Seconds to Midnight: A Maiden of Midnight Prequel
Cain- Day Four

Day Four- Cain

“Did you at least bring the evidence with you?” Bal’gag’s voice sundered the silence of the car in the early hours of the morning, low enough as to not wake the three girls still snoozing in their respective seats. Destiny’s face was crushed up against the glass of her window, the frost from the dawn dew leaving a red patch on her face from the cold. Nym was slumped over on Bal’gag’s shoulder, her phone on the floor of the car, still lit up by whatever she had been scrolling through. Lydiav’s magazine still rested, its pages open, on her lap, the pencil she’d been using to circle items clasped loosely in her fingers.

“Pardon?”

It was a struggle not to yawn, or to succumb to the heavy pull of my eyelids while I blinked blearily at the road ahead, the lines dancing and swerving before me. Honestly, I was considering pulling over and getting some sleep of my own. We were far enough away from the settlement that it would be safe, and the British Manor was another seven hours drive.

“The evidence of Morven’s death. Where did you put it?”

“In my bag, of cour- Damn it!” I slammed my hand into the steering wheel, cursing under my breath as Bal’gag sighed, “Left behind?”

“Left behind,” I confirmed, pulling over to the side of the road and cursing again. I only had photos of the evidence, and of Destiny covered in Morven’s blood; hardly enough proof for Zeella, especially for Destiny’s first mission. He would want physical proof, not just photos.

Rubbing at my eyes, which were beginning to feel like they were full of shards of glass, I groaned, “Des will kill me. Zeella will kill me, no, scratch that, mum will get me first.”

“We could go back. We have time.”

What other choice did I have? Drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, I sighed, “We’ll sleep first. I need to rest. When I’m ready, we’ll drive back. Luckily, we have plenty of time to spare, so we won’t even need to tell Zeella. He will wonder why we’re late, but it’s better than telling him outright.”

I would rearrange the booking for the diner. Hopefully Des was too tired to wake up during the drive back, or when I entered the settlement again to retrieve the evidence.

“We’ll tell him the car broke down. With how the Princess has been driving the damned thing, I’m surprised it hasn’t,” Bal’gag offered up. I shot him a grateful nod at the suggestion, pinching the bridge of my nose and muttering, “How could I have been so stupid?”

“You were tired, Cain, and managing your cousin on top of that.” His hand emerged around my seat, a folded up blanket in his fingers, “Get some sleep.”

I heard Bal’gag unpacking and placing blankets around Nym and Lydiav, handing more to me that I could wrap around Des and myself, since I would need to turn the car, and thus the heating, off while we slept lest we risk running out of fuel.

Parked as we were on the side of the road, we would be safe from the worst of any storms that might roll through, and while it was cold, it wasn’t freezing just yet.

Reclining my chair, I switched the engine off, locking the doors and tucking the key under my legs, dragging two blankets over myself and sinking into the warmth…

*

Destiny thankfully did not wake during the drive back to the Fae settlement later that day, nor did her Guardians, all three of them asleep alongside their Princess.

I played music from the radio while I drove, keeping the volume down enough that it wouldn’t disturb them, humming along to the songs I recognised until familiar bunches of trees began to make themselves known.

Driving to the side of the road, I made sure to lock the vehicle, keeping them all safely inside, tossing the keys into the undergrowth. If anything went terribly wrong, they could smash a window, otherwise, they were safe in there.

I made it into the forest in record time, jumping the barricade and heading down the slope. It was when I hit the bottom that my phone rang, Alishan’s number flashing on the screen. Putting it on speaker, I answered in Demonic, unsure if any Fae were around, “Speak.”

“Dearest cousin,” she drawled slowly when I answered, still jogging through the forest, my entire body tensing, “Your tracking chip says you turned around and went back to the forest. You are… currently running toward the Fae settlement.” Eyeing my arm like it had personally betrayed me, I huffed an annoyed breath. Trust Alishan to be monitoring the live map of where the Heirs were. At least she had given me a warning. Dearest cousin. She called me that only when one, or more, of the Lords were listening. If it were my mother, she would have said My dear cousin. Which Lord was eavesdropping on our conversation?

“And?” I growled, snapping a tree branch before it could whip me in the face, Alishan laughing, “I deleted it from the database, by the way, since I figured you plan on telling our Lords some bullshit about the car breaking down?”

“I’m that predictable, huh?” I might as well commit to the crime. They’d already figured it out. Odd for her to admit to her own crime, though- About deleting the evidence.

