Page 40 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

With time, I started to ask myself if everything happening right now was even real. I was shaking, but I wasn’t necessarily feeling cold. My mind wasn’t yelling at me for being such a stupid girl, following a group of people I barely even knew for a month into a hidden cellar where no one could find my body. Insanely, I was feeling excitement at the thought of something happening, of actions being taken in connection to the shadows that had followed me since childhood.

The consequences of my naive mind would most definitely hit me in the stomach as soon as I was down from my adrenaline high.

The door swung open, and Jesse positioned himself alongside Naomi in the doorway. Their expressions shifted when their gaze met mine.

“Bloody hell, I always miss the entertaining part,” Jesse muttered in disappointment. He gently placed his hand on Naomi’s back as he pushed her beside him in the room, then he pulled the door closed and locked it from the inside.

“I’m kind of nervous about the whole locking thing, I won’t lie,” I claimed nervously, but from the serious faces of everyone, including Jesse, who couldn’t say an entire sentence without including sarcasm or any other form of humour, it might be better if I held my peace until I knew enough to speak again.

Archer passed Nathaniel, willingly bumping his shoulder against his friend, before he walked over to a drawer, pulling out a box filled with clothes. Archer gave me sweatpants and a jumper with the school logo embroidered above the heart.

His gaze shifted from me to something lying behind me, and I turned around to see another door that was only leaned on. “For privacy, you can change in the library.”

There was another library underneath the official school library?

I was hoping to ask, but this was the less interesting question my mind held tonight, and all I wanted to do right now was get out of these wet clothes before I ended up ill for two weeks.

“I need help with my corset,” I mumbled. My voice sounded like it didn’t belong to me, and I felt fear creeping slowly under my skin. I had higher hopes that my adrenaline kick would last longer.

“I’ll help you, Doe.” Before I could even look into her beautiful face being painted in tears, Maisie intertwined her hand with mine, pulling me towards the door.

The library wasn’t big. It was by far the smallest library I’d ever seen. Even the one in my family's mansion had a biggerselection. The only thing I knew for certain was that these books must hold important value. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be hidden down here.

A candle was burning on the edge of one of the shelves, sparing us some light as Maisie unlaced my corset. I hadn’t realised it was laced this tight before.

“Why were you crying?” I asked her. This was hands down the easiest question I could ask her. There was no way I'd ask her anything different when I had to see her like that. I hadn't seen Maisie cry before, and she was so upbeat, it seemed like someone had ripped her heart out.

“I’ve been crying because the stars showed me the fate and destiny that I hoped we could change. I’m just… I held on to this hope and usually, when I’m telling myself that things will work out the way they have to, to make this life less miserable, the stars listen, and everything falls into place in the way that’s fortunate for us,” she inhaled sharply. “And it’s just so difficult to grasp that this time, there is nothing we can do.”

I felt my corset loosen, and I let it fall to the ground, not caring that I was only wearing underwear. I was able to take a deep breath for the first time after everything that happened tonight.

Maisie handed me the clothes, and I dressed in clothes that I was sure hadn’t belonged to a girl before they had been stored here. The jumper was big, but not too big for my liking. Large clothes gave me a form of comfort I couldn’t explain. I might’ve not been allowed to dress in clothes that weren’t my size at home, but I wasn’t at my family’s house, and it was what I needed right now.

Life was its own kind of hell when you constantly heard your mother’s voice in the back of your mind criticising your every step.

People like us don’t wear clothes that don’t fit us, my child. It’s a form of showing off our status, and there is nothing more important than having people know where you, and where they stand.

Pushing the cuffs of the jumper over my hands, I sat down on a stool while Maisie pulled out the dozen hairpins and worked on untangling the messy nest on my head.

I sighed before I took the strength to reply, “Fate doesn’t exist in my eyes, I just don’t believe that there is only one path everyone’s life has. There must be at least multiple paths because every little detail you change causes your destiny’s final fate to change. Isn't that the only logical answer? We’re the ones weaving our own destiny. It’s our responsibility.”

The fantasy books I read as a child always made me question the definition of fate. I had once read a book about a princess and her knight, doomed to die to be able to be together. They had seen their future through some magical mirror, and as a child, their story had made me terribly mad. The princess and the prince knew that their death would be caused by betrayal. But none of them tried to change what was about to happen to them by the end of the night. It was a horrible, heartbreaking story, but for me, it was a stupid one. The paragraph explaining that fate was written by the gods and the stars, and no human being could walk a different path towards happiness when doom was written in their future.

“Fate is a funny thing, Doe. I have seen things happen all my life. I have seen many ways to end up in the same situation over and over again. Attempting to change things will not prevent what is supposed to happen. I’ve tried to. I’ve tried so many times, and the one time I was able to… after so many failures, there is this fear in me that someday, evenhisfate will come true, and this time, I can’t protect him—” her voice broke in a pained sob. The sound of her pain physically hurt me.

My damp hair splayed out on my back, and I turned around a second later, pulling the girl in the angel costume close. Maisie no longer wore wings, which made it easy for me to close my arms around her small figure. I was afraid that I would break her if I hugged her too tightly in this state.

When she had stopped trying to inhale more air than her lungs could handle, her breathing turned regular again, and I whispered, “I’ll help you however I can, I promise.”

Maisie brushed her tears away as she pulled back. She wasn’t wearing long sleeves, so I stepped forward, gently cleaning her face with the cuffs of the jumper Archer had given me.

“Thank you,” she breathed, a quiet hiccup breaking her voice.

Giving her a gentle smile, I hoped that it might give her some sort of comfort.

“You have the ability to see the future?” I dared to ask her when tears stopped covering her cheeks and her eyelashes had dried up.

The answer seemed pretty obvious after what she’d just said, but I wanted to hear it for myself. I was curious if everyone in their friend circle was like me. How were they able to see things when others couldn't, and how did they end up here because no one believed them?

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