"For once just do as you're told, for the love of everything that is holy," I pleaded with Hayley as we walked out of her room of the compound and out on to the balcony. Elijah was out looking for news on Sophie's mysterious death and was looking for Celeste. I was trying to convince Hayley not to leave the compound. "I just need you to stay here, Hayley, where it's safe and guarded by vampires. I already died for you once this week. It is too soon for me to die again." She laughed and tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear. The laugh was short lived as a voice rang out through the compound.

"Hayden!" I heard Elijah call from the study, and I took off at vamp speed to the study, slowing down to jog through the doorway.

"Where's the fire? What happened? Did you find any—" My voice trailed off as I was left breathless. I walked into the study to see Elijah standing there shirtless. My mouth remained open as I surveyed his sculpted chest and carved abdomen with his corded muscles on his arms. His skin was flawless. Or at least I imagined it would be if he didn't have tattoos all over his arms and chest and back. "—thing?" Hayley came in behind me and raised her eyebrows at Elijah obviously admiring the same thing I was just seconds ago.

"I recall that Hayley once told me that you can read Nordic runes." I stuttered trying to get my mouth and brain to work together as I responded.

"Um, y-yes, yes. It's been a hot minute but yeah, I can read them." I gradually walked closer to him to see that the tattoos on his body were Nordic runes. Names in Nordic runes.

"Good. I need you to make a list of these names." I studied the runes, observing how they marred his beautiful body. "Please." My eyes shot up to his on his breathless tone. His voice soothed me and rang through my body, pulling on a thread inside me, pulling me towards him.

"Ok." I walked around him, slowly reading the names, my fingers barely hovering and grazing over his skin, feeling the warmth radiate from him. I got around to his right arm and took it in my hands, the muscles tensing and relaxing at my touch. One name got my eye on his inner wrist. Sabine Laurent. "Sabine…? Elijah, what is this?"

"I believe they represent the names of the women that Celeste inhabited for the past two centuries." Marcel handed me the pen and paper and I took it from him, scribbling down Sabine's name.

"It's called a Devinette." Marcel explained. "It's old school. Kind of a riddle. Witches use them to teach their kids. Solve it and it disappears."

"Why would she use Nordic runes?" Hayley asked.

"Probably to make it a little more challenging. How many people do you know that can read Nordic runes? Guess Celeste didn't know that Elijah had his own translator."

"Why? What's the point?"

"Celeste forced me to make a choice between yourself and my siblings, and now she means to mock that choice, taunting me, with a childish game. The longer the game, the more they suffer. To find Klaus and Rebekah, we need to solve this riddle. The solution lies somewhere in these names."

"The name next to Sabine—Hayden, what does that say?" Marcel asked, pointing to the top of Elijah's arm. "That looks familiar." I took Elijah's arm again and looked closely at the name Marcel was pointing at.

"Annie." I muttered, brows furrowing. "La—laf—leur? Annie LaFleur."

"She's a witch that was shunned from her coven just over a year ago. Never knew why, but I can find out." I scribbled down Annie LaFleur's name on the pad. I knew Elijah could read Nordic runes and he probably could have done the names on his front himself but obviously the ones on his back would have been a little more difficult. I began to decipher the next name, moving swiftly and efficiently, my fingers barely brushing over his skin as I worked.

TO

"She killed herself?" I questioned Elijah over the phone, propping my feet up on a table in the courtyard. Marcel and Elijah had gone off to find out what happened to Annie LaFleur.

"Yes." Elijah answered. "Drowned herself in the Mississippi, to be precise. Celeste had clearly tired of the body and was ready to take Sabine's."

"How do you know that?"

"She leapt to her death from the very location Celeste and I had our first kiss." I sighed and rolled my eyes, fighting against the vile thoughts of Elijah kissing someone else.

"Poetic, I guess, in a creepy, vendetta kind of way."

"All these names, these lives, stolen that Celeste might take her revenge. I suppose we have no choice but to see where they take us." He was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "Hayden, I have to go. I'll call you back." Before he could hang up, Hayley walked up to me and held out her hand for the phone.

"Elijah, wait."

"What is it?"

"Hayley wants to speak to you." I handed Hayley the phone as she sat down next to me.

"Ask Marcel if he knows anything about a name on that list—Brynne Deveraux." Hayley said. "Sophie said that it was her family's bloodline that put the curse on the Crescent wolves, but Celeste said that she was the only one that could break it. If Brynne Deveraux was actually Celeste when she cast the spell, then maybe Celeste can still break it."

"I'll see what he knows." Hayley handed me back the phone and stalked off. Once she was out of earshot, I spoke again.

"Elijah, I'm really sorry that you're going through this. If I had known that Celeste had made you choose who to help—"

"You were going to die in that fire, Hayden, along with Hayley and my brother's child. There was no choice." Elijah hung up before I could say anything else.

TO

I paced the study floor, reading ledger after ledger on deaths in New Orleans for anything on a Clara Summerlin. Hayley sat at the desk with her laptop researching the faster way. Elijah walked into the study and made his way over to Hayley who was tapping away on the keyboard. She looked up at him as he approached her.