“You are when it comes to Desterium. You would do anything for that girl. So, what went wrong? Was the wrong Fae killed? Did he not actually die? What happened?” She sounded curious enough that I answered in a snapping tone, “I left the evidence in the damned inn room!”

“You did, or she did and you’re taking the downfall?”

“Alishan, I left the evidence there,” I insisted, rolling my eyes. There would be nothing waiting for me in the British Manor except for a Severing.

“Such a mistake could be dangerous, for you. Pride cometh before the fall.”

Pride. Thank the depths of Hell.

“Evening, Lional,” I breathed in relief, Lional laughing at my recognition. Alishan sighed too, the Sin of Pride grumbling, “Only you two would have made your own code to warn each other.” Grinning, knowing Lional would never reveal our secrets, I admitted, “If a Lord is listening in, she says ‘dearest cousin’. If it’s my mother, she’ll say, ‘My dear cousin’. Then she’ll quote something in the conversation to let me know who.”

“Clever. Do not let the others hear about this. I will be discrete, of course.”

“You always were my favourite uncle,” Alishan giggled, before her voice became clearer, the phone no longer on speaker, “Lional helped me log in to remove any trace of you, Desterium or her Guardians returning to this area of the forest.” She rattled off a list of coordinates, then, adding, “That’s where it last reads you as. Make sure you stay there half a day or so. Break the engine if you want to lie as little as possible.” I could lie well enough to trick them, I imagined, especially with Lional and Alishan altering the tracking to back me up.

“What? Drag one of the Lords, or Hell forbid, my mother, out to come rescue us from a broken down car? They would kill us for the inconvenience.”

At the very least I would get Severed again. Possibly Des, too, for not fixing the engine.

We chatted until I reached the settlement, Lional asking for an update on how Des had handled it all, promising not to reveal anything to the others. He offered a prayer when I told him about Demetrius, knowing just as well as I do that the Dome cracked something fundamental in Destiny.

I could still remember her begging me to buy her the latest doll at the toy store, or read another book to her at bedtime, or pleading with me to show her some of my knife tricks when I started training. In the back of my mind, there were two Destiny’s- it was the only way to make sense of it all, to make sense of how she could change so much, so quickly.

The first was my little cousin, the one who did all those things and more; who played hide-and-seek and built Dens with me, or needed my help choosing the perfect colouring pencil for her book. The second Destiny was the one who did things like killing Demetrius, or snarling hateful things at the people closest to her. That was the Destiny who would rather die than admit failure or weakness, would sooner kill than admit she loved.

I loved both of them, even if the latter scared the living shit out of me.

As the sign for the settlement rose overhead, our conversation having turned toward Destiny’s next mission in Paris within the month, I informed them, “I have to go. Bye, Alishan. Sin of Pride.”

They both bid their own goodbyes. I shoved the phone back into my pocket, dropping into a crouch behind a line of bushes that framed the dirt path leading to the forest.

Two Fae hunters were standing post on either side of the pathway, another group of Fae stationed not far behind them, examining the remains of what I knew was Demetrius’ items.

His body had become ash, but the clothing, the weaponry, all of it remained, along with the scent. My ears pricked as I strained to hear what they said.

“Demetrius pastela retur morgalratil!” One of the Fae males exclaimed furiously, his hands moving with his words, although I understood nothing except for the name. They were speaking of Demetrius. I recognised morgalratil, but only because Destiny had translated something similar earlier. That was the word for dead, was it not?

Demetrius dead. The other two words, if I had to guess, would be along the lines that he was found.

Demetrius was found dead.

Pleased with my translating, I continued listening, hoping to decipher more.

“Asdalaer pastela Morven!” A second hissed, the two sentries guarding the town bristling curiously, seeming more afraid of the shadows now that two of their own were dead.

Pastela, if I was right in my previous translation, is ‘was’ in Faereveyn, although I did not know the first word.

A third Fae reached behind a bush not unlike the one I was hiding behind, brandishing a bag that made the breath catch in my throat. That was Destiny’s bag, abandoned in the inn room, just like the others.

With how the Faery was shaking it violently, I could only imagine what he wanted to do to its owner.

“Daemonil Kelaiv!” He shouted angrily, the others shouting with him. Demon Assassin.

