Seconds to Midnight: A Maiden of Midnight Prequel
Destiny- Day Fifteen

Destiny- Day Fifteen

Kicking open the door to the museum, Inferos raised in anticipation, the first building we’d found in five damned days, I strode into the empty entrance room, eyeing the statues with disdain from where they leered out at me in the shadows. We’d been following Satalari’s trail for a week, refusing to rest unless it was absolutely necessary, the two of us gaining ground on the human like hounds hunting a rabbit. Now, we were right behind her, the footsteps she left behind fresh enough that the wind had not yet blown them away. Her scent hung in the room. She was injured and ill, poisoned from the radiation all around us, the distance she travelled each day becoming less and less.

Cain followed close behind, his eyes scanning the room as well, and he lowered the gun his father had gifted him.

“Shit,” he sighed heavily, “Her footsteps head into here. We must be close.”

The museum’s artifacts were still behind glass cases, each one with a broken light above it and a plaque explaining what each object was. I ignored them all, heading down a long, narrow hallway, the broken lights swinging overhead on the wind that followed us in, and Cain clicked his tongue when he stepped into a trail of bright red blood. Aw, how kind of her, leaving a trail for us to follow! How had Satalari survived this long, losing so much blood? I followed the path out, past various display rooms, until I found an open back door, the blood and Satalari’s footsteps descending down the hill and into the woods.

“We’re close!” I shouted back to Cain, who called in response, “Des, come here!”

I skipped back gleefully, glad to finally be leaving this Hellhole once I pushed Inferos through Satalari’s eye as a thank you for the goose chase she’d given us across the Alaskan wilderness. My cousin was crouching in one of the hallways, gazing into a reinforced glass box; the only one where the light still shone over it, illuminating the sword within. Tracing his finger over the letters engraved in the metal, he whispered in awe, “This sword is over three thousand years old.”

“Leave it, Satalari is literally outside in the forest.”

He pouted like a child, eyeing the weapon and the lock that held it contained within the glass box.

Rather than have him waste time picking it, I slammed my fist into the glass, only to have one of my knuckles crunch, breaking, my howl of pain echoing through the museum. Okay, Satalari definitely would have heard that, and if she was smart, which she certainly was, she would know the Manor had sent people after her, even in the final days of the war- It was dying, just like the people fighting in the battles that kept the war breathing.

Every day, less and less people could be found outside the small patch of land the Manor controlled, and the Divider they still fought to gain control of.

“Cain, leave the damned sword!”

Rather than listen to me, he plucked out a lockpicking set, motioning for me to take a seat. I slid my back down the wall sullenly, examining my broken knuckle. It was healing slowly, and without blood to speed up the process, the pain put me in a foul mood.

“I want it. Why leave it here to be forgotten when we leave Earth?”

He ignored my counter-argument, which was there were dozens of damned swords he could have, and none of them would take forever to take.

Huffing, I waited at his side, praying he would get through the lock quickly…

*

An hour later, and the pain of my knuckle gave way to unbridled fury as, with a triumphant cheer, Cain reached into the glass box and pulled out the sword, swinging it in his palm. It moved beautifully, even after three thousand years, and he whistled in appreciation, taking the sheath that accompanied it.

“Can we please go?!” I snarled furiously, shoving myself to my feet, my cousin still grinning in happiness.

In both our pockets, our phones beeped in unison. I plucked mine out first, biting out, “What now?!”

It was an order from the Manor to return to Britain immediately. A portal would be sent to collect u- Before I could even finish reading the message aloud, the portal opened beneath our feet, the both of us dropping onto the floor of the Manor.

Zeella and Lilith were standing there, watching as our supplies scattered around us, including the two boxes from Finland, and Zeella clapped his hands together slowly, “Well done, you two. You appear to have accomplished everything I sent you out to do.”

“Not everything,” I grumbled even as I smirked at the praise, “Satalari got away.”

Dusting snow and radioactive fallout from my clothing, I looked to Cain, who shrugged, “She’ll be dead within the day from radiation poisoning.”

The Sin of Lust and the Mother of All Demons nodded in agreement, looking to each other in time for an explosion to ring out outside, the force of it throwing me off-balance. Cain grabbed the back of my jacket before I could replace out what the Manor floor tasted like, righting me on my feet, my cousin purring, “I trust that’s what you want us to handle?”

“Your efforts in France and Italy were noticed by the Manor. We have great trust in the both of you to handle this situation.” The praise electrified me, making me bounce on my heels, Cain reaching over to place his hand on my shoulder, calming me before I could reveal my hand, as he called it.

Lilith, taking a step toward the both of us, added, “Our intelligence tells us that the remaining leaders plan to unleash all-out extermination within the week, using the remaining bombs to blow each other apart. Filter through the people waiting to get through the Divider until then, keep our prisoners imprisoned, and then go through the Divider yourself to the new world at the end of the week. The Manor will be waiting for you on the other side, and your completion of this mission will have you recognised and praised.”

“Do not fail,” Zeella warned the both of us, his eyes locking onto me. I hid my flinch, nodding slowly, promising, “We won’t.”