I originally had this chapter and the next one together, but there was a natural stopping point in the middle so I split them, but the next (final) chapter is written and should be up a little later today, or tomorrow.

Then all that's left are the prequel chapters that I wrote. Each one is essentially a novella in it's own right, so I'm gonna edit them and post them as separate stories, but I'll have in the summary or title A Million Dreams.


She remembered the bloodlust as stronger: a yawning emptiness that demanded fulfillment. In quiet moments she still felt the life draining from her first victim. Beatrice's blood, hot and sticky, spilled from the corners of her mouth. She drank and she drank and she drank until nothing remained of the woman but a dried out husk.

In the moment the death had been a necessity, an unavoidable tragedy. An atrocious act she resolved herself to committing time after time for the remainder of her life.

Thanks to Elijah's discovery of compulsion she had only been required to take one life out of necessity. Shame he hadn't caught her in transition.

Compulsion saved her hands from being drenched in the blood of the innocent. And though she had never revealed the truth to her family compulsion had also saved her life. Rebekah and Kol remained blissfully ignorant of the compulsion they laid on her during her darkest hours, and they would remain in the dark.

Her longest deception, one Kol knew but had never grasped the significance of, stretched a thousand years.

Witches could be compelled.

She wouldn't have been surprised if Klaus had performed a similar deception out of loyalty to his own species, and that everyone could be compelled.

She figured when she took the potion that compulsion would become her new best friend. She assumed there would be accidents and overwhelming instances of hunger. She thought her limits would be pushed to the breaking point and dozens of people would be subjected to her thrall.

Whether her former life as a vampire or the addition of magic was the culprit she didn't know, but control came easier.

In the two weeks after turning she had stuck to a strict blood bag diet, funnelling her excess energy into raising her daughter and her marital bed. She put deep scratches in the headboard and Kol's back, but nobody had been hurt.

"What are you thinking about?" Kol murmured. He flipped a page in Esther's grimoire, using a finger to follow the ancient lines of ink.

Her nail caught in a groove on the headboard and smiled.

"Everything… and nothing…"

"Sounds riveting," he chuckled.

She slipped under the arm he raised and rested her cheek on his shoulder. Her eyes scanned the page until a gurgle brought her attention to the video monitor on the nightstand.

It levitated towards them.

"Too far to reach?" He hummed, kissing her crown and running his fingers through her hair.

"I'm comfortable." She reached out a hand to stabilize the small screen. Astrid's mouth puckered, but she remained asleep.

Elena's eyes caught the delicate silver chain around her wrist holding the teardrop pendent she spelled when they were in France.

"Do you…" She trailed off, nibbling on her cheek.

"Do I what, darling?" He twisted a lock of her hair. He lifted his eyes to the monitor and smiled at the sight.

"Do you think she might… that she might want to turn one day?" She drew her bottom lip between her teeth.

Kol rested the grimoire on his raised knee, considered her question and titled his head.

"I suppose it's possible…" he reached for the monitor with his free hand, carefully tracing Astrid's form with his thumb. "She is being raised by a family of vampires. It would make sense for her to want to join us. It would also make sense for her to want a completely human life. Which would you prefer?"

"Whichever makes her happy." She drew patterns across his chest. "But… but if she wants to turn how do we handle that? Your mother's spell is gone."

"We could recreate it; we've got more time to figure that out now. If she wants to turn then that's her choice, but not before she's eighteen."

"Recreate it?" She inhaled, counting the beats of his heart. "We're lacking a crucial ingredient for that."

"A Doppelgänger's blood; I know." He nodded. "We could find one. A Mikaelson witch and a doppelgänger are all we need."

"And I suppose you've got a plan for finding a girl that might not exist?"

"Oh, one exists," he chuckled. "You know that when one doppelgänger dies another is born. Somewhere in this world she's walking around. She might be old, and she might be young, but regardless she is a blood relation to you, and blood relations are simple enough to find."

"We can have the spell ready in case."

Elena shifted, slouching down to curl her arm around his stomach.

"What if we can't recreate it?"

"Then Finn or one of us can turn her."

"If vampirism is what she wants I'd rather she be an Original."

"As would I, so we'll simply have to locate the doppelgänger and acquire some of her blood."

"Do you think we should tell Nik about that?" She smirked.

"Doesn't make any difference now, does it? It's not like he can perform the ritual again."

She heard the amusement in his voice.

"I suppose we have lots of time to work out the spell," she folded her legs under her body, "one she might never actually want."

"And in the mean time," he laid the monitor on the bedspread then spread his hand on the page, "I think I have a way to awaken Freya."

"She should awaken on her own in a week." Elena nudged his palm away so she could read the spell again. "A Sanguinum knot…"

"Freya will wake on her own, but the sooner she is unbound from Dahlia the better. My dear aunt will come and we can kill her," he sneered.

"About killing her…"

He shifted, lifting her chin with his hand.

"You wish for her to live?" A line appeared between his brows.

"No, I want that bitch dead," her jaw clicked. "I want to burn her to a freaking crisp and break her bones beneath my heels."

She sucked in a deep breath.

"But killing her will send her spirit straight to the Other Side, and if Esther could find a way back then sooner or later Dahlia will too."

"Shall we turn her instead? We could let her and mother torture each other for eternity, or at least until they desiccate." His thumb stroked her cheek.

She shook her head slowly.

