Chapter Text
They had watched Marcel pick up the girl lying in a pool of blood on the ground. They were all waiting for a sign, anything. But there was none.
“No!” Sophie cried, tears streaming down her face. “They can’t!”
“What’s happening?!” Marcel asked angrily. “Why hasn’t she woken up yet?”
“The Ancestors! They interfered with the Harvest!” Sophie cried helplessly. She knelt down and wept. Jane-Anne cried for her daughter in another corner.
“Davina will wake up. The spell we cast prevented the Ancestors from interfering,” Freya said. Meanwhile, Finn approached the woman crying in pain on the ground. He silently tried to offer comfort. When Sophie clung tightly to him, as if seeking support, he didn’t object. On the contrary, he hugged her back.
Being a Mikaelson meant being family. It meant being ready to do anything for family. Sophie Deveraux had opposed the Harvest, tried to save the girls. When she couldn’t stop it, she did everything to save her family. This woman was someone Finn could respect. Because, like a Mikaelson, she had done everything for the family.
“It will be a little delayed due to the intervention of the Ancestors, but she should wake up soon. In an hour or two.”
Marcel breathed a sigh of relief. Kol tried to hide the pain in his arm, his fear, and his hope. He failed miserably.
“If the other girls haven’t been resurrected, it means someone else has,” Freya said. “If they did this despite the Ancestral oath, they are planning to kill our Family and everyone who swore the oath. We need to protect Sophie.”
“And we must find and kill the resurrected ancestors. Only then will the Harvest Girls return to life,” Klaus said. As Sophie looked at him hopefully, Jane-Anne struggled to her feet. “You protect my sister. I will learn the necessary information from the witches,” she promised. Even though Klaus didn’t trust her word, he nodded. Unlike Sophie, Jane-Anne was not trustworthy.
Klaus returned to Abaottir to support Henrik, who looked frightened. They took Davina to her room. The room felt tiny because everyone was crammed in.
They waited in silence. Finn was still supporting Sophie, one arm around her waist. He had pulled her close and was helping her to stand.
When Davina woke up, taking a deep breath, Marcel and Kol were the first to rush to her side. “You’re alright!” Marcel exclaimed in disbelief. “You’re here.” He hugged her tightly. He was grateful she was there.
“I’m fine,” Davina said. Her voice was hoarse, as if she hadn’t spoken for days. Even though the wound on her neck had healed, it seemed it had still hurt her somewhat.
“They didn’t hurt you, did they?” Kol asked anxiously, holding her hand. This gesture caused a brief exchange of glances between the siblings.
“No. The spell worked. At first, they stayed away from me. Then Babistiana tried to do to me what she did to the girls, but she couldn’t touch me,” she murmured. Henrik immediately handed her a glass of water. Davina smiled slightly and drank the water. “Thank you.” This time, her voice was better.
“Davina… Monique?” Sophie whispered in a hoarse voice.
Davina’s eyes quickly filled with tears. “The Ancestors! They resurrected others in their place! Two women and a man. I don’t know any of them.”
“It’s alright,” Klaus said. “I know who they are. And what we need to do. We’ll need Sophie’s help. And… we need to do something for Papa Tunde. But Genevieve is easy.”
“If you lure Papa Tunde to the farmhouse, I can cast a boundary spell,” Freya said. “But you have to be careful with the knife.”
Klaus nodded. “It’s alright. It’ll be enough if you, Elijah, and Finn go. Kol and Rebekah stay home and protect Hayley and Henrik. The witches might want to attack Hayley and the baby.”
“Celeste?” Freya asked. “What are we going to do with her?”
Elijah tensed slightly. “Is she the one who was resurrected?”
“She never died,” Freya said. “Because her bones weren’t consecrated, she continues to live by jumping into witch bodies. She’s currently in Sabine’s body. If we consecrate her bones and kill Sabine, we’ll get rid of her forever.”
“A guarantee is better. Let’s make her a vampire,” Klaus said. “And it would be best if we got rid of her before Genevieve gains power among the witches. We need to have a meeting with Mrs. LaRue.”
As a plan was quickly being formulated, Davina interrupted. “Klaus?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Well… there was a little girl in the Ancestral Lands,” she began. “She told me… her name is Inadu!”
Everyone noticed the obvious fear in Klaus and Freya.
“She said… she wants to return. And if you want the youngest wolf to be safe… you have to help her. The Ancestors’ diaries will help you.”
