Fate
Chapter Eight - Cloaking Spells Are A Bitch
Freya wakes the next morning in a strange room. The sheets in her bed are scratchy and her lack of clothing is severe. Her eyes flick around the dim room spotting her clothes thrown around in a disarray and her phone sitting beside her small bag by the door. Slowly rolling over she sees the man from the bar last night, and she mentally face palms herself. 'Really Freya, you just couldn't keep it in your pants could you?' She questions herself as she attempts to crawl out of bed slowly and quietly...maybe she could escape unnoticed and not do the whole walk of shame thing.
She flinches as the guy grumbles and stretches out in the bed. Almost completely dressed she turns around and looks at the extremely attractive man in bed. "Well good morning...Amelia Earhart. Do you think I've earned the privilege to know your real name now?"
"After last night I would definitely say yes, but I need to leave. Family emergency and yeah I don't have time for this." She quick pulls on her boots haphazardly and attempts to make her way out. But something stops her in her tracks, and maybe she was feeling all 'seize the day' and crap, but this guy had something different about him. "Freya, my name is Freya."
Turning around to peer at him as Brett leans back in his bed showing off his muscular chest, "Freya." He smiles testing the name on his lips and liking the sound of it, the feel of it. "I hope to see you again Freya." Giving a simple nod at her towards the door she smiles back at him and exits the apartment/flat.
Once she had safely made it outside to the streets she takes a moment to lean against the building, "deep breaths Freya." The flashbacks of her previous nightly activities were going to be overwhelming today that's for sure.
Caroline sits in an uncomfortable chair, chains on her wrists and ankles that are bolted to the floor and fused with magic. She can feel the enchantments thick in the building everywhere she goes. They cloud her thoughts, push down her strength, and suppress her extra abilities so deep within that they don't exist. "You wanted to talk, so talk." She glowers at the man sitting before her.
In another lifetime she would've pictured him as handsome, been attracted to him even. His dark hair framing his face and his strong jawline, with iridescent green eyes that seemed to shine in the dark. Even the scar that stretched down his face gave an air about him. "I figured you had questions, and I have answers." He smirks knowing that he was in control of this situation in every way possible. And Caroline did not like being in the dark.
"That's right, but I assumed you bad guys have a policy of not telling your prisoners your evil plots." Caroline's glare holds steady as the man stares her down as if calculating her next move. "So oh wise one since you seem to have all these answers why don't you just tell me what you want me to hear. Isn't that what you're going to do anyways?"
He chuckles, "I knew you were smart Caroline; but you are bloody brilliant beyond what your old friends gave you credit for." Leaning across the table he attempts to take Caroline's hands in his own but she flinches away quickly keeping as much of her out of reach as possible.
"Rule number one, don't touch me. Do it again and you'll lose your hand when I get out of these chains."
"Alright, fair enough." He holds his hands up in a surrender, but they both know he would do whatever he pleased. "I know you've heard the legends and stories about me. The infamous Teacher, mysterious mass murderer blah, blah, blah."
"Yes I actually did hear the stories and they all make you out to a homicidal lunatic. Seems they were right," she leans back in her chair attempting to cross her arms despite the chains around her wrists. She had to at least give the appearance of strength in front of this guy. Even if he could see right through it all.
Tilting his head to the side, he watches the blonde's body language. "I see those walls you're building up in that little head of yours. It won't work, I've been alive far too long and learned everything there is to know about you Caroline. Every tone that leaves your lips I've already calculated, and every position you sit in I have watched you do it time and time again." He watches in satisfaction as she scrambles to pull up her walls further and remains silent. "See that silence there is you just waiting for the opponent's next move, and the way you're sitting is first off all a way to seem like you don't care and you're above everything else going on. The way you cross your arms is almost like you're protecting your heart from what it's witnessing, but the fear that flickers through your eyes for just a brief moment is what gives you away to anyone that is really paying attention."
