Hello loves!
Now, I know what you're probably thinking, is this actually an early update?! Yes it is. I've finally got my stuff together long enough to churn another chapter out of my rapidly drying up brain. Hopefully you all like it! But I would quickly like to thank you all for the favs and follows and reviews so far, it's honestly so much more than I deserve and I can't even begin to tell you all how thankful I am. As always, I own nothing. Now let's get on with it!
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
"Venez très connu cendre. Venez très connu cendre."
Aria and Davina chanted as they faced a small, broken mirror in front of them, unaware of Kol exiting the bathroom to the far right of the room, "Still at it?" Kol asked, right by Aria's ear as she startled, the mirror cracking again in the corner. Aria let out an annoyed sigh and spun around, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she glared at Kol in exasperation, "I am trying to repair the damage that you did to our unlinking spell." She sighed, eyes wide incredulously.
"Oh." Kol murmured, looking down at the White Oak state on the table in front of her in curiosity. Davina snatched it away from him, eyes narrowed, "The only reason we're still shacked up in this dump motel with you is for your freaky witch-encyclopaedia brain. And because for some reason, Aria doesn't want you dead yet. But if you keep getting in our way, she might have to reconsider."
Kol sighed, "Okay. Well, here's a magical secret from the ancient legends of the Romani psychics… Sleep, Aria. You've both been awake for days!"
Even his voice couldn't convey the desperation and incredulously he was currently feeling. Did either of them know how to take care of themselves? Apparently not.
Aria scoffed and anxiously began packing up her things, "Kind of hard to rest with a thousand-year-old psycho in the next bed. It was different when I couldn't see you, but now I can."
Kol scoffed, "You say that, I sound like a bit of a creeper!"
"Can you just stop?" Aria asked at last, eyes pleading as she spun on her heel to look at him.
"Stop what, Darling?"
"Calling me 'Darling', and trying to be funny, and-" She paused for a moment as she suddenly realised Kol hadn't buttoned his shirt up, "-All of that." She finished.
Kol simply smirked and buttoned up the shirt before walking toward her again, "Oh, well, most girls like this. But, then, you're not like most girls, are you? Neither of you, in fact."
"What I'd like is for you to just stop messing around." Aria said quietly, continuing to pack her things before Kol stopped her by sighing, "Okay, Aria, alright. I have been trying to charm you. And your resistance is, as always, as impressive as it is baffling. But, there are things that we can do. Big things. I can't share my secrets with you unless we trust each other again."
"I don't care about your secrets, Kaleb." She paused, "Kol… I don't even know what to call you anymore!"
Kol smiled sadly, "Kol Mikaelson. Idiot. Whatever the hell you want, it's never stopped you before. But, if you want to take down Nik without your family dying, then, you'd be a fool not to listen. And Aria, trust me when I tell you this, you are anything but."
For a moment, his eyes searched her own before he suddenly groaned in pain and fell to his knees, symbols slowly being burnt into his forearm. -Norse runes, spelling his name.
Aria's expression changed in an instant, and she dropped to her knees beside him, eyes clouding over with worry, "What's happening?" It took a minute before her eyes widened in understanding and slight horror.
Kol nodded, "You got it, Little witch. That's Mother Dearest, calling me home."
~*•°•*~
Aria, Davina and Kol drove to the Lycée in Kol's car, the latter sitting in the passenger seat cradling his injured arm as his eyes flickered over to Aria in the backseat through the mirror every moment or two. After another moment, Kol flicked his fingers to change the station to blues music rather than Davina's classical music. Annoyed, Davina leant over to turn of the radio instead.
Kol laughed, "You have any fun with magic, or is it all just angst and child sacrifice with you lot?"
Aria and Davina didn't answer.
"You were a witch before you were a vampire, right?" Aria asked after a moment.
Kol nodded, "Yeah. None of my siblings had tapped into their power. I was a bit of a child prodigy! I loved it. I loved the power, I loved the rush… and then, when we turned, I lost it all. Went through a bit of a dark period."
"A thousand years?" Davina asked incredulously.
"Yeah, well, I'm a thrill-seeker. I couldn't get that from magic anymore, so I looked elsewhere."
"Yeah. Murder, mayhem…"
"Yeah, youthful misadventures!" Kol corrected as Aria laughed, relaxing once more, "I actually spent quite a lot of time with witches. You know, learning from them, teaching them. Trying to get back what my mother stole from me."
"Is that why she brought you back as a witch?" Davina wondered.
Aria scoffed, "I have a hard time thinking Esther would do anything like that out of kindness."
Kol nodded at Aria, "You have a point. She didn't do it out of kindness. She… felt like this body would be best for the task at hand." He grinned slightly, "Spying on the prettiest witch in town."
Aria laughed, "I can't believe your mother sent you here to flirt with me."
"Oh, no, she sent me to follow you. The flirting bit was me." Kol grinned before waiting a beat, "Look, I know I've been acting-"
"Insecure? Childish? Way out of line?" Aria supplied.
"I was going to say strangely, but okay. Look, I do want to keep you away from Mother and Dahlia. And I just think you need to know, before anything happens, that I'll do whatever I need to, to do it."
After another moment of silence, Kol clicked his fingers, the radio turning back on to classical music. Davina sent Aria a small smile through the mirror.
~*•°•*~
Kol stormed into the Lycée Greenhouse and straight past Esther, grabbing a jar of herbal poultice for his scars, "Remind me to teach you how to send a text message." Kol practically growled.
"You were told to get the white oak stake days ago. We need it now... seeing as your father has risen."
Kol froze momentarily before feigning surprise, "Mikael? Back from the dead?"
Esther scoffed furiously, "Enough! You kept it from me. Why? Because of Aria Gerard?"
"To protect your plan!" Kol fired back, "She's never gonna trust me if she thinks I'm just a flying monkey to the wicked witch! You do want her, don't you? I've got it handled, Mother." He sighed, lying through his teeth.
Esther considered his words for a moment before snuffing out a nearby candle, Kol's runic wounds healing as soon as she did so.
"I want that stake, and the girl! And I don't care what you have to do to get them!"
~*•°•*~
"What did your mother want from you?" Davina asked, coming to a stop in front of Kol, the witch sitting on the steps of a mausoleum in the cemetery, holding an athame that he took from the Lycée.
"She wants me to take that stake out of your bag, take Aria, and hand them both over, so that you can't kill Klaus before she gets her big, happy family and she gets her revenge."
"Is that why you called us here?"
Kol let out a frustrated groan, "I'm not my mother's puppet!"
He stood up and walked towards the duo, holding the dagger towards Davina, "I want something different entirely. I want your blood."
Kol held his hands up non-threateningly as Davina suddenly backed away from him, eyes widening in fear before narrowing in anger, "Relax, love! I'm not gonna take it, I'm asking you. Nicely."
"Sure, I'll just bleed for you with no explanation at all." Davina said sarcastically.
Kol laughed, "About a hundred years ago, this tomb used to be my playhouse. The witches I used to run with, we used to make all kinds of magic in here. That is until I pissed the prettiest one off, as I tend to do, and she locked me out."
"So, why do you need my blood?"
"Her name was Mary Alice Claire."
Davina sighed and rolled her eyes, "And let me guess. Only a Claire witch can open this tomb?"
Kol nodded and walked towards her, handing her the athame, handle-ended as Davina stared at it suspiciously before taking it. Minutes later, the trio was inside of the tomb, both teenagers looking around in amazement.
"Where did you get all this stuff?" Aria asked, looking around the shelves in wonder as Kol smiled.
"Well, I was a vampire. I could get anything I wanted. I couldn't practice witchcraft, so, I charmed some witches, and I taught them a new kind of magic that I learned in Arabia called Kemiya. We made items that allowed me to use magic without doing magic." Kol began pulling boxes off the shelves and Davina's eyes widened, "You taught them how to make dark objects." She said in realisation.
"Yeah. And, for a time, they were scattered all around this city." Kol said as he opened a small wooden box, "I can't for the life of me find where they are now, but I've got the one that matters."
Aria, suddenly uncomfortable, turned the conversation away from Cami, "What is it?"
"It's not about what it is, it's about what it could be. You want to take down Klaus, right?" Davina nodded eagerly as did Aria, though less enthusiastically, "I've wanted one thing for years-"He held up one of the White Oak Ash daggers, "To drive a dagger into his heart, like he's done to me so many times."
"Those daggers don't work on Klaus." Aria said knowingly.
"Smart girl." Kol nodded, placing the dagger back into the wooden box, "With a little practice, and some trust, we'll fix it so this one will. We'll put him in a box, but, seeing as he won't be entirely dead, your friends will be safe… So, what d'you say?"
Aria smiled at Kol.
~*•°•*~
Looking around the tomb curiously after Davina had left moments ago, Aria picked something up off of one of the shelves curiously before smiling as Kol clicked his fingers behind her and classical music began to play. She placed the bottle back down and walked back over to Kol as he began to speak, "The Hunters who forged the Originals' daggers to take out my family didn't know that Klaus was part-werewolf. Not vulnerable to silver. Now, it's impossible to replicate the spell cast on the dagger. Trust me, I've tried." Aria smirked in amusement, "But, it's not impossible to change the dagger itself. Kemiya allows witches to destroy one element to create another. Say, changing silver to gold, for example."
"So, you've been hanging out with me this whole time because you don't have enough power on your own?" Aria asked, expression dropping the slightest bit.
"No!" Kol said quickly before sighing, "Kemiya's about… it's about chemistry. It's about connection." His voice softened slightly, "And, after we escaped from Dahlia… I don't think you can deny what we have."
He held out his hand, "So, here. Hold my hand."
Resting on it, was a diamond, something Aria instantly saw as he held it up for her,
"That's a huge diamond." Aria murmured, eyes darting up to his in surprise.
"It's a paragon diamond. You use them to conduct power."
He placed it back in his palm and held his hand out to her, "Is the hand-holding really necessary?" Aria asked.
Kol kept a straight face, "I mean, we could make out, but then that'd be entirely distracting." He smirked, "Not that I'd mind."
Aria rolled her eyes and smirked at him playfully, taking his hand. He held out his other hand, a length of rope placed on it, Aria took the other end of the rope in her spare hand, "Alright, follow my lead. Close your eyes." He instructed. Aria did as he told her and, after a moment, he did the same, "E loke gae la lidi. E loke gae la lidi."
After another moment, Aria joined him in chanting, vaguely feeling his hand leave hers as well as the warmth that had come with it as it slowly slipped down her arm, grasping her elbow.
"E loke gae la lidi. E loke gae la lidi."
The rope suddenly caught fire and the duo stopped chanting as they stared at each other in surprise before a small smile curled at Aria's lips. Kol moved his hand to her shoulder and let go of his end of the rope before his hand burnt, Aria not being so lucky as she hissed slightly, the rope singeing her hand before she dropped it onto the floor. They knelt down to the floor at the same time and eyes darted to a rope, now gold lying in place of the rope Aria had just dropped previously.
"To replace the one that I broke." Kol said softly, fastening the gold bracelet around Aria's wrist as she smiled.
"We changed it." She whispered.
"Well, Little witch, we're going to change everything." Kol murmured, eyes locked with hers intensely as she smiled at him.
~*•°•*~
Aria collapsed down onto a loveseat before sighing, "Well, it's late. I should get going." Despite her words, she still sounded unsure about it.
"I suppose you'll be wanting to get back to your father." Kol commented, putting the paragon diamond in a small velvet pouch before returning his full attention to the witch opposite him.
"You were there Kol, he wants to lock me back up in the Abattoir where I'll be safe. Maybe he'll even put me back in the attic. He loves me but… he's scared of losing me. Like he lost Klaus. And Rebekah. And the rest of you. So he doesn't really let me out of his sight."
He was silent for a moment. A long moment. Until he walked towards her and sat down, "You must have been lonely before you and Marcel found her. Davina. A witch needs a coven, even if it is just two."
Aria smiled slightly, sadly before taking a deep breath, "When can we work on the dagger?"
"Soon." He promised, "For now, we just need to keep you hidden from Mother."
"I'd rather just rip her head off." Aria scoffed, rolling her eyes, "Then I'll be rid of one of my problems."
Kol frowned and looked at her seriously, "Stay clear of her. I mean it, Little witch. She may not be as formidable as Dahlia, but she's still plenty powerful."
"Well, given the circumstances, I hope you're right." She murmured. Kol gave her a look and, after she stared at him for a moment more, she sighed reluctantly, "I won't go after her. I promise."
Kol looked at her for a moment more before smiling, "Besides, we have some more work to do with each other, first." Noticing she had somehow managed to find herself lying horizontally, he smiled softly in amusement before he grabbed her jacket and spread it over her like a blanket, "You're gonna like me, my Little witch. And I'm happy to let you pretend a while that you don't already." He paused a beat, "Get some rest."
He stood up, intending on leaving the room to allow Aria some privacy seeing as her eyes were already drooping, before he felt a cool hand grab his wrist. Turning back to the teenager, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the fear-stricken expression on her face, "No." She pleaded quietly, "Please don't leave."
The nightmares.
Understanding crossed his features and he nodded silently, crossing back over to the spot he'd been in a moment ago and collapsing down to the floor. Aria rolled her eyes and grabbed his wrist again, yanking him up off of the floor with little effort before patting the spot behind her, "There's plenty of room. The floor's cold and uncomfortable." She murmured.
She heard him shifting as he settled behind her. Letting out a small, tired sigh, she shifted closer to the warmth behind her and tucked her head beneath his chin, head already foggy with sleep.
"What is it?" She asked after a moment of silence. Comfortable silence, but silence none the less.
"What's what?" Kol questioned, a small furrow to his brow.
"You wanna ask me something. Ask."
There was more silence for a moment, before he chuckled slightly, "It's nothing." She snorted loudly and a smile curled at Kol's mouth, "Just get some sleep, Aria. For the sakes of the Romani psychics."
Aria rolled her eyes fondly and closed them again, hands automatically moving up to play with her necklace.
"I take it you like it?"
Aria nodded. She supressed a laugh when she visibly felt him puff up behind her like a peacock, "Tell Freya I said thanks." He wilted behind her slightly before scoffing.
"I will, Little witch. Now I'm serious, sleep."
She was dead to the world not ten minutes later.
~*•°•*~
"How do you feel?" Klaus asked Elijah as he sighed, having just woken up from Esther's magically induced nightmare.
"The worst has past. Though, I suspect the nightmares are far from over."
"Well, gather your strength. After the message I sent Mother tonight, I expect hell-fire to rain upon us imminently."
Elijah approached him, "We need to make a move before she strikes."
"Well, actually, moves were made while you were sleeping." Marcel said from the doorway.
Hayley smiled at Elijah, "It's good to see you vertical. Marcel and I each left a gift for you in the ballroom." Klaus looked at them curiously, "You're welcome?"
"You're welcome." Marcel muttered beneath his breath as the Mikaelson brothers passed him.
Downstairs, the quartet arrived in the ballroom finding both Finn and Kol each chained from a balcony by enchanted chains.
"Kidnapping? That's a rather unpleasant way to begin a family reunion!" Kol said incredulously.
"Well, wait until you see how we end it!" Klaus grinned. Kol looked at him warily.
~*•°•*~
Dahlia was furious.
Waking up from a century of sleep, at first was uneventful. Before, slowly, memories of Aria's time with her, Freya's betrayal and both breaking free from her control – despite the fact that she'd managed to get Freya's powers again came back to her. Her plans for revenge included using Freya and her pathetic love for her family of course, but Aria Gerard was a different matter entirely. She was powerful in a way Freya never was. In a way Freya never could be. She was magic.
Granted, she had to be careful. Aria was simply too powerful to just subdue. Especially after she'd spent gruelling months training the little brat, moulding her into her own image… She'd helped Aria unlock her true power. Helped her gain control over her emotions that she'd never had before. Her lack of control had been the only thing stopping her from striking and now, that weakness was gone.
If Dahlia went after Aria's family, the young witch would be able to not only know it was her – something she couldn't have happening yet – but she'd also be able to have time to plot against her.
As such, the spell she was currently incanting would be able to weaken her. Granted it would also weaken her incredibly, in fact there was a chance that she would be put back into her slumber for a week or so, but Aria was simply too powerful to let loose.
The bowl she was staring into showed Aria asleep in a tomb and, with a positively manic smirk, Dahlia began to chant.
She watched as Dahlia flowers slowly bloomed in the vines climbing up the sides of the tomb and crawled inside the cracks in the entrance.
She watched as a small crease formed in Aria's eyebrows.
And she watched as Aria began screaming.
~*•°•*~
Finally Dahlia has made her reappearance!
As Always, SecretMidnightRose