Midnight's Song (46 page)

On top of all that, I still couldn’t
find the book! I looked on top of my bed, underneath my covers and
pillows, and beneath the bed itself. Then I looked in the closet,
my vanity, and nearly all of my bedside drawers. Still, there was
no sign of my precious book. It seemed I had thought of nearly
every place it could have been, but then I looked at my bedside
table and remembered that I still hadn’t looked there.

I uncovered a few more pillows before
rashly grabbing the knob of my bedside table and trusting it open.
When I saw what was inside, I was overcome by an even stranger
feeling. The drawer was all but empty except for one, small thing.
A nearly empty, unmarked glass vial rolled around in the drawer and
stopped when it reached the wood at the end closest to me. I picked
up the peculiar object and held it in my hands for a few moments.
What could it be? Even though it was unmarked, I couldn’t help but
feel as if there was something incredibly dangerous about it.
Despite my feelings, I kept it in my hand unwittingly while I
ventured into the room across the hallway. Perhaps the book would
be in there.

However, when I
opened the door I had no idea what I would find on the other side.
When I saw it, I felt the life drain from my skin and my body begin
to tremble. The tears began welling out of my eyes at that very
moment, but I couldn’t find the strength to scream. Right there –
right in front of my eyes – I saw a
dead
body
. It was the cold, pale body of
Winston Everen. Death was a growing commonality in my life, but
this didn’t make rational sense to me. Winston was a young man in
the prime of his life, how could this be him? I suddenly found the
energy to scream, but as I opened my mouth I found myself suddenly
halted by a hand that swooped over it from
behind.

“Hello, niece.” It
was Beeti. I struggled and screamed to break free, but a new
strength had somehow surfaced in the woman that kept me bound and
nearly frozen in her grasp. “Are you looking for something?
A
book
perhaps?”

For a few seconds she continued to
cover my mouth, continuing to do so until I had stopped screaming
from behind the barrier she had made over my mouth. She was sure
not to let me go until she was certain that I wouldn’t yell for
help. Even though I was terrified, I instinctually knew not to
raise my voice now. I refrained from doing so, and soon enough
Beeti released me from her grasp.

“What is going on here?” I sternly but
quietly snared at her.

“That is a question that I should be
asking you, my dear,” Beeti snidely replied. I almost opened my
mouth to scream another time, but she quickly put a finger to my
mouth. “And don’t scream. Otherwise you won’t be getting your hands
on the book that you so greatly need.”

“How could you know what I
need right now?” I shook, presently in shock over the dead body
sitting just a few feet away from us. In the next second, Beeti
reached behind her back and seemed to literally conjure up
something that hadn’t been there before. She reached behind her
back – as if by magic – and pulled forth the very book of fairy
tales which I had been seeking. She opened it up to the page I had
read with the tale of The Secret Prince and taunted me with it,
flipping the pages back and forth as she dangled it above my
head.

“I know that you
need this book…and see, now I have it!” She eyed me venomously.
“I’ve tasted the sweet power of magic, and I absolutely
love
it. That’s why I’m
going to use it to take back what’s mine and more. I will take back
my title, my estate, my daughter – and now I can take
from
you what you need
just as you’ve taken from me.”

Beeti eyed me so
venomously that she might have even spat at me in that moment. Her
words were vicious and vengeful, and even more than that her
actions seemed to bend reality. Could Beeti honestly be practicing
magic? Her darkness revealed, I knew it was true.

Seeing the book before me,
I unwittingly jumped up and tried to grab it from her. The page I
reached for tore into my hand. Before I could latch on to it again,
the book vanished. Beeti’s eyes bled sadism, seeming to say that
she’d sent it away to the far reaches of the universe.

Like a petal fallen from a
lifeless rose, I touched the parchment in grief. It was torn and
incomplete. There was no way it could tell me how the story ends. I
went silent and cold, realizing I’d been defeated.

“That book is belongs to
me now, niece. Everything of yours belongs to me, even your dearest
fiancé. And now you are mine, also. Your death will soon come, and
then your blood will be on my hands,” she leaned in closer to me,
beginning to whisper. “Mine and the Magistrate’s.”

“What are you talking about?” I cried.
Beeti snidely looked over at Winston’s body, and so did
I.

“You shall see soon
enough. In fact, you should already know.
You’re
the one who
murdered
your own
fiancé.” She barked.

“I – I don’t understand,” I stammered,
the tears falling from my eyes.

“Look at him,” Beeti
bent down next to Winston’s body at that moment, tenderly but
sickeningly running her finger over what was once his face. “This
kind of death…of a man so young, so wealthy…could only come from a
strong, potent
poison.
One that comes only from the deepest malice and most
murderous thinking.”

At that moment, my heart
stopped. I knew exactly what had happened. I bubbled up with anger,
terror, and utter rage. All of my emotions mingled with each other,
causing me to tremble more and more every moment.

“
You!”
I rasped. “You murderous
wretch! You killed him, didn’t you?”

“Perhaps I did, but perhaps I didn’t,”
Beeti tauntingly spoke up to me in reply. She suddenly stood up and
grabbed my hand with the poison in it. “Regardless, the people will
believe that you are in fact the perpetrator. See? The poison is in
your very hand!”

I struggled to free
myself from her grasp, but this time she wouldn’t let me go. A
large group of people moved into the room to restrain me. It was
clear that this was no longer a simple confrontation – this was a
trap. I was being framed for
murder
.

“Let me go, I did no such thing!” I
screamed as two burly men restrained me. But, it was no use. Beeti
gloated as if she had finally made her most prized kill.