Caroline sits back in silence as he attempts to dissect her, "did you study psychology or something?" She scoffs and rolls her eyes. There's no way in hell she's backing down from this dude now.
Shaking his head he relaxes back into his own chair, "no I've been trapped in a prison world of sorts for the last 2,000 years. That is, until my followers freed me a few weeks ago."
She clenches her jaw, "you've been sending me those stupid messages for years now. So how the hell did you just escape a few weeks ago?"
"See just like I said. You have questions and I have answers." He smiles at her, "but first you should know my name if we're going to share life stories. I am Kyros first and only born to my parents, husband to Rhea the huntress. And I guess you could also call me the Teacher. Pleasure to make your acquaintance Caroline."
Sitting there across from the man she'd been familiar with for over a year and now face to face were two completely different things Caroline was beginning to realize. The Teacher she knew was mysterious and murdering people and attempted to kill her as well - technically he did. But Kyros, the man, sitting across from her now was showing layers of himself that she figured didn't exist. "So what you're just going to share some life sob story to make me think you're the good guy in all this? News flash, you've had me killed twice and just a few hours ago I was locked in a room and gassed with vervain. Try harder if you want me to believe your an onion with layers crap," Caroline scowls at Kyros wondering if he really was delusional.
"I will not be vague or confusing with what I want Caroline. You may not hear all the information you would like to know, but I most certainly won't pretend to be the good guy. It's never been my thing really." He leans back in chair staring at his nails as he picks dirt out from under them, 'probably dirt from my damn grave.' Caroline thinks to herself as she shakes her head at the man.
Leaning forward in her chair this time she glares at Kyros attempting to let her anger fuel this conversation. "Let's get one thing straight right now. I will never help you, believe you or whatever the hell it is that you want from me."
"Isn't that what you once told someone else too? Niklaus Mikaelson if I'm correct," Kyros smiles at his opponent watching her features relax and she sits back in her seat taking her turn to watch him instead. "You think I don't know anything Caroline, but you must know that the place I was trapped in still allowed me to watch certain people over the centuries. You are by far the most interesting I must say though. So fragile in your younger years, and giving yourself completely to everyone that would allow you to even if it damaged you beyond repair in places. Then somehow you get a 1,000 year old vampire-hybrid to fall in love with you,"
"Klaus is not in love with me."
"Don't fool yourself Caroline, you're not that dumb. In all the years I've watched your life the time spent with Mr. Mikaelson was certainly the most intriguing. That man over the centuries became the most unloveable, most feared, and hated creature to exist and somehow you got to see the man beneath that." He pauses watching her for a moment as his eyes turn a cloudy shade, "Rhea was the same way once upon a time."
"Who's Rhea? Some ex-lover of yours who found someone that wasn't psychotic and decided to move on?" Caroline smirks hoping she's pushing the right buttons to make Kyros angry enough to send her away again. She didn't want to spend another minute with this creep.
He chuckles and doesn't respond for several moments as he buries his face in his hands attempting to calm his own laughter. "No my dear Caroline. Rhea was my wife as I've mentioned before, obviously you didn't pay attention to that part. She was special...like you. She was also one of my students in the legends you hear about, and yes I most certainly did kill my own wife because she was a traitorous bitch." His eyes turn a calculating cold as he stares down the blonde who's trying to piece together what point he's trying to make. "But I believe the information that would best cater to you about Rhea is this story. Before we were married she had a child, and I never knew of this child since it was given away before we'd ever met. This child had one of their own and so on. Some 2,000 years later a woman named Elizabeth Forbes had her own child on October 10, 1992."
"So I'm related to your ex-wife that you murdered?" Caroline scoffs and crosses her arms once again, "that's rich. Do you think I would possibly believe that, and besides even if that is true why not choose someone else in my family line to taunt?"
"My dear Caroline you are so much more special than anyone could imagine. Your abilities to resurrect and probe through minds are just scratching the surface. To answer your question though, I couldn't just pick any family member of Rhea's to taunt because you are her spitting imagine...her doppelganger if you would like to put it that way." His words hang in the air as silence envelops them both. Long after Kyros leaves the room, Caroline continues to sit there staring at the table pondering over his words.
