Midnight's Song (34 page)

“Hello?” I called out again, this time
softly in case it was an animal that I didn’t want to alarm. “Is
anyone there?”

The bushes rustled again.

“Please, show yourself,” I begged, now
pleading it in a raspy, fearful whisper.

The bushes rustled one
last time, and in the faint moonlight I could see a tall figure
emerge through the bushes, eyes glowing.

“Rhys?” I again
recollected, positive from the glow that it must have been him.
Then the figure stepped closer, features clarifying in the
moonlight. The mouth located beneath his glowing eyes rolled into a
large smirk.

It wasn’t Rhys.

“Hello, Princess.” It said to me
sinisterly.

In that moment, I
knew that my life was in immediate danger. When I darted, so did
he. The dastardly man grabbed me by the wrists, and I opened my
mouth to scream. He quickly muffled me. The one hand he had used to
restrain me was big enough to wrap itself around
both
of my wrists and
hold them there firmly. The other one remained pressed to my face,
coldly and so big that it covered my nose enough to nearly
suffocate me.

“
Stop
squirming!” The man commanded, beginning to take my body and drag
it across the forest floor. “You’re easier than I was told you’d
be. All I had to do was dwell here, and on the very first day you
came
right to me!”

The man began laughing as he toted me
painfully across the forest floor. I still never gave up, pulling
against him with all of my might. He was so much stronger than I
was that it was totally useless. His grip was like iron – strong in
a way that seemed practically inhuman.

“You are in for a treat,
you see,” the man began gloating again. “I’m bringing you to the
one who has been seeking your soul for quite some time.”

Tears poured down my
cheeks now, and I realized that as much as I kicked and screamed
there was nothing I could do now. I was at his mercy. What I feared
he was about to do would undoubtedly be the most terrifying act I
could fathom. Yet, even though I had realized that it was futile, I
continued to fight. It wasn’t my nature to ever let myself die
defenselessly. Strangely enough, he didn’t fight back this
time.

“Stop it, I say!” The man angrily
commanded. “I could easily overpower you!”

Then why didn’t he? I continued
kicking, but the man still didn’t fight back. Apparently it was
important that I was in one piece, because if this one couldn’t
break me, someone else was obviously meant to do it. He once again
started dragging me back into the forest, but something caused him
to stop. It was another strange rustling in the bushes, this time
just an earshot away.

Within no more than
two second – I kid you not – another tall figure literally
flew
out of the bushes
and tacked my attacker to the ground. The sinister man’s grip no
longer restraining me, I got up and began to back away in shock of
what had just happened. For a few seconds I was frozen like a deer
in the headlights. I stood in place, looking down in shock as my
attacker remained defenselessly on the ground. I caught a glimpse
of my rescuers face as he held the man down in an incredibly strong
grip.

It was Rhys.

“Elissa, go!”
Rhys shouted as he looked up at me, apparently
laboring to hold the man down. “Run, and don’t look
back!”

After those few, aimless seconds of
standing there I finally realized the urgency of the situation and
began backing away in astonishment. My slow walking backwards
quickly worked its way up to a full-fledged, terrified run as I
realized the strength of the man that had pinned my captor to the
ground to allow my escape. I turned from them and ran into the
forest, but in the midst of this terrifying scene – something
caused me to stop. Instead of heeding Rhys’s words, I heard a sound
that caused me curiosity.

My head turned from
him, he had assumed that I was going to obey him – so he had
already begun to do it under the assumption that it was an act I’d
never see. But, it was an act that I could clearly
hear
.
It sounded
as if the struggle had subsided, and a gush of air had been pushed
forward. My hair wisped around my face and the back of my neck. I
know it must have been air –
I felt
it.

Dangerous as it may
have been, I stopped where I was. I took to the nearest tree and
hid
.
I closed my
eyes and said a little prayer, then I made the sign of the cross
with every ounce of piousness in my body. Then, I peered out from
behind the tree and saw it. Now that I had, there was no way to go
back.

Rhys was no longer
pinning my attacker with his hands. As soon as I had turned from
him, he had released his grip on him. But, he hadn’t let him go.
Now he was holding him back
without
his hands. He had the man held high in the air,
apparently with pressure somehow constricting his neck and keeping
my captor from moving – and Rhys wasn’t even touching him. There
was no proper explanation but the supernatural
.

If I thought I was in trouble before,
there was no telling of the trouble I’d be in now.

In the intensity of the
moment, my pulse was racing. This explained everything, I realized,
yet at the same time it still explained nothing. I should have gone
from where I was hiding at that very moment, but curiosity forced
me to stay.

“Luca, leave her out of this!” Rhys
yelled at the man as he dangled in mid-air. “I’m the one he wants,
am I not? What has she done to become part of this?”

The man squirmed, his hands firmly
locked around an invisible ring that seemed to be constricting his
neck. He glared at Rhys and began spitting at him. He called him by
a name…a name that I hadn’t heard him called by before.

“Oh, but you are
mistaken,
Prince
Aurelian!
She has everything to do
with this now! She’s seen you – and the darkness has seen
her!”

When the dastardly man said it, my
rescuers face flashed with anger and concern. Apparently it caused
his invisible grip to tighten even more.

