Edward shook the gate. "It's locked."

Bella withheld a sarcastic remark. She'd figured that out when she saw the giant chain and padlock.

"Hey!" Edward shouted, scaring off a flock of birds. "Let us in!"

"Edward," Bella hissed. "Don't yell!"

They'd both end up in room zero if someone found them searching for a long-dead queen.

"I don't understand," Edward said. "One of the guards should have come to let us in by now."

Edward could yell until he was blue in the face but no guards would ever come. Guards would require money and effort, two things often in short supply at Forks castle.

"It's okay," Bella said. "We'll just come back when they open in a few hours."

Or better yet, not come back at all. Edward would throw an even worse fit than Jasper when he saw what had become of the castle.

"I don't want to come back later. I need to talk to my mom now," Edward said. "She'll know why all of this is happening."

Bella took a deep breath. She'd allowed this delusion to go on for far too long. It was time for Edward to accept the truth.

"Edward, you understand that we're not in the 1600s, right?"

Edward scratched at a section of rusty iron. "I'm well aware significant time has passed. This gate was new the last time I saw it."

How interesting that it was an old gate rather than cars and Tvs that convinced him.

"And you know the average person doesn't live more than 80 or 90 years." Bella continued.

Edward let go of the gate and looked at Bella. "I understand that I shouldn't be standing here with you in this time period."

"And that's because.." Bella trailed off allowing Edward to put the pieces together himself.

"My memories are still blurry but I know my mom was there. Whoever cursed me may have cursed her too." He kicked the gate. " I have to get inside to talk to her."

Edward looked up at the castle. From their position, all he could see was the top of the north tower. He had no idea what he'd find when that gate opened.

"My mom is the best queen this kingdom has ever had," Edward said. "She'll know how and why we're here. She'll help me save Forks."

Bella wondered what kind of person Edward's mom was. Was she warm and loving or cold and distant? Was she another victim or the reason why he woke up in a coffin? Maybe Edward's stories of curses, queens, and monsters were his way of coping with an abusive home.

"I have to find her," Edward said.

"I agree," Bella replied.

Edward's mother would know his true identity. She'd be able to prove he was born a normal baby in a modern hospital, not a prince in a crumbling stone castle.

"The baby will be born soon," Edward said. "I have to make sure my mom is somewhere safe before then."

Bella's blood ran cold. If Edward's mom had managed to incapacitate a teenager and stuff him in a coffin there was no telling what she'd do to a helpless infant.

"I think we should go home," Bella said. "We'll grab Emmett and start looking around town."

Emmett knew all the places in town where trouble took place.

"I'm not leaving until we check the castle," Edward said. "If the guards found her they would have brought her back here."

Enough was enough. Edward needed to learn the fate of Queen Esme.

Bella steeled herself for what was sure to be a dramatic reaction. "Queen Esme is in there, but we should-

"Then I have to get to her!" Edward shouted, cutting Bella off mid-sentence.

Before Bella could stop him, Edward scaled the gate like a spider.

"Edward!" Bella cried. "Wait! Stop!"

Bella's cries fell on deaf ears. Edward was already at the top of the gate. He only hesitated for a second before jumping down to the other side. There was a sickening crunch followed by silence.

"Edward!" Bella shouted. "Are you okay?"

Edward didn't answer. Bella looked up at the gate. She wasn't part squirrel-like Edward. She'd break her neck if she attempted the fifteen-foot climb. She could call 911 but then they'd both be arrested for trespassing. There was no telling what Edward would say in the interrogation room. She had to find a way into the castle without hurting herself or drawing any unwanted attention.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Bella moaned.

She thought about calling Emmett but it would take him at least fifteen minutes to get there. She didn't have the luxury of time if Edward was hurt.

Midnight rubbed against her leg and meowed. She meowed a second time and ran over to a patch of overgrown bushes. When Bella didn't follow, Midnight came back and swatted at her leg.

"Okay," Bella said. "I'm coming."

With no better plan, Bella followed Midnight into the bushes. Much to her relief, there was a small hole in the wall. It would be a tight squeeze, but it was much safer than climbing the gate.

Bella squeezed through the loose stones and came out on the other side of the wall unharmed. Wasting no time, she ran back to the gate with Midnight at her heels. She was relieved to find nothing but torn fabric and bent metal. Edward would win some serious respect from Jasper for destroying the souvenir tent and Emmett for jumping a full story and living to tell the tale.

Bella noticed some footprints in the mud leading towards the castle. Edward must not have been too injured if he was able to get up and walk.

"Edward!" Bella called as she jogged down the path. "Where are you!"

Midnight sniffed the air and darted into what little remained of the royal cemetery.