Hayley’s hand automatically went to her stomach as everyone remembered the Psychic attack Freya had experienced. The youngest wolf loves you…
Who was this littlest wolf?
“Is he threatening me with my daughter?” Klaus asked in disbelief, startling everyone. Hayley clutched her stomach tighter, but what she understood brought a brief moment of relief. The youngest wolf was their daughter. She didn’t have someone to compete with or be jealous of.
But the relief quickly vanished. Their daughters were being threatened by a dead witch.
“Nik!” Freya exclaimed. Klaus’s eyes gleamed golden. He was more of a monster than a human at that moment. “Don’t worry. She can’t do anything to us again. Hope will be safe.”
Again?
Klaus was still not calm. He was still angry. He still couldn’t control himself. And before anyone could even blink, Klaus grabbed Freya, and they both disappeared.
After a brief silence, Rebekah was the first to speak. “They’re hiding something.”
Elijah said nothing. But his nod of agreement was enough for everyone. Whatever they were hiding, it wasn’t good.
Klaus didn't know why. But he was on that bench again, the same one where he'd died. He couldn't breathe here. But he came here whenever he needed to breathe.
“Don't be afraid,” Freya said. “The Ancestral Realm hasn't fallen. Hollow cannot reach the realm of the living.”
“The Littlest wolf, Freya,” he muttered angrily. But the source of his anger was fear. Fear for his daughter. “I haven't used that title yet. I haven't said anything since the others contacted you. How could Hollow know this title?”
Freya's body tensed slightly as a sense of awareness appeared in her eyes. “Are you saying she… came to the past too?” She spoke as if this possibility was impossible, as if it shouldn't be possible. As if she were denying it…
“Think! I'm here. It wouldn't surprise me if she were here. She was in my body!” she said angrily. “If I'm here, she should be here too.”
“Nik!” Freya said. “I lied to you.”
Klaus looked at his child, bewildered. “What lie?”
“Technically, we haven’t traveled through time. I… I didn’t touch Hollow’s soul because I thought it could go back in time with you. I transferred its mind, consciousness, and memories to its past body… Your soul is suffering in the void. But you’re unaware because your consciousness is here.”
Klaus was happy for just a moment, just a moment. He had reached the terrible end he deserved. And he had taken Hollow with him to this painful end. But then…
“Hollow wasn’t just a soul sharing my body… It was in my mind,” he whispered. He remembered the last twenty-four hours. Everyone thought they had only temporarily blocked Hollow’s access to Klaus. But the witch had withdrawn of her own accord. It was still in his mind. She still had access to him. She had simply remained silent. She had allowed him to say goodbye to his family. Klaus had become accustomed to her presence in his mind. He had even accepted it.
Freya's eyes widened in fear. "So... I brought his mind back to the past along with yours?" She ran her hands through her hair. Fear consumed her entire body as she quickly tried to devise a plan to save them. "Okay. Okay, it's alright. It doesn't matter if he's in the past. It's his mind, not his soul. His magic isn't as powerful as it is in the future. He won't be free until the Ancestral Realm collapses." She was trying to calm Klaus. But her words only calmed herself.
And in a dimension they couldn't see, a little girl named Inadu was watching them. Neither of them knew that she was the reason they had returned to time, to escape eternal suffering.
She and her descendants…
In another dimension, beyond Inadu's reach, a man silently watched Klaus. He was the one who had cast the time travel spell, sending Klaus and Inadu to the past. To end fifteen centuries of suffering, he had sent the last of his descendants, along with his most precious possession, to the past.
Calian Andrija had devised a game that spanned over a thousand years. His goal was something only he knew.
The first thing they did was for Elijah to go into the woods with Sophie. They went to the place where Celeste's bones were hidden and blessed them.
Then they set up an ambush at the farmhouse. Regent Josephine LaRue had already become involved in their games. She hadn't accepted the ancestors' betrayal. She was angry. She was furious. And she wanted revenge.
It hadn't been difficult to lead Papa Tunde to the farmhouse.
"I would love to celebrate Christmas," Elijah said. "I would love to have a wonderful Christmas with our family so large for the first time... Maybe with Katherine and Nadia too?" He glanced at Klaus. "I think you should go to him when we're done here," Klaus said. "I've heard that the Travelers are heading towards Mystic Falls. What they want is Doppalganger blood, vampire or human. And they will only allow one of them to be on Earth."
Elijah's body tensed. He shook his head. "I'll go when we've sorted out this problem here." He murmured, “And then I’ll come back with Katherine and Nadia.”
