Midnight's Song (51 page)

“Goodbye, Aurelian,”
I softly told him as I sobbed into his chest. Faolan jealously
watched from a distance, able to hear what I was saying in full but
remaining quiet. “I know that when you wake, there will be pain.
But, I hope that one day you will know the truth. I pray that one
day you will find comfort and happiness in knowing that I
will
always
love
you.”

My words caused Faolan to seethe. I
bent down to kiss Aurelian, but the very notion of it caused Faolan
so much jealousy that he broke his silence. He narrowed his gaze at
me and spoke up in a way that revealed a weaker, threatened side to
his prideful persona.

“Kiss him and he’s dead!” Faolan
threatened. “You are my bride now. You must be faithful to me.
Otherwise, I won’t keep my word.”

I pulled myself away from Aurelian in
an instant, forcefully and tearfully retracting before I could give
him my kiss. It left a great and incomplete void in my heart, but I
still couldn’t do anything that might cost him his life. Faolan
still paid no care to my plight. He again demanded that I proceed
to rid myself of his brother’s ring. In fear of what might happen
next, I put my hands around my neck and began to unlatch the chain.
Though, there was a sudden thought that crossed my mind at that
moment that caused me to hesitate. It was a thought that was
accompanied by an overwhelming urge to keep it.

For some reason, there was a feeling I
had inside that as long as I kept this ring with me there was hope
that someday Aurelian and I might be together again. Although
Faolan was urging me to return it, I just knew I couldn’t do it. My
arms froze in place for a few seconds, remaining in the same
position they were when they began to unlatch the chain. Seeing my
hesitance, the possessive Faolan threatened me again.

“Are you a faithful bride, Elissa?”
Faolan jealously quizzed. “A faithful bride wouldn’t hesitate to
return an object of her former lover’s affections.”

I took in a deep breath,
shaking.

“I’m only trying to unlatch this…it
appears to be stuck,” I lied.

“Well, should I come and help you
release it?” Faolan growled through his teeth.

“No,” I tried to tell him calmly,
still shaking. “That won’t be necessary.”

I ripped it from my neck in a second,
trying to make it seem as if I was really going through with it. I
took the ring and made it seem like I was tucking it underneath the
collar of Aurelian’s shirt. Though, in reality I had already tucked
it into my cloak pocket and out of sight. In the corner of my eye,
I saw something else I’d stolen away with just a few hours
earlier.

It was the page that
seemed to tell the story of our destinies – the lone piece I had
from my lost book of folklore. I had a sudden urge to rush and get
it, but I knew better than to do it. If I didn’t leave with Faolan
soon, there was no way to know what kind of ill-tempered rage he
would be thrown into. So, I took in a deep breath and stood up,
turning back toward the glass and walking to Faolan.

“Are you ready?” Faolan irritatedly
snapped at me from behind the glass. “You’re lucky that I’m in such
a generous mood. All of this wailing of yours has been testing my
patience.”

He flashed me a snaring kind of stare
before urging me to come and join him. I looked down in reluctant
silence before giving him my answer.

“Yes, I’m ready,” I told
him.

In no more than a few seconds, he
reached through the translucent glass. After that, the rest of him
emerged. It was the first time he had actually physically crossed
over since appearing to me, and the moment that he did so I could
sense that there was something darker and more terrible to all of
this than I could imagine. For just a few seconds, I could see him
clearly. I studied his features, realizing that they were of the
same otherworldly handsomeness of Aurelian.

Beneath them, I could see his
tormented soul painfully and terrifyingly overwhelming his whole
being. For some reason, it caused me to feel pity for him. Yet, it
also intimidated and terrified me. Faolan suddenly looked down at
me, grinning almost gawkingly as he took note of our significant
difference in strength and height. Then, the King grabbed me.
Instead of taking me by the hand gently he took his arms and locked
them around my waist, thrusting me upwards into his grasp so that
there was no way for me to weave out of it.

