✔ The Way We Burn || Kol Mikaelson (Complete)

Chapter 53

The next morning, Kol, Elijah, and Esther were all sitting having breakfast at a long, rectangular, wooden table. Niklaus was alone in the living room sketching, Rebekah had spent the night outside with a human called Matt and had yet to come back, and Finn was... wherever Finn was. Most likely plotting something for their not so dear mother and avoiding a very necessary conversation with Kol and Nora.

"I have yet to meet your wife, Kol," Esther calmly said as she cut out elegantly a piece of her omelet.

Seeing this, Kol had a hard time holding back a sneer. Did she really think she was part of some noble society acting like that? She was just an old witch back from the Other Side who was lucky enough to have rich children.

"Well, she's still sleeping," he responded with a shrug, hiding his contempt for Esther.

Elijah glanced down at his watch but chose to remain silent. Smart.

"I see," Esther continued, "and how did you two meet?"

The witch appeared to be at ease but Kol could see the tremor in her hands as well as the fear and hatred she failed to conceal every time their eyes met. She lifted her cup of coffee and Kol watched with a pleasant smile as she brought it to her lips and took a swig of the dark, warm liquid. His smile grew wider when she finished the cup and put it down.

Only then did he answer her question with a chuckle, what Nora previously told him back at her parents' house in the front of his mind, "She saved my life when I was a child." He ignored the sharp intake of both Elijah and Esther and took a sip of his own coffee, relishing in the taste of blood that coiled around his tongue and soothed the slight burn in his throat. "Back then, I was kidnapped by our enemies and Nora saved me. Naturally, I promised to marry her when I was older. Who would have guessed that I would indeed marry her two centuries later? Definitely the longest engagement period of history, isn't it?"

A heavy silence fell upon his brother and Esther, only broken by the sound of his mother's erratic heartbeat.

"And Rebekah knew?" Elijah asked after a while, his face strangely blank.

"About when the wedding took place?" Kol responded as it was the only question he was willing to answer. "Of course she did. She attended it after all."

"... We have wronged you, Kol."

So he said. And indeed they did. But Kol didn't care anymore as he would leave them soon enough. Right now, he was far more interested in making their mother uncomfortable.

"Could you satisfy my curiosity, mother?"

Her smile was particularly stiff when she nodded. Kol leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table, his chin in the palm of one of his hands.

"You are here. You have a doppelganger that comes when you summon her. And you have me. So... Why do you keep wearing perfume to hide the stench of your rotting body?" He chuckled darkly. "Wouldn't it be easier to scheme against me instead?"

Esther and Elijah both widened their eyes and stared at him in disbelief. Elijah, surely because he didn't understand a thing of what Kol just said. As for Esther... Well, her clenched fists spoke enough of what she was feeling inside.

"K-Kol, my son, what do you mean by that?"

And oh the crack in her voice sounded beautiful. Although, he had no doubt it would sound even better when he squeezed the life out of her. Her begging for mercy, pleading him not to kill her...

He leaned back against his chair and crossed his arms, his tongue licking the front of his teeth as a wicked grin spread across his face. "What do I mean? Mother, was I not clear enough? Then, let me rephrase it. Why aren't you trying to make me human again to save yourself? Don't you want to break the curse? Or perhaps you are actually a masochist and spent the past centuries jealous of Mikael's suffering?"