"Not another fucking doppelganger story."
Hope stands in the old house that she'd spent half her life communing at with her mom and the wolves of New Orleans. This place in the almost 19 years she'd known it had been sacred. It's where everyone came when Hope was first born to mourn over her 'death,' and it's also where they've come to celebrate the new life that'd been brought into the world over the last two decades. This is also the spot where Jackson Kenner had his funeral and several other wolves that had perished as the years went by. And though Hope had never truly known her mother's husband she didn't doubt that he cared for her and this family.
Now she stands there with her mom checking on all the wolves in the aftermath of the full moon. There were a couple young ones that had just experienced their first transition, and to the elders it was a right of passage. Hope never wanted to experience it though. The thought of having to kill someone, and then breaking every bone in her body seemed too excruciating to imagine. "So you're the wolf princess," a voice sounds from behind her perch against a tree.
She'd been standing back towards the treeline as the rest of the pack crowded around Hayley for their meeting to discuss important 'pack stuff.' Rolling her eyes she turns to the voice, "and who are you supposed to be? Besides a lurker that obviously isn't part of the pack because I know everyone." Hope crosses her arms as she confronts the young guy that had come up behind her.
"The name's Isaac, but I would've thought your mother had told you. She's been trying for almost a year to get me to join your little group," his attitude and smirk immediately causes the young Mikaelson to dislike him.
Scoffing she replies, "well Isaac whoever you are it's called a pack not a group. Not that you would know because I can practically smell the whole omega lone wolf crap on you. And if you're so disinterested in joining us then why are you even here?"
He shrugs his shoulders only infuriating the young wolf further, and Isaac likes the fury he sees building behind her eyes. "Hayley and I have stuff to talk about once she's done with her group meeting."
"Unbelievable. You have no decency do you?" Hope glares at the wolf as he tries to pass by her, "not so fast omega." She uses her magic to pull him back and pin him to a nearby tree. "Why are you really here?"
"Whoa, whoa missy. I don't deal with witches so I suggest you talk to dear old mom over there. What you think I couldn't smell it on you too?" Her grip tightens on his throat, "fine I'm here because I was considering taking up her offer. Not on joining your pack, I'm not into singing kumbaya around the campfire every full moon with hairy people."
"You're one of those hairy people if you've forgotten the fact that you're a werewolf." Hope raises her brows as she slightly relaxes her hold on Isaac. "So if you're not here to join the pack, what offer did my mom give you?"
He sighs as his eyes ask if she would let go of him, and for some odd reason she does. "Hayley knows I don't want anything to do with wolves and packs of them. So she's offering me a place to stay in the French Quarter where I can protect myself instead of sleeping in the bayou."
Confusion crosses Hope's face as her eyes look around on the ground and finally spot a hikers bag with the essentials for living are packing in and around it. "You've been living out here? In a tent for almost a year?"
"No the tent thing was just at first and then I found an old cabin and fixed it up a little...until it was burned down by one of the small forest fires that broke out a few months ago."
"So where are you staying? I mean where is my mom letting you stay at?" Hope questions looking at the wolf as her curiosity grows. There was something not quite normal about him, the way he felt, the sensation he gave off...it wasn't like the other wolves she'd encountered her whole life.
He shrugs and moves towards his backpack, "not sure but I guess I'm about to find out. See you sometime wolf princess." He nods her off and leaves Hope standing slightly confused in the woods. She makes brief eye contact with her mother and then she decides to head back to the compound.
Getting away from home was good for a while, and it distracted her from the grieving over the loss of Caroline. But now her mind was plagued with the images of the man with hazel eyes and brown hair. "Get over it Hope," she tells herself. "He's hot as hot can get, but he's a ass." She shakes her head and starts the car before pulling onto the main road taking her back to the French Quarter...and back to the chaos of finding Caroline.