Klaus knew there was no point in objecting. Elijah would do what he wanted. If Klaus was happy here with Hayley, Elijah had the right to be happy too.
Freya completed the boundary spell. She and Finn advanced towards them. “Ready,” Tan said at that moment. “Only I can cast spells within the farm’s boundaries.” This was reassuring. “But you still need to be careful with the knife. If he marks me with the knife, he’ll have the spell. And the permission to cast spells here.”
Klaus silently nodded. “Niklaus,” Elijah said. “Focus. We have work to do right now. Other things aren’t important.” Elijah noticed his brother’s distracted state, so he felt the need to warn him. Klaus nodded slightly and turned back to face forward. He had to get rid of Papa Tunde. Hollow wasn’t a real threat right now. He couldn’t let it dwell on it and ruin everything.
Hours later, Klaus, Elijah, and Finn found themselves face-to-face with Papa Tunde in the backyard. It was a funny irony. Tunde was dressed entirely in white, while the Mikaelsons were dressed all in black. But in the story, it was Tunde who was the villain.
“Hello gentlemen!” he said calmly. Klaus briefly sized him up. It had been difficult to defeat him last time. But this time it would be easy. Because this time he wasn’t alone. And Tunde couldn’t cast spells. Maybe it would only last a few seconds.
“No need to prolong this,” he said, taking a few steps forward. “My pregnant girlfriend is waiting for me at home.”
Tunde chuckled softly. “It’s really funny how you’re acting like a family man. You’re a monster. You’re too evil to be the hero in the story.”
You’re a monster…
He had heard those words many times in his life. Even from his own family. And he had never cared. He didn’t care this time either. Because it was true. He was a monster. He loved being a monster. There were only a few people whose stories he wanted to be a hero for instead of a monster.
Hayley and Hope…
Even in his own family's story, he was the monster. But he wouldn't be the monster in his daughter's and her mother's story. He would be their hero.
"I enjoy this," he said proudly. And he lunged forward. Tunde raised his hand for a spell. But just then, he realized he couldn't cast one. As he was about to use his dagger, Freya, who was hiding in the house, reached out from the balcony and knocked him to the ground with a spell.
Klaus quickly bit his wrist, forcing his blood into Tunde's mouth. And then he quickly broke his neck.
"That was too easy," said Finn.
"Because his spell was blocked," said Elijah. "He proved he was a powerful enemy a hundred years ago. It would have been very difficult to defeat him without Freya." He picked up the bone dagger lying on the ground. "I've always wondered whose bone this belonged to," he murmured.
Inadu…
The woman's memories flashed through Klaus's mind, sending a shiver down his spine. He picked up the dagger and put it in his jacket pocket. “Make sure Tunde completes his transformation, and then kill him. I need to go find Sophie. We must resurrect Monique as soon as possible.”
“I’m coming with you,” Finn said. “Freya and Elijah can handle this.”
“Are you sure Celeste is connected to Monique?” Sophie asked, looking at the bones in the grave dug before her.
“Absolutely. Babistiana tried to connect to Davina. She failed. Papa Tunde is connected to Abigail. She will be resurrected soon. She may even already be resurrected. I’m sure Genevieve and Cassie are connected. And that leaves Celeste.”
Sophie looked at Finn one last time before beginning to do what was necessary with trembling hands. Finn nodded to the young witch. “My brother is right. Davina doesn’t know those people. But Niklaus met them all and knows what they look like.”
“I still can’t believe Sabine is Celeste,” the young witch murmured.
“I’m sorry for your friend,” Finn said. “But that’s the reality of life. Someone dies.”
“You’re not dead.”
“We are,” Finn said. “Everything has a price. To be immortal, you must first sacrifice your life.” A phantom gleam of pain appeared in his eyes. Klaus would have said this pain was the pain of losing his magic. But now he was a Heretic. He still had his magic, though not like before. Therefore, he couldn’t understand the reason for this pain.
Was Finn simply disgusted by the thought of being dead? Or was there something else?
“A life sacrificed…is the most precious,” Sophie said. Was she talking about Finn or Monique?
There was no further conversation. Instead, Sophie blessed Celeste’s bones. Then Finn, with a spell that horrified Sophie, destroyed the bones. He reduced them to dust and took only a handful. “That’s enough to recreate the body,” he said calmly.
“Freya…needed much more when she resurrected Henrik,” Klaus reminded him.
