The Originals - Revenant

Chapter 27

»»—2019, somewhere in the state of Louisiana, USA—««

Mary had come bearing news: she had found the last ingredient for the spell that would fix the last of the Mikaelson siblings.

Some long months ago, Hayley had found a cure for the poison that ran through Freya's blood and she had found a witch to syphon the curse that ailed Rebekah. Now she was about to gather all the ingredients that Freya had told her she would need when the time came to cure that nasty bite that held Kol and Elijah close to The Death's cold grip: the blood of all the packs that had been used to transform Marcel into whatever hybrid monster he was now. It seemed like the spell was closer than ever.

Then we would have to go a rescue Nik from Marcel's grip. Well, not me. I was in babysitting duty. We figured out that, in the event of the siblings attacking Marcel, he might be willing to hit us were it would truly hurt: Hope. So I was here to truly guard her.

Some years ago, Hayley had told me she almost had it and I had panicked at the thought of seeing Nik again. But it had turned out to be a false alarm. It did give me time to think about that re-encounter and realise that, even though I was terrified, I really wanted to see him again. The only bad thing was that, given my pendant was now broken, if he happened to kill me, I would be dead for good. And I wasn't exactly looking forward to that particular ending.

This could still be a false alarm. Maybe Mary's lead wouldn't lead anywhere. They had cried wolf so many times, I was inclined to believe this is exactly what would happen, so I had even been as reckless as to leave Björn, Olga and Peter back in Spain. For me this trips main objective was to introduce Henrik to Hope and Hayley. In the improbable case that Hayley managed to find the last werewolf we were lacking, then I would have to call everybody in.

Hayley left the next morning and told us to take care of Hope. Mary thought she was in charge, even though no one had asked her to, and was always very bossy. When we had first met I thought she was a little presumptuous, but I quickly realised that taking charge was her way of protecting the people she loved, and that surprisingly included me now. She was the same with Hayley, though with her it felt more like advices than commands. With me on the other hand, it was as if she thought I was still a teenager. Sometimes I wished I had died a little older, that way less people would look down on me.

"What's that?" Hope asked, pointing at my pendant. I had let her rummage through my things, but I didn't know she had the skill of a sniffer dog. She had already gone through all my stuff and was looking for new distractions; she had found one.

"This?" I said, sitting next to her on the bed and letting her hold it. "It's a magic-infushed pendant."

"What's the drawing?"

"It's a rune: Elhaz. It signifies protection," I explained. "The pendant was linked to a powerful spot on Earth and it protected me so much I could cheat death!" I tried to make it sound adventurous, lest be if for me not to look cool in front of a seven year-old.

"What spot?" She asked, clearly falling for my overly enthusiastic story.

"Well, I discovered that it is linked to the burying grounds of my mom, but my ancestors can channel their power through it. Powerful witches with really cool history. The powers were only passed down from the mothers to the children, so the women were in charge and were greatly respected. Bear and I are the last of the family, though, so the line ended with me."

Björn had told me the witches had protected me thus far because they thought we could figure out a way to make me go back to being human, and then I could attempt to continue the family line. I told him for centuries to stop making things up, that it was impossible to go back to being human. If that were possible, then many vampires would have done it. I kept teasing him for years, until last year Henrik told me he knew where to find a cure. Then I had to eat my words.

"You said was," she said, "It's not anymore?"

"Look at you being all perceptive," I teased. "You are right. It doesn't work anymore," I continued, "A bad witch broke the link it had to my ancestors."

I decided to leave out the part where the evil witch was her aunt that had gone all the way to New Orleans to try and kidnap her.

"Can't Bear fix it?" She asked.

I shook my head. "My brother is powerful, but the bad witch was stronger," I said, "it would take a really strong witch to fix it."

She thought about it for some time and finally said: "I can try."

I tilted my head. It was amusing that she automatically thought that she would be more powerful than my brother, but she wasn't wrong. Hope was a firstborn Mikaelson, which, according to Freya and Dahlia, made her so powerful she would even have trouble controlling her powers. Hayley wouldn't be happy. She had forbidden Hope to use magic, no matter what. She even had a bracelet that dulled her powers. We had used them together before in a very controlled environment —I had taught her a spell to grow flowers—, but never something that required so much strength. It could be dangerous.

"I don't know, kid," I said, "What would your mum say?"

She smiled slyly as only a Mikaelson would do. "She would say I was helping family."

"Aren't you a smart one?" I smirked. But I had to shake my head. "No, it could be dangerous. I don't want you doing reckless things. We'll leave that to the adults of the family."

"It won't be reckless," she argued, "You can supervise. And Henry can help me. He's a witch too!"

"I am aware of that," I conceded.

Was I getting tricked by a seven year-old?

"Mary won't let us do it," I pointed out.

"Aren't you older than her?" She said, "Can't you tell her to go and she has to listen to you?"

"That's not how adulting works in this house, love," I chuckled.

"We can trick her!" She offered, "We can tell her we want pizza. Then she'll have to go buy it. And," she said excited, "then we can do the spell, and we'll have pizza!"

"You have grown up to be quite a little minx, did you know that?" I said. "You uncle Kol would be proud of you."

"So? Can we do it?"

"Okay," I said, "Go tell Mary. I'll grab Henry."

Hope ran out of the room as Henrik opened the door and came in. She stopped right in front of him.

"Hi!" she greeted loudly, swerving to avoid him.

Henrik seemed amused. He walked up to me. "What's up with her?" he asked.

"She wants to try to fix my pendant," I said.

He frowned. "Your brother and I already tried," he said, "I don't think it's possible. Dahlia really messed up the bond to your ancestors."

I merely shrugged. "Hope is a first-born Mikaelson witch," I argued, "They are really powerful. More so than a... one, two, three... seventh-born Mikaelson witch and a male from my coven. Maybe she can do it. But she'll need you to guide her."

"Okay," he said.

Of course, he would agree. He didn't know how against all this Hayley would be.