Then, he turned back to the glass and
jumped.

“Welcome to the Night Kingdom,” he
told me in a grandiose voice once we reached the other side. No
longer fearing an attempted escape, he placed my feet back on the
ground.

“Where are we?” I quietly muttered. In
an instant I heard the sound of a great door snapping shut behind
us. A dreadful cold chilled my bones now, and when I opened my eyes
to see where I was all I could see was a place shrouded in
black.

“We’re one of the halls of the castle,
of course,” he answered. “Would you like me to show you where
you’ll be staying?”

I knew that it wasn’t truly a
question. A look of despair clouding my face, I hung my head low
and let him take my hand. Compared to mine it was unbearably cold,
almost like a corpse. In a moment of shock, I pulled my appendage
away from his. Faolan looked back at me in disgust.

“You’re resisting me?” He quizzed.
“Should I go back on my promise?”

I reluctantly shook
my head and went along with him for the rest of the journey. He
took me out of the blackness into a castle with scaling roofs and
vast corridors. This was nothing like the kind of castle that I
would have wishfully imagined as a little girl. It was dreary and
chokingly dark, cloaked in hues of every shadowy and unsettling
color. The entire way I also couldn’t rid myself of a growing
feeling that I was nearing closer to my
death
.

After a tour of many dreary, deserted
hallways and rooms Faolan brought me to an abrupt stop. Two eerily
familiar, towering doors stood before us. The sight made me shiver.
In my fears, I reached into my cloak pocket to get a small touch of
the ring. The motion brought me a moment of calm in the despair. It
also gave me back a rush of consciousness, even
strength.

All of a sudden I felt strong again,
as if I could stand my ground just a little more firmly when I had
given myself as a sacrifice in a way that I thought rendered me
helpless. I remembered my gift of strength and purity and found a
sense of peace. I also found myself met with a feeling that his
threats might have been void…that – I don’t know – things might not
have been as hopeless that they seemed.

Faolan sensed it,
too. He
hated
it.
This new sense of strength I had was surely a threat. Wanting to
exercise his power over me again, he narrowed his eyes and spat.
Faolan had already seen me reach into my pocket. He sneered as if
he already knew of my treachery. From behind a wicked grin, the
King violently grabbed my wrist to reveal the ring in my
grasp.

“You thought that
you could hide something from me?” Faolan suddenly snapped. “I’ve
known of your unfaithfulness from the moment you conspired to
disobey me. I can see
all
things
, Elissa. I already knew that you
weren’t going to be a faithful bride to me. Your heart belongs to
someone else.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?” I
shook.

“Because I didn’t take you here to
serve as a mere wife,” he growled in reply.

At that moment, he
used magic to thrust the doors open. On the other side of their
towering majesty I saw a tall ledge upon which sat the King’s
throne. The ledge was enormous, so enormous that there was a flight
of stairs that spanned at least 50 feet in the air simply to reach
the seat. If any mortal man were to fall from the very top, it
wouldn’t have been wrong to assume that it would be fatal. Beside
the seat, there was a large
golden
cage.
As soon as I saw it, I knew that
this journey had been for no marital engagement.

Faolan began to pull
me into the room, though with my strength back I didn’t cease
fighting him with kicks and screams along the way. It was useless.
With his inhuman strength he was able to drag me up the stairs in
less time than a single breath. Once we reached the top, he opened
the door to the cage and shoved me in. I grabbed the bars of the
door rashly, shaking them and trying to pry them open. I should
have known – I was no sacrifice – I was only entering into a
trap.

“Don’t bother trying to
find a way out,” Faolan warned me at once. “The cage is enchanted.
I am the only one who can unlock it.”

“Why have you done this to me?” I
desperately screamed from behind the bars. He only
laughed.

“Ha – I’ve done nothing to you yet,
foolish girl. Right now I am simply using you to get what I want,”
the monster answered.

