To Hope's relief, Landon settled into the school as easily as Rafael did.

It helped that Hope and Landon got along like a house on fire - as a general rule at the Laughlin Academy, if Hope Mikaelson was on your side, you were going to be absolutely fine.

Not everyone subscribed to that particular mindset though, and those were the people Hope worried about.

Thankfully, none of them seemed to be causing a problem.

After a few weeks, Hope let herself relax, picking up her paintbrush once more. Unlike her father, she found it almost impossible to paint when she was stressed or anxious about something, preferring to do so when she was in a calmer state of mind.

Her phone buzzed with a message and she opened it to find a photograph of a painting.

A smile crossed her face and she shot back a quick message.

Try again.

Roman was in Paris at the moment. She had told him that her father had three paintings currently hung in the Louvre, and he was trying to guess which ones.

So far, he'd only found one - then again, it was the one of her mother, so it was probably the most obvious.

There was a knock on her door and she put her phone down. "Come in?"

Rafael stuck his head round the door. "Hey … have you seen Landon?"

"Not since this morning," Hope answered. "Why?"

"One of the wolves told me he left," Rafael said, "except he hasn't packed anything, or told me."

Hope dropped her paintbrush in the glass of water on the windowsill. "Who told you?"

The name he gave was of one of the younger students in the school, barely eleven when she had started a few months ago, so Hope approached her with caution, aware of the girl's heartbeat speeding up as she did so.

"Hi Shayna," she said gently, sitting down beside her in the library. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"I didn't do anything," Shayna said hastily. "I swear I didn't, I'm sorry …"

Beside her, Rafael shifted uneasily, and Hope gave him a quelling glance. "It's okay, honey," she said, trying to draw on her mother's sense of calm. "I'm not mad at you, I just need to ask you a question, okay? Did you see Landon leave the school?"

Shayna nodded, her eyes wide and her body tense, like she was about to bolt.

"Did he leave because he wanted to?" Hope asked.

Shayna hesitated, but didn't respond.

"Shayna," Hope said, "I know you're scared. It's kind of obvious. The question is - are you scared of me or Dylan?"

Dylan and Jed were constantly at each other's throats over dominance. They both had the ability to be a certain kind of asshole, but Hope much preferred dealing with Jed.

"He told me to say he'd left," Shayna whispered. "He said Landon doesn't belong here."

Rafael made an angry noise in his throat and Shayna flinched. "I'm sorry I lied. Dylan scares me."

"It's okay," Hope said, touching her hand gently. "It's not your fault. You know Mariella, right? Go find her and stick with her; she'll keep you safe."

Shayna nodded, hurrying out of the room.

"Come on," Hope said to Rafael. "Let's go."

"I don't get why so many people listen to Dylan," Rafael said. "He's a dick."

"He's one of the alphas," Hope explained, as they left the school at a run. "I bet he's headed into the woods."

"Alphas?" Rafael asked.

"Has no one explained wolf packs to you yet?" Hope asked rhetorically. "When wolves are together, they automatically form a pecking order. Dylan and Jed kind of jostle for alpha here, even though they're both part of their own packs back home." As the entered the tree line, she slowed down, putting a hand on his arm to stop him. "Listen."

"To what?" Rafael asked.

"Just listen," Hope said. "If we can hear them, it's going to be easier than searching. Even during the rest of the month, your hearing will be better than a regular …"

She trailed off.

Even without triggering her curse, she was exceptionally tuned in, and she could hear crashes and raised voices through the trees.

Dylan's voice floated towards them. "I'm doing you a favour! The last guy she spent any time with is six feet under New Orleans - her dad finds out, you'll be next!"

"Dylan, stop being such a dick!" Hope yelled. "Landon, head towards my voice!"

"Hope?" Rafael asked.

"Explain later," Hope said, sprinting to the place where the voice had come from. "Landon!"

Rafael followed her, also yelling his brother's name, and finally Landon emerged from the trees in front of them, looking a little battered, but otherwise unharmed.

"Thank God …" Hope breathed, but her relief was short-lived; as Landon ran towards them, he stumbled, falling forwards to reveal an arrow sticking out of his back.

Hope screamed, skidding to a halt.

As Rafael fell to his knees beside his brother, Hope's own gaze shot to the trees, catching a glimpse of Dylan - with a crossbow.

"Prohibere!" A jet of light flew from Hope's hand to wrap around Dylan's feet, causing them to lock together so he fell.

"Landon? Landon, talk to me!"

"Raf, breathe," Hope said shakily, dropping down beside him. "Let me see."

The arrow was embedded too deeply and it was a good shot - too good for her liking.

Murmuring a spell, she severed the end of the arrow.

"What was that for?" Rafael asked. "We can't …"

"Can't pull it out anyway," Hope said briskly. "Need to leave it in until we get a doctor; help me roll him so I can check his breathing."

Once they had Landon on his back, however, it became grimly obvious that things were far worse than she'd thought.

She could see the tip of the arrow, just poking through the skin on the left side of his chest, directly over where his heart would be.

"You know CPR?" Rafael asked.

"I don't think that's going to help," Hope whispered, touching Landon's face. "Landon, can you hear me?" She pressed her fingers against his neck. "He doesn't have a pulse, Raf."