Ancient Greece - 2,000 Years Ago
"We're going to get caught you guys," Rhea states as she and her companions move swiftly through the gardens of their home. It was the dead of night and whilst many were still awake in their own homes, most of the village streets were empty...and they definitely weren't supposed to be out in the open right now.
"Rhea, if we don't do this we may never find a way to save us from Kyros." Cassian turns his wild blue eyes onto her as his blonde almost white hair moves with the gentle breeze blowing. "He's your husband, you know every inch of that home."
"And just like I told you all. Whatever we're looking for isn't in our home. I've searched everywhere and there's nothing in our grimoires about sacrificial spells...not for what he's hoping to obtain." Rhea tightens her grip on the small blade in her hand at the sound of footsteps approaching.
A whisper comes from nearby as relief rushes through Rhea, Cassian, and his sister Celeste. "I knew you would all be here tonight. Looking for the spell I guess," Kaelen states as he pulls the hood of his cloak further up to protect himself from being seen. His dark skin blends in with the shadows easily and his deep melodic voice draws the attention of his friends with ease. "Follow me, Atara and I have found something we believe."
Rhea stands looking between her blonde friends standing by her side and Kaelen who is beckoning them further away from their little town. "He's my husband and I know he's done good things for us in these last few years, but there's something evil in him. A darkness we couldn't begin to imagine, and I've seen this first hand in our own home." She looks down at the sketching of a spell that Kaelen and Atara had found, "can this kill him?"
"It will do more than that," Atara states as her dark curls frame her face and her silver toned eyes shine through in the dark. "If we do this right, when Kyros goes to complete his ritual - which involves killing us all. We will die, but so will he."
Cassian looks at Atara with confusion and a strange emotion building within, "this plan was supposed to keep us alive Atara. Not get us all killed."
"Kyros has to be stopped! One way or another it will be done, and if that means sacrificing our lives to save many then so be it." Atara glares at her blonde friend wondering if they would come to an agreement on how to defeat their teacher before he decided to kill them. "This is a plan at least, and there's more to it than just us dying along with him."
"Pray tell what is this marvelous plan you two have dug up for us? Or should I go dig my own grave now?" Celeste crosses her arms as she stares at Rhea who merely looks down at the ground. "Rhea please tell them this is ridiculous."
A long pause between them raises the tension tenfold, "I don't think I can Celeste." She looks at her friends apologetically, "can you tell us what else there is to the spell Kaelen?"
"Yes, we do have to die as Atara has already stated and it will lead to Kyros dying as well. We are the most powerful people in this village beside Silas and Qetsiyah, and they are both dead now. In a sacrificial ritual like Kyros is planning there will be a great amount of power released, and we have a small window to complete this. If we can all do this spell as he's doing the ritual we will all die, but the power that is returned to the earth will create a realm. A place for us to go when we die to watch over the supernaturals as we have been called to do."
"But what about my husband? He cannot find a way to return to life, and if he does without us there the world will be doomed."
"I was actually getting to that." Kaelen states as he looks down the scribblings once more to read the spell through again, "see here if we do this right his death will create a special prison just for him. It's like a place between life and death where he will be eternally bound - there's no escaping."
"How do we create this prison and lock him in it?" Rhea questions wondering where the complicated part of this plan was. There was always a catch.
He sighs and pulls down the hood of his cloak to look at Rhea, "you have to die a different kind of death. Which is part of his ritual - he has to take the heart of the thing he loves most which is you."
New Orleans - Present Day
Caroline sits back in her cell after the discovery of her lineage to Rhea and the Teacher's students. She leans against the brick wall attempting to gain some semblance of peace for a moment or two, "I'm assuming Kyros told you of the history." A voice sounds from nearby as the blonde vampire turns to see the body she'd once inhabited in the cell beside hers. "My name is Lily," the woman states as she sticks her hand through the metal bars to shake Caroline's hand.