“I thought that we had a deal,” I told
him as I held myself back from revealing any more potential
weakness in my tears. “I was to come here and marry you so that you
would spare Aurelian!”

“I didn’t promise that I would marry
you,” Faolan snidely remarked. “I only required that you agree to
it. Did I not also say that I may decide to let you suffer
something else?”

“So you’re going to kill me then,” I
darkly uttered, hanging my head low.

“Oh, don’t lament over it,” Faolan
rolled his eyes, somewhat annoyed. “I didn’t say I was going to
kill you, did I? Perhaps I will…perhaps I won’t. My terms were that
I would bring you here to serve a certain purpose. Though, exactly
what that purpose is may not be decided. For now, you have another
purpose…” he gave me a deranged look from outside of the cage. “A
purpose that will give me everything I want and more.”

Faolan reached his
hand into the cage, attempting to tenderly caress my face in his
sick fit of rage. As soon as he brushed against it I pulled away.
What did this sick man want? I didn’t care who or what he was
anymore – but I did care about what he was capable of. What was he
going to do to me? In a few seconds time, I began to realize that
this might not have actually been about
me
after all. Though, I tried to put
the worst thoughts from my mind and remain silent about my
suspicions.

“What is it that you want, Faolan?
Make up your mind! You already have the throne! You almost had me.
I was going to give myself to you…willingly,” I spoke up angrily as
I leaned against the cage. Maybe if I argued my case it could end
up sparing us.

“Silence!” He
demanded, leaning close in between the bars and snaring at me.
“Perhaps I will marry you – but not on
your
terms. No. First I have another
purpose for you to serve. Perhaps then I will decide to spare you
if I’m not tiresome of your company. You’re obviously not stupid.
You’ll realize what my intentions are soon
enough.”

What was this purpose he had for me to
serve? His riddles tormented me more than Aurelian’s ever could
have. I hated him – I hated all of this! He’d lured me here only to
trap me in a dreary castle and lock me in a golden cage. Whatever
the purpose was, I knew it couldn’t have been something pleasant.
There was nothing left that I could do but protest. Angered, I
screamed back at him.

“Why must it be this way? You’ve
already won a throne that wasn’t yours. Must you do the same to me,
a human being who cannot be won or claimed?”

In an instant,
Faolan taunted me with the ring that he had snatched from my hand.
Reminded of Aurelian, I sat down and hung my head low. Though, I
still didn’t let it leave my sight before taking note of the fact
that in Faolan’s hands the once purple gem had turned
completely
black.
Faolan suddenly grabbed me by the wrists and inched in toward
my face.

“You can be
claimed,” he said spitefully. “And now you belong to
me.”

Now I was fuming and
distressing all at the same time. It was clear now that Faolan
considered me his prisoner. It seemed that there was no way that he
was going to release me. Still, I knew in my heart that I didn’t
belong to him as he said I did. I would
never
belong to him. In a sudden
rush of passion, I stood up and gritted my teeth.

“I don’t care what
you say. I will
never
belong to you,” I felt another rush of passion at the sight
of the daunting ring. “My heart is Aurelian’s, and his
mine!”

“Then why don’t you take this ring as
a token of remembrance,” Faolan jokingly expressed, throwing the
ring into the place where I sat in the cage. I picked it up in my
hands and grasped the precious item with all of my might. “Now all
that you’ll ever have is your memories. From this moment, the rest
of your life will be filled with the aching of your missing
love!”

Still clutching the ring, I stood up
and challenged Faolan. I might not have fully understood what was
going on, but I did know what was good and true. I still had to
stand on my convictions. Faolan’s terms had been shady and plan
covered in lies; leading me to believe that this could only mean
that Aurelian would come back so that we could triumph over this
together. I clung to my hope – perhaps a bit rashly – so strongly
that I began to believe that this entire scenario was more harmless
than it was. I still didn’t fully see the trap before
us.