Rafael shook his head, staring at his brother. "No. No, no, no - he can't die, Hope. You're a witch - help him!"

"I …" Hope swallowed hard. "I don't think I can." She touched the tip of the arrow and gently drew it up and out of Landon's body, pressing her other hand down on the wound.

Her whispered spell healed the damage, but he still didn't move.

"Raf, he's … He's gone."

"He's not gone!" Rafael's eyes were starting to glow, a sign that the wolf was close to the surface, despite the time of the month. "Where is he? I'm gonna kill him!"

"Sit down, or I will make you," Hope said sharply. "There is one other thing I can try, but you need to promise that you won't tell anyone I tried it, okay?"

Rafael settled a little and nodded. "I swear."

Hope placed her other hand over Landon's heart as well and closed her eyes. "En Dugas, Tuas, Animos. En Dugas, Tuas, Animos. En Dugas, Tuas, Animos. En Dugas, Tuas, Animos "

Her magic was pooling in her hands, but stayed there, refusing to sink into Landon's body.

After five minutes of chanting, Hope stopped and opened her eyes.

Landon still lay lifeless in front of her.

"What was that?" Rafael asked. "Did it work?"

"Resurrection spell," Hope admitted. "It's black magic and I'm not supposed to try it, but it didn't work. I'm so sorry. We need to get Dr Saltzman."

"Hope!"

"Speak of the devil," Hope muttered, getting to her feet. "We're over here!"

"I saw you two leave the school from my office," Alaric said as he approached. "What are you … What happened?"

"Dylan," Rafael growled.

Hope grabbed his arm, wrapping her other arm around his waist to restrain him. The action seemed to drain all the fight from him, and he broke, breaking down in her arms.

"I don't know how he got Landon out here," Hope said. "But he had a crossbow. He's over in the trees there - I cast a leg-locking spell on him."

"Landon …"

"He's dead," Hope said, her voice finally breaking. She closed her eyes against the onslaught of tears and turned her face into Rafael's shoulder, shaking with suppressed sobs.

She heard Alaric go into the trees and haul Dylan to his feet. "Hope, take the spell off."

Hope sniffled, lifting her head just enough to aim the spell. "Finito."

"What's gonna happen to him?" Rafael asked hoarsely.

"Unfortunately, the police won't be able to contain him at the full moon safely, and a court case could endanger the whole school," Alaric said grimly. "But he's certainly not staying. His pack alpha can deal with him."

Dylan laughed. "You think my alpha is going to believe some witch over me?"

Hope tightened her grip so Rafael didn't do anything he'd (probably) regret later. "Given that you're a Crescent wolf, yes, I do. Because I am older than you, which means that Jackson has known me longer than you, so yes, I do believe he will believe me, especially when Dad helps him go into my head and watch my memory of what just happened."

Dylan's face drained of colour.

"Drama queen," Hope muttered, but apparently it wasn't her words that had shocked him.

"Is that supposed to be happening?"

Hope followed his gaze to see that Landon's body appeared to be … smoking? There was certainly some kind of vapour rising from him.

For a second, they all just stood there, trying to make sense of it, then Rafael turned Hope. "Quick, put him out!"

Hope faltered, completely stumped as to what was happening, but the smoke was starting to get thicker, so she tried the only spell she could think of. "Adiuuatiur!"

The spell had no effect.

"It's not working," she said numbly. "Why isn't it working?"

"I don't know," Alaric admitted. "I've never seen anything like this before."

A split second later, Landon's body erupted, the heat of the flames forcing her to stumble back, grabbing Rafael's arm to steady herself.

As fast as the fire had appeared, it died down, leaving no trace it had even been there before - no trace, that is, except for the human-shaped pile of ash.

Hope sucked in a breath, a sob bubbling out of her. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Alaric repeated. "But I don't think it's over."

Under their collective gaze, the ash over where Landon's hand had been began to move, then crack, then finally a hand broke through. The rest of the ash broke apart then, like some strange human mould, and Landon staggered to his feet, all scrapes and bruises completely healed. "What … What happened?"

Hope shook her head, approaching him slowly. "You were dead."

"No, I'm not," Landon said frowning.

"No," Hope said, touching his shoulder, reassuring herself that she hadn't just started seeing things. "You were dead."

"Is he alive?" Rafael asked. "Or are we talking zombies? Or vampires?"

"Vampire don't turn like that," Hope and Alaric said, almost in unison.

Hope rested a hand over Landon's heart and closed her eyes. Her magic answered her, and relief flowed through her body, so strong that she almost started crying again, wrapping her arms around his waist.

He hugged her back automatically. "Am I okay?"

"You're alive," Hope whispered. "I have no idea how, but you're alive."

Rafael appeared behind her, hugging his brother tightly.

"Okay, let me out - I still need to breathe." Hope squeezed out from between them and approached Alaric. "You're still kicking him out, right?"

"Aw, come on!" Dylan groaned. "All's well that ends well?"

"This wasn't an accident," Hope said. "That shot was too good to be an accident."

"Still kicking him out," Alaric said absently, his eyes fixed on Landon and Rafael.

Hope glanced back at them. "What do you think happened?"

"Well, he's clearly not human," Alaric murmured. "I just have no idea what the hell he is."