Page 98 of The Last De Loughrey Dynasty

“It’s not that easy. I don’t seepaths, I see only one. It’s like our future has been manifested centuries before our souls even wandered on this place. Fate is destiny. Everything I see will happen eventually, and whatever I do I can’t change–I–I can’t–” her breathing turned rapidly, and she started shaking, her eyes clouding. A sign that the sight took hold of her, and I hooked my arm around her waist, steadying her as she leaned fully into me.

“I’m right here, Mai,” I reassured her with the nickname Archer had given her, knowing it gave her some familiar comfort.

Snow had stopped falling, but dark clouds were still covering the afternoon sky. Cold air gushed through my open hair, and Maisie shivered in my arms. I was almost sure that most students were either in their dorms or in the common room, so I gently dragged my friend inside with me, where the air was thicker and warmth hugged my cheeks in an instant.

Not a single soul wandered through the corridors. I sat down with Maisie on the old bench where some students had carved their initials in the wood decades ago.

I took her beanie off and stroked her white-blonde hair. “You’re fine, Mai. I’m not leaving you,” I whispered against her hair, pressing a soft kiss to it.

This wasn’t the first time I was with her during one of her visions. The last time was right before Christmas break. I had found her cowered on the floor in our room after archery. She didn’t want to talk to me afterwards and just asked me to call Nathaniel, who stayed with her the night while I slept over at Jesse’s room.

She whimpered softly and blinked the vision away.

“Are you okay?” I asked, even though the answer was more than obvious.

“No.”

“Should I get Nathaniel?”

Maisie shook her head slightly, and a tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly brushed it away, not giving it any form of acknowledgment. “Please don’t. That’s not what he’s made for. I’m the one who’s supposed to be there for him, not the other way around. I want to be his anchor, I’m supposed to be… I’m grand. Really.”

I shook my head at her, shifting so that I was kneeling on the ground before her. “Nathaniel loves you, Maisie. I have never witnessed love like yours before, and frankly, all you have is what anyone could ever wish for. You’re his anchor and he’s yours. Caring is the epitome of love, and you two care. I couldn’t imagine either of you existing in a world without the other.”

Maisie cringed her face as if she were in some kind of pain.

“I–I– can’t speak about it, I just don’t want him to know about this, okay?” Not sure what she was afraid of, I nodded. If she didn’t want him to know about her vision today, then I wasn’t telling him anything.

Maisie brushed her hands over her skirt, picking up the papers I had peeled out of her hands and laid on the bench beside her. She stood up and swallowed tiredly. “I’m sorry, sometimes talking about the sight triggers me tosee.”

I straightened and brushed my hand over her arm. “No need to be sorry, Maisie.”

The Moon Will Singby The Crane Wives started playing quietly, and Maisie reached for her cell phone in her cardigan pocket.

“Hello,” she answered, and the exhaustion in her voice worried me. “I’m fine, Mum, just a little stressed with school. What’s going on?... really?” Her face lit up at whatever her mother had just told her. “Yes, of course, I’ll be careful. Thank you, Mum.” She smiled softly and hurried to say, “I love you.” But by the way, she lowered the phone, I guessed that her mother had already ended the call.

“I’m allowed to visit my grandmother,” she announced, her happiness returning to her face, but it didn’t take away her tired eyes.

“She’s in a nursing home, and my mother wouldn’t let me visit her because she’s always getting confused when she sees me. She has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t remember me, most of thetime, she thinks I’m my mother,” she explained in her usual fast voice, and this time I actually had trouble understanding the words. My guess was that she was overwhelmed by everything. That was also why she fidgeted the phone in her hands without a care it could fall down.

I opened my mouth to tell her how sorry I am that she has to go through this because I couldn’t imagine my Nan forgetting my existence, and I could only imagine how much that must hurt, but Maisie continued, “It’s sad, I know. But I have this theory that she might remember what happened on the seventh of July all those years ago when she sees you…”

“Because I look exactly like Dottie,” I finished, and she nodded eagerly.

“Before she got sick, she taught me everything about the sight, so she knows. She just needs something to remind her. And that is you.”

This could actually work.

Her grandmother was the one writing the riddles. She saw mine and Archer’s future.

Her memories could be the key to everything we’ve been missing.

The nursing homewhere Maisie’s grandmother lived was located three hours away from Owley by tube.

It was Friday, and we’d gotten permission from Maisie’s mother to leave campus to visit her grandmother.

“What was the secret you tried to tell me yesterday?” I asked as we crossed the street towards the nursing home. The main reason why I was asking now was because I saw the nervousness eating at my friend the closer we got to the home. The last timeshe had been allowed to visit her grandma was when she was fifteen.

That was almost three years ago.

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