventeenth century. Since this area had been so deeply involved in this tragic episode of humanity, where innocent women were slaughtered for nothing more than accusations.

Naomi mumbled, sucking on the straw in her green smoothie, “you act like this project will count for fifty percent of your grade for the entire year.” We hadn’t connected in the first weeks while I studied at Aquila Hall, but I didn’t mind.

Maisie and Jesse were the only ones I truly looked forward to seeing at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Both of them were incredibly kind to me, and I even caught myself calling Maisie my friend the other day. It made me oddly happy. Even though I appreciated their offer to sit with them during meals, and Maisie even asked me to go shopping with her last weekend, we didn’t talk much. I somewhat still preferred staying by myself most of the time. As a child raised without siblings or friends, this was all new to me. They didn’t push me, so I wanted things to go at my own pace, and that was perfectly fine.

“I just find the topic incredibly interesting,” I replied to Naomi’s comment, jotting down the name of another graveyard where some of the witches were buried. It was sad to hear that their bodies were left hanging in the woods near the school for many days before their families could lay them to rest.

“Yeah, there’s nothing more fun than researching how witches were suffocated in the woods we pass every day,” Jesse agreed, flashing a sweet smile dripping with sarcasm. He was playing chess with Archer, who hadn’t said much to me since he gave me the necklace with the black tourmaline pendant. I thought about it often, but hadn’t thanked him. He seemedsatisfied when I merely commented that the necklace suited me and that I liked it too.

I looked up from my notes.

We were all sitting in the great hall, where most of the students spent their time between the end of class and curfew. The atmosphere here was quite something. Everything had already been decorated for Halloween, and it was beautiful how the light reflected through the coloured windows that reached all the way up to the top of the giant hall.

“I wouldn’t say we pass them every day,” I responded, “most of the woods used for executions were felled over a century ago.”

Jesse blinked at me before replying, “oh, if that’s the case, then go on with your odd fascination about women being hanged for simply breathing air too rapidly, you busy little bee. If you get a solid hundred on that exam, I’ll take you to Salem over Christmas break, where the trees still stand.” He grinned and moved his bishop without even looking at the board. Bishop takes rook.

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