Well, that one was obvious, was it not? He threw my cousin’s bag down, the contents tumbling out. I ignored the collection of clothing, as well as the sketchbook and pencils that exploded across the ground, the Fae male kicking them violently. An azure blue pencil rocketed into the undergrowth. Grabbing out another bag, this time mine, he unzipped it quickly, reaching in and rifling around. They were searching for evidence- something with a name, maybe sewn into an article of clothing, or inscribed on a weapon. One of the Fae was now flicking through the sketchbook, page by page. Hopefully my cousin did not sign her artwork.

Just as I was beginning to believe she hadn’t, the Fae tore out the page, shaking it above his head and shouting, “Feyrena retur objectia! Destiny Maladur.” Already, the other Fae, who had been looking through my items, having found Morven’s lock of hair, eyeball and signet ring, were discussing ways they could track her down.

An eyeball was proof enough of what we had done, and now, they had a name for Morven’s killer. Shit! Damn it all to Hell!

I could kill the Fae around me easily enough, I imagined, if I took them one at a time. I might even stand a chance at beating them all in a fight, provided their magic was not all that strong.

Reaching for my sword, hoping I could draw it quietly enough that they would not here, I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder, a familiar scent washing over me.

“Des,” I whispered in relief, only to curse under my breath when I saw the fury on her face, and she quietly demanded, “What the Hell are you doing back here?” She would not admit her fear, but I could smell it on her. Waking in the car without me, back near the Fae settlement, must have unsettled her. Terrified her, actually, and rather than wait for me to come back on my own, she’d immediately set off looking for me. Through the forest. In the dark. Alone. Her Guardians were nowhere to be seen.

“They have your name as evidence.” It was not exactly a lie, but it wasn’t the entire truth, either. Her hands lit up, the power of Hell swirling around her fingers, and she shrugged, “Let’s kill them.”

I placed my hand over hers, stifling the glow before the Fae, who were clearly on the lookout for any sign of their Daemonil Kelaiv, could spot it, “That’s six more lives we would have to ruin, Des.” How many of these Fae had families? Children? Partners? Friends?

How much agony would we cause to this settlement by taking six additional lives?

In the dark, her eyes were cold, black pits, “It’s six more Fae we don’t have to worry about in the future. We should kill them before they pass the word on and we need to kill more than just six Fae.”

“We should talk about this,” I begged as she rose to her feet, the two Fae spotting her immediately. They shouted out, and Destiny drew Inferos with a ‘SHING!’, hissing, “Don’t watch if you cannot bear it!”

I drew my sword, knowing I couldn’t send her in there alone, offering a prayer for what we were about to do.

Destiny was merciless when her life was threatened, and the Fae surely possessed some sort of instinct about such a thing; like trapping a wild animal in a corner, but not even they could have prepared for her.

Inferos slid through their skin as she slipped through their attacks, nimbly dodging or blocking their attempts to grapple her. Where she made mistakes, I was there to cover for her, deflecting a blow that should have killed, or cutting down an enemy she did not see aiming for her back.

It was done within minutes, their bodies erupting into ash that swirled in the wind, and overhead, like a bad omen, lightning flashed, illuminating the pathway.

She gathered up our items, scooping them unceremoniously into the bags, even managing to replace the azure blue pencil where it sat in the bushes. Her Guardians bags were there, also, and she tossed them to me, hissing, “Time to go!”

We left the settlement just in time for the sky to split above us, rain pouring down, washing away any remaining traces of the ash, or the tracks we left behind in the fight.

It also washed away the path I’d used to enter, however, and by the time we were forty minutes into the forest, we were thoroughly lost, having felt like we’d passed the same tree and cave entrance a hundred times.

Water ran down Destiny’s face, and she brushed it impatiently from her eyes, taking up a position under a tree and shivering with cold, opening her bag and looking for a coat she could wear.

When she found none, she cursed, looking to the cave and sighing, “Camp here until the storm passes through?”

Nodding, I led her into the cave, the both of us stiffening when we realised where we were. It was the cave that Demetrius had led us through earlier. Leaning against the cave wall, she watched my pitiful attempts to make a fire using what kindling I could scavenge from the place, rubbing at her arms, her skin soaked through to the bone with rainwater.

By the time I gave up, her teeth were chattering.

I sat beside her, peeling off my wet shirt and dragging her over my body, positioning her so her body laid between my legs, her head on my chest. I tangled our legs together, wrapping my arms over her waist to trap as much warmth in as possible.

It took hours, but eventually we both drifted into a soft sleep, comforted in the fact that the mission was over…