“Freya was creating a body to house a soul that had been imprisoned for a thousand years on the other side. We don’t have that problem. Celeste’s soul just completed its connection with the ancestral realm. Technically, she just died. Creating the body is very easy. Imprisoning Celeste in her own body is even easier. We just need to kill Sabine’s body.” Finn turned around with a calmness that made Klaus remember the time they were human. This was the brother he knew. Calm, commanding, and in control. Unlike the depressed and soulless man he had become when they were vampires, he was mature and understanding, intelligent and cunning…
Was his brother returning? Had meeting Freya earlier helped Finn? Or perhaps it was Henrik’s presence here. Or perhaps his magic…
But Finn Mikaelson seemed to be recovering from his thousand-year-long depression.
Josephine LaRue hated the thought of killing one of the witches she called her sisters. But the one she was going to kill wasn't one of her sisters. It was a parasite that had possessed her body. A vile spirit that had forcibly entered her body and caused Sabine's death!
“Regent.” Jane-Anne greeted her respectfully at the entrance to Lafayette Cemetery. “Jane.” Jo smiled at the young woman. She had become a mother in her early twenties and raised both her daughter and her sister. Sophie was 12 years younger than Jane-Anne. Moreover, when Sophie's parents died when she was 15, Jane was left alone as a 15-year-old teenager and a 7-year-old girl.
“Are they inside?”
“Yes. Genevieve is encouraging everyone. Sabine is supporting her.” A look of disgust crossed her face as she said Sabine's name. “Freya sent me a message saying the body is ready. Please go and wait at your daughter's grave. She'll wake up soon.” She promised. Jane smiled gratefully. “Thank you, Regent,” she said before walking away.
Jo continued on. She looked at the group gathered in the middle of the graveyard. “You realize you’ve broken the oath your ancestors made, don’t you, Genevieve?” she called out as she entered the group of witches.
Genevieve looked at her. “It doesn’t matter. When the Mikaelsons are dead, the oath will be meaningless.”
“Funny,” she said, chuckling softly. “For the oath to lose its meaning, everyone who made it must be dead.” She glanced at the members of the French Quarter Coven. “Unless your plan is to use this Coven to get rid of the Mikaelsons and then kill every witch here…” She looked into the eyes of the red-haired witch. “You’re not that stupid, are you, Genevieve? You… and Sabine?”
“They can’t do that!” said Julie.
“Our ancestors… our children… our Harvest Girls have already betrayed us once. Why wouldn’t they do it a second time?” Jo said. “Our ancestors were a safe haven for us all this time. But we’ve seen that when their own personal desires are at stake, we become expendable pawns for them!”
“Don’t cloud people’s minds with your lies, Regent! Our ancestors never betrayed you!” Genevieve said.
“Really? So Celeste DuBois didn’t refuse the blessing and forcibly possess the bodies of young witches for two centuries? Didn’t she forcibly possess Sabine’s body a year ago and kill her? And today, you and she didn’t steal Cassie and Monique’s right to resurrection and return to life in their place?” She tilted her head slightly. “Really, Genevieve? Celeste?”
“Cassie?” Mel said. She was desperate to get her sister back. But she was only 19. She didn’t even know about the Harvest ritual. She was in college. When her sister died during the harvest and her mother at Marcel's hands, Agnes, the elder of the Coven, had called her and told her. SHe had mourned when she came to the city. SHe was desperate. Every time they cast spells, it resulted in death. That's why he had returned to university. SHe had tried to find something to bring her sister back by studying magic outside the city. Finally, Sophie had contacted her. She had told her about her plan. That's why he had returned to the city. SHe had no hope until Klaus came to the cemetery that night.
"Did you steal my sister's chance to come back to life?!" she said angrily. "You will pay for this!" Honoria wasn't here. She had gone home with Abigail, who had been resurrected an hour earlier. But Mel was sure that if she were here, she would be just as angry. SHe hadn't had the chance to kill Papa Tunde, who had been resurrected in place of her niece. At least she could get revenge by killing the other ancestors!
“Mel!” Genevieve said. “Don’t be foolish.”
“That’s interesting information,” Jo said. “When the ancestors broke their oath, they lost the right to intervene. So you don’t have the power of the ancestors right now. You only have your own power. But everyone else here? Everyone else has the power of the ancestors. Whether they want to or not.”
“And everyone here wants you both dead!” Caitlin said. They didn’t even have the strength to resist a magical attack. Celeste, in Sabine’s body, didn’t even resist. She thought she would just pass into another body again. Genevieve, on the other hand, struggled. But she was alone against twenty people, and that’s why she lost.
