The Young and Gifted

53. master

Ric stared at her through the bars. Jo only stared back with no emotion, still standing with the silver robe. She only smiled, nothing more. No words. Ric stood there for what seemed to be hours, trying to contain the tears as his ex-wife stood before him. Lizzie and Josie urged to see her despite what she had done but Ric needed time to take it all in. "Why?" Was the first thing he asked. Why hurt your children? Why hurt these innocent people? Why hurt me? Why?

Her grin was terrifying and for some reason, it reminded him of--of Kai. "You are well aware of the merge gone wrong between my twin and I," she explained. "And how he killed me at the altar of the best night of my life. But when I was between the threshold of life and death, I saw a string, a bond connected to the real world. I didn't recognize it then but it was the Legendarium offering me another shot at living. My old self didn't realize that the book was using my connection with Kai to bring me back. I was desperate to see my kids again, so I tugged on that rope. I was resurrected but...there's always a price with magic. So I absorbed all of Kai's dreadful aspects. With eternal gratitude towards the Legendarium, I accepted to become its master for only one sole purpose. To get the Phoenix back into the book. You see, that monster has escaped and I've had to spend years plotting how to capture it once more. You must be wondering where Hope comes in all of this. The moment she and Landon shared their first kiss of true love, it unlocked a section in the Legendarium for the most lethal monsters. But the other plans I have for Hope will remain concealed. For now."

Ric swallowed, trying to take slow breaths. "Why are you telling me this?"

Jo laughed and began to pace around the cell patiently. "Because there is something you don't realize, dear Alaric. The Legendarium has a Master and I am its Master. It will do anything," she grinned. As she said this, the walls began to shake. "To ensure the safety of its Master."

Ric stepped back, listening to Dorian's alert sirens. "We're going to fix you, Jo. We're going to help you."

She snorted, shaking her head with disregard. "There's nothing you can do. You'll just have to kill me because I'm not going to stop until I get what I want." And then she disappeared.

*

Penelope swiped her forehead with distress. "These are the most stressful hours of my life. I hope I don't break out."

Kaura paced around the room. "The teachers won't tell us if Hope is okay." She gripped the ends of her head. "Hope's temporarily gone, we have another Mikaelson on campus--angry as ever by the way-- and my aunt is locked in the basement."

"I should probably go check on Josie about that," Penelope stood up and reached for the door. "This must be hard for her to have her biological mother come back so suddenly and try to kill her."

Just as she swung the door open, Mason stood there, about to knock. He pushed past Penelope and reached for Kaura, pulling her into a hug. "Thank god you're okay."

Penelope's widened at the sudden affection and muttered, "You're going to tell me all about that when I come back," before she shut the door behind her.

"Where were you?" She demanded, surprisingly letting him press her body to his. It went against all their codes of 'friendship' but none of them seemed to be paying attention to it.

"Locked in this room with Raf," he answered and pulled back. "I heard that Hope is--"

"She's not dead," Kaura declared. "We're just waiting for her to come back as a vampire. But the teachers aren't telling us about how it's going." The room swarmed with heat and you could hear the hinges on the door start to melt and bend.

Mason cupped her cheek and lowered to her height, "It's fine. We'd know if something was wrong. We have the Master of the Legendarium in the cellars. Everyone just needs to calm down."

"But if the Master is here, where is the book?" She questioned.

Lizzie and Raf barged into the room, followed by Kaleb, Landon, Josie and Penelope. "I just overheard their conversation. Hope's awake," Kaleb declared.

Kaura broke off from Mason, storming past all of them and made her way to the library. But as she marched down the halls, she slowed down when the halls began to tremble.

"Guys, we have a problem," MG ran to the group with a panting deeply. "There are three monsters walking through SBS gates. And I don't think they're here to give us chocolate for Valentine's."

*

Screams drowned in the hallways and Caroline shivered and wanted to puke at all the sounds of pain and torment from the outside. She wanted to go and help them but they had to formulate a plan quickly to avoid more agony.

"By the looks of it, two of the creatures are the Taur Brothers," Dorian informed, frantically flipping through the books. "The Minotaur, lower part human and upper part as a bull. Its weapon of choice is typically the bow. And the Centaur, upper body as a human and lower part as horse. Its weapon choice is the axe. They are both known for their anger and destruction."

"Just great," Caroline ran a frantic hand through her hair. After the news about Clarke, all she wanted to do was sit in a room a cry. Maybe screw around and flip her humanity switch off to stop the stinging in her chest.

But she couldn't for the sake of the students. Because she believed that had shared a real bond past the sex. They had spent hours talking about stupid child decisions and laughing at cat videos. He was too perfect. It hurt her to know that it was fake, a plot to get closer to Hope and Landon. To have one foot on the field and report back to its Master.

She should have known the moment he said he hated pizza and burgers. "Jo is gone to God knows where and she decided to leave us these oh, so sweet gifts," Caroline sighed.

"What the hell is happening? I decided to pay my niece a little surprise visit for Valentine's and I arrive to see her neck getting snapped. What sort of facility are you? She's definitely not coming back here." Freya shook her head and crossed her arms with defeat? "What about the third monster?" Out of all of them, she seemed the calmest despite terrifying things happening at their door. Almost like she was used to the chaos.

"Amores," Emma stated. "Meaning love in Latin. She is an envious monster of rage and loathing. She despises acts of love and affection. She essentially possesses its victims and forces them to kill their loved ones right within the hosts' own eyes as punishment for loving. The only way to get rid of her for good is if the host kills the one it loved the most."

"Damn, who hurt her?" Dorian tried to lighten the mood with humour.

"Not now, Dorian," Ric hissed as his leg bounced frantically. He looked horrible. "We need to figure out how to get these lethal monsters out of our school before they start to kill people."

Mason barged through the room, his face pale. "You better fucking figure it out. Because one of them has Kaura."

~

"Toxic masculinity mixed with outdated sports pranks?"

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