As the sun set, Hope crouched down, bracing her elbow on her knee as she waited. Burr stood in the shadows not far away.
"You sure she'll be here?"
"She'll come. She won't have a choice. Now, be quiet, I have to focus."
The Hollow was on her way, she could feel it, but all Hope wanted to do was think about Ryan.
Ryan with his soft eyes and shy smile, the man who made her feel more than she'd felt in so long, who worked his way passed her defenses by just being kind.
There'd been no pretenses to him when he'd shown her attention. God knew she'd experienced enough of that to be able to pick it up in an instant. Instead, he seemed to genuinely enjoy being with her, in every way, both as a friend and as a lover.
She shook her head in an effort to focus. If she didn't win this fight, there would be no going back to Ryan for her. She promised him she'd come back to him and she was a woman of her word, so she had to win.
As she exhaled, her breath turned into a cloud with the sudden cold and the chill snapped her fully into fight mode. This was a battle that she wish she'd been able to win a decade ago and now, it was time to right that wrong.
"I know you're here, little one." The beautiful, dark haired woman stepped out of the shadows. "Come, child. Show yourself. Let me get to know you. Curious that I find you familiar, but I have no idea how because I know we've never met before."
Hope remained silent. If only the Hollow knew the truth about who she was talking to. But it was a good thing she didn't, because it gave Hope the upper hand. Not knowing that Hope was actually connected by blood meant that Hope could turn herself into a weapon.
Just a little further. Come on, you wicked witch. Just a bit more.
Finally, the Hollow came to a stop, right where Hope needed her to be and the tribrid got to her feet quickly. It was time. With a shouted spell, the Hollow found herself surrounded by three interlocking triangles of fire.
"You stupid girl!" The Hollow looked around, then she started her own spell when she laid eyes on Hope.
Hope felt herself almost going to her knees, but she refused to bow. This woman wasn't going to take her down. It was because of her that Hope had been discovered as being not one of the protected species and so it was her fault that Hope had been erased.
"We have to help her!" a woman screamed, tugging on the arm of another woman.
"No! Leave her to me!" the Hollow commanded. "This little bitch is going to learn what it means to mess with me!"
Her supporters fell back reluctantly, because unlike the Hollow, most of them could see that Hope was more than a match for the older witch. But the Hollow was too arrogant to accept that someone might be stronger than she was, that she might lose.
Hope tilted her head with a smirk as she wiped the blood that dripped from her nose and continued chanting. Calling on every witch on both sides of her family to help her and on her full heritage, Hope drew on their power and the Hollow stumbled under the force of the magic she was assaulted with.
With a scream, the Hollow dug down deep, attempting to overpower Hope. But Hope's unique bloodline meant that the very human witch wasn't enough to measure up to the power flowing through Hope's veins, even with all the Hollows spells in place.
Hope bared her teeth as she pulled on the last bit of her power, using her connection to the other witch, turning their blood connection into an asset, and snarled. She was the daughter of Niklaus Mikaelson, the Original Hybrid King of New Orleans, and Hayley Marshall-Kenner, the Hybrd Queen of the Crescent Wolves. No power crazed witch would take her down with Hope sharing their bloodline.
Finally, the Hollow buckled, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, and her supporters stared at the pair, horror etched across their faces.
Hope wasn't finished though. After cutting her wrist, Hope continued to chant as she encouraged the blood to flow, binding the witch's power so much so that there was no way for the woman to do anything to free herself. The Hollow might have found a way to use her descendants' blood against them, but she didn't know Hope was her descendant, so she could use that against her.
Once the Hollow was completely at her mercy, Hope proceeded to create a prison inspired by her own experience with Malivore within the Hollow's mind with only one escape. To surrender to true death, to pass on, away from the ancestral plane, no continued existence after her heart stopped, that was this witch's only way out.
Hope wondered how long it would take for the Hollow to give up. Wandering alone in the darkness, no magic, no connection to anything, not even her own body, it would break anyone, even someone as unfeeling as the Hollow.
"Try to rescue her and you'll find yourself lost in an endless void inside your own mind with only the faintest memory that once there was more," Hope warned.
"You think you can just take her down like that without repercussions?" one man demanded.
"I just did."
"She'll find a way out and come for you, then you'll regret it."
"She can't." Hope raised an eyebrow at them. She'd essentially hogtied her magic, so any struggle against the bindings would strangle her even more.
