Midnight's Song (64 page)

“Aurelian,” I huffed in disbelief. “Is
it really you?”

At the sound of my voice, I could see
the tension leave him. His shoulders lowered, his head beginning to
hang as he realized that it was really me. Though, he still didn’t
turn to face me. He remained with his back turned to me, still too
fearful to face me.

“Why are you here?” He gruffly spoke
up.

Whatever words I had planned to say
quickly fell away from me. He didn’t know what had happened? I
thought that he had been behind this…But, from his demeanor I could
clearly tell that my arrival was completely unexpected, perhaps
even unwelcome. Instead of withering away, I stood my
ground.

“You don’t know?” I questioned in
response. “The portal opened in my bedroom.”

“I know. But, why did you
go through it? I told you never to come back here.”

Now I was even more
confused than I had been before. What was this? Had he honestly
just opened a portal in my home and expected that I wouldn’t walk
through it? Or, had he known that it would spontaneously surface
there but did nothing to stop it? I could see him filled with so
much hesitance that at first I wanted to scream at him and demand
an answer – then my thoughts quickly fell quiet as I realized what
this was. This was Aurelian…
testing
me.

However the portal
must have opened, it was clear that Aurelian was testing to see if
I still loved him
.
Seeing that he did nothing to stop this, I could see that he
clearly didn’t expect that I’d actually love him enough to do it.
Either that, or he’d been smoldering for such a long time he
couldn’t stand it anymore. I didn’t even care which one it was. All
I cared to do was ask him one question:

“You still love me, don’t
you?”

There was silence. I spoke up
again.

“How long has it been?” I softly
uttered. “How many years have you been waiting for me
here?”

For a fraction of a second I saw
Aurelian turn to pay me a glance before turning away from me and
hanging his head low in shame once more. The silence between us was
deafening. After a few moments of waiting, Aurelian spoke up in a
tone that was barely audible:

“It’s been seven years….and I’ve never
been able to let you go.”

I closed my eyes,
trying to hold back the tears. It was all together useless, because
they started coming anyway. I knew that he loved me.
I knew it
. As faulted as
we were, our love hadn’t failed.

“Then why don’t you want me here?” I
tested him equally as potently in response.

“I didn’t expect you to come,”
Aurelian muttered, clearly dodging me. “I’m not the person that you
once knew. You need to leave this place while the door is still
open.”

Aurelian fell silent and
so did I. Did this mean that Aurelian had accepted the Curse? I
stared at him with the most discerning and soulful eyes. Was he
truly a different man now? All that I could see was Ari, the same
one I’d always known. Instead of turning back, I took a step
closer.

“You still haven’t taken the Curse,
have you?” I told him, continually approaching. “You’ve fought it
all of this time, and yet you still believe that you’re a
monster.”

“Perhaps I haven’t accepted the Curse
– perhaps I’ve resisted it,” Aurelian suddenly spoke up. He put out
his hand as if to stop me. “Perhaps I’ve spent every day in pain at
this eternal temptation I face…pain that could only be comforted at
the thought of our time together. Even then, the pain has changed
me.”

“I’ve changed too, Aurelian,” I cried.
“Whatever change you’ve seen, know that I’ve not been the same,
either! I’ve waited four years for this moment. I’m 21 now…a grown
woman. That change doesn’t keep me from loving you. Does your
change hinder your love for me?”

“No,” Aurelian spoke up somewhat
grimly after a moment of silence. “I love you so deeply that it
pains me.”

“I suppose that makes you a very
pained man,” I remarked dismally in response.

“The pain of our love is
not the pain of the Curse. The pain of your love is beautiful and
faultless. It’s given me the strength the resist has tried to
overtake me.”

Aurelian looked over his
shoulder at me, turning his body halfway. There was a glint of
light in the darkness, a glimpse of strength in our weakness. Our
hearts remembered their unity. It was a wonderful feeling – yet, it
was also terrifying.

“You should go back, Elissa. Don’t
stay here,” Aurelian pleaded. “You don’t know what you’ll face if
you stay.”

“I don’t care what I
face,” I boldly declared, “I’m here now. I will stand by you in
whatever pain or temptation you face, and I won’t stop until it’s
gone and dead.”

“Please don’t say that –” Aurelian
argued, though I hushed him.

“If you didn’t want
me here, you would have never let me come. It’s like when you let
me kiss you for the first time,” I let out another bout of tearful
laughter. “I
know that you want me here.
What will it take for me to show you that I’ll
always
love you?”

With that, the entire castle suddenly
echoed with the loud sound of the portal back to my word snapping
shut. We were together now. The very last portal had just closed.
We both knew that meant that even if there was going to be a
question; there still wasn’t any way to go back. I was here to
stay. Aurelian looked up at me with a look of awe in his eyes. I
could tell that he was shaking, too.

“Just let me ask you this,” he tested.
“Do you still choose me?”

I instantly fell into his embrace. Was
it even a question anymore? This was the beginning of our new life
together – and nothing could steal that away from us. I looked into
his eyes discerningly and brushed my fingertips against his newly
gruff face before letting my next action be the answer.

“Always,” I whispered.

Then, I settled my hand on his face
and kissed him; for I was not afraid.

Elissa will
return.

