Hellfire | Hayley Marshall

Chapter 38

Klaus was gone.

"What the bloody hell do you mean he's gone?" snapped Eisa, rushing into the next room and seeing the empty coffin where her siblings had placed their daggered half-brother.

"Did you let him out?" demanded Rebekah, staring wide-eyed at her sister. "Eisa, did you—"

"Of course I didn't, I barely arrived here and I hadn't even gone to see him!"

"Do you think he was able to pull the dagger out?"

Eisa shrugged. "I really don't know, Bex. I was only able to pull mine out because I had a bit of mortal blood in my system. I don't think Nik had any of that."

"Call Hayley," suggested Elijah, holding up his phone.

"I'd rather not," said Eisa stiffly, stepping away from him. She turned to Marcel, who had recently arrived to tell them that Davina would be taking up the position of Regent to the Nine Covens now that Josephine LaRue was dead. "We'll search out there. I just need to go and see my witches first."

"I'll find Cami," said Rebekah, already making her way to the door. "If Nik contacts anyone, it'll be her."

She sped off, and Eisa rushed to where Isela and Zeus were reviewing the spell Freya had prepared for them. "Slight change in assignment," she said, taking one of the books from the library's shelf and placing it in front of them. "I need a Locator spell on Niklaus." She reached for a nearby glass and bit into her wrist, leaving them some of her blood. "Any word from Estelle?"

"The storm is picking up," said Isela, gesturing out the window, to a thunderstorm that had suddenly sprung up. "She can't make it back. She's going to stay with Lian, who'd like you to know that she feels terrible about what happened."

Eisa sighed. "She couldn't have known that Dahlia would target her before she got here. It's not her fault. Just, please, the Locator Spell."

She left them with that, and reconvened with Marcel, deciding who'd search where before they both sped out.

Two hours later, they returned to the Compound, soaking wet and empty handed. "We'll continue to scour the city until we find him," said Eisa, shaking her head, droplets flying off the short strands of her hair.

"Let's hope Nik doesn't slaughter the wolves before we find him," said Rebekah, shaking her head. "You know as well as I do that he'll be on the warpath. Which again raises the question— how in the hell is he even awake?"

"It was Dahlia," said Freya, looking to three paintings Klaus had made, containing the Norwegian soil and Mikael's ashes. "She's won Klaus to her cause."

"No," said Elijah, shaking his head. "Niklaus would never do such a thing."

"I worry Freya's right," muttered Eisa. "Dahlia planned so much ahead... she knew, because of Lian, that he didn't drink the tea. She could have gotten in his head, manipulated him... it runs in the family."

"He's going to go after Hayley," said Rebekah shakily. "He'll know by now that she took Hope with her."

Eisa wanted to pretend she didn't care about Hayley, but her heart jumped out of fear. "Is the spell ready?" she asked, changing the subject.

Freya nodded, gesturing to the paintings, which were hung around the courtyard. "The paint of his artwork, combined with my blood, will render Dahlia vulnerable. The moment she passes between these paintings, she will be mortal." She pulled out a small blade, handing it to Elijah. "You can kill her, using this."

"Father's knife?" said Elijah.

Freya beamed. "I thought it appropriate."

"We should have multiple copies," said Eisa, observing the knife. "I could get two kitchen butter knives, and my witches could do a spell to make them replicas of this one. Rebekah, Elijah, and I will be positioned around the hallways, out of view. One of us will manage to kill her, and she won't know which knife to try and avoid."