"Is it wrong that I want her to suffer more?"

"I'm all for a little torture, love, though I think your new friend's will raise their brows. Did you have something in mind?"

She licked her bottom lip, holding it between her teeth and tongue as she considered. A slow smirk lifted her lips.

"Nik lied to Elijah… told him he dropped all of you at the bottom of the ocean." The back of her mind raced, working out figures and plotting containment spells. "If she's turned and dropped she'll drown again and again until she desiccates; which will take a lot longer underwater."

"You… are devious." Kol watched her in silence for a moment.

"Is it too much?" She frowned.

"Just enough," he assured her as Astrid started to cry.

"Why don't you do that spell for Freya while I get Astrid and ask someone to donate a little blood?" She hopped off the bed.

"Who are you going to ask?" He stood, walking out behind her to retrieve rope.

"The first one I see."


He held a length of knotted rope in one hand as he studied the spell a final time. The complex nature revealed the enchantment to be one of his mother's later creations, pieced together shortly before her execution of their immortality; making it one of the few spells from his human years that he never got the chance to attempt.

The simplicity of the knots almost fooled him into thinking the spell would be easy, but unwinding one soul from another was never smooth sailing.

His sister and aunt were entwined. As angry as he was for her deception a century ago she remained the elder sister responsible for reuniting his family.

Ending Dahlia's existence while they remained bound would end her life.

And, outside of last resorts, that was not an option.

"Okay," he breathed, inhaling slowly.

His eyes drifted shut as he honed his senses in, ignoring every other sound in the house to focus on the representational magic in his hands.

When the world receded to a low hum he gently cupped the rope between his hands, sliding his palms to hold either end while the words fell from his lips.

Magic slithered along the fibres, over and under and over again, working free the complicated merging of two souls.

He opened his eyes a fraction to watch the knot raise and untie itself in midair. Both ends of the rope fell against his open palms.

Freya's heart quickened.

Kol's eyes cut to the left, landing on Finn where he stood tense on the opposite side of Freya's bed. He perched on the richly embroidered comforter and saw his brother do the same.

Her lashes fluttered, lifting slowly. She surveyed her surroundings without truly making sense of anything. Dark wood should have pressed in close, suffocating her, but instead it rose in posts above her head directing her gaze toward the ceiling; smoother than the rough beams of her basement sanctuary.

There was more light too. She should have awakened in the darkness, candles at the ready to greet her, but instead a natural light danced across the ceiling.

She breathed in deeply, expecting a lungful of dust; no matter where she chose to undergo her slumber she always rose surrounded by neglect.

Clean air, tinted with herbs, invigorated her.

Her arms dropped from her stomach to her sides, pushing against soft cushion.

She sat up, blinking at the two men through a haze of sleep.

"Are you sure you did the spell right?" The elder asked, glancing sideways in concern at his brother.

Brothers, she patted the cream and gold blanket, slowly blinking.

"You could have done it yourself," he sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"You always had more power," the first shook his head. "I swear mother cursed us because she feared you'd grow more powerful than her. Are you alright?"

Brothers? She tilted her head, realizing he spoke to her. My brothers?

She opened her mouth to speak, managing a small croak.

The older one — he had to be Finn; she didn't remember seeing him at Christmas — handed her a glass from a nightstand. She drank without thought, first sipping and then draining the water in three large gulps.

Moisture returned to her mouth, granting her the confidence to try again.

"Wh… what happened? Where am… am I?"

"You're home sister." Finn settled a hand on her shoulder, carefully taking back the glass.

"Home? But…"

"Suffice it to say, your plan experienced complications." Kol dropped the rope on the end of the bed.

"Compli…" horror flooded her eyes, "Astrid…" She scrambled for the edge of the covers, trying to get up with muscles that hadn't flexed in a century.

"Freya!" Kol blocked her escape. He held her arm and met her eyes. "She's alright."

"She was right here." She didn't hear him, eyes flicking wildly around the room. "She was with me."

He gave a soft sigh, turned his attention to the door and called in a gentle voice. "Can you come in here, my love?"

A moment passed before the door clicked and swung open.

"There, you see," he nodded as Elena stepped inside, Astrid in her arms, "she's okay."

Her hand rose to her mouth, stifling a sob.

"Freya?" Elena crossed the room and sat on the bed with her back to the pillows. Her knees brushed Finn's leg as she readjusted.

"Astrid?" She breathed, trembling fingers reaching out.

"Mmhmm," Elena nodded. "Things didn't go according to plan, but everything worked out."

"So far," Kol added.

"So far," she agreed.

"She… she's so big," a smile bloomed on her face, "hello, sweet girl."

She touched a finger to Astrid's cheek, prompting a sunny smile from her because while her memory was short she recognized familial magic.

"Big, and healthy and loved," Elena agreed, smiling up at her husband.

"The question remains: are you alright, sister?" Finn frowned. "You've been asleep nearly a century."

Freya's ears perked up. "Nearly?"

"Nearly," Kol nodded. His expression softened when Astrid cooed, and he allowed a moment to appreciate her happiness as she was surrounded for the first time by her entire coven.

"We're not quite out of the woods yet," Elena murmured, gently maneuvering Astrid into Freya's tired arms. "She's awake, and you're returned, but we still have Dahlia to deal with."

"Luckily, my beautiful bride has a devious plan in mind."