"She's the most powerful being alive!"
"Well, now your god is dead. So, if any of you want to try me, go right ahead." Hope held her hands out and smiled widely as she allowed her eyes to flash yellow.
Burr raised his rifle and cocked it, his hands shaking for a second, then he steadied himself as he fought to hide how scared he was. Why would he have to be afraid when he had Hope on his side against them? Unless it was Hope he was afraid of, which Hope wouldn't doubt, considering she rarely used more than parlor tricks when he was around.
The witch looked from Hope with her wolf eyes to Burr, then he walked over to the Hollow and lifted her into his arms almost reverently.
"When we do find a way to set her free, we'll come for you, mark my words," he hissed before disappearing into the undergrowth.
"Best of luck trying to free her from the prison I created for her without getting trapped yourself!" Hope called after the group as they left. Then more quietly, she added, "It won't hurt my feelings any if you wind up trapped within your own minds all alone. Waste of magic, for sure, but what do I care? You'll die and the rest of us will be safe from you."
"You can do that?" Burr asked, raw fear creeping into his voice.
Hope didn't answer him as she walked towards the SUV waiting for them on the logging road several hundred yards away.
Why had she thought it was a good idea for her to bring him along? He'd just take this as more proof that she was too dangerous. This man had been pushing for her execution since he met her and now, she'd just given him more of a reason to take her down.
She wanted to text Ryan, to give him a heads up that she was in trouble and to tell him how terrified she was, but Burr was right there. If he got the idea that she was talking to someone, he'd have her phone checked and then Ryan would be discovered. And Ryan wouldn't stand a chance if an agent came after him.
She had to protect him, from everyone, even if it meant protecting him from herself.
As they drove down the road, Burr kept glancing at her from the corner of her eye and Hope kept her gaze firmly on the front window. If she looked at him, he would take it as a threat and might put a bullet through her head, before she was ready to transition into a full-fledged tribrid.
Funny how before she arrived in that town, she was considering turning, but now, she wanted to remain alive for a little while longer, at least long enough to give Ryan a chance to accept her. She had a chance for a life without dying just yet and she now wanted to explore that.
The private jet waiting on the tarmac to take them back to Georgia had Hope's heart pounding. She could just run now and Burr would never be able to find her. But she needed the things she had back at HQ, her last connections to the family who no longer knew she was one of them.
In the jet, Hope found a corner far away from Burr and she kicked off her boots before curling up on the seat.
Why couldn't she just let go of what she had from her family and be free of Triad? But if she couldn't find a way to give her family their memories back, she needed proof that she was in fact who she claimed to be, so she could convince them to at least test her claims to be a part of their family at one time. The more she looked for answers, the more likely it seemed that she would have to resort to showing up and telling them what she knew without them remembering anything.
As she considered what she needed to do, another thought crossed her mind. Was she risking a possibility of a future with Ryan by clinging to her past?
Even as she thought that, she shook her head. No. She was a Mikaelson. And family was always and forever. Romances weren't guaranteed to last, but family was there for eternity. She could always come back to Ryan, but losing the things that reminded her that at one time she was loved unconditionally, she just couldn't let that go.
The tapping of keys had her looking up to find Burr on his laptop. Knowing him, he was going straight to Veronica Greasley, because that's what he did, campaign to get rid of her.
He wasn't a Triad agent because he was trying to do the right thing by humans. He was a part of the organization because he was a weak, pathetic asshole who wanted to feel like he had power over people who could tear him apart without even trying. It rankled him that Hope was a part of the team, the one they trusted to handle situations when the humans had reached their limits. And his fear and hatred for anything not human made him loath her.
Every so often, he would look at her and his heart would start pounding harder and Hope knew for certain. They were definitely talking about what to do with her, Hope realized. Heart breaking, she realized she had one option. To stay alive, to protect anyone she met, she would have to erase herself from human memory. And that taking herself away from Ryan.
She alone would remember the night she spent in his arms and the connection they shared. He wouldn't remember his lips against her skin, their bodies moving together, their conversations. He wouldn't remember that he wanted her to stay, that to her, he wasn't broken, and that he was worth coming back for.
But she steeled herself with the knowledge that if things were meant to be, when she returned to him, they would work out. And when the time was right, when she finally confessed what she was and what she could do, she would give him back his memories.
