He stands there, tears dry on his face, with his head bent down and his heart full of despair.
As he watches over the grave, Elijah can't cope with knowing his little brother is gone forever. The third brother he lost; he feels the hole in his chest grow bigger, his dead heart losing the rythms of its beats with every soul lost. He's the only one who had to live through it all: Henrik's death, his mother's, every sibling daggered, his father, Finn, he had to stand through believing Niklaus to be dead, as well. Now it's Kol.
He remembers his younger brother looking up to him even when they were human, Kol always liked when Elijah taught him to perfect all his skills, to understand the world. Kol made his first step wanting to follow Elijah – not Nik, not Finn, but him. It used to be like looking into a time-reversing mirror image, and now he is gone.
Niklaus and Rebekah stand next to him, trying hard not to crumble down on the ground as they watch some humans bury Kol's burned body. Elijah wonders why they're only like that when someone dies.
He spends the next days preventing his siblings from killing the Gilbert boy, even though the thought crossed his mind more than once. He wishes he could simply behead the hunter and even his sister, cruelly and cold-heartedly, but Niklaus reminds him of the curse and says,
"Please. Neither of us can go through this again."
He can't remember when he'd last seen Niklaus so vulnerable.
He lets his siblings pack their things before they leave that cursed town. He stands over his brother's grave once again, remembering that they had him buried next to Henrik and Finn. He remembers they were supposed to be home.
Elijah leads his siblings out of Mystic Falls two weeks after Kol's death, never looking back again.
He decides to defend them, just as he had done one thousand years ago.
Always and forever.