Mrs Mikaelson

Chapter 73

Dahlia dragged Freya into an old warehouse in the warehouse district, the place filled with dusty old carriages that hadn't been touched since they were moved here decades ago. It was a place where they used to hang traitors two centuries ago, and Dahlia thought it a fitting location for Freya's death as she forced the girl on her knees. Dahlia threw a jar of salt to the floor, the small vial breaking as she waved her hand, and the white powder formed a protective circle around them.

"I actually pity you," Freya spoke. "Over the course of our long lives together, I could see you were broken. I used to think it was my fault, but in time I learned your ability to love died long ago," she cried.

"Darkness isn't born, you know. It's created," Dahlia began as she circled Freya. "By the snuffing out of the light." She crouched by Freya's ear and the girl flinched slightly as her aunt said, "So however you thought you might mend me, please know you never could. Whenever I looked into your eyes, I saw your mother. The sister who turned my heart to stone." She stood, stroking Freya's hair as she moved back to her position in the centre of the circle. "And with that stone, I will crush every one of her children."

"Isn't there saying about throwing stones in glass houses?" asked Nik's voice as he appeared in front of Dahlia, striding into the warehouse without a care in the world.

"I do believe so, darling. As well as one about witches being bitches. No offense Freya," Isa said darkly as she appeared at Nik's side, ignoring the greying ends of her fingers from how hungry she was, and how long it had been since she last had blood.

"In case the analogy is lost on you, my brother is calling you a hypocritical bitch," Rebekah cleared up as she appeared on Nik's other side.

"As for you being a witch bitch, well let's just say that your magic is nothing compared to the diabolicalness of the Mikaelsons," Kol drawled as he appeared next to Isa.

"Bringing vampires to a witch fight, someone hasn't learned their lesson," Dahlia smirked as she looked at Nik, but he just smirked as his wife spoke.

"He can be a bit thick sometimes, but that's why he has me," Isa grinned wickedly as the sound of chains rattling filled the air and Elijah and Katherine walked in, dragging Esther behind them. And her grin grew, along with that of her siblings as they watched Dahlia's expression fall as she beheld her sister for the first time in centuries.

"Although on this occasion, I'd say we took your lesson to heart," Nik said as they all approached the circle, the siblings standing unified as Esther gaped in shock at the sight of Dahlia. She had been told that a confrontation was coming but still, there were no words that could prepare her for seeing Dahlia again.

"My sister... in chains," Dahlia said as her voice broke and her eyes watered before she gave a truly sinister laugh. "Is she supposed to be a gift to buy your freedom?" the witch asked mockingly before her smile fell and she said, "Because I brought something." She held up the white oak stake and the siblings stiffened.

"One stake, six of us," Kol smirked trying to hide his fear of dying again. "I like those odds."

"Even if you don't hesitate and manage to stake one of us, the other five will rip you apart," Nik growled.

"Sound thinking, but small thinking," Dahlia said softly before thrusting the stake into the air and it exploded into a blizzard of white oak ash.

The siblings were defenceless as Dahlia forced them to inhale the toxic ash, all of them instantly breaking into a fit of coughs as the poison ran through their veins.

Katherine was frantic, unaffected by the wood only toxic to the Originals. She couldn't penetrate the salt circle, so she tried her best to help her family cough it from their lungs, but it didn't seem to be working. Isa was also unable to be helped as she coughed for a couple of seconds only to collapse onto the ground unconscious, but not dead yet as her hands were completely desiccated but the greying didn't go past her wrists.

"You're killing them," Freya cried, but Dahlia's gaze was focused on Esther.

"Now sister, let us watch as I burn your children from the inside out."

Esther spared a glance to her children who were still writhing in pain as their veins grew red with poison. Nik was holding his wife in his lap, trying to ignore his pain as he tried to rouse her. He couldn't feed her his blood just yet for it was still riddled with the poisonous ash.

"You still carry around so much anger for me, after all these years?" Esther asked as she stood at the very edge of the salt line.

"You broke your vow," Dahlia answered, tears pooling in her eyes. "We were to stand together always and forever, and you left me to marry that brutish Viking imbecile," she said hurt as she stood directly in front of her sister. "You ended my family, and they were the result," she said in anger and disgust as she gestured to the still-spluttering Originals.

"You call this my wrongdoing?" Esther fired back, tears in her own eyes. "You made me bargain away my firstborn child, my daughter," she said regretfully as her eyes fell on Freya.

"Not just this firstborn, but every firstborn, and even then, you found a way to deny me that which you had already sworn would be mine!" Dahlia retorted in outrage as Nik hefted the enchanted blade, sliding it to Elijah. "How do you think that felt?" Dahlia asked with venom as Elijah rushed at them, the elder witch easily flinging him back to the floor as he continued coughing, his lips dry and chapped. Esther sighed, but Dahlia smiled as she looked up at the stained windows above them and the moonlight that shone through them. "Now, Esther, say goodbye to the last of your children," Dahlia said as she held a hand to Freya who gasped and choked as she clawed at the invisible vice around her throat.

Esther's head spun as she took in all her children in pain, even Isa and Katherine, and she couldn't take the sight anymore. "Sister, wait. Wait!" Esther pleaded and Dahlia only glanced at her before returning her gaze to Freya. "You've won, Dahlia. You have everything you've ever wanted, including the firstborn of the new generation. You have bested us all," Esther cried. She breathed deeply as the still-raining ash clung to their hair like snow. "At least let me try to make amends," she pleaded. "Let me share with you the glorious freedom that I have found... in death." Esther wrapped her chains around Dahlia's neck and pulled, breaking her focus and allowing the oxygen to return to Freya's lungs.

Freya cried out as she broke the salt circle and used her magic to force the ash from the lungs of her siblings as they were finally able to breathe.

"Elijah," Esther called as she struggled to hold her sister, the boy unable to heed his mother's call. 

Elijah was still getting over the agonising pain of the ash as he used the last of his strength to slide the knife over to his brother. Kol hefted the blade as he ran the sisters through with it.
Five of the seven of them stood as they watched the sisters move into a hug, their bodies decaying, but them remaining upright before the wind blew them away like dust.

"Freya!" Nik called from where he sat on the floor, his wife's unconscious head laying in his lap, them being the two Mikaelson's who didn't rise. "Why isn't she waking?!" he cried as the witch crashed to his side. Her lips were stained with Nik's blood once more but it was doing little to reverse the desiccation of her hands. Freya noticed the greying areas as she held Isa's hands and began to mutter under her breath as her eyes closed. As she did her spell, the rest of their siblings gathered around them, Kol and Rebekah also kneeling down as Freya's eyes opened in shock. And they watched as her hand moved to hover over Isa's stomach before she began muttering again.

"Well?!" Rebekah asked worriedly and impatiently.

"She's pregnant," Freya announced and everyone's eyes widened.

"Impossible. She was taking a contraceptive potion that Nadia acquired for her," Nik protested.

"Well, she must've stopped because she is pregnant. Not far along, a week or two. She's starving. The weight of being daggered repeatedly, using magic, the white oak, and keeping your child alive has taken its toll. She's drained. She needs blood. Human blood and a lot of it," Freya explained as she held up Isa's hands as evidence.

And Nik didn't hesitate to scoop up his pregnant wife from the floor as he zoomed back to the compound, his siblings in tow.