This is 300th full-length drabble, and I thought it appropriate to celebrate this landmark by publishing a (very late) birthday present for my wifey, CKHybrid. She is one of the most fabulous people I know, a great writer, and an awesome friend. She makes my day brighter whenever we talk, and she is a gift to this world.
Her prompt was "zombies" and I kind of ran with it to create this monster (oops)… This is loosely based on a story from the Warcraft universe, but so loosely that even if you played it would be 50/50 whether you actually recognized it.
Thank you to the fabulous Sophie for beta work.
Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?
~ "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay
Present...
All she could feel was heat, the burn deep in her bones.
In her twenty-six years of life, she'd never truly wanted to use her powers to hurt someone, never wanted to burn someone's skin to the point of pain.
Until now.
"You can't do it. It wouldn't make any sense anyway. The crown would just take control of someone else."
"No one else presents the same danger wearing the crown. We could keep them contained. We cannot do that with Niklaus," the King said calmly, his hands folded together as he sat at the head of the table in the mission room.
"This isn't his fault, Elijah."
Soft gasps were heard around the room at her daring. To address the King by his given name was a privilege given to very few, though she got away with it because he'd known her since she was a child, as well as because of the relationship she had had with his younger brother.
Emphasis on 'had', something that caused her pain every day when she woke to cold sheets and a broken heart.
The military leaders and honored advisors quieted with a single look from her, the quick burst of sparks in her palm enough of a warning to make their mouths shut with audible clicks.
Though she'd never truly hurt anyone before beyond a singed tunic or burnt hair, hell hath no fury like Lady Caroline Forbes facing down something she believed to be unjust, and what the King was suggesting was certainly an example.
"It doesn't matter, Caroline. He's killed people. He's no longer an innocent in my eyes, and therefore he may be dealt with," Elijah said calmly.
Not for the first time she cursed Elijah's twisted morals. "He hasn't killed anyone. It's the crown."
"It has consumed all of his humanity. He's no longer an innocent citizen," Elijah said quietly. "Are you proposing that we let him continue sending his armies to ravage villages around the kingdom simply because he doesn't know what he's doing?"
"I'm proposing that we free him from the mind control."
"And how do we do that, exactly?"
"I don't know, but I can't let you kill him," she said, trying not to let her voice waver despite her throat beginning to close, her heart pounding in her chest. "I can't."
Elijah sighed, standing slowly and walking toward her, laying his hand gently on her shoulder. In that moment, the other people in the room faded away. It was just the man who had minded her and his siblings at the palace before Finn died and he had had to prepare to take the throne, who was practically family to her. "This isn't an easy decision for me to make, Caroline. He was my brother just as much as he was your betrothed."
"He still is your brother," she hissed, stung at the mention of the now-void betrothal, the lurch in her stomach making her nauseated.
"He's not Niklaus anymore, Caroline. He's a monster. He has to be put down."
She shook her head, her curls flying. "I'll find a way. Give me time to find a way. I'm so close..."
"A week," he said quietly, looking at Caroline with genuine sympathy. "After that, we must act. The people are becoming restless."
She nodded. A week was better than nothing. She backed away from Elijah, dropped the quickest possible curtsy for it not to be an insult, and turned to leave, laying her hand on the doorframe and turning back when he called her name. He was looking at her with a piercing gaze, his face stoic. "I pray with every fiber of my being that you succeed. No matter how impossible the task seems, I do want my brother back, Caroline. Please do remember that I am, in fact, on your side."
She gave him a quick nod and swept out, the skirt of her robe fluttering around her ankles.
Taking a deep breath, she let her magic gather in her palms, closing her eyes and bringing her palms together, disappearing from the room without a sound and materializing in her private library.
She had work to do.
XXX
Several years earlier...
Caroline took another deep breath, trying to summon her concentration, and opened her arms, willing her palms to heat. She felt the first flicker of flame in her right hand, and she brought her hands slowly to face each other, trying to keep the fireball growing. She took a deep breath and brought her hands up to aim her fireball at the target, preparing to throw it.
"Hello, love."
She flinched, and the fireball flickered out of existence. "Don't surprise me like that!" she said exasperatedly when she turned around to see Klaus behind her.
"I didn't mean to," he said, his tone completely unapologetic as he gave her a small smile, hands laced behind his back as he walked to stand beside her.
"Liar."
"It's good to see you, Caroline."
She locked her eyes with his as he approached before pulling them away, not wanting to get sucked in.
He was magnetic, and she gravitated toward him no matter how much she tried to resist. She'd tried to fight it, mostly because she knew that the arranged marriage between them was inevitable, and didn't particularly want to be with him if he just saw her as a convenient, if not guaranteed, choice. If their relationship was going to become anything more than one of convenience, she decided that he needed to show her that he wanted her, that he wouldn't take her for granted. Her family was well-respected, and had only come to be nobility in the past three generations, which made her desirable as new blood.
She was only a few years younger than Klaus, had known him since she was a child beginning her magical training, and as children they had always clashed a bit personality-wise. They were both ultra-competitive, and Klaus liked goading her to see the fire erupt in her eyes.
Born of a family of mages, it had been obvious from birth that, though she had an aptitude for both fire and healing magic, the former had been her path. The burn was more noticeable when she was intensely happy or angry, licking the underside of her skin, making her hair stand on end as her spine went straight, open flame gathering inside the palm of her hand. For as long as she could remember, she'd let her nails bite into her skin as she tried to suppress the sparks that leapt from her fingertips before they caught to flame, not wanting to hurt anyone, and, other than one or two early mishaps, she had always succeeded.
In terms of raw power, Caroline was above average, but what made her special was her impeccable control. She had hardly ever suffered the sort of issues common to young mages. They tended to set things on fire or make them explode by accident. She'd always had a temper, though, and Klaus tended to bring out the worst in her with his wicked smirk and knowing eyes; he seemed to be the only one who was capable of making her tight grip on her powers waver.
He made her lose control.
Klaus, by contrast, was incredibly powerful, his frost magic a wild tempest that destroyed everything it touched, almost sentient on its own. Many in the kingdom feared him. He was merciless to those who dared challenge him to duels in the seedy underground of the city. Many men had wanted to be the first to best him, but all had failed. Most accepted their defeat with dignity. However, occasionally sore losers would seek him out, often with friends or allies, and those who ran the tournaments tended to look the other way when their corpses showed up in dark alleys with icicles still clinging to their skin.
Caroline, however, did not.
There were no excuses that were good enough to justify killing them, and she told him so whenever she heard that another man who had attempted vengeance on Klaus had turned up frozen to death.
He would just give her a dimpled smirk and point out that death by frostbite was kind compared to the death they'd get for an assassination attempt on a Prince.
She hadn't seen him in a few months. He'd gone to train with Silas, one of the most respected mages of the century, and he hadn't been expected back in the kingdom for a year or two, at least.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, more curious than annoyed, and he stuck his hands in the pockets of the jeans under his open robe, his head tilted slightly as he studied her, a small smile on his face.
"I came to visit."
"I can see that," she said, trying not to smile back. "Why are you visiting?"
"You."
"What do you mean?"
"I can't just want to see my betrothed?" he asked. She stared at him, waiting for him to explain further. "Finn's gone," he said simply, and she wasn't surprised to see the apathy in his eyes.
"Oh," she said softly, stilling when he took another step to into her space, his hands landing on her hips possessively, and she wrapped her fingers around his forearms, more to steady herself than to move him. It wasn't a surprise. They'd known for years that it would happen, but Finn dying would definitely move up the timeline. "It's official, then?"
"Yes. Just a few months."
She swallowed audibly, her cheeks heating as he stared at her. "Right."
His expression softened, the barest hint of a smile on his lips, and he traced absent-minded circles on her waist over the cloth of her robe before looking back at her. She tensed at the vulnerability in his eyes, and he swallowed before he spoke again. "You could say no, of course, but your parents support the match, as do mine. Neither of us are perfect, Caroline, but you're brilliant, beautiful, witty..."
"Klaus," she sighed, rolling her eyes at his over-the-top compliments, and he gave her a dimpled grin, continuing, his tone teasing.
"Stubborn, judgmental, endearingly self-righteous... I'm glad it's you, sweetheart."
She could feel his magic in the air, the featherlight brush of it when he touched her, the scent of it clinging to every inch of her skin, marking her, and she found that she didn't mind.
Her breath caught as he let a finger trail down her side, tracing the curve of her torso. "And you must admit that you knew I was fond of you, Caroline. I saw you blush when we exchanged stolen glances just months ago. Your magic reached for mine, as much as you tried to resist, and I saw the look on your face when you denied yourself my touch."
"Klaus..."
"Caroline," he repeated, his tone a low rumble that made her breath catch.
She bit her lip. It was true that she'd been denying the pull between them, their connection.
And maybe, between all of the sniping and the banter when she was too young to know the feeling, the lingering touches as they grew older, the genuine smiles when he let his guard down just for her, she'd figured out that she liked him.
"After my training is complete," she said quietly, warmth blooming in her chest when a slow, dimpled smile spread across his face, and she hadn't realized how stiff he was until he relaxed underneath her fingers.
"Is that a yes?"
"Yes."
He gave her a soft smile, the one he reserved just for her, and she felt something hot and flickering begin to burn within her, a sensation she'd only felt when tangled in her sheets alone in bed.
"Was there ever any doubt?" he asked.
She didn't answer, her eyes darting down to look at his lips before locking with his again, and she couldn't help but smile at the need for her clear in his eyes.
"I guess not," she said finally, the words barely a whisper as she leaned towards him, bringing her hand up to cup his stubbled cheek, tracing his jaw with her thumb.
They were so close, their lips just centimeters from meeting, and she felt her heart pound in her chest from anticipation. He squeezed her hips lightly, and she closed her eyes, his nose brushing against hers as he moved to leave a lingering kiss on her forehead.
"We'll talk more about it later," he said softly. "I clearly interrupted."
She nearly pouted at the loss of his touch as he stepped back, and he smiled, seeming to recognize the direction of her thoughts. "I'll come back tomorrow, shall I?"
"All right," she said softly, unable to tear her eyes away from his. "See you then."
He gave her a dimpled smile before letting a purple-tinged light swirl around him, making him disappear, and she watched him go, almost still able to feel the warmth of his lips against her forehead.
XXX
Klaus reappeared in the bedroom he'd used when he was training at the academy, his nails digging into his palms. It had taken every piece of self-control he had not to kiss her, not to pull her with him as he teleported so that he could finally see her face when she shattered from his touch.
He'd always liked her. Platonically when she was young, all bright eyes and enthusiasm as fire bloomed from her hands, and something more primal when she'd arrived at the academy three years after him. He remembered it well, little Caroline Forbes walking through the front door like she owned the place, her robes hugging her curves in a way that made him feel like a lecherous old man just because he couldn't deny himself a glance. Mindful of the three year gap, he had kept his distance, despite knowing what she hadn't at the time.
She was his.
He'd watched for the last two years of his training, taking note of her habits, her likes and dislikes, how she took her coffee and the hearts of everyone around her. He asked her out for dinner twice in his last year. He knew he'd be gone for awhile, had wanted to spend more time with her before he left, to unravel the mystery that was Lady Caroline Forbes.
She'd said no both times. The first included a good natured roll of her eyes and a pointed 'Seriously?' before she walked off to join her friends. The second, she gave him a delightful curl of her lip as her eyes spat sparks. producing a whole host of reasons when he'd pressed (mostly just to see how she'd respond), the most prominent of which being "you're an ass."
She noticed him sneaking off the grounds in her second year and followed him to the underground dueling arena, had watched him take on three men at once and win easily.
Afterwards, she'd marched up to him and told him that what he was doing was illegal and dangerous and wrong, her manicured finger poking harshly into his chest, eyes narrowed. He was absolutely certain that she was about to run off to write to his mother, was reluctantly ready to stop her in the least painful way possible, when she tossed her curls over her shoulder with a mischievous smirk and told him that she'd keep her mouth shut if he left her alone and stopped giving her 'stalker eyes'.
That was the moment he fell in love with her.
He stopped bothering her for dates after that, and he had to suppress his smiles at how her initial indifference changed to covert glances she didn't think he'd see, the way she'd let her hand rest on his forearm when they talked, how his name rolled off her tongue with a note of affection that had never been present before.
When he'd gotten the apprenticeship with Silas, she'd given him a bright smile and a tight hug, her cheek pressed against his shoulder, and he'd held her for a bit longer than friends would, inhaling the scent of her hair and memorizing the shape of her body pressed against his.
"You're going to do great," she'd said with a huge, toothy grin, her eyes sparkling with pride for his accomplishment, and it had been the first time anyone had so bluntly believed in him, had been excited for him. He'd never quite been able to capture that enthusiasm on paper, even though the memory of her face in that moment was imprinted in his mind forever.
XXX
Caroline growled in frustration as she tried to make the fireball she'd thrown veer to the left, and it kept going straight before landing in the grass, making a small fire that she put out with a wave of her hand.
She was slightly distracted by the news of her betrothal the day before, her anticipation of her conversation with Klaus plaguing her thoughts, making it difficult to concentrate. She wasn't all that great at directing her fire once it left her hands anyway, but it was much harder today.
"Hello, sweetheart," said Klaus from behind her, and she jumped, whirling around, her heart pounding.
"Seriously? Stop doing that."
"Apologies," he said, smiling, and she scowled.
"Don't make me burn your face off."
"You wouldn't."
"Try me," she growled, and he laughed.
"As lovely as you are when riled, I'd rather not get to that point."
"Good," she muttered, and he took a step closer, the familiar feeling of his magic reaching out to stroke her skin making her shiver.
"What are you working on?"
"Hitting the target," she said, turning to gesture at the bullseye in front of her. "I can create the fire and launch it fine, but I'm having trouble directing it after I throw it."
He hummed, pressing his hand to the small of her back as he stood beside her, and she leaned into him without really thinking about it, liking the connection, the feeling of his touch.
The words fell out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Can you help me?"
"With your magic?"
She nodded.
Klaus grinned, a ball of frost coalescing in his hand before he casually launched it at the target, the ice moving direction when it was clear it was slightly off, hitting the middle effortlessly.
"Show-off," she muttered.
"I thought you said you wanted help. I was simply giving you a demonstration," he said, his face the picture of fake innocence.
"I don't need a demonstration. I need you to help me learn to do it," she said exasperatedly.
"It's all about focus," he said quietly, letting another ball of ice form in his palm. "I know that you lock down your magic, Caroline, but you have to let it flow through you naturally for this to work. Think of your magic as an extension of your body, rather than as a tool to use."
"What do you mean?"
"You have the best control over your magic of anyone I've seen. For this, you need to control it in a different way. You have to keep control over something physically separate from you while maintaining the connection. Suppressing it won't work."
She felt him move behind her, his hands landing on her hips. "Close your eyes."
She did, trying to even her breathing, but the way his palms were pressing against her hips made it difficult to concentrate. His fingers began to trace the curve of her waist, and she grabbed his wrists.
"It's really hard to focus when you're touching me like that," she said, blushing, and he chuckled, removing his hands, but remaining behind her.
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Close your eyes, sweetheart."
She wrinkled her nose before trying to calm her racing heartbeat and closing her eyes. She let her breathing start to even, a meditation exercise she'd been taught when she was a child to help keep her magic under control.
"Good. Do you feel your magic flowing through your veins, Caroline? The prickle underneath your skin?"
She focused on the physical sensation of her power coursing through her, and she opened her eyes, letting flame gather in her palms, pulling them apart slowly to let the fire grow before releasing it, the fire speeding through the air, tugging at her power, and she narrowed her eyes, trying to force the ball in the direction of the target. The flame rocketed into the ground, creating a small explosion, and she was about to put it out when Klaus created a ball of water and let it fly into the flames, dousing them.
"You're trying to force it, Caroline. Remember, let your magic guide it, not your mind. You can do this by instinct. I won't let you hurt anyone. I've got you."
She didn't answer, though she felt reassured by his response, and she began again. Breathing slowly as she gathered herself, she created the fireball, holding her breath as she let it fly, suppressing her urge to stop the flow of power, instead trying to let her magic push it.
It hit the target in the center, the crackle of flame sounding as the target caught fire, and she bounced on the balls of her feet.
"Good, sweetheart," he said from behind her, the pride in his voice making warmth surge through every inch of her. She was about to turn around when his hands landed on her hips again to keep her in place. "Do it again."
"Seriously?" she muttered, and she heard him laugh again.
"You wanted my help," he reminded her, and she sighed before re-centering herself.
"Hands off," she muttered, and he pulled back.
She did it five more times, easily getting the hang of it, and when she turned around to ask him whether she had proven that she could do it, she found herself nose to nose with him.
They remained there for a few seconds as though frozen in time, and she felt wonderfully cloaked by the scent of him, the feel of his magic, the sensation of his touch.
The moment was broken when she kissed him.
It wasn't her first kiss by any means. The training academies were full of teenagers with too much energy living in close quarters, so she'd been in the back stacks of the grimmoire library more than a few times. Still, it was the first one that made her toes curl from just a chaste brush of their lips, the surge of energy addictive and sweet and right.
She opened her eyes as he pulled away, her breath catching, and he stared at her as though he wasn't quite sure that she was real. He swallowed audibly, his hands tightening on her waist, fingers running short paths along the line of stitched embroidery that curled around the cloth.
She wanted to taste him again, wanted to feel every bit of him pressed against her, and she met his returning kiss with enthusiasm, letting out a soft sigh against his mouth as she laid her hands on his biceps, feeling them flex under her fingertips as he tugged her closer. She felt a sudden flash of icy cold from his hands before she was displaced, and when she opened her eyes she was in her bedroom.
She could hardly process that they'd somehow teleported through the wards before he was kissing her again. She could feel the crackling buzz of their magic meeting around them, the vibrations of it fusing with her skin, making her toes curl, her lower belly tightening. He broke away to brush his nose along her jaw, his lips pressing light kisses to her skin, before tugging her earlobe between his teeth, his tongue darting out to soothe the bite.
She moaned as his tongue darted into the sensitive spot of skin behind her ear, and she felt him smile against her skin. "You like that, sweetheart?"
"More," she said horsely as she nimbly unfastened her robes, pushing them to the floor to leave her in just her underthings. His also fell to the floor quickly, and she could feel her magic swirling around her like a cloak, humming in anticipation as he reached to touch her bare skin. She let her body fuse to his, their limbs tangled as they stumbled to her bed.
She pulled back to look at him, her hair a curtain around their faces as she took in his puffy lips and dark eyes, the small smirk on his face as his gaze skated along her body and face.
"I want to memorize every curve of your body, to remember the color of your skin when you flush, the specific shade of your eyes when they go dark with lust," he whispered, reaching to stroke a knuckle down her cheekbone. "I'm going to need it later."
"For what?"
"To immortalize this moment on paper, of course," he said with a dimpled smile. "You're too beautiful like this to simply be a memory, Caroline."
"Right," Caroline said, unable to keep the sarcasm from her voice, and Klaus flipped them over, balancing himself on his elbows as he looked at her with fascination, bending to brush his lips against her cheek with a featherlight touch.
She was intensely aware of the heat of his body, his necklaces dangling down to brush against her collarbone, and she couldn't tear her eyes away from his as he pulled back to stare at her, his expression predatory and full of want.
He was about to speak, probably to say something ridiculously sappy and romantic, when she heard some footsteps and a shriek of laughter outside in the hallway, and she almost felt like the world had snapped back into place around her, pulling her from the pleasurable and much-preferred-to-reality haze of his touch against her skin.
"How did you get past the wards?" she asked, her voice almost embarrassingly breathless.
"Magic," he whispered, raising his eyebrow in a challenging stare.
"Well, obviously," she said exasperatedly, but he just grinned, bending down to kiss her again.
She moaned softly into his mouth, her legs parting to wrap around his waist, and she'd never felt so wanted as she did when he pulled away to look at her, his eyes dark.
She spoke his name, but the word caught in her throat, twisting into a moan as he pressed his lips to her neck, his hand on her lower back, the other sneaking under the waistband of the lace covering the slick, sensitive skin between her thighs, and she felt her mind go blank as she lost herself in feel of his touch.
XXX
Caroline sat next to Klaus in the private briefing room, his hand intertwined with hers, clustered with the rest of the royal advisors, military leaders, and close family, trying to figure out a plan to deal with the latest threat.
There was a plague making its way around the kingdom, slowly but surely. Whole villages of people were simply dropping dead before reanimating mere hours later as mindless corpses, hungering for the flesh of the living.
They seemed to move in packs, terrorizing neighboring villages and turning the residents there to make a larger army. One of Caroline's dearest friends, Bonnie Bennett, had been a resident of one of the villages attacked, and had barely saved herself.
She was also a fire mage, but surpassed Caroline's raw power by leaps and bounds, and she'd set the entire village on fire by accident because she'd been so scared. She'd lost control.
On the bright side, she was still alive (though it had been a close thing), and they learned that fire killed the undead.
"Our people are dying, Elijah. You have to figure out where the plague is coming from."
Caroline watched with sympathetic eyes as Elijah sighed, rubbing his eyes with his palms in a distinctly un-Elijah-like gesture. "We know where it's coming from, Lord Saltzman. It's spreading from the east through the kingdom, and Lady Bennett, who briefly spoke with me before being taken to the hospital to have her wounds tended to, has found a strong correlation between deliveries of crops to the various villages with the emergence of the plague a week later."
"You think it's the crops?" Caroline asked, slightly alarmed.
"Yes. We need to find a way to stop the spread."
"We should just find the vendor and take the crops away," Lord Saltzman said irritably. "How hard can it be?"
"Well, except that the people who are carriers will travel between towns and infect everyone. Destroying the crops will only prevent future illnesses from that. We can't do anything about those already sick," Caroline said.
"You and Niklaus should investigate further," Elijah said. "We need to know who infected these crops in the first place."
"I'll go by myself," Klaus said immediately, and Caroline raised an eyebrow, turning to him.
"What?"
"There's no need for you to put yourself in danger, love. I'll handle it."
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Princess Rebekah pinch the bridge of her nose. "Niklaus, you idiot..." she mumbled, and Caroline almost smiled.
"While normally I'd agree, Caroline is the only one I trust with the power to grant temporary immunity to disease. It's limited, but effective."
"I'll be fine," Klaus said, brushing it off. "I can take a cleansing potion."
"We don't know if those work," Elijah pointed out.
"We don't know if purification spells are effective either, and I can't let her—"
"I'm coming," she said quietly, but firmly enough that all heads swiveled in her direction. "You're not going to stop me unless you trap me here, and we both know that you're too smart to try."
Klaus's mouth was pressed in a thin line, his eyes icy, but he nodded jerkily, and she could practically feel his anger crackling in the air, knew that he was going through a million plans in his head of ways to make her stay.
She was proven right three hours later after they teleported just outside the first village where the plague had taken hold.
The village was eerily silent, almost fully intact other than the stench of death. Caroline was holding Klaus's hand tightly, a golden aura radiating from both of them as she kept up the spell.
"If I say run, you run, do you understand?"
"Klaus..."
"I can't fight if I'm constantly checking on your well-being."
She bristled, sparks escaping her fingers. "Are you calling me a liability?"
"I'm calling my feelings for you a liability," he said bluntly. "I love you, Caroline. Keeping you safe is my highest priority."
"I will be safe, Klaus. I can protect myself. Do you think I can't handle it?"
"Whether you can handle it is irrelevant, because I know that I can't. Do I think you're strong enough? Absolutely, but I'd rather not test whether I'm able to remember that during a life or death situation in practice."
She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "What about my feelings for you, Klaus? This goes both ways. I can't leave. What am I supposed to do, teleport back and freak out because you might get sick? If you get hurt and I could have stopped it, do you think I'd be able to forgive myself?"
He seemed to be about to say something before he shook his head and looked away, though his grip on her hand tightened. "We'll be quick," he said quietly, and he tugged her with him into the village.
Caroline walked with him as they followed the signs toward the village market, the damage becoming steadily more severe the closer they got to the center of the village. Caroline felt her stomach turn when she saw a small child with their flesh partly rotted, the smell of death permeating her senses.
They finally approached the cart of food, and Caroline looked at it consideringly, noting the spirals of green smoke.
"It's magic," she said decisively. "This isn't natural. It's a potion, probably. My guess is that they irrigated the fields with it. We should see if the farmer is under the plague or not."
One visit to a rotting corpse slumped over a tractor later, they'd traced the source back to a nondescript house. Caroline was drained from holding the spell up for so long, and Klaus seemed to notice, his arm sliding around her to support her as she swayed, feeling a bit lightheaded.
She felt a rush of air and the tingling of magic, opening her eyes to see that they were on a grassy hilltop. "You can drop the spell, sweetheart," he said, and she let her magic go, feeling instantly better. "Are you all right?"
"I just need to eat, I think."
He nodded. "I'll get you something. Hold on a moment."
He disappeared, and she closed her eyes, only to be nudged awake by Klaus what felt like mere moments later, holding a sandwich out for her to eat, and she took it eagerly, feeling better almost as soon as she'd finished.
She laid down in the grass, laying her head in Klaus's lap, smiling contentedly as he fiddled with the ends of her hair. "Why do you think someone would do this?" Caroline asked abruptly. "Now that we know it was purposeful, I just don't get why."
Klaus shrugged. "Creating chaos, I suppose."
"But it's obvious that they're making a zombie army," Caroline said quietly. "Are they trying to take over the kingdom?"
"If they are it's an inefficient way to do it."
Caroline snorted. "Inefficient?"
"Well, if you turn everyone into a mindless zombie, there wouldn't really be any point to ruling, would there? It wouldn't be any fun at all."
"You think being King of the world would be fun?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
He shrugged. "Are you saying it wouldn't be?"
She considered it for a few seconds, trying to picture what it would be like. "I think that if you're having fun making the sorts of decisions that rulers make, you're probably doing it wrong."
"That's possible, I suppose."
She laughed, sitting up and tangling her fingers in the necklaces he wore to pull him in for a kiss. "I think so. Anyway, ready to go save the world?"
"Are you sure you're feeling up to it?"
"I think the vendor must be the one who's casting the spell. Otherwise they would have died," Caroline said. "We have to get him before he kills more people."
Klaus didn't look convinced that she was well enough to go anywhere, but at her glare, he reluctantly nodded, holding a hand for her to take, disappearing.
They reappeared by the town just up the road from the most recent outbreak. Usually vendors brought their goods and had a few days in the market before traveling to their next stop, and they managed to find the farmer (or, rather, the imposter) in the square, packing up. He was wearing normal clothes, though he had on a large straw hat despite it being a cloudy day, and she could have sworn she saw something shiny and metal peeking out from underneath it. Caroline recognized him from somewhere, but couldn't quite recall where.
He seemed to feel their eyes on him because he looked up, a flash of recognition flickering in his eyes. Before they could do anything, the man had teleported away, leaving a half-packed stand filled with food. Klaus shook his head at her silently before teleporting them out to the edge of the village.
"We'll have to do a quarantine," Klaus said grimly. "We can make a rune-powered barrier around the villages. No one goes in or out."
"But that will kill them all within weeks, if not days," Caroline said, her eyes wide. "Those who don't catch the plague themselves will be trapped in the bubble with the re-animated corpses, who will try to kill them as well. We can't do that to innocent people."
"We have to, Caroline."
"We'll find a way to separate the sick from everyone else. We can find a cure."
"We don't have enough time for that," he said firmly. "We need to keep the rest of the kingdom safe. It's worth the sacrifice."
"I can't let you do that."
"Well what am I supposed to do, Caroline? Let it spread? Watch you die in my arms only to have to destroy your corpse when you wake? Become a victim to the plague myself?"
"Klaus..."
"If you can't handle this, you need to go back home, Caroline."
"I can't be with someone who kills innocent people."
She hadn't meant to say it, the statement slipping out without real forethought, and she regretted it immediately.
Deep down, she knew that Klaus's solution was the best one, if a bit cold-blooded, and she was about to say so when she met his eyes, and she felt like every part of her had frozen, unable to react.
His expression had gone cold, and she felt an unwelcome stab of fear in her gut at the glimmer of fury in his eyes. "Fine. You can pack your things while I ensure that you won't become a hunk of walking rotting flesh. Leave the ring. It's a family heirloom."
"Klaus," she gasped, feeling hot tears build in her eyes, her throat closing.
"I love you, Caroline, but I will not be manipulated into putting you in danger for fear of losing you. I'd rather you're alive and loathing me than you ending up a slow-moving brainless corpse when I could have prevented it."
She took a breath that made her body shudder, his eyes flashing with hurt before it turned to determination. Her heart clenched uncomfortably, heat flooding her cheeks. She was about to say that she hadn't meant to manipulate him, to make him think she was giving him an ultimatum. She had only felt guilty, her mouth moving faster than her brain.
Before she could get the words out, he waved his hand, and she found herself in their bedroom. She tried to teleport back, but after a moment of panic where she couldn't find her magic, realized he'd bound her powers.
She sat on their bed waiting for him to come back, beating herself up for being such an idiot, and angry at him for being so cruel.
Caroline paced for a while, planning the speech that she'd give him that morphed from a heartfelt apology to anger the longer that she waited, and she laid down on his side of the bed after about an hour, her face buried in his pillow, and fell into a restless sleep, expecting him to shake her awake and ask what she was still doing there.
Instead, she woke mid-morning to a soft touch to her shoulder.
"Klaus?" she mumbled, opening her eyes blearily, but she saw Elijah standing over her.
"Where is Niklaus, Caroline?"
"He didn't come back?"
"No. I take it that you haven't a clue of his whereabouts either?"
"No. I...I said something to him that I shouldn't have said, and..." she trailed off, tears slipping down her cheeks, half-expecting Elijah to back away slowly at the first sign of Woman Feelings, but instead he calmly pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.
"Tell me."
XXX
He knew she hadn't meant it.
It had been clear from her wide, blue eyes staring at him in horror as soon as the words left her mouth to her clear preparation to give a rambling apology that he unkindly interrupted. He doubted that she'd actually go through with leaving, was sure that when he came back she'd be pacing in their bedroom, alternately seething with rage and feeling absolutely terrible. He didn't want to put her through the emotional wringer, and he fully intended to make it up to her once he got back, but she was weak from her constant casting and too determined to do The Right Thing, and he wasn't willing to sacrifice her for that.
Still, seeing that flash of hurt in her eyes before he sent her away would haunt his nightmares until she was curled in his arms again.
He would do anything to keep her safe, and he knew that the only way to truly do that would be to stop the man they'd seen teleport away.
There was something eerily familiar about the man's piercing blue eyes, his twisted smile, but Klaus couldn't quite recall from where. He tried to carve runes into a few nearby rocks and place them around the town border as quickly as possible to construct a barrier, trying to come up with a plan to find the man responsible for the spell.
It was clear that the man was a mage, because he teleported away, and he had no way to know where the man had gone. He'd have to do a locator spell, and for that he'd need something of the man's.
He had made a few vials invulnerability elixir earlier that day. Each would last for an hour. While Elijah and Caroline didn't seem confident that the elixir would work, he was. The theory was sound, and it wouldn't take long to investigate the farm where the plague had started, and hopefully he could find something that had belonged to the man.
Two hours, a trip back to the disgusting farmhouse, and four failed locator spells later, he finally found an object that led him somewhere else.
He took a deep breath, focusing on the path of teleportation. Once he'd killed the warlock, destroyed the remains of the plagued food, and quarantined all who might be sick, he could explain everything to Caroline, and she'd understand.
He'd done it for her.
Without a sound, he disappeared from the farmhouse, materializing on a mountaintop.
He could see a cave, and he walked over, wanting to get the whole thing over with. The man had his back turned to the mouth of the cave, and Klaus shot a lance of ice at the man's head, killing him instantly.
The silver runed crown that he and Caroline had caught a glimpse of under the man's hat clattered to the ground, and he walked toward it to get a proof of kill.
It was too easy, he thought with a smirk.
He picked it up and suddenly felt a strong urge to put it on. Frowning, he tried to fight the feeling, to drop the crown, but almost as if in a trance, he set the thing on his head.
Yes, too easy...So much more power than the last... a foreign, nasaly voice said in his mind. Now, bring up your hand, and cast the spell in the grimmoire in front of you...
Miles away, every corpse that had been infected with the plague rose as one, trudging together to nearby towns, teeth gnashing, ready to tear skin.
You did want to be a King...
XXX
Present...
Caroline took a deep breath as she glared at the grimmoire in front of her, fighting the urge to set it on fire. It had been two long years since she'd walked away from Klaus, two years since the attacks increased in rate and power, and two years since she'd begun doing research on where he could have gone.
The unwelcome answer had been a slap in the face six months before when she saw a picture of what was clearly Klaus standing behind a huge army of the zombies, the headline of the paper proclaiming that the prince had committed treason and was the one behind the plague.
Her mouth had dropped open as she stared at the picture, unable to believe it. She'd traced every inch of his body with her fingers hundreds of times, been held for countless hours in his arms as she slept, felt the brush of his stubble against her skin so much that she could almost recall the exact sensation. In the photo though, his eyes were blanked, his expression twisted in a cruel sneer, and she almost didn't recognize him.
Frowning at the photo, she'd traced the line of his face with her fingernail before noticing the silver, runed crown circling his head. The same one that had sat on the head of the man who had created the plague.
She'd been trying to find the origins of the piece ever since, and had managed to track down a few myths that indicated that the thing was hundreds of years old.
The name of the crown in the ancient script roughly translated to Jewels of the Plagued, and supposedly it took a vessel and possessed the body, and the only way to get it off was to kill the vessel and then resist the urge to put it on (theoretically, at least, since no one had ever resisted the pull). From the runes engraved on the picture, she managed to gather that the crown capitalized on the impurity of a soul to latch onto, slowly corrupting it and leaving only small dregs of their previous humanity. Only the purest of hearts could wear the crown and control the risen corpses without succumbing to the temptation of the evil impulses within.
There had been a cult devoted to completing the crown's mission, and various people who had sought it out under the misconception that it would allow them to bring loved ones back from the dead.
Damon Salvatore, the man who finally managed to gather the ingredients to create and release the plague, had been one such example.
What that man saw in Elena Gilbert she'd never know.
In any case, it was clear to her that Klaus was the latest vessel, and probably the most powerful the crown had possessed, and that she needed to find a way to bring him back.
The only account she'd been able to find where the vessel had lived was where another person had physically wrestled the crown from their head, which seemed ludicrous to her, since touching the crown made you want to put it on.
Klaus was incredibly powerful, and there was no chance anyone would get close enough to rip it away.
On the sixth day after Elijah told her she'd have a week, and she'd found nothing, and she was feeling discouraged.
"All I can find is that if you can get the crown off then he'll be back, but the problem is that whoever does that will immediately put it on, and no one significantly weaker than him could get close enough to do it," Caroline explained.
Elijah fiddled with the tumbler of bourbon in his hand, looking thoughtful. "What if we distracted him with something and managed to get it off his head without touching it?"
"Like what? He's not going to go after shiny objects."
"No, but perhaps he'd resist the mind control for someone."
She narrowed her eyes. "No, Elijah."
"Why not? He's in love with you."
"He was in love with me."
Elijah stared at her.
"What?" she asked defensively. "How am I supposed to know if creepy zombie lord Klaus still loves me?"
"Caroline..."
"Fine," she said. "But if I end up the next zombie queen by accident, you have to tell Klaus whose fault it is. How are we supposed to get it off his head without touching it, genius? And what will we do with it once it's off?"
"Don't forget with whom you speak," he said.
"Sorry, your majesty," she said with a winning smile, knowing that she didn't look the least bit apologetic.
He sighed. "I'm unsure of how we'll deal with the crown once it's off. In order for the risen to remain controlled and not run rampant they must have a king, is that correct?"
"Yes."
"We'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it, I suppose."
There was something in Elijah's eyes as he looked past her that gave Caroline a bad feeling, but she pushed it away, figuring that he was just considering possible candidates.
"You realize that this entire plan is based on the assumption that Klaus loves me enough that he can fight mind control, right? There is no magical precedent for that and it makes no sense. Don't you think that if he cared that much he would have fought it off already?"
"Caroline..."
"Sorry, am I ruining your overactive imagination with my logic?"
"Caroline."
"That's a serious question."
Elijah sighed. "Perhaps I'm putting too much stock into his feelings for you. However, I sincerely doubt it. I believe that it's the best option we have at the moment. We can do this, or we can kill him. There's no other choice."
Caroline pressed her lips together. In her opinion, there were lots of choices, but her leeway with Elijah only went so far.
"Fine," she said quietly. "But if it goes wrong, I blame you."
"Agreed. We'll depart in the morning for his rumoured location."
XXX
"There are intruders, your Majesty."
Klaus glanced at the knight before him, a soul-less husk that had once been human, but was now a slave to the crown's telepathic powers, just as Klaus was. He'd stopped fighting what seemed like an eternity ago, the passage of time irrelevant as he watched the crown use his body as it pleased, the power that had once been his to control surging from his fingertips.
Instead, he desperately held on to his humanity, his sense of self. Though he was trapped inside of his own skin, he hadn't succumbed completely to the insanity the crown tried to force on him.
When he felt hopeless and helpless, felt his control slipping, the temptation to let the darkness claim him becoming almost too great to resist, he held on for her.
"Intruders?" he heard his mouth move to speak the word. "Where?"
"Just outside."
"Why did you not inform me earlier?" he asked, standing and walking to the knight.
"I just heard. They've been fighting their way through the castle for hours, killing all in their path."
Klaus settled back in his throne. "Let them come. Perhaps my army would benefit from some powerful additions."
"Very well, however you should know-" the knight began, before a loud crash sounded, the door to his throne room shattering, revealing Elijah and Caroline in the doorway, and Klaus felt his throat close.
Caroline...
He felt a surge of fear, desperation, his soul clawing at his skin, trying to regain control, to save her, but no matter how hard he pushed, the crown ruthlessly held him in place. His hand rose without his consent, the a jagged ball of ice escaping his palm to hurdle straight into Elijah's side, throwing him to the floor. His brother laid still, clearly knocked out.
There was a scream of agony, and he turned towards the burning body of the knight, the crown more amused than concerned as he watched his follower fall to the ground in ashes from Caroline's fire.
She turned to face him, swallowing as her eyes landed on his face.
They stared at each other for a moment, and he desperately clawed in the inside of his skin, needing to hold her, to comfort her and tell her that she was safe, that she'd be all right, but instead another ball of ice formed in his palm.
She took a sharp breath, and a ball of flame built in her palm as her eyes narrowed. The crown waved his arm, and with a single gesture bound her magic before she could release it, and the fire shrunk to a spark, which fizzled in the air, vanishing, and dropped the ball of ice to the ground, where it shattered with a loud crack.
Klaus watched helplessly from behind his own eyes as ice burst from the ground, winding around Caroline's body to hold her in place, circling like chains around her wrists. He walked to her, his footfalls heavy on the stone floor, reaching to cup her cheek.
A thin trail of frost coalesced against her skin as he brushed his thumb along her cheekbone, and he heard her breath hitch, her eyes wide with fear. "I can feel him, you know," the crown said. "He's struggling inside of me, trying to escape."
She was twisting inside of the bonds, her eyes shut tight from the intensity of the ice against her skin, and he watched as her palms sparked, unable to catch aflame.
"He has been since I took him as a vessel. It's quite exhausting, really. Your face flashes across my eyes when he clings to something to live for."
The crown was quiet for a few seconds, and the shared link told Klaus it was simply for dramatic effect. "Perhaps I need a new strategy to take his resolve away, hmm? How broken must a man be before he succumbs to the will of ancient magic? How long will you suffer at my hand before he gives in?"
"He won't," she said quietly, her voice raspy and full of hatred. "You can kill me and he'll fight."
Both Klaus and the spirit in the crown knew that she was lying.
"But you're so lovely," he whispered, looking down at her, and she shook from cold. "How could I kill you when it would be so much more devastating to let you live? To extract everything that he loves from you to leave an obedient soulless husk, a soldier for my cause..."
He could see the terror in Caroline's eyes as she looked at him, hear the slow rattle of her breathing as she moved closer to succumbing to the exhaustion of the cold, and she gasped his name out between chattering teeth as her eyes began to close.
Something in him snapped as she let out a rattled breath, a surge of long-lost resolve pulsing through him, and he felt his fists clench as he commanded them, the ice holding Caroline in place exploding into shards. He regained his wits long enough to pull the crown off and fling it across the room where it landed with a clatter, before turning back to Caroline, whose lips were turning blue, her face pale.
He waved a hand, unbinding her magic, and pulled her to him, holding her against him as she shivered. He turned to glance at Elijah, who was still knocked out on the floor but appeared to be breathing, before returning his attention to Caroline. "I..." she began through ragged breathing, but he shook his head.
"Shh, sweetheart. Just breathe, all right?"
Caroline nodded slowly, her chest rising and falling, and he watched as she slowly seemed to recover, golden light enveloping her once she was well enough to heal herself, and she sat up slowly before slumping against him, clearly exhausted. He held her, his nose buried in her hair as he tried to memorize her scent and the way she felt in his arms, her warmth pressed against his body, the soft skin of her cheek pressed against his neck.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry," she said, pressing herself as close to him as possible, her voice muffled by how closely she pressed her lips to his neck, fingers curling into his robe. "I thought that the last thing I would ever say to you was that I didn't want to be with you anymore."
"I knew you didn't mean it," he said quietly.
"Then why did you tell me our engagement was off?" she asked, pulling back, and Klaus almost smiled at the familiar gleam of indignance in her eyes that he'd dearly missed.
"I wanted to protect you."
"You're an idiot," she said, though there was no bite in her tone, and she rested her forehead against his. "God, I missed you so much. I love you."
"I missed you too, sweetheart," he said, trying not to sound too impatient.
They would have time for melodramatic reunions later, and he intended to make sure that she didn't leave his presence for at least a week, to spend as much time as possible reminding her of what they'd had.
First, though, they needed to leave.
The wards would take time to dismantle, despite him having been the one to put them up, and he knew that for now he just needed to make sure the three of them stayed alive. He raised a hand to make ice rise from the ground, covering the doorway. Due to the crown's lack of a vessel, the zombies were now able to roam freely without anyone to control them, and he didn't want to chance them attacking while he was taking down the wards.
He heard a groan from nearby and looked to see Elijah stir, sitting up and rubbing his head. "Brother...?" he half-asked, looking at Klaus, and Klaus nodded, gesturing wordlessly to the crown on the other side of the room. "I'm glad that you're back," he said, sheathing his sword and walking over.
Caroline clambered to her feet, swaying slightly, and Klaus rushed to get up as well, sliding an arm around her waist to steady her, but she didn't seem satisfied with the amount of physical contact, instead nestling into his side, leaning against him.
"What are we going to do?" Caroline asked quietly, her breathing still slightly labored. "We have to find someone to wear it, or the zombies will just overrun the kingdom."
"You didn't have a plan?" Klaus asked, surprised, and Caroline shook her head.
"Well, I didn't at least. Elijah said he had one, but he didn't tell me."
"I do," he said, standing up and sheathing his sword. "I'll wear it."
"Are you out of your mind?" Caroline snapped as Elijah walked towards the crown, clearly having been given a bolt of adrenaline from the comment, considering the look on her face.
"I'd like to think not. The crown can only be worn safely by someone who is pure of heart."
"What, and you think you are?" Caroline asked, rolling her eyes.
"I've never hurt an innocent," Elijah said.
"We don't know if what it means is that you've never harmed an innocent! It could mean that you're a virgin or that you've never been in love or that you've never wished ill on anyone. It could be anything," she ranted, whirling around to face Klaus and giving him a wide eyed prompting look. "Don't you think this is a terrible idea?"
"Yes," he said, inwardly wincing as Caroline started to turn to Elijah, probably to say that he was outvoted. "...but it's the best one we've got, sweetheart."
She turned back to glare at him. "This won't work."
"You thought that you wouldn't be able to bring him back," Elijah said, raising an eyebrow, and Klaus frowned as Caroline rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest.
"What do you mean?" Klaus asked.
"Well, I've been researching breaking the curse for years, and then Elijah walked in with his last ditch 'he's in love with you, so just walk inside and he'll fight it' theory. I told him it wouldn't work, because the whole premise that love or feelings for someone would have anything to do with the stability of the mind control spell stemming from an enchanted talisman is ridiculous and has no basis in magical theory," she began grumpily, her words speeding up as she went along, her face growing more expressive with every second she spoke.
Klaus knew her well enough to know that she was gearing up for a rant, and he interrupted her before she could build up steam, turning to Elijah. "You let her walk in here while I was possessed by an ancient unpredictable magical object hoping that she'd be able to break the mind control because I loved her? Are you insane?"
"Clearly not, as it worked."
"It might not have," he snapped. "If she'd been hurt-"
"You would have burned the kingdom to the ground and murdered me slowly. Yes, Niklaus, I know. The point is that it did work."
"Well yeah, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea," she said exasperatedly. "We're lucky a half-assed plan based on romantic clichés worked once. Purity of heart could mean anything, and sacrificing the king to test it out is probably the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Even if it does work, are you going to rule the zombies and the kingdom at the same time? Do you even have a plan?"
"Niklaus can be king."
"These are all terrible plans. This is why I make the plans."
"Why couldn't I be king?" Klaus asked, unable to resist pushing her buttons. "I've already done it once. I think I'm better qualified than most other candidates."
He was rewarded by the absolutely incensed glare she sent him, the one that had made him fall in love with her in the first place, and he knew he must have looked like a love-struck fool because her expression morphed from anger to exasperation. "Mindless slaves don't count, and you're not helping me out here."
"Caroline, I'm an excellent candidate. If the crown doesn't work, I'm easily subdued," Elijah said calmly.
"That's bad, though. What if someone decides they want to be king of the zombies and comes to take it from you? You won't be able to fight back," Caroline pointed out.
"Tell everyone that I sacrificed myself to destroy the crown for the good of the kingdom and left you in charge," Elijah said, as though it were obvious.
"And you think they'll believe us?"
"They'll believe you, Caroline," Elijah said simply. "You've been nothing but loyal for years. All anyone knows is that Niklaus was mind controlled. They don't know how the crown works."
Caroline bit her lip, and Klaus could see that her resolve was cracking. He and Elijah remained silent as they waited for her to come to her own conclusion (as continuing to make their argument would just cause her to dig in her heels further), and she finally nodded.
"Fine. But if it doesn't work-"
"You can blame me," Elijah said, and there was a shadow of a smile on his face.
She took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's just dismantle the wards first. You can't teleport, so if it goes badly we can get out and keep you inside. Sound good?"
Elijah nodded, and Klaus shared a long look with her before he began the process to tear the wards down, Caroline watching with fascination as the layers of magic became visible before bursting with small sparks as the barriers vanished.
Once they were done, Elijah walked toward the crown confidently, picking it up and setting it on his head.
Klaus watched in fascination as his brother seemed to freeze, his eyes closing before opening again, his irises glowing bright red. "I believe that I'm in control," he said slowly.
He heard Caroline take a deep shaky breath before letting it out slowly. "Be safe, Elijah."
"And you," he said, inclining his head. "Your Majesty."
XXX
They'd come back to the castle expecting a fight for the throne, and they weren't disappointed. The naysayers were dealt with swiftly and fairly, and the two of them soon took control. Caroline had been right, as she usually was, when she said that ruling a kingdom would be a lot of work rather than entertainment. It was hard, but over time the kingdom found peace.
Still, he'd been right as well. There was no other woman better suited to be queen.
Please let me know what you thought! I'd love feedback on this, since I'm kind of nervous about it. Any parts you especially liked? Moments you thought worked (or didn't)? Dialogue? I'd love to hear your thoughts :D