As her body writhed in pain under the intense magic, with blood flowing from her eyes, mouth, nose, and ears, Jo didn’t feel the regret she had imagined. The only thing she felt was satisfaction.
The satisfaction of teaching the ancestors who betrayed them a lesson and avenging the Harvest Girls…
Elijah looked at the dungeon before him. It couldn't be said that he had felt something for every woman in those thousand years. He had fallen in love twice.
Katerina and Celeste.
He wasn't counting his time as a human. Tatia was his first love. Innocent and pure. When it came to those thousand years, her time as a human was irrelevant.
Therefore, according to him, he had fallen in love twice in those thousand years. First, with Katerina, who made him believe in love again, and then with Celeste, who reminded him so much of Katerina.
Perhaps that's why he fulfilled Celeste's last wish without question. Because she had asked him for something he could never do for Katerina. A final wish…
Katerina had wished to live. To be free and happy. A life not dictated by rules and pressures, but one of her own choices.
And in her quest to achieve this, she had first lost her life. She had died. She had become a vampire. Then she lost her freedom, her happiness, and everything that made her who she was…
She had lost everything.
I want a happy life with the people I love. A passionate, tender love that lasts forever. A man who makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. A man who loves only me, who thinks of me every moment of the day…
These words had been spoken while drunk. But they were etched in Elijah's mind. For five centuries, he had pondered them while sipping his whiskey by the fireplace. Sometimes, as he tried to read the book in his hand, the words on the page would suddenly disappear. Katerina's words would take their place. At those moments, Elijah would realize that the man Katerina was talking about was himself. For five centuries, he hadn't gone a single day without thinking about her.
That's why he clung to Celeste. He wanted to forget. But he had chosen the wrong person to forget. Celeste, like Katerina, loved breakfast the most, she loved walks, she loved games and riddles. But she wouldn't suddenly lie on his lap and have him stroke her hair while Elijah was reading a book by the fireplace. She wouldn't come and demand the attention and affection she deserved like Katerina.
"What?" Celeste suddenly woke up, and Elijah looked at her with blank eyes. Katerina was his now. He didn't need a backup.
“Good morning… Or good afternoon. It’s two o’clock in the afternoon,” he said, adjusting the cuffs of his shirt. “How is that possible?”
“Ah. I suppose you’re talking about the body you’re in,” he guessed. “The miracles of the blessing. Sophie didn’t want her nephew to remain dead any longer because of you.”
Elijah stepped forward. After all that had happened, even the thought of touching her made him nauseous. But he had learned that dead witches couldn’t be trusted. Niklaus was right.
Dead, alive, young, or old, all witches were a nuisance…
The best witch was the one who was no longer a witch. And Elijah would make that happen. Before Celeste could even understand what he was doing, he bit his wrist with superhuman speed, spilling his blood down her throat and breaking her neck.
He pulled a handkerchief from his jacket pocket, wiped the blood from his wrist, and left the cellar. “The rest is up to you. Have as much fun with her as you want. But kill her before the day is over,” he said to Kol, who was waiting excitedly at the door. Kol entered with a satisfied smile.
Elijah went straight to his room. He needed to breathe. He had faced his past too much today.
When he locked the doors and was alone with the beautiful intimacy of solitude, he took out his phone.
My Katerina…
He pressed the call button. The line rang twice. But before the third ring, he heard Katerina’s beautiful voice on the other end.
“Elijah? Beloved?” He took a deep breath. It was as if he could breathe for the first time since morning.
“Katerina?”
“My beloved. I thought you’d be busy today. Is everything alright?” Katerina asked an ordinary question to someone who didn’t know her. But Elijah knew her. He could hear the worry and curiosity in her voice.
“Yes. I just… wanted to hear your voice. And I was wondering about you. Is everything alright in Mystic Falls?”
“Hmmm. Silas drank the Cure from Elena,” Katerina said. “And Elena has changed a little in appearance during that time. Not much. It’s like just… a year. That means… I guess we’re normal humans while the Cure flows through our veins. But when someone drinks the Cure from us, the years we spent as vampires pass quickly.”
Elijah frowned. “So… the Cure is only for young vampires?”
“I think so. If I had been the one to drink the cure, I probably would have quickly lived to be five hundred years old and died,” Katerina said. Elijah was glad that wasn’t the case, that he hadn’t risked giving the cure to someone else, that he had poured it down Elena Gilbert’s throat.