"Hey." She greeted him with a smile. "Look. I found—" Elijah held a finger up to his lips to quiet her.

"You were right about the Deveraux witch." Elijah told her softly just as Marcel came into the study.

"Find anything about Clara the mystery witch?" Marcel asked us.

"Not much." Hayley sighed. "She was a nurse at the Fleur-De-Lis Sanitorium." Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Marcel had become rigid and slowly began to back away from the desk with his arms crossed over his chest as he turned his back to us. "Recognize her? Top row, second from the right."

"No." Elijah answered, squinting at the picture over Hayley's shoulder. "I don't. Marcel?" Marcel didn't answer and Elijah's voice became sterner. "Marcel?" Marcel turned back around, biting his lower lip and Elijah straightened. "Do I need to remind you that Niklaus and Rebekah are somewhere suffering horribly? If you know something… talk."

"The sanitorium." Marcel finally said quietly. "That's where you'll find them." He backed up some more as if he were trying to put space between him and Elijah. I watched him with curiosity.

"Are you sure?" I asked him. "How do you know?"

"I just know."

"How do you know?" Elijah insisted and Marcel closed his eyes as he sighed.

"If I'm right… you need to know exactly what we're walking into. We did something, Rebekah and I." Elijah crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for Marcel's explanation. "I think the witches are trying to use it against her. It's… something that you're not gonna like." He looked down at his feet. "In 1919, in order for Rebekah and me to be together, we knew we needed to drive Klaus out of town. The only problem was that he wasn't afraid of anything except one person. We found a witch, Genevieve, to summon Mikael to New Orleans." Mikael Mikaelson. The Original Family's father. The vampire who hunted vampires and was not one to be trifled with. I looked over at Elijah to see an icy rage breaking through his cool demeanor, the restraint on his temper faltering.

"For better part of a century, I have wondered how Father found us, what foolish mistake that we had made to destroy our time in the one place that we could finally call home." Marcel looked down at the ground in shame as Elijah took a step towards and Marcel took a step back to maintain that safe space between the two of them. I walked up to take a stance between the two vampires, placing a gentle hand on Elijah's shoulder to try to calm him down. "Did you know, I even blamed myself for a time, Marcellus?" Elijah paused for a moment and with lightning speed, he gently pushed me out of the way to grab Marcel by the throat and vamp sped him to the other side of the study to pin Marcel against the wall, picking up off the ground. Elijah squeeze harshly under Marcel's jaw, cutting off his airway. "Niklaus treated you like a son. Rebekah—"

"I loved her. I still love her. All we ever wanted was to be together, but as long as Klaus was around, that was never gonna happen, but hey, I guess you wouldn't know anything about that, huh?" Elijah dropped Marcel but kept very little space between them, glaring at him.

"When Klaus learns the truth, there will be no end to his rage. I will not let my sister suffer that wrath." A muscle feathered in Elijah's clenched jaw.

"Then we need to get to them before he learns the truth."

TO

Elijah drove up to an abandoned hospital. He drove with precision and grace, every turn, every flick of the steering wheel never without calculation. It was admirable. It was dark and the building standing against the stark sky brought chills down my back. Elijah has asked me to come along as back up against Klaus. A deranged hybrid? They needed all the help they could get. Elijah, Marcel, and I walked up the steps as I sniffed the air. Crisp and cool. And death. Another shiver went through me at the thought of the plague that infected this hospital and how many people have died here.

"We should divide the building." Elijah said. "I'll start at one end, you at the other. Hayden, you go straight down the middle." We were halfway down the entrance sidewalk when I heard gasping and arguing between Klaus and Rebekah. I held out both my arms to stop Elijah and Marcel.

"Wait." I breathed, perking my ears to pinpoint their location. "I know where they are. Basement. East side." Marcel wasted no time as he sped off in that direction with Elijah following him and me on their heels. As I neared the basement, I heard Marcel grunt as he was knocked aside by Klaus who was standing over Rebekah with Papa Tunde's blade, a blade that was supposed to cause unimaginable agony and suffering, even to an original. I ran down the steps just as Klaus raised the blade above Rebekah but before he could stab her with it, Elijah sped up behind him and plunged the blade back down into Klaus' chest.

"Uhhaah!" Klaus screamed in agony. "Ohh! Uhh!" Klaus tried to pull the blade back out, but Elijah holds tight as Klaus looked up at his older brother with betrayal in his eyes. I ran to the corner to help Marcel to his feet before moving to Rebekah and helping her up.

"You two need to leave." I panted, pushing them to the stairs. "Now!" Both of them sped up the dusty steps as Klaus groaned and Elijah slowly lowered him to the floor. I slowly walked to the front of the two brothers and crouched down in front of them as I watched the blade disappear into Klaus' chest. Elijah slowly lifted his brown eyes to look at me, his eyes filled with confliction and agony. He was hurting and exhausted from all this family drama. "What are you going to do with him now?"

"I have no idea." Elijah whispered hoarsely.