Slowly and reluctantly the blonde responds to the gesture, "Caroline Forbes." She wearily eyes the woman for a few moments pondering why they were trapped here together. "If you don't mind my asking, why did Kyros put you here? I was trapped in your body for days and I would've assumed he killed you after that."
"And yet here I am," she smiles gesturing to her very much alive and well form. "I believe he wants me to serve my purpose in helping you discover what you truly are. Kyros has some form of a delusion that if you can buy into his whole story that the rest will follow you."
"The rest?" Caroline crinkles her brows together staring at Lily waiting for answers to emerge. "What do you mean by that?"
"He told you the story of his students, and how you're a direct descendant of Rhea. The legend is very vague about his students and the only thing it truly mentions is that they were quite powerful and Kyros craved power more than anything else on this earth. Even more than the love of his wife, and that's why killing her wasn't difficult to him."
Caroline rolls her eyes and leans against the metal bars separating the two in their cells, "yes I know this stuff. I've heard it over and over again now. Kyros is the Teacher, he had 5 students and one was his wife - who's my ancestor and I'm her doppelganger - and then he slaughtered them all for power."
A deep laugh comes from Lily as she stares at the vampire with a strange look, "if you know this much then why doesn't it make sense when I mention the rest of them. You don't think you are the only reincarnated one do you?" Realization crosses the blonde's face as Lily continues; "you are the only doppelganger out of the 5 though. Not sure why fate directed that to happen, but I'm losing the point." She shakes her head and refocuses. "There is a prophecy, it's unheard of to many unless they have a interest in the Teacher and that whole mystery - and not many people did since it was so vague in many books. It says that when the students were sacrificed they created a failsafe that would trap their master away for all eternity - in a place far more secure and torturous than the other side even."
"Wait hold up, you're losing me here. I don't speak witch lingo and all of these legends and prophecies and crap are getting confused." Caroline pauses the woman so she can attempt to wrap her head around witches powerful enough to create entire realms - though it did happen with Kai and the gemini coven...granted the entire coven performed that spell.
Sighing Lily taps her long fingers against her thin lips, "I think this would make more sense if I were to show you instead of tell you." She bites her bottom lip and recalls the spell she'd once read in a book months back, "if you will allow me to I can place your mind in the memories of Rhea so you can understand for yourself what truly occured when Kyros walked the earth."
Unsure, and a little weirded out, Caroline takes a deep breath and hopes she's prepared to learn all this information. "Ok, let's do it."
Ancient Greece - 2,000 Years Ago
"I'm not the thing he loves most. My heart would be meaningless in this spell." Rhea states as she throws her hands up in the air at Kaelen. "I may be Kyros' wife, but I am certainly not the object of his heart's desire. Power is the thing he loves most in the world, which is why he's already willing to sacrifice us all for that exact thing."
Kaelen paces the dirt ground anxiously as he attempts to form a plan quickly that will bring Rhea on board. He knew that the rest wouldn't agree if she didn't, "what if we added onto the spell?"
"What are you going on about now Kaelen? Don't make things up, it will only get us killed...oh wait we're already going to die according to your idiotic plans!" Celeste scowls at the man wondering what else he could possibly come up with this time.
He shakes his head and looks to Rhea hoping she could see where he's coming from with this. "We already know the spell will trap Kyros away for all eternity, and we will also be taken to a realm of peace. But we won't be able to leave this new realm once we enter."
"If we cannot leave then how could we protect the supernaturals? What if Kyros escaped someday? Then what would we do to stop him?"
"I'm getting there Celeste," he rolls his eyes and rubs his fingers against the sides of his head. "We can create a contingency plan of sorts. Since we cannot leave we will need someone to take our places here on this plane...people who have similar minds to us and will know what is good for the supernaturals as a whole." Kaelen pauses wondering if Celeste or one of the others would interrupt him again, but silence greets him instead. "Doing this spell right means Kyros is locked away for a very long time, but there is no guarantee that he will stay there forever. So we create reincarnates, and they will only emerge when Kyros is freed from his prison someday - if he escapes. In the event this happens our reincarnates will be activated. They carry the same powers we carry, but stronger because they will be immortal. Unkillable just like the spell Kyros is going to perform on himself. Our deaths will give them eternal life someday to protect the world from Kyros and any other dangers that arise after that."