THE LION AND THE MOUSE

There was a blast of light, then an
explosion. It could be heard by everyone in the county for miles.
No one knew what had happened, nor could they have known. There
wasn't evidence of an asteroid – not a single chard of rock or a
piece of ash to be found. The only evidence they had was the sound
that caused every countryman to rise from bed that night. A few
night-workers claimed to have seen it fall over the moor. There
were even some that claimed to possess parts of the star! But,
there were more scoundrels among them than was worth the money.
Even without proof, the occurrence was enough to send this sleepy
town into unanimous uproar.

Whatever the speculation, only one had
seen the proof herself. Many in the town would have taken the
knowledge and sold it for riches. Some would have used it to obtain
love and power – maybe even more than that. But, she didn't. She
encountered it first-hand, dealt with it and hid it from the town's
wandering eyes. She kept it a secret, for she knew that it was
something that's repercussions would bring pain and suffering on
their lives. Powerful people had already come to find her.
Revealing it to the rest of the world would strip her of the life
and family that she knew so well.

And it did.

"Don't come any closer," he snarled at
her in the dim morning light. "Come any closer and I'll kill
you!"

The man spat at the girl from afar,
having buried himself in a mound of hay. If he'd ever been
vulnerable – this was his very weakest point. He'd lost everything
he'd ever held claim to. His kingdom was gone. His power had fled.
He'd nearly been slain and had been thrust into a strange new world
as his only defense. On top of all of that, a great gash now bled
out of his side onto the ground. It was the kind of moment he knew
meant anyone could take him.

"Please, just leave! If you don't,
you'll sorely regret it!" He begged the young woman
again.

She didn't heed his warning. The
curious woman grabbed a lantern beside the barn door and continued
approaching. This man was too sick to truly pose a threat. How he'd
gotten here was still a mystery – the way her brothers could have
kept watch over the flock all night and never have seen anyone come
or go from the barn. Yet, somehow this man had appeared here out of
thin air. Even though curiosity was entirely called for, the gentle
young woman also didn't have it in her heart to let him
die.

"You're hurt," she remarked as she
knelt down at his side. "Please, let me."

The man resisted her at first, but
quickly realized that it was no use. She dabbed her fingers over
his wound and held them up to the light. If there was one thing
that was clear, this was no ordinary man. The blood pouring out of
his wounds and now lacing her fingers was not the usual red color.
Instead, it was black.

Black as coal.

If this woman had been fooled into
believing that she was helping a decent man, she'd surely pull away
from this one now. But, much to the man's surprise; she stayed with
him. The color was strange, but she seemed almost unfazed by it. At
first, he believed that she might have had ill intentions for him
because of it. Could this lack of fear mean that she knew? If she
knew, perhaps she was an ally of his enemies. Anything seemed
possible.

"What do you want with me?" He growled
as she reached into a satchel on her hip. Using what little
strength he had left, he reached up and gripped her arm. The sheer
strength of it caused her body to fall to the ground; a thick head
of auburn hair tumbling forth with it.

"I'm trying to help you!" She asserted
from behind a pair of deep blue eyes.

The simple words caused the man to
fall into complete astonishment. She didn't care about who he was.
She didn't care about the color of his blood or the mystery of his
appearance. None of those things seemed to matter as much to her as
simply aiding him in this time of need. She couldn't be, he thought
helplessly. But, she was. She was actually being kind to
him.

"I'm sorry," the man spoke up in a
raspy voice. "I didn't mean to scare you...I just don't
understand."

"You don't understand
what?" She asked.

"Why you'd want to help someone like
me."

The woman froze. There was a long
pause. It lasted a minute, maybe two. What this man had just said
caused the girl to become equally as astonished.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"If you knew, you'd believe it wise to
keep your distance," he darkly replied.

"And why would that be?" She was still
unable to grasp what he was saying.

"Because when I'm strong –
able to do things that you will never understand in your petty
form...I'm like a lion in comparison to you. I'm a beast – and
you're as weak as a mouse."

By his tone, she had every right to
feel insulted. The statement could have very well been construed as
a blow to her family or class. It also sounded extremely arrogant,
so it was a given that she'd probably care for him reluctantly from
here on out. But, she didn't stop.

"If your words are true, I
still have no reason to fear. There's an old parable," she began,
"about a lion and a mouse. The lion was in pain from a thorn in its
paw. No one dared help him in fear of what he might do once he was
free again. Some because they were fearful he'd kill them – others
simply because they wanted to watch the powerful creature fail. The
only one who did neither of the things was a mouse."

"And what then? He
ate it? They killed him? What in the
Plateau's
name does this have to do
with me?"

"You seem clever. I didn't think it
would take you very long to figure it out."

"Seeing how much pain I'm in, I didn't
think you'd be dull enough to expect me to know of your pitiful
little stories!"

The young woman only
rolled her eyes. She still took no offense at his harsh, helpless
words. She held her breath and poured more alcohol over his wound.
The astringent caused him such seething that he squirmed. That was
when his insults fell silent.

"No, the Lion didn't eat the mouse. He
only wanted relief from his pain. The mouse was bold enough to
approach him and agree to remove it, under the condition that he
wouldn't eat him afterwards. The lion agreed – probably willing to
betray the agreement once he was relieved. Then, the mouse took his
nimble hands and removed the thorn from the beast."

"I suppose this is where he betrays
the creature..." He mumbled in a daze. The young woman curled her
lips into a slight smile.

“
No. The lion was so
appreciative of his help that he promised the mouse a favor. They
became allies, bringing out the very best in each other despite
their differences," she said in a near whisper. "That's why – even
if you are as you say, I'm not afraid. Whoever you might be, it's
my obligation to help you."