Hope took a deep breath and cleared her mind as best she could so she could do some automatic writing. Now was time to find out what Madam Laveau wished to share with her and the easiest way to get the spell was to allow the older witch to use her hands.
Without even thinking, the pen she held started moving across the page and it took everything she had do keep herself calm. Madam Laveau was in control and it was disconcerting, but this was her spell, not Hope's, and she dared not interrupt.
After a long moment, Hope felt the voodoo queen leave her and she looked over the spell.
It wasn't black magic, but it was definitely dark. This spell wouldn't harm her baby though, so she could easily cast it. Triad wouldn't know what was coming for them and Greta and her crew were going down hard.
"Thank you, Madam Laveau," Hope breathed.
Standing up, she picked up the paper and headed down to find Freya. It was time to protect her family, all of her family. Her aunts, uncles, parents, her fiance, and the child she carried. All her enemies would know that Hope Mikaelson was alive and real and she was just as dangerous as the rest of her family.
With this resolve, she opened the door to her aunt's study and placed the paper on her desk.
"What's this?"
"Madam Laveau, it's the spell she gave me."
"It'll take me some time to prepare-"
"I'll be doing the spell. I just need these ingredients. I promised her and I keep my promises."
Hope got a feeling that if anyone else tried to do it other than her, Madam Laveau would be furious and the backlash would be immense.
"Of course. I forgot who we were dealing with for a moment. She is not one to take kindly to those who break their word." Freya stood up. "Okay. I will have the supplies ready as soon as possible, so we can get this done."
"Thank you, Aunt Freya."
"You'll be showing soon, and feeling her kick," Freya commented, looking at Hope's stomach.
"Ryan's excited, almost more than I am, I think."
"Yes, well, going centuries thinking he can't father a child, and suddenly finding out a girl is carrying his baby?"
"He didn't believe me at first. He thought maybe she was like Landon, and then he thought I was with someone else."
"A man after your father's heart." Freya shook her head and smiled ruefully.
"He finally believed me though."
"And now he's mixed up with the most dangerous family on the planet."
"Which is a good thing, considering where he came from."
"We'll deal with Malivore and save him, I promise."
Hope nodded, fear for the man she loved coursing through her. With Malivore being Ryan's creator, it was possible that his death would result in Ryan's death as well, unless they severed the link between them.
"Breath, Hope. Breath. We won't go after Malivore until we know for sure we can save Ryan," Freya assured her niece when she realized that Hope was closing in on a panic attack.
"Okay." Hope nodded, blinking back tears, taking several deep breaths to get her heart rate back under control.
"Hope, we'll get through this. We won't let him die. I promise. Once Triad and Greta are handled, we'll free him completely from his creator."
"Hopefully before the baby is born," Hope whispered.
"I swear I do my best."
"Because I don't want Malivore to have any claim or think he has any claim on this baby. She's ours."
Malivore didn't get to think he'd succeeded after throwing Ryan away and rejecting him for so many years. No. This was Ryan's baby, her baby, and Malivore would never get to taste victory. Not with Landon, and definitely not with Ryan.
Hope yawned suddenly.
"You've expended a lot of magic, getting this spell."
"It was just automatic writing." Hope shook her head. How could she possibly be tired after a spell like that? She could take down the Hollow and only got a mild headache, but doing automatic writing to get a spell from a long dead witch? She felt like she'd taken down the Hollow twice.
"You're pregnant though, and the first three months are the most taxing on the body, which means you're already expending a lot of energy. So go take a nap."
"How will I be able to do that spell if I can hardly do this?"
"I don't think Madam Laveau would judge us if you channeled me. Now go. Sleep." Freya pointed to the door
Hope nodded once, not one to complain when told to rest. She went from being a superpowered badass who could take anything, to needing to sleep all the time, but that was the very small price she paid for carrying Ryan's baby.
When she finally got to her room, she toed off her shoes and collapsed across the bed. She was vaguely aware of someone pulling the blankets down and tuck her back into bed, then crawl into bed behind her and the scent of warmth and earth and home enveloping her.
"Ryan?" Hope whispered as he curled around her.
"Shh. Sleep." He kissed her temple, then the back of her neck.
Hope caught his hand and pulled it to her chest, sighing deeply. In response, Ryan tightened his arms around her, sliding his leg over hers. As she pressed back against him, she realized he wasn't wearing a shirt.
"I love you," he murmured against her skin.
"Will you sing?"
"I did promise you a song, didn't I?"
"Mhm." In another life, where she was still held captive by Triad, and she thought he was a human.
"I haven't had time to write a song for you yet, so you'll just have to put up with one I learned centuries ago," Ryan chuckled
With that, he started to sing softly. Hope didn't recognize the song, but that didn't matter because his soft, smooth voice carried her away softly to the land of sleep and dreams where all was safe and warm.
When she woke up, she found herself with her head pillowed on Ryan's chest and he was playing with her hair.
"Did you sleep?" Hope asked.