"So how do we choose these people?" Rhea questions uncertain of what the future could hold for them. "It is a good idea I will admit, but Kyros will discover us...he will find out about them and then this will be over before it's begun."
Kaelen reaches across to grab Rhea's arms gently as they'd done many times before over the years. The two had been friends for as long as they could remember and becoming students of Kyros made them family. "We keep them hidden. Whatever we have to do to protect them we put that as our priority - these five will carry on our legacy when they're activated. They will be our voice in the world long after we are forgotten. They will determine the fate of the supernatural universe."
"Fates…" Cassian states as he lets the world roll of his tongue in a fluid motion. "I like it, has a nice ring to it. We will be known as the Fates."
New Orleans - Present Day
"What the hell?" Caroline quickly moves away from Lily as she re-emerges from the visions of the former students just before they'd been murdered. "So you're meaning to tell me that there are four others out there that are reincarnates of one of those people...and Kyros wants what with us?" She shrugs her shoulders wondering what the man wanted with them in the first place.
Revenge was the obvious choice, and a strange romance fantasy with his dead wife's doppelganger was too cliche to be true. So what did he really come back for? "He came back for you Caroline. To take what he believes belongs to him. The immortality you and the others stole 2,000 years ago."
"I'm not following. If Kyros wants immortality so bad why not just become a vampire or something?"
"Vampires are impure in his eyes. They're a disease meant to be cleansed from the magic of this world...becoming one would go against everything he stood for." Lily pauses looking at the blonde who indeed was the exact image of Rhea, "that prison was created just for him. It was meant to hold him for all eternity."
Caroline nods in understanding, "and now he's not there. So we have to put him back. I get that much of what we have to do - ugh I don't even know who 'we' is."
"The place he was imprisoned in is called to many the Lumenum or the In-Between for a more literal translation. It will begin groaning and shaking the foundations of magic now that it's lost its Kyros. He wants to be free to roam the earth with his immortality. The only way he can be free to do that is if someone took his place, and he wants all of you to take his place."
Freya sits in the room where all her grimoires were kept. Every possible locator spell known to witches were scattered around her, "come on Caroline. You have to be out there somewhere." She groans in frustration as yet another spell fails and cross that one off her list of attempts.
"Don't give up just yet aunt Freya. We can figure this out, I know we can." Hope places an assuring touch on her aunt's shoulder as the pair look down at the list of spells they'd gone through.
Shaking her head, Freya runs her fingers through her short blonde hair, "she has to be cloaked. That's the only thing I can think of that would give us dead ends on everything. Ingrid said that Caroline can't die which means that she is alive out there somewhere...and we just have to find her."
Ok so this took a little longer than I would have liked to finish, but it's here! Yay for 8 chapters down, and so many more to go I hope. I know the plot I have set out for the most part, but I'm trying to make this a good lengthy story so there's no rushing through it, but that means at some point there will be shorter chapters here and there that kind of just fill space and advance the characters. I know you were probably hoping to see Klaroline at some point soon, but unfortunately that's gonna have to wait because Caroline has to find her way back to him, physically and emotionally at this point.
Once she's free from the Teacher (which will happen soon I promise) she can begin to tackle her feelings for Klaus. Warning this will be a slow-burn (I hope) because their romance hasn't been touched in this story for two decades. Klaus of course is crazy about the blonde, but she's got things she has to deal with from her past before she can ever be ready to start eternity with her hybrid lover.
Any who, enjoy this chapter and I will cross my fingers to post the next chapter within the next week. We have a hurricane heading our way so the power might be an issue for few days (no Wi-fi means no writing or posting).
Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites, etc. the love is appreciated and I hope you're enjoying this story.
Always and Forever 3