"No way," Bella said.

Nothing good happened in the cemetery before sunrise. Midnight came back and headbutted the back of Bella's leg.

"Do you really think Edward went in there?" Bella asked.

Midnight meowed and walked back to the entrance of the cemetery. She turned around and looked at Bella. Midnight had gotten them past the wall in one piece. Maybe she could find Edward too.

Bella sighed and reluctantly followed Midnight into the cemetery. "It finally happened, didn't it? I've gone insane. Who in their right mind follows a black cat into a cemetery?"

They found Edward crouched down next to a weather-worn slab of stone. Bella kneeled next to him. She could just make out the name Esme Masen.

"This has to be a mistake," Edward said, his eyes misty. "This can't be her."

"Oh Edward," Bella said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

While Queen Esme wasn't his mother, Edward's pain seemed genuine. Maybe there was a grave out there somewhere with his mother's name on it. Maybe it was easier for him to cling to fairy tales where good always triumphed over evil than to process his loss.

"Can I help you folks with something?" A voice said.

Bella's panic knocked her off balance. Edward stuck his arm out saving her from hitting her head on Queen Esme's headstone.

"Sorry," the man said. "Didn't mean to frighten you. I'm John Swanson, the groundskeeper."

Bella turned around and instantly relaxed. John was a slightly overweight man with a scraggly white beard. If he traded in the shovel and grass-stained overalls, he'd be the perfect person to play Santa Claus come Christmas.

Midnight hissed and puffed up like a porcupine. Bella grabbed her collar to stop her from lunging at John. He'd call the police for sure if her cat bit him.

"Can you tell me what happened to Queen Esme?" Edward asked John. "She's my-"

"She's his school assignment," Bella said. "We're here doing research."

Bella prayed John didn't know anything and would send them on their way.

As always, things didn't turn out the way she hoped.

John pointed to the north tower. "They say she jumped from up there."

Bella burned with anger. John's tone was no different than if Edward had asked which way to the bathroom.

Edward paled. "Did she survive?

"It's a ten-story fall," John gestured towards the grave. "You tell me."

The smirk on John's face wiped away any resemblance to Santa Claus.

"Why?" Edward whimpered. "Why would she do something like that?"

"No!" Bella cried. "She can't be gone!"

She'd just talked to her mom last week. She was planning to start taking art classes at the community college.

"I'm sorry, Bella." Her father said. "It's true. Your mom is gone."

"How? Why?"

It couldn't be true. Old people were supposed to die, not young moms who were often mistaken as older sisters.

"Mom wouldn't leave me," Bella said.

Her mom loved her. She wouldn't just leave. Not without saying goodbye.

"It wasn't her fault," Charlie said. "She was sick and didn't get better."

"Phil's mom had cancer and she didn't die."

Phil's mom was mean as a snake and smelled like a litterbox. Why did she get to live instead of Bella's mom?

"Your mom had a different kind of sickness."

"What kind of sickness?"

What kind of sickness could make a person go from healthy to dead in just a few days?

"I'll tell you when you're older," Charlie said, unable to look his daughter in the eye. "You're too young to understand stuff like this."

"I'm not a baby," Bella snapped. "I'm old enough to know."

She was nine, not two. She deserved to know why her mother was gone.

Charlie wrapped his arms around her. "It's going to be okay. You'll stay here in Forks with me."

Things would never be okay again. Her mother was dead.

"I bet you're happy," Bella snapped. "Now you don't have to send me back! You'll have me cook, clean, and do laundry like Cinderella!"

Bella wiggled free and ran out the door. She went to her new friends Emmett and Alice's house. Their foster dad was a doctor. Maybe he'd know what kind of sickness could make someone want to leave their child.

Bella wrapped her arms around Edward's chest and held him close. She should never have agreed to take him to the castle. He should have found out about Esme in a warm, dry therapist's office, not a muddy cemetery.

"She'd lost her husband and son," John said. "Not everyone can survive a loss like that."

"But what about her baby?" Edward asked. "She wouldn't leave him."

"They say she jumped with him in her arms."

To the children of Forks, the legend of Queen Esme was just a scary story to giggle over at sleepovers. Sitting there with Edward trembling in her arms, Bella realized how messed up that was. Queen Esme was a real woman who experienced unthinkable tragedies. If Edward really believed she was his mother, it must have been devastating to hear she'd taken her own life.

"Is your friend okay," John asked Bella.

Edward was the opposite of okay, but Bella obviously couldn't tell John why. "He'll be okay. He's just very..passionate about history."

John kneeled down to their level. "It's okay, son. She's at peace now." He looked up. The sky was getting darker instead of lighter. "You kids had better get home. Storm's coming."