"For a bit." Ryan kissed the top of her head. "But I'd rather just hold you while you sleep though, because none of my dreams could ever measure up to the real thing."
"Has it really been just under three months since we met?" Hope asked, tracing patterns across his chest. "Because it feels like I've known you forever."
"Sometimes, when two people meet, they connect so deeply that time no longer matters."
Hope nuzzled her face into his chest and she shifted so that she was lying more across his body.
"Aunt Freya is getting the ingredients for the spell."
"What does the spell do?"
"It'll remove the influence of our enemies, so much so that if done properly, I think they might be forced to disband. Without their support and influence to back them, it'll be much easier to handle them if they decide to take things to a violent level."
"That's diabolical." Ryan chuckled and kissed her hair lightly.
"I'm a pregnant werewolf. There's nothing I wouldn't do to protect our baby." Hope braced herself on her hand so she could look down at him. Cupping his cheek, she brushed her thumb beneath his eye. "They don't know what they're messing with. No one hurts my family."
"Spoken like a true Mikaelson."
Hope smiled, leaning over to kiss him, her tongue brushing lightly against his lips.
"Tell me a story." She laid her head against his chest.
"What about?"
"You. Your life. The most beautiful thing you've ever seen. I want to know everything about you."
"You know me."
"Yes. But I still want to know about your life. Tell me everything."
"You know what happened to me, with Malivore, what all I went through."
"You're more than Malivore. You don't have to tell a story, exactly, just describe a scene. Something that made you feel like you were alive."
"Alright," he finally relented. "One time, when I was in this shop in the middle of nowhere, the most beautiful woman I've ever seen walked into the room and her smile, it made me glad that Malivore decided to create me."
Hope hit him lightly, laughing.
"It's the truth though. Before you, I never felt like I had the right to live for myself."
She combed her fingers through his curls and smiled softly at him. He gazed up at her, his dark eyes alight with adoration. Catching her hand, he pressed a kiss to her wrist.
"Alright, lovebirds, break it up!" Rebekah called from the other side of the door. "I'm planning the nursery and I need the mummy to be's input."
"It's his baby too," Hope muttered mutinously.
"I heard that. If he wants to help pick out colors and the like, he's welcome to it, I don't mind."
"I think your aunt wants some time with you all to herself," Ryan said as he sat up.
"You're probably right." Hope leaned over and kissed his cheek.
"I think I'd like to get to see about helping your other aunt figure out how to free me from my father anyway."
He was right, of course. Besides, they needed to spend some time as their own people, because they weren't codependent and could function without each other for a few hours. As much as she loved him, she had other people who needed her love and affection too.
"I'll see you later."
Ryan kissed her softly and climbed out of bed, Hope following him.
A few moments later, Hope entered the nursery where she found Rebekah sorting through color swatches and decorating catalogs.
"There you are." Rebekah looked up at Hope with a smile. "I wouldn't have minded if he joined us, you know. He's got good tastes, your fella, but he's right. I need quality time with my niece. I've already lost so much. We've got a lot to make up for. Speaking of, your mother should be here shortly to help. Or rather you and I do the decorating ideas while she gets to spend time with you."
"She's my mom. I don't care if she doesn't have a damn thing to say about what we put into this room. I just want her around."
"That's what I told her. For what it's worth, I think she's been avoiding you a little because she feels so guilty about forgetting you."
"Malivore makes people forget! It's not her fault!"
"She doesn't see it like that. She sees that she had a baby that she loved and spent every ounce of energy protecting, only to forget said child and didn't figure it out who was missing from her life until you showed back up. She blames herself for what you went through with Triad."
"Good thing she's coming over then, so I can set her straight, or at least try to."
There was a knock on the doorframe and Hope looked up to see her mother.
"Hi, Mom." Hope smiled widely and ran to embrace her. "I've missed you."
"I guess you feel like I've been avoiding you." Hayley pressed her cheek against Hope's hair.
"I figured you were busy trying to help keep the peace."
"But I have been. I see you, hear your baby's heartbeat, and it hurts how much I've missed and how I could forget that I was ever a mom."
"We'll work through it, together, because I need you, Mom."
"I promise that I'll do much better, not letting my guilt get the better of me." Hayley stepped back so she could look Hope in the eye and she brushed Hope's hair out of her face.
"When you do feel guilty, just know that it was the blackest of magic that took me away from you and that I survived because the memories of how hard you fought for me helped me remember that at one time, I was loved and that if you still remembered me, you'd still love me."
"I never stopped loving you, Hope. I just forgot your face."
"Then don't feel guilty. You're my mom and it's because of you that I had the strength to make it through."
Hayley nodded. "So, let's get this nursery underway."
"You're gonna be a grandma."
"I don't know what makes me laugh more, that I'm gonna be a grandmother or that Klaus is about to be a grandfather." Hayley started laughing and the other two women joined in.
Hope wrapped her arm around Hayley's waist and pulled her down to the floor where Rebekah had the magazines spread out. Maybe now, she and her mother could become what they should have been if she'd never been taken.