“You dare associate
her with the darkness
?”
He snarled. “Don’t say such things! Leave her
alone, or I’ll –”

“Or you’ll what?”
The man interrupted, rasping underneath his grasp. “Kill me? Go
right ahead
.
I
dare you. I know you won’t do it – because if you do, you know what
will happen. This darkness was always meant for you! Kill me and it
will only find you sooner.”

Suddenly, my valiant knight fell into
a state of helplessness. He eased back, putting the man down. The
words he said was true – he couldn’t do it. Not even if it meant my
safety or anyone else’s. If he was to remain the way he was, he
could never stop running. Luca looked in his direction and
sinisterly smiled.

“I knew you couldn’t do it. So did
Faolan. You just don’t have it in you. Not even enough courage to
defend the one you love!”

“Leave,
now
.”
My
liberator growled. Luca still didn’t move.

“You can’t keep on
running forever,
Aurelian.
Fate has spoken. You’ve let your emotions run too
deep. You’ve become too closely entwined with her now for Faolan to
ever let her go.”

“I said,
leave!”
He barked again, sounding clearly
defeated. “Go back to your king. Tell him that if he wishes to take
me, he must stop being a coward and take me himself. But, leave her
out of it. Now go!”

Now, my defender had
been subjugated by his very words. Knowing that a fight would be
useless, Luca disappeared. Rhys – Aurelian – or
whoever
he was; closed his eyes and
let out a deep breath. His face was pale and stunned. Watching this
all happen from a distance, I was clutching the splintering edge of
the tree bark as my hands trembled.

“Elissa, come out. I know
that you’re there.”

Apparently I hadn’t been
hiding so quietly after all.. I slowly stepped out from behind the
tree, and the man who had just rescued me opened his eyes and
turned toward me.

“How could you have known?” I dazedly
asked, expecting that he had known of my presence because of a
supernatural intuition.

“I could hear you moving back there
from the very moment you stopped,” he coldly replied. “If you’re
going to hide like that, you should work on your
footing.”

I stopped for a
moment, sensing the torment that he felt in his soul. I could have
run away at that moment, but I didn’t. I was
compelled –
compelled by a feeling I
couldn’t quite explain – to
stay.
.

“Your name isn’t Rhys, is
it?” I began.

“No, it’s not.”

Our eyes met, and I found myself in a
daze. What could he be? Could it have been possible that he
was…more than human? I cautiously came up to him, the entire
landscape shrouded in silence as I did so. I came within arm’s
length and gently brushed my hand against his face. Oddly enough,
he didn’t pull away. I traced the outline of it with my finger. It
all seemed very human to me.

“How much did you see?” He suddenly
asked, clearly troubled that I was still here. I gave him a simple
answer:

“Enough
.”

The secret was out. It was
understood that I had seen him, and now I knew the truth. Perhaps I
didn’t know everything – but I knew that what I had seen and heard
was evidence that the man standing before me was of a different
form of human. He came from a world much different than I could
have ever believed.

“Who are you?” I gently asked, seeing
the reflection of the moon in his eyes. At that moment, he pulled
away from me and knelt down on the ground.

“I am Prince
Aurelian
,
firstborn heir to the throne of the Night Kingdom and all of
the other worldly realms.”

He bowed his head as
if he were before a queen himself. At the moment, I couldn’t fathom
why he would be bowing to
me.
I knew that his words were true – too much had
happened for me to dispute it. I gently grabbed his hand and urged
him to stand.

“I am sorry that I have
brought you into this,” he lamented. “It would be best that now you
go. We must not see each other anymore.”

The prince had been
lowered to the point that he felt his danger to me had reduced him
to dust. Now there was no going back, and he knew that no matter
what happened now my life was in jeopardy because of it. I think
that at that moment, even though my mind didn’t realize it; my soul
did. Aurelian’s predicament was the same as mine. Instead of
fearing him, now I was intrigued. Presently, there was no room in
my curiosity for any fear. I refused to accept this
rebuke.

“No,
Aurelian,”
the name
tingled as it came from my lips. “I have seen too much to go
back!”

He looked downward, doing all he could
to avoid my eyes. The inevitable truth stood before him, but it was
a truth that he couldn’t accept. It pained him beyond
words.

“It’s too dangerous. You must go and
forget this moment.”

He urged me to go, but I stood my
ground. Something in me gave me the courage to stay. Now I was
entranced with him more than I ever had been before. He had saved
my life – that was something that I could never forget. Instead of
leaving, I only came in closer to him. As much as he had been
resisting me, he still didn’t pull away.

“You’ve just saved my
life. No matter what anyone says or does, I refuse to forget.” I
declared. “Now I owe you.”

“Elissa, you owe me
nothing. Especially not after all that’s been done to you,”
Aurelian protested. But, I hushed him.

A powerful wave of emotion
swept over me. Overcome by it, I stood on the tops of my toes to
reach him. He couldn’t fight it any longer – he swept me up and
leaned in to me. Our noses delicately brushed against each other.
Even though he knew inside that he shouldn’t have, he still didn’t
back away.

If we had been trying to avoid this
moment, we were only kidding ourselves.

First it was just a
peck, and then we both pulled each other in and together we
exchanged the most beautiful, meaningful kiss. It was the most
magical feeling I’d ever experienced up until that point. I’m not
just making a sappy analogy here – it must have been
true magic
. Those few
seconds felt as if they lasted an entire lifetime. The entire world
around us seemed to stop, our connection almost seeming to cause a
radiant glow to light then entire forest.