Page 76 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

My eyes were glued to the words that were slowly forming in red ink and only in the back of my mind did I feel that someone took my hand and wrapped something around my stinging fingers.

“If you read this, I’ve done everything I will ever do in my life. My soul has long left this version of me and my body has started to dissolve by nature’s hand. This story started with hope and ended in ruin. Tomorrow, I’m nothing more than a lore that once was. Read my story carefully to understand the gravity of what happened,” I read the words on the first page out loud. “My name is Dorothee ‘Dottie’ Odette De Loughrey, and this isn’t the story of how my life ended. This is the story of a star that outshone the moon, revealing that only the sun’s light is the reason why he shines when his heart is born out of nothing more than darkness.” I leaned back in my chair and looked at my hand that was wrapped in a bandage. Archer was holding me by my wrist, and to my surprise, he wasn’t looking at the diary, he was looking at me.

“Don’t fall for the ways of the moon. That was what Dottie had told me in my dream,” I told my friends, pulling my hand out of his grip and holding it to my chest.

I didn’t want to feel his touch.

“We know that you’re the star. Maybe Kane symbolises the moon,” Maisie broke the silence. Her eyes twitched from side to side as if she were deep in thought. But as Nathaniel leaned her gently against his shoulder, I guessed that she wasn’t in thought, but having a vision.

This was the first time I saw her like this. Her face was losing all its colour to the point where she looked sick, her natural rosycheeks gone. Her onyx eyes turned watery but not in the sad way, it looked like fog was placing itself subtly over her iris.

Nathaniel took her hand in his free one, and she squeezed tightly while she blinked free of whatever took hold of her during these episodes. All eyes were on Maisie as we waited for her to tell us what she saw.

“Kane will be there that night. I saw a glimpse of him in a grey suit. His hands were covered in blood, and he held a shovel, digging a hole.”

“What night?” I asked. Her dark eyes met mine, and she pulled the cuffs of her clean jumper down before she answered in a small voice, “The night of the ball. The Ball of Aquila.”

“Isn’t that the day before the school year ends?”

Maisie nodded. “Most parents come to join the ball, and each class gets one hour more to their timetable once a week, two months before, to memorise the traditional dances for the night. The most important day of the year.”

When I had done my research about the school, I came across an article that described the importance of the Ball of Aquila. The ball represents the structure of the school and how spiralling children learn to adapt to society. Some even said, rumour has it that the ghosts of the founders of the school return to haunt the halls of Aquila if the festival activities get slandered. At this point, I didn’t even doubt that.

“That’s July the seventh, right? That’s almost eight months from today.” Eight months was more than enough to change fate.

“You said that James told you that everything began with the stars,” Naomi, who sat up straight in her chair, said in Archer’s direction. He nodded, and she scratched her nose, her expression hinting that she was buried in her own thoughts.

“On the seventh day of the seventh month, we celebrate Tanabata in Japan. It’s a celebration of the reunion of thetwo star-crossed lovers, Orihime and Hikoboshi, who are represented by the stars Altair and Vega. A tragic tale, but the star festival is a day to celebrate their love and our own. It could be a coincidence that these two fall on the same day, but… I can’t shake the feeling off that in some way the stories could be connected. When I first came here, I believed the ball was a form to show our happiness for Orihime and Hikoboshi, since Altair is also the brightest star in the Aquila constellation.”

Naomi took her gloves by the loose material on her fingers and smoothly pulled them off her hands, placing them in front of her on the table, since she didn’t need to wear them in here.

“What are star-crossed lovers?” I questioned, feeling captivated by the summary of the story. I’ve never heard of Tanabata, or any story that evolved around the stars in the form of lovers.

Naomi’s eyes lit up, and I guessed that she loved this story, or at least found so much interest in the two lovers’ lore that she’d love to tell me the details. Seeing people getting excited over telling someone about something they enjoy or are passionate about was always something I adored.

“Star-crossed lovers are doomed lovers. Plenty of people who believe in astrology also believe that the stars control the humans’ destiny—which now doesn’t seem so far off. Anyway, those lovers won’t be able to be together for some reason, like rivalry, such as Romeo and Juliet, or because they angered the stars themselves, which caused them to work against their relationship,” she explained thoughtfully, meeting Archer’s gaze for half a second. “In this case, Orihime was a celestial princess, daughter of the God of heavens and weaver of beautiful clothes from the heavenly rivers. She grew lonely and sad over the years of weaving, believing love could never find her, so her father introduced her to a cow herder, Hikoboshi. The two fell instantly in love and were so profound that they started neglecting theirduties. Orihime stopped weaving and Hikoboshi allowed his cows to wander through the heavens. Her father, the God of heavens, became so angry that he forbade them from being together. Separating them across the starry river, also known as the Milky Way. But Orihime loved Hikoboshi so dearly that she pleaded with her father to let them be together. Despite his wrath, he loved his daughter, so he allowed them to be together once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month.”

I listened carefully, taking in every little detail Naomi revealed about their story, and a wave of sadness hit me when she returned to my original question.

“Star-crossed lovers often occur when you feel a deep connection to someone that is unexplainable, but there is this force that’s pushing you apart, making it utterly impossible for the love to be lifelong or even a thing at all.”

“I wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” I breathed, while this ache in my chest didn’t leave me. “From what we know about the stars so far, I’d say they have a cruel image of love in more than one way.”

Archer cleared his throat. “Let’s get back to why we are here, it’s getting late. We can spend the weekend searching the archives of the library regarding Aquila and its history.”

I frowned at the way he changed the subject so suddenly but didn’t bother to talk back. It was getting late, and I was getting tired, he was right.

Forcing myself to dedicate my full concentration on the book in front of me, I flipped the page and began reading.

January 13th, 1970

Dear Diary,

I think that my dear friend James is trying to win my heart for himself.

Who would have thought that noble James Kingstone was capable of loving anything but the image that’s looking back at him in the mirror? Certainly, I did not.

We’ve been friends for forever now. I still remember the tall, clumsy boy who asked me if I wanted to trade my chocolate pudding for his vanilla one. Back then, we were thirteen. Now I’m almost eighteen and still trade my chocolate for his vanilla. We could just ask for the flavour we liked, but this had become our thing. Last Thursday, when we met at the hideaway, he handed me a fancy package filled with vanilla-flavoured sweets and a message that read that he likes it when I wear my hair in its natural structure, with the tiny curls not hidden away.

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