“That’s good. What about Silas?”
“Things are a bit complicated. He wants to die. All this nonsense about being with his eternal love, Amara. But for that, he needs to destroy the other side. We made a deal. I’ll help him find the anchor. And he’ll cast a spell to protect Nadia and me from the travelers.”
Elijah didn't trust Silas. Villian fell into two categories:
Those who were broken, and pure villians.
Elijah had known many bad guys. His father, mother, brother, and the woman he loved were considered villians by many. But Elijah knew Niklaus and Katerina were bad because they were broken.
His parents were pure villian. They were the ones who broke, shattered, and created broken villian without being broken themselves. Silas was one of those villian. And, according to Elijah's guess, Quetsiyah, who was meant to be called Tessa, was too.
Trusting them was foolish. But telling Katerina not to do something was even more foolish. She had a terrible habit of doing the exact opposite of what she was ordered to do. Actually, all women were like that. In their thousand years together, he had learned that Rebekah and Freya, in the short time they had known each other, were also like that.
Besides, New Orleans wasn't exactly safe right now. The Harvest Girls were currently... He should have been resurrected. Ancestral intervention was no longer an option. But Elijah's intelligence (and recent events) indicated that the Northeast Atlantic pack was about to make contact with Niklaus. The animosity between them and the Crescents was something even non-wolves knew. For reasons unknown, they hated each other.
And now, with Hayley as the alpha of the Crescents and Niklaus seemingly poised to become the alpha of the Northeast Atlantic pack, New Orleans was about to host another battle. This would put Katerina's life in danger. Especially since she still disliked Niklaus even if he forgave her. With so many werewolves in town, Katerina could be bitten. And Niklaus wouldn't give her his blood.
“Watch out,” she murmured. “I don’t trust Silas.”
“Neither do I. But we both hate travelers. We have a common enemy.”
“I hope you’re right, Katerina…”
Davina entered the room hesitantly. She was a girl with no relatives or family left. Technically, she was no longer a member of the French Quarter Coven. She was now a member of the Mikaelson Coven. But they needed to meet as harvestgirls. Davina needed to see her friends.
When the other girls were resurrected, their families were with them. Monique's mother and aunt, Cassie's older sister, and Abigail's aunt. Davina, however, was surrounded by the Mikaelsons. It felt strange. The first thing she thought was that they had kept their promise. The second was that she was safe. The thought that she was now one of the Mikaelsons was third.
So she considered herself both lucky and cursed. Lucky because she had a huge family who loved her even though they didn't have to. Cursed because she had become part of the unluckiest family in the world.
And the worst part was, she didn't care. Being one of them, the possibility of fighting endless enemies, the suffering promised to her in the future…
The only thing she cared about was her family.
“D!” Her gaze shifted directly to Monique when she heard her slightly trembling voice. The brunette was nervous. She wore a white dress, like all the harvest girls.
“Mon.” She couldn’t help but lunge forward. Klaus had said that her friends, whom she loved and knew well, would never be the same again. But Davina needed to hug them right now.
When she wrapped her arms around her friend’s neck, she received the same enthusiastic response. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to betray you! I just…”
“We know,” Cassie said. “And it’s okay. We were horrified too. If we had the chance, we would have done the same.”
She pulled back and looked at them all. “I… do you forgive me?” She couldn’t believe it. How could they forgive her, even though she had let them down?
“It’s not your fault,” Abigail said.
“The elders deceived us. They said, ‘A little blood and sleep.’ They killed us.” Hatred crept into Monique’s voice. “The Ancestors manipulated us on the other side. Then… we watched Klaus make his vow to our Coven. The only way to break that vow was the death of the Coven and of us. Then… my aunt… tried to get me back in a way even my mother didn’t. She made me feel loved. Mel and Honoria didn’t fight directly. But they sought ways to bring Cassie and Abigail back.” A tear rolled down Monique’s cheek. “The Ancestors told us you were a traitor. But we watched. Their vows, their investigations, their efforts… Then… they betrayed us.”
“We’re not stupid,” Cassie said. “They broke the vow. We know they’ll kill us again to get away with it.”
“And we don’t want that. Everyone who was resurrected in our place is dead. But the Ancestors will find a way. They can’t intervene right now.” But they'll do something… They'll find a way. That's why we want to be safe.”
Davina nodded. “What can I do for you?”
“We want a meeting with Freya Mikaelson,” Monique said. “To find out if we can join her Coven…”