“You murdered Winston,”
Beeti snared. “All of the evidence will soon point to it, and the
entire country will believe it. That will give the world no better
reason to rid you from it!”

They dragged me into the
hallway, where most servants in the house gathered to watch not
long after. I screamed and shouted to all of the servants as they
came into the hall. A small group of my friends were gathered in
the doorway to what used to be Grandmamma’s room, watching silently
as I was dragged away.

“Help me! You all know I am innocent!”
I shouted to them, though they remained silent. It was as if they
truly believed that I was a murderer! “I was nowhere near here
until this very hour! You can attest to it, can’t you?”

“Elissa, don’t lie,” a
voice spoke in the crowd. It was Jackoby. “We all saw you today. We
even covered you when you left with the Duke. I am no liar, and now
I can see that you clearly are.”

My heart sunk. These were
my closest allies, and now even they didn’t believe I was innocent.
My mind whirled in complete disbelief. How could they believe I
would have been capable of this? Another voice spoke up from among
them.

“I believe you!” It shouted, the voice
of a young woman. She wove her way out of the crowd and shouted to
everyone in the hallway. “I was with Lady Elissa all day today. She
did no such thing! You know that she wouldn’t!”

“Oh, be quiet Emily!”
Jackoby snapped. “Don’t let your loyalties blind you. Taking her
side will bring more trouble than you need!”

I was quickly dragged out
of the hallway. Beeti walked behind me the entire way, acting as
grand marshal of the parade. The men stopped at the closet beside
the grand staircase and threw me in, locking me inside. I pounded
on the door, but it was no use. Beeti snared at me on the other
side.

“The Magistrate’s guards
will be coming for you first thing in the morning. Then your crime
will be publicized, the public will call for your execution. You
will be burned at the stake!’”

After that, she left. I
fell to the ground and wrapped myself in tears. Now I was
completely alone. I called for Aurelian madly, but he never came.
Even my closest friend seemed helpless. My friends and family were
gone. Soon, the entire world would believe I was a murderer. There
would be no trial – there never was. Once the accusation came, the
Magistrate would bestow the punishment.

“Aurelian, where are you?”
I cried, burying my head in my knees. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry that I
went back!”

I held the paper in my
hands. This had seemed like my salvation, but now it was part of my
demise. Perhaps Aurelian had been right. Even if the book did hold
the end of my story, all was lost. It seemed that now my prince was
lost as well.

Realizing that this was
the end, I gave up. This page was useless now, yet as much as I
wanted to tear it up I couldn’t. I sensed that I still needed to
keep it, so I tucked it away in my corset. If I burned, it would
burn with me.

When my tears went dry, I
fell against the wall in exhaustion. Sometime after that, I found
myself being woken up by a twisting doorknob. I stood up at once,
bracing myself for what was coming. I was almost certain I knew
what was on the other side.

When I saw the true face,
I couldn’t help but be surprised. At first I could hardly believe
it. This couldn’t truly be who I thought it was – not after all
that had happened. But, the door opened wider and the light grew
with it. As the light grew I could see the clear image of my
greatest ally.

“Elissa,” Emily whispered.
She threw her arms around me and sobbed. “I’m sorry we didn’t come
sooner. The men who took you locked me up, too. Haley helped me
escape, but then it still took me a half hour to find the key…”
Emily told me in a frantic rush, stopping herself before she had
let herself explain far too long. “But, that’s not important now.
I’m here. I only want to know, why did you come back?”

“I didn’t want to be
a coward,” I told her, my voice raspy from the yelling I’d done in
this whole ordeal. “But that’s not important now, either. Why
did
you
come
back?”

“I could never leave
a sister behind.” She grabbed my hands. “But, there’s no time to
catch up now. It’s 4:45 am, and the police are coming to make your
arrest in less than half an hour. We must take you away from
here
now!”

“Where will we go? What
about the underground?” I asked.

“Someone followed us the
last time. The police have already closed it off,” Emily explained
in a rush, taking me down the hallway. “There is a carriage at the
edge of the forest that’s ready to take you to the Desert Country.
It might be dangerous, but the only chance you have is to leave
right now!”

“Has there been any sight of
Aurelian?” I asked meekly in the end, remembering where I’d last
seen my prince in the caverns.

“No. It’s up to us,
now.”

I didn’t argue this
time, I only ran. We wove through the lesser-known parts of the
house and through the ballroom until we reached the glass hallway
that led to the courtyard. Though, when I peered through the glass
I stopped. There were officers, everywhere
.

“Emily, they’re all out there –
waiting – I don’t think that they’re going to arrest me,” I said
coldly. “This looks more like…”

“Another
trap
,”
Emily
numbly murmured.

Not knowing what else to
do, we went back to the main house. There must have been another
exit. To our horror, the outside of the house was surrounded by
police at all corners. We ran up and down the stairs, trying to
find someplace to go or hide. Though, it was almost no use. There
was no door that we could leave through, no window we could sneak
out of without being shot by the guards waiting to close in on
us.

The time for our escape
was dwindling. By the time the clock struck 5:00 am, we were stuck
in the familiar but endless maze of my own hallway.

The front door opened with
a force I’d never experienced before. Thunderous footsteps rattled
the walls. This was it. We stood frozen in the hallway, realizing
how futile this escape attempt was.

“Emily, you need to leave now,” I
whispered, realizing that I would soon be taken by the
men.

“No,” Emily
asserted. “I’m with you to the
end
.”

Emily grabbed my hand, and
I grabbed hers. Instead of standing our ground, she did something
unexpected. At the last second, she opened the door to my room and
threw me in. She slammed it, locked it, and used her body to block
it from the outside.