Mackenzie barely slept. The sun wasn't even up yet when she decided to get out of her room and walk around the cold castle. The hallways were as similar as they were different. Paintings, flowers and other decorations made each corridor easily recognizable. It wasn't hard for the ultimate to find her way back to her room when she turned around as she started to feel sick. She collapsed on the red velvet couch, hoping the nausea would soon go away. She fell asleep and Heidi found her hours later when the sun was high up in the sky.

Heidi was standing in front of the couch, her arms crossed over her chest, a look of disapproval on her face.

"It's almost noon," she said coldly. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry," Mackenzie replied groggily, "I didn't sleep much."

"I was told you came back at midnight."

"I did. I just didn't sleep well."

"You're probably jet-lagged," the witch dismissed her with a wave of the hand. "Anyway, now that you've taken a nap, I'm sure you're ready for your morning lesson."

"Morning lesson?" she repeated as she rubbed her eyes.

"You have ten minutes to get ready. I'll wait for you in the library."

Heidi then turned around and left the room without any other word. Mackenzie stayed on the couch for a minute, stretching up. The library, she thought. Elijah could be there. She had tried hard not to think about her last nightmare, but as she was walking the castle's hallways, it was all she could think about. It's not real, she told herself. Elijah wouldn't hurt her. That nightmare was just a silly dream, it didn't make any sense. Elijah wouldn't hurt her. She knew that much. Didn't she?

She finally got up and picked up a pair of jeans and a purple shirt before putting on her sneakers and making her way to the door. As she was about to open it, someone came knocking.

"Lady Alemaund?" the servant from the night before asked from behind the door.

Mackenzie opened and the girl quickly bowed to her, making the elemental uncomfortable.

"Lady Alemaund, Lady Beauregard has sent me. She wants me to take you to the library."

Mackenzie scoffed internally. Of course, Heidi thought of everything.

"Thank you," she smiled shyly.

As they walked in silence, Mackenzie was dying to ask about Elijah, if she knew, by any chance, his whereabouts. She resisted all the way to the library, but, as the girl was about to open, finally blurted it out.

"Is Elijah inside?"

"Sir Mikaelson?" she asked, and Mackenzie nodded. "He's walking the maze with Sir Davidson outside," she answered, missing the look of relief on Mackenzie's face, "do you want me to bring him here?"

"No," Mackenzie replied, too quickly, "no, no, that's fine, don't bother him, thank you."

The girl nodded then opened the door, bowing as she gestured Mackenzie to enter.

The library was not at all what she expected. In fact, it didn't look like a library. It was more of a lab than anything else. Herbs and other flowers were hanging on the walls and from the ceilings, jars filled with all sorts of things of all sorts of colors were carefully organized on the hundreds of shelves that were spread in the rooms. Sure, there were a few books here and there, but that didn't make it a library.

"There you are."

Mackenzie jumped as she heard Heidi's voice from across the room, near two big windows that were the only source of light. She was standing behind a metal worksurface on which had been laid a few empty jars as well as an opened book and other ingredients.

"There are plenty of spells we could study here," Heidi said. "And plenty of potions. Come on, I'll teach you the basics."

Potion making would have been easy enough if Mackenzie had managed to focus for one second. But every single word that came out of Heidi's mouth were ignored by the troubled ultimate who could only hear the same sentence over and over again: "You can't trust him, he will hurt you." Surely her mother wasn't talking about Elijah, nor Alexander, nor anyone else Mackenzie could think of. And if she were talking about Elijah maybe she didn't know what she was talking about. Maybe she thought Elijah was like Klaus, a dangerous psychopath who would kill her because of her power. Maybe she didn't know Elijah at all. Maybe she was wrong. Or maybe, her mother wasn't the source of the nightmare at all. Maybe it was just a dumb dream and she was worried for nothing.

Heidi was losing her patience and even though she could see something was wrong, she had no intention of asking her about it. That was a job for Alexander.

The heretic appeared in the lab, as if summoned by Heidi's thoughts, followed by the original vampire. He seemed happy to see Mackenzie, as happy as Alexander was to see Heidi, however, only one of the women avoided their other half's eyes.

"How's it going?" Alex asked cheerfully.

"Terribly," Heidi replied with a sigh. "Maybe you'll get something out of her."

"Potions aren't your thing, uh," the half vampire, half witch said jokingly.

"I'm just tired," she mumbled, looking down at her hands that were playing with a mortar.

"Ah, well, maybe we should cancel today's training session?"

"Out of the question," Heidi said. "On the contrary, it'll wake her up."

Mackenzie walked around the table in silence and towards Alexander, still avoiding their eyes, as if she was ashamed of herself for having such terrible thoughts.

"Let's go then, I'll follow you."

"You sure?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, finding her behavior quite strange.

"Are you okay?" Elijah asked as he put a hand on her shoulder.

She moved away quickly, before she could even think about what she was doing. Elijah caught a glimpse of her eyes and found fear in them. She didn't look long enough to see how much it hurt him.

"I'm fine, I'm just tired, I think I should go lie down."

"Yes, of course," the vampire said, looking at both Heidi and Alexander, wondering if they had seen the same thing he had.

