Seconds to Midnight: A Maiden of Midnight Prequel

Cain- Day Twenty-Four

Someone was in the chambers.

Sitting up in bed, my curtains blocking the light of the room, I glanced to my door, listening to the not-so-soft footsteps of someone trying to creep across the space.

It wasn’t any of Destiny’s Guardians. They were all asleep in their own rooms today. Even Lillian had retired for once. I was meant to be alone up here.

Whoever it was, they were walking loud enough that they obviously weren’t a Demonic-being, which left only one option, really.

Grinding my teeth to stop myself from roaring with anger, I opened my bedroom drawer, snatching up the knife I kept there, and padded softly to my own door.

When it opened, it was quiet enough that Joseph, who was creeping across the chambers, picking his way slowly through the maze of furniture, did not hear me.

In his hand was a bent lock-picking set.

I waited to see where he was going, despite knowing the answer in my gut.

It had been almost a week since he’d tried to convince me to open Destiny’s bedroom door, and he’d gone to Lyna and Zeella when I had refused.

Joseph reached the door, placing his lock-picking set aside and kneeling, examining the lock, his back to me. I crept up, much quieter than he had been, and paused behind him, just out of sight, flipping the knife in my hand so it was at the perfect angle to stab straight between his shoulder blades.

I would drag it along the length of his spine after that initial stab.

I tamped down on my anger again. Killing Joseph would mean angering my mother, which wasn’t a wise decision to make. She had made it clear what would happen to me if Joseph were to die.

The Manor is making its own plans.

Yeah, the satisfaction of killing Joseph wasn’t worth angering the Manor, or screwing with whatever plans they had.

Joseph paused to light a match, the flame flaring, and he twisted to light the small wax candle he’d brought with him, glancing over his shoulder, checking to see if I was still asleep.

My body slammed him into the wall before he could shout out, my hand covering his mouth and nose, his eyes going wide as I snarled, “Get. Out.” I let just a hint of Blood-Lust into my voice, enough to tell him that I wasn’t messing around, and he nodded hastily.

A slip of paper slid out from his pocket, darting, unnoticed, under the door. I didn’t let my gaze linger on it.

He packed up quickly, taking his candle and lockpicking set, and as he passed by me, I gripped his arm, “If I ever catch you trying to break into that room again, I’ll snap your neck. You can interview whoever you like, about whatever you want, except for Destiny.”

He bit the inside of his cheek, preventing himself from saying something in retaliation, and nodded again.

Throwing his arm aside, I stalked him all the way to the door, slamming it shut behind him and locking it. His footsteps were hurried as he ran.

Breathing deeply in, I forced myself to count to one-thousand, preventing myself from chasing after him and tearing him apart in the hallway.

He had been trying to break into Destiny’s room- I cut my own thoughts off, continuing to count, “One-hundred-and-two… One-hundred-and-three…”

When fifteen minutes had passed by, and I finally hit one-thousand, I remembered the slip of paper that had fallen from Joseph’s pocket.

Striding up to Destiny’s door, I unlocked it, glancing at the floor. It was spotless.

Frowning, I bent down low, peering for where it could have gone, and spotted it under her bed, having slid there.

Grabbing for it, I dragged it over to me. It was folded up, and coated. Some kind of matte laminate, like the type of paper-

Like the type of paper used for maps.

Hastily unfolding it, I felt the blood freeze in my veins.

It was a Korath map, detailing the various noteworthy locations around the city of Pangorama, and along its outskirts. Joseph had circled only one location.

The graveyard.

*

I sent Nym, Lydiav and Bal’gag up to Joseph’s room while I went to the graveyard.

I pulled the car to a stop outside the graveyard, throwing myself out and sprinting for where Destiny’s grave was, Joseph’s scent hanging fresh on the air.

He was here, and looking for her!

My mind raced with all the possibilities of what he might be trying to do, ranging from mundane to bleak. His visit here could be to merely confirm her existence, since she had a headstone here, or it could be much more sinister.

He could be trying to make sure she never came back.

I would die before letting that happen.

My feet slammed against the ground, the world blurring with how fast I ran, but when I spotted Joseph exiting the small visitor’s center, I paused, hiding behind a tree. First, I wanted to see what he was doing, so I could report back to the Manor, without a shadow of a doubt, that Joseph was a damned threat.

He hummed smugly to himself, my threat having done nothing to dampen his spirits, and I choked on my own rage when he grabbed a shovel from the side of the building, striding along the path toward Destiny’s grave.

He was definitely planning on digging her up, and since I could see no Necromancy supplies on him, his intention was clear.

Joseph Smith was planning on killing my cousin.

At the first sound of a shovel striking dirt, I stepped out from the tree, my power slamming him into the ground, and he shouted out in surprise, mud splattering up his sides, soaking into his clothes.

He must have believed it was some kind of ward stopping him from digging Destiny up.

Until he heard my footsteps.

“You followed me?!” He shouted it like it was absurd, like I was the lunatic in this dynamic, and grabbing his throat, I held him in place, slamming my other fist into his gut with enough force that it knocked the air from his lungs. I heard a rib fracture within him.

He crumpled, gasping and wheezing, and I picked up the shovel, snapping it over my knee, tossing the two pieces back in the direction of the visitor’s center.

“Did I not make myself clear in my threat?” I snarled, picking him up and punching him a second time. My knuckles barely ached, and he was beginning to turn red-faced.

“I tolerated your questions and your snooping around! I knew you were up to something, and I let it slide, but this- Her-” I pointed a finger wildly toward Destiny’s grave, “You do not have the privilege to even say her name!” I shook him, his legs rag-dolling underneath him, swinging back and forth, and he scratched at the arm that held him aloft. Another minute, and he would die from a lack of air. He fought with all the wildness of any person trying to survive, but his fingernails did nothing except sting, and I could live with that.

I wanted to kill him. Desperately. But it was much more informative to find out who he was working for. The best way to do that? See who he ran to first.

“I’m going to dump you right outside the Divider. You will leave, and never return! Whatever plan you had here, no matter who you were working for, you will abandon! I don’t care if it gets you, your wife, or your damned kids killed, you will not come back here! Understand?!”

His tongue was beginning to swell, turning his agreement into a slurred gargle, saliva drooling down his chin and onto the mud. I threw him aside. He let out a sharp gasp for air, clawing away from me, before propping himself up with his back against a tree.

I looked down to Destiny’s grave. Joseph had flattened the flowers I’d left for her.

A second wave of rage hit me, but I forced it down. My phone buzzed in my pocket.

And then began ringing. I ignored it, striding toward Joseph, intending on dragging him back to my car and dumping him at the Divider, just as I’d said, until the phone began ringing a second time.

Someone wanted my attention.

Snarling, I ripped it out of my pocket, glaring at the screen only to realise it was Nym.

“I have business to attend to. If I don’t find you gone by the time I reach the Manor, you’ll find yourself being torn apart by the very Manor you came to investigate.”

Then, I left him there.

*

Nym, Lydiav and Bal’gag met me back in Destiny’s room. Joseph had left by the time I reached the place, as Tingen so helpfully reported to me. He had ‘family business’ back in The Borderlands. I smirked as I entered Destiny’s room, the three Guardians meeting my gaze solemnly. Spread out before them was a box of journals. There had to be dozens of them, stacked up in piles, each one labelled with a number- dates.

The smile dropped from my face.

“What did you find?”

“You should see for yourself,” Lydiav squeaked out, looking sick to her stomach. Bal’gag’s fists were clenched tightly against the blanket. Even Nym’s jaw was set as she tossed me the first of the journals.

I sat down, opening it.

Disbelief warred with wariness. Joseph’s first journal entries seemed like useless ramblings from a man investigating his heritage. There were mentions of Aos Si- the lost Faeries who I’d assumed had perished on Earth during the war, and Archangels.

The first half of the journal was madness. Disorganised notes, random scribbles in the margins, even pages stuck together with wax and thread.

Then came mention of Seraphina, and a prophecy, and something called… “Lazarus.” I read the name aloud.

The lights in the room seemed to flicker, like the shadows crept in closer at the name, only to return moments later.

All three of Destiny’s Guardians leaned in, Nym murmuring, “Like Project Lazarus?”

“But how would Joseph know about that? This journal predates his coming to the Manor.”

I read over the paragraph, frowning. Whoever this Lazarus person was, they and Seraphina had been the ones to guide him to the Caliem Manor, giving him instructions on how to get through the Divider and find himself here on the other side.

It would take days to get through all of these journals!

Grabbing a random journal, I flicked to a random page, a sheet of paper slipping out, revealing some kind of ritual. Reading over it, I frowned. It wasn’t any kind of ritual that I recognised. It had similar markings to a binding ritual, but not quite the same, and the items mentioned…

“Those are the Sacreds,” I pointed to the sketches of the items, my eyes locking onto another familiar item in the ritual, “That’s Inferos.”

Destiny’s Guardians stiffened. Destiny loved Inferos. Where the blade went, so did she, so to see it in a ritual, paired with Joseph’s obvious obsession with finding information out about Destiny, it was worrying. More than worrying- It was horrifying.

“Caelum. What’s Caelum?” Bal’gag pointed to another blade, sketched to look almost the exact same as Inferos.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled, “And Faeretan.”

Faeretan appeared to be a sword.

Also included in the ritual was a ring, and a handful of stones.

The stones, I knew, could belong to the Tree of Life. Soul stones.

But what was the ring?

Closing the journal, I tossed it back into the box, scooping the entire collection into my arms, “I’m going to read over these. I’ll send my Guardians in to trail Joseph, in case he runs back to this Lazarus person. I want the three of you to scour the Caliem Archives. Look for any mention of Lazarus, a prophecy, or what Caelum, Faeretan or that ring could be. Don’t let anyone know what you’re looking for.”

They nodded, all three of them rising and leaving. I carried the box to my room, dumping it beside my desk, sending a cloud of dust up.

Grabbing the second journal from the pile, I opened it, propped my feet up, and began reading.