To her relief, no one came to bother her that night. And she actually slept, unbothered by any dream or nightmare. She was up at nine, and ready to go when Heidi came to get her, to the witch's surprise. She didn't mention the event of the previous day and the lesson went perfectly well. Mackenzie decided to focus on what was being taught to her rather than the silly thoughts that wouldn't leave her head. She felt ridiculous having those thoughts but didn't seem to be able to get rid of them.

According to Sarah, the servant who had apparently been assigned to her, Elijah was in the library, the real one, with all the books and other things the Queen kept in her official library. He was expecting her for lunch and maybe the most horrible thing she had ever done in her life was standing him up with no warnings whatsoever.

The training session with Alexander went as well than the others, she made clear progress but also got her ass handed to her more than once. Fortunately, the session was cut short as they were told about a ball that her Majesty the Queen was hosting that night. Alexander let Mackenzie go early, assuring her that Heidi would be busy at the moment mumbling about being told way to late, that she didn't have any appropriate gown to wear and that she didn't want to go anyway. Mackenzie spared him a polite smile before she made her way back to her chambers where Sarah was waiting.

"A few dresses are waiting for you in your bedroom," she said, "pick one and call me when you're ready to change." She bowed before she exited the room, leaving Mackenzie alone with three dresses so beautiful she didn't think she'd be able to choose just one.

As she grazed the fabric of each dress, she was reminded of the gown Elijah had sent her for the ball his mother had hosted over a month ago. She remembered all of it. His words, his gestures, his smile... She remembered how much she loved being with him just two days ago, and now... now she didn't even know what to think.

Either way, she was the biggest idiot of the whole universe. First scenario, she was worrying for nothing, thinking Elijah would even want to hurt her in the slightest, or, second scenario, she had trusted an original vampire with her secrets, her life, and her heart, only for him to play her to the death.

She wanted it to be a mistake, just a dream caused by the huge amount of sweets and other cakes Cornelius had made her eat that night. She wanted it to go away, to forget it, so the burning ball of guilt and doubt would disappear from her stomach.

She took out the first gown from the hanger. It was a beautiful blue, almost as blue and magical as Cinderella's magic dress, with a heart shaped corset and no sleeves. The second one was a stunning purple, similar to the previous one, only with a more reasonable cleavage. The third one was green, in a similar fashion as Cornelius' clothes. That one she dismissed right away, the corset seemed like a real pain.

"Wear the blue one."

Mackenzie jumped as she gasped, startled by Elijah's voice. She hadn't heard him come in. She looked away quickly when she realized he was the one who had sneaked into her chambers without a sound.

"Hey," she greeted quietly.

"I missed you at lunch."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Heidi kept you longer than planned?"

She frowned as she thought he'd know exactly at what time she ended her lesson with Heidi this morning. He was testing her, she realized, to see if she would lie to him. Elijah was no fool. He knew something was wrong.

"No."

"Then what happened?"

She didn't reply. What could she reply?

She suddenly felt two hands travel on her waist and her heart skipped a beat as she felt his power near her, as if it was a knife to her throat. She gasped then jumped, startled, before she pushed him away, stepping away from him in a nonsensical panic, causing her back to meet with the wardrobe behind her.

She stared with big eyes at the predator who could so easily kill her if he wished so. And though the act in itself would physically hurt, it wasn't what she was most afraid of. Elijah was her friend, Elijah was more than that. She loved him, of all kinds of love, she'd felt it all, platonic, pure friendship, gratitude... The love a student had for a teacher, a victim had for a savior. The love of a teenage girl. A first love. A ridiculous love. One that hurt even when everything was perfect. No, she didn't care about the physical pain. She was more troubled about her heart, her heart she had just given him. She would die if it weren't real, she would die if he weren't who she thought he was, she would die as if her heart were being ripped from her chest, she would die from grief, she would die from the heartache.

And at that moment, she thought she would die seeing the look on his face. A look of betrayal, as if someone had just ripped his heart out of his chest, as if she had just stepped on his heart, he had just given her.

"You're scared of me," he said, as if he didn't believe it.

Just like she had done for the past twenty-four hours, trying to push the bad thoughts away, he had too, thinking he had to be wrong when she pushed him away, that she wasn't scared of him because why would she be?

And those last twenty-four hours crumbled loudly inside of her head as his words echoed over and over again "you're scared of me" he said like a sad puppy. As vulnerable as he could be, as she had ever seen him.

How could she think, even for one second, that this man wanted to hurt her, that this man had played her, played some kind of twisted game with her? How could she think so low of him? She would never forgive herself, she thought. She didn't know that she had so much power, that she owned him. She realized, now, that he owned her too, and that even if only a day had passed, it had seemed like an eternity to be away from him, to avoid him, to think of him like a threat, as if he was dead somehow, as if he had never existed and all she had believed had been ripped away from her in the most cruel way.

Tears filled her eyes quickly and one fell on her cheek as she shook her head.

"No," she breathed out before she hurried towards him.

She hugged him tight, burying her wet face in his chest and he embraced her as if he hadn't seen her in years, as if he had lost her and had finally found her again.

"I'm not scared of you," she said, "I'm sorry."

"What's wrong?" he asked softly as he rested his cheek on the top of her head, stroking her hair.

"Nothing," she sniffed. "Nothing at all."

Thank you for reading!

I hope you liked it!

The third and last part of this chapter will be posted next Wednesday!

The entirety of chapter 25 as well as chapter 26 is available on my patre0n page: patre0n dot com /